GALLERY EVENTS
Li Juchuan: Memory 1968
22.01.21 - 28.01.21
The Microneme Rooftop Art Project presented its first exhibition, Memory 1968 on December 15, 2018, a site-specific installation work by Wuhan architect Li Juchuan.
Artist's Account
The year 1968 is of very great significance in the modern era. That year was a milestone, both in the east and the west, with events that profoundly impacted on the respective societies and cultures. However, 1968 didn’t mean so much in modern China, which found itself in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. The 10-year period from 1966 to 1976 is typically observed as a singular historical entity, and the year 1968 has never been regarded as being meaningful, although many events in this year could be mentioned.
In 1968, I was four years old. My memory of 1968 appears vague in details but vivid in certain events or scenes. The Microneme rooftop does recall a piece of my spatial experience in the city I grew up, Shashi city, Hubei province. When I was little, I lived with my grandmother on weekdays and was picked up by my parents every Saturday night. A scene impressed me as we walked home through the city. That scene was interesting enough to me in my childhood, then the fact that I had seen similar scenes in movies made it more interesting (except for several war films and military instruction films, all other feature films were ceased to be screened at that time). Years later, my reading of studies of that period reminds me of that scene every now and then. It seems that I’ve got its origin, although I’ve still had no idea of the concrete reason and accurate time of its appearance in my city. I decide to use Memory 1968 to name the installation arranged on the Microneme rooftop, which is inspired by my childhood memory, and the memory began exactly in the year 1968. This piece of installation is not a representation of a historical scene, nor a comment on occurrences fifty years ago. This work is a response to our circumstances at this very time: Tower is kind of prototype building, it reappears in all places, at all times.
Artist Profile
Li Juchuan was born in 1964 in Shashi, Hubei. 1986, he graduated from the Department of Urban Planning of Wuhan Urban Construction Institute. 1986-2006, he taught in the Department of Architecture in several Universities. Since the 1990s he has been applying his architectural practice through performance, video and site-specific installation. His works also involves writing, lecturing, pedagogy and exhibitions. Currently he works and lives in Wuhan.
Presented as part of Microneme x Holden Gallery collaborative programme.
2018, Li Juchuan:Memory 1968, Rooftop Art Project, Microneme Space, Wuhan, China
