QI MU SPACE is to launch “Memorias del Subdesarrollo” on Dec. 31, 2020, a new exhibition that will last until Mar. 7, 2021.
“In underdevelopment nothing is sustainable and everything will be forgotten .”
-- Memorias del Subdesarrollo (1968)
In the Cuban film Memorias del Subdesarrollo (1968), Sergio, 38, found himself in dilemma in the wake of the outburst of the revolution in Cuba.
From Bay of Pigs Invasion to Cuban Missile Crisis, he witnessed the unrest in the impoverished Cuba, and his life was thus interrupted, but he refused to flee to America and chose to stay. As a detached writer, he wrote down his observation and reflection on Cuba in turmoil.
In 2020 COVID-19 plunged the whole world into abnormality in which everything seemed to be out of control and everyone seemed to be in the same dilemma as Sergio: what shall we do when life was brought to a sudden halt?
With only sporadic cases and imported cases, more and more Chinese people become accustomed to what we call “post-pandemic” life, but can “the tamed” many go back to the life they used to live? Globally speaking, the huge number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Europe and North America, along with the recurring outbreaks, keeps posing us a question: are our memory and experiences reliable? Where on earth will these “things of the past” take us -- we used to, after all, rely on them so much.
The observation and reflection in the whole year led lots of us to share, in the context of the pandemic, our questioning about all kinds of problems in real life, as well as our responses and opinions. It is all the more so for artists. At the end of the year, QI MU SPACE expects to supply the viewers with “an answer that is otherwise” in the form of a group exhibition.
The group exhibition “Memorias del Subdesarrollo” is thus born.
The exhibition invited eight artists to present their “year-end report” as a specimen of the art community that is heavily impacted by COVID-19 throughout 2020.
Participating artists:
Fan Xi, Gao Weigang, Liu Xin, Ren Lili, Song Yuanyuan, Wang Changcun, Xu Yihua, Zhang Yibei