Pechino 2008

Berjing 2008

Time, Animals, History. A work by Huang Rui

9 February 2008 - 23 November 2008

Where: Museo delle Mura
Address: Via di Porta San Sebastiano, 18
Phone: 06 06 08
Hours: Tue-sun h9-14

"Pechino 2008: il tempo, gli animali, la storia. Un'opera di Huang Rui (Beijing 2008: Time, Animals, History. A work by Huang Rui)"A major site-specific installation created for the Museo delle Mura by Chinese avant-garde artist Huang Rui. The artist derived his inspiration from the large stone buildings and monuments in Rome and created a striking piece made out of 2,008 bricks collected from the 'hutong' neighbourhoods in Beijing, old quarters which are being demolished to create new developments for the Olympics. The soul of the show is its Eastern chronological articulation, which sees time as a perpetual cycle of long temporal cycles, whereas in the West time is a succession between one number and the next with no sense of continuity. Each of the 2,008 bricks features a western numeral (from 1 to 2008) and a date taken from the Chinese calendar, as well as the name of the emperor of that time.
The bricks are further organised by Chinese zodiac signs and animal spirits.