Watch the premiere of MAO Chenyu’s newest film, Anti-Rural China (2021), followed by a conversation with the filmmaker,  ponds among ponds curators Anna-Sophie Springer & Etienne Turpin, and theoretician LU Xinghua. In response to FEI Xiaotong’s once banned and now widely-read study of Chinese rural society, From the Soil (1947), Mao questions From the Soil’s legacy, asking how to think about the rural reality of China today and open up thinking for the future?

22–29 May (virtual screening) – Online
Sat, 29 May, 15:00 CST (in-person screening) – Gallery (limited seating)
Chinese with English subtitles

Sat, 29 May, 16:20–17:00 CST (conversation)
Online & Gallery (limited seating)
Chinese with English interpretation

Anti-Rural China is available for screening online one week prior to the conversation. Online viewers are welcome to join the 29 May conversation via live stream. To view the film and join the online conversation, please register by 28 May.

The film will also be screened in person, in the ICA gallery, followed immediately by a conversation with the filmmaker. Please register by 21 May to reserve a seat.  

Watch the trailer of Anti-Rural China on YouTube or scroll down to Documents below.

In conjunction with ponds among ponds: an exhibition of threshold behavior & nested life.

ponds among ponds and its related events are presented as the final season of The (Invisible) Garden, a two-year artistic research program that inquires into the garden as a method that shapes our understanding of Nature and our relationships to other species. From Fall 2019 through Spring 2021, the ICA at NYU Shanghai presents artists, thinkers, and practitioners, through exhibitions and events, to consider the garden and ask how might we denature Nature?