© 2022 Daisy Ziyan Zhang
Spring, Along Beijing Central Axis
Video Installation, Venice Architecture Biennale 2025In collaboration with Yalun Li and Feiyue Chen
*Beijing Central Axis is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a 7.8-kilometer line spanning north to south that historically organized the layout of ancient city of Beijing, dating back to 13th century. Along this axis lie key landmarks like the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and Drum Tower. It is a testimony to evolution of urban planning philosophy, preserved and slowly refined over time.
This project is a 3-min point-cloud based video that collages scenes of a spring along Beijing Central Axis into a digital “Chinese landscape painting”. Embracing the scale of people, at the pace of walking, data was collected, processed and montaged into imagery, flowing over a symmetrically folded LED screen with woven city soundscape. Blooming flowers, sprouting trees, people playing chess in the park ...... Rather than adopting the usual grandiose gestures to depict such an important historical site, this project offers an intimate understanding of the Central Axis as an important everyday public space.
Special thanks to Venice Architecture Biennale China Pavilion’s Curator Ma Yansong, and the great team of MAD;
to technical support of To0Space (Liu Xingchen, Yan Junpeng) and Tang Yishui
to technical support of To0Space (Liu Xingchen, Yan Junpeng) and Tang Yishui