Nearly a half century after the Cultural Revolution, images of the Asian superpower as friend or foe to a beleaguered, industrialized West belie a mercurial nature that fascinates in this latest video essay by esteemed UC Berkeley professor and experimental filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha. Similar to Forgetting Vietnam (2015), low-res video footage shot 30 years ago of Chinese rural life centering on women, children, labour and family is reanimated and reframed through photomontage, oral histories, travelogues, poetry, and folk songs in order to interrogate what China has been, is, and could be.
Auberge D’Italie, Merchants Street, Valletta, Malta, VLT 1170 E. info@maltabiennale.art www.maltabiennale.art