Visit to "Nostalgia"

After I visited the exhibition at Bund18, the artworks which impressed me the most were the videos of the “Nostalgia” series. At first, I couldn’t understand what the artist wanted to show us. I wandered around the exhibition for about 15 minutes, and then I decided to leave. I actually went back a second time, because I thought there must be something more.

From the pamphlet, I found out that the artist used to live in Germany and came back to China in 2003. He chose to film the poorer parts of China such as factories, farmlands and the deserted countryside. Perhaps his time away from home gave him the opportunity to appreciate his motherland even more. The name of the gallery reminded me of a famous poet from Taiwan called Yu Guangzhong. He had written a very famous poem called Nostalgia which speaks of the division between the mainland and Taiwan. I feel that Qiu’s nostalgia is very similar to Yu’s.

For example, among the series of “Nostalgia,” there was a video called “Field”. The artist filmed a vast green field with some people farming the land. The huge size of the farmland made the people seem almost nonexistent. But on the fields, we can see smoke coming from human activity which symbolizes the hope and life of the region. These images inspired the artist to document these events and at the same time it made him feel that there is something underlying in China.