This book is the catalogue for the namesake inaugural exhibition of Times Art Center Berlin, founded in November 2018. Through four essays by critics and curators, as well as texts and images of the works on exhibit—more than eighty works by nearly sixty artists—the book aims to present a vital component of the Chinese art world that is underrepresented on the global art scene: the contemporary art production from the Pearl River Delta (PRD).
A region of China with distinct cultural characteristics and traditions, the PRD has become a creative hub for international exchange and art activities. Influenced by Hong Kong’s popular culture and by international new media art, PRD artists’ video practices represent the most groundbreaking and powerful visions of contemporary art and culture in the region. Their experimentation with video art reflects their search for freedom and forms of resistance against dominant ideology and powers as they turn ordinary gestures into artistic strategies to construct diverse “personal utopias.”