HOU HANRU - EXCESSIVE, DENSE, SPEEDY, COMPLEX, EMPTY… BUT HUMANE. CONTEMPORARY CREATIVE ACTIVITIES (DIGITALLY) FACING THE POST-PLANNING URBAN WORLD

The Chinese curator and art critic Hou Hanru presents an exhibition project which is – as indicated in the title – mainly set up around the link between the development of digital video and the developments of (post)modern urbanisation.
Hanru is fascinated by the unexpected, extremely fast and almost irrational urbanisation, proper to the development of the modern metropolis. This high-speed pace of development forces the social, cultural and economic life into an equally speedy adaptation. Hanru defines this phenomenon as post-planning.
According to Hou Hanru the exponential development of the digital image culture, and more specifically the digital video (DV), show striking similarities with structureless post-city planning. Images and meaning are produced in an irrational way, without compromise or a prearranged plan. They are as elastic in time and space and as dependent on quickly evolving social, cultural and economic factors as the modern cities themselves.
Hou Hanru selected a number of artists who stay in various European as well as non-European metropolises. Either by their specific use of this digital medium or because of a specific conceptual sensitivity they incorporate this pressing subject in a visual way.