At the finissage of our exhibition Verbal Non Verbal, Kai Strittmatter and Juergen Staack will talk about a country that both fascinates and unsettles: China – for almost half a century, one of the most exciting arenas of global developments.
Kai Strittmatter, sinologist, journalist, and author, has been engaged with China for decades, including 15 years as a correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung in Beijing. In his award-winning book The Reinvention of Dictatorship, he describes how the country is increasingly transitioning into digital totalitarianism.
Conceptual photographer Juergen Staack explores the randomly emerging abstract images in Beijing’s hutongs in his series Wei (Chinese for “Hello”). In these alleyways, phone numbers advertising illegal private services are often written on walls. Instead of removing them, state painting squads cover them with various colors.