Chinese video art began in the late 1980s. It continues to develop, and is coming to match the rest of the world. In the 21st century, cinema has grown ubiquitous and has come to influence human cognition more profoundly than ever before. Today, it is the primary creative medium for many artists.

He Xiangning Art Museum has long focused on the environment for contemporary art in China and its progression, and worked to foster exchange and promotion of contemporary art between China and the rest of the world. It is our good fortune to work together with Han Nefkens and his foundation, presenting twelve video works from his collection.

The participating artists each offer a different narrative, but manage to do this in an unusual way, mixing real life and fiction, sense and sensibility. These works express the artists’ recognition, thinking and experimentation on the relationship between art and new media in an era of digital technology. Moreover, coming from different corners of the world including Iran, Switzerland, Lithuania, the US, etc., these artists have completely different backgrounds and origins, and belong to very different generations. Thus, their works provide a global cultural vision and allow us to clearly understand the ways in which they employ the visual language of video art to express their attitudes, views and transcendental poetic imaginations towards art.

Hereby we are eternally grateful to Han Nefkens, his foundation, and the curator Hilde Teerlinck, for their support and assistance. We also thank Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam and the Netherlands Consulate-General in Guangzhou for their generous help.