Recovering Time – The 2nd Annual Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Photography and Video Arts

Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art will hold Recovering Time – The 2nd Annual Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Photography and Video Arts from November 9, 2025 to March 22, 2026. Under the direction of members of advisory committee (in order of age) LaoZhu, Zhang Peili, Gu Zheng, Zhang Xianmin, and Zeng Yulan, with Zeng Yulan as the producer, Shi Hantao as the chief curator, and Zhu Jiong, Liu Yuan, Gu Jiajun, Zheng Ziyu, and Zu Yu as the co-curators, the exhibition will feature works by Chai Mi | Lei Lei, Chen Qiang, Du Shangheng, Han Qian, Hou Shuai, Li Yong, Li Binyuan, Liu Jiayu, Sun Xun, Taca Sui, Tang Chao, Tong Wenmin, Xu Jinjin, Zhang Wei, Zheng Yuan, Zhou Nan, Zhu Yunyi, a total of 17 groups of artists with over 60 pieces of works, and expect that these works can inspire the viewers to join us in trying to discover those times in our daily lives that are truly filled with genuine experiences and active thoughts.

Under the theme of Recovering Time, the works on display are selected from public exhibitions and publications in 2024,  collected and collated by Annual Report of Chinese Contemporary Photography and Video Arts work team, which is only a very small part of the total number of more than 3,000 works. Just as Shi Hantao, the chief curator stated in his article, self and individuals are one of the eternal essences of art. In an era when ‘the moving image has replaced the real world’, ‘man himself has become a functional existence of the moving image’ (Vilém Flusser), the self and the individuals have been increasingly dissolved, the return and highlighting of this ‘I’ in moving image thus has a more far-reaching significance. Contemporary artists have to act as insiders, introspecting on the reality they are in that has been suppressed by technological images, and rediscovering the layers of time that have been obscured, and recounting potential multiple selves that have yet to be discovered.

This exhibition is an important practice of the Annual Report of Chinese Contemporary Photography and Video Arts project, and we hope to build a complete ecology of Chinese contemporary photography and video art through continuous academic work. In this era that deeply influenced by technical images, it is especially urgent to rethink the relationship between time and existence. Being an important academic project of Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, the Annual Report of Chinese Contemporary Photography and Video arts has gradually established a nationwide photography and video art observation network through systematic documentation, work collection and academic research since its launch in 2023. Through the establishment of workstations in the Yangtze River Delta and Southwest China, the project has cooperated with a number of colleges and universities and research institutes to promote in-depth research and exchanges on contemporary photography and video art. During the exhibition period, a series of activities including international forums will be held simultaneously, inviting scholars and curators from home and abroad to discuss the deep connection between image art and the proposition of time. The exhibition will be on view until March 22, 2026.