Spring, Along Beijing Central Axis

Video Installation, currently on view (May-Nov 2025) at Venice Architecture Biennale
In collaboration with Yalun Li and Feiyue Chen

This is a 3-min point-cloud based video installation of Beijing Central Axis as a digital “Chinese landscape painting”. This Axis is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a 7.8-kilometer north to south conceptual line that historically organized the layout of Beijing since the 13th century. Along this axis lie many landmarks like the Forbidden City, as well as parks, lakes, local markets and houses. It is a testimony to an ancient urban planning philosophy - the harmony of nature and human - preserved and slowly refined over time.

Embracing an eye-level perspective, at the pace of walking throughout a spring time in the old Beijing City, data as lived lives was collected, processed and animated. Montaged imagery flows over a symmetrically folded LED screen against woven city soundscape. Of blooming flowers, of butterflies, of people playing chess in the park and street vendors selling desserts...This project rejects the usual grandiose gestures to depict significant sites as spectacles, and embraces an intimate approach in understanding its role as public spaces in everyday life.

Mapping of Walking Routes, Spring 2025

Special thanks to curator Ma Yansong and MAD curatorial team (大冉，大飞，潘工，优格，龙哥) ; to technical support of To0Space (Liu Xingchen, Yan Junpeng) and Tang Yishui