Digital Editions
Newsletters
Subscribe
Digital Editions
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Exhibitions
preview

Cao Fei explores past, present and future at Rome’s Maxxi museum

Acclaimed Chinese artist’s video and installation pieces come to Italy for the first time

Lisa Movius
13 December 2021
Share
A still from Cao Fei’s retro-futurist film Nova (2019), which explores a nonlinear experience of time Courtesy of Cao Fei and Vitamin Creative Space

A still from Cao Fei’s retro-futurist film Nova (2019), which explores a nonlinear experience of time Courtesy of Cao Fei and Vitamin Creative Space

Cao Fei’s exhibition at London’s Serpentine Gallery in 2020 won her the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize and acclaim as “one of the most innovative and exciting young Chinese artists to have emerged on the international scene”.

Now her contemplative interpretations of our convoluted era come to Italy for the first time, with a solo exhibition at Rome’s Maxxi. Organised by curator Monia Trombetta and Maxxi artistic director Hou Hanru, the exhibition presents nine of the video, installation and documentation works Cao has made since 2007, with an emphasis on her most recent projects.

The uncertainty of 2020 is captured in a work based on Cao’s two-month lockdown

The repetitious, uncertain limbo of early 2020 is presented in Isle of Instability, Cao’s fantastical rendition of her two months of “circuit-breaker” lockdown with her family while living as an immigrant in Singapore. The documentary Hongxia (2020) and accompanying publication HX (2020) delve into the industrial heritage of Cao’s home base in Beijing’s Jiuxianqiao area, centring around the now demolished titular theatre, which she recreated for her solo exhibition at UCCA Beijing this spring. Jiuxianqiao’s Soviet-backed technology industry of the 1950s inspired her retro-futurist feature film Nova (2019), exploring a nonlinear experience of time and development.

The recreation of imaginary spaces continues with The Eternal Wave (2020), a facsimile of Hongxia Theatre’s kitchen, 2007’s RMB City: A Second Life City Planning and the decimated diorama world of 2014’s La Town.

Hou is a longtime collaborator of Cao’s and worked with her remotely on this show due to Covid-19. He says he is “looking forward to provoking different reactions in those who have lived through this challenging moment, struggling in different ways”, be it in China, Singapore or Italy.


• Cao Fei: Supernova, Maxxi, Rome, 12 December-8 May 2022

ExhibitionsCao FeiMaXXIRomeVideo, film & new media
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Instagram
Bluesky
LinkedIn
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
© The Art Newspaper

Related content

Exhibitionsnews
2 August 2016

Shanghai’s Long Museum takes aim at female artists

The institution hosts its first exhibition dedicated to international and Chinese women, with works spanning ten centuries

Lisa Movius
Exhibitionspreview
27 March 2019

Masp retrospective to explore Lina Bo Bardi's legacy and influence on Brazilian art

The Italian architect, who made Brazil her "adopted home", designed the eclectic São Paulo museum in the late 1940s

Gabriella Angeleti
Exhibitionsnews
11 September 2018

Cao Fei gets double exposure with two exhibitions on home territory

Show at Hong Kong's Tai Kwun is artist's first major retrospective in greater China

Lisa Movius