CUI YUXUAN 

Documentary Photography, Place, Journey

  1. Puppet Manchukuo: Echoes in the Layers of Time
  2. Divided Spaces, Dissolved Orders
  3. Deconstruct the “Tools” 
  4. Lost, Lost, Lost  失，失，失
  5. Wuchang五常，Wuchang无常
  6. Swan City-State

Space, Narrative, Installation

  1. What you will  第十二夜
  2. Love Me Tender, Bite Me True 
  3. Trespass 飞（非）地烟花
  4. 溯流 Go Upstream
  5. Jiakong, Jiakong 
  6. -Borderline as Storyline- 

Object, Text, Life, Act on Instinct  
  1. 言之凿凿 As if It's Carved in Stone
  2. Cleaning as Method  
 Info/Bio

Instagram

©2024 Cui Yuxuan

2022
(In collaboration with Huaiqian Liu)
 Photography, zine, video 14’ 44’’



On the second day of our trip to Kosovo, we unexpectedly lost our Dutch residency cards, which prevented us from returning to the Netherlands as planned. As holders of Chinese passports, we were facing illegal residence here, and the special geopolitical situation made it almost impossible for us to travel in the surrounding countries. So, in this lost land, we searched for our lost documents while also allowing ourselves to explore and wander through the city. The giant of former Yugoslavia is half silent and half noisy, with symbols of power and capital filling it. We negotiated with embassies, Chinese offices, and police stations, chatted with locals - veterans, drug dealers, taxi drivers, young students, war widows, the elderly, children - and encountered stray dogs on the streets. The moments in history that were once tightly closed gradually opened up to us.

在科索沃旅行的第二天，我们意外丢失了荷兰居留卡，无法按原计划返回荷兰，只持中国护照的我们在这里即将非法居留，而巴尔干半岛特殊的历史和地缘关系使我们在周边国家几乎寸步难行。于是，在这片失落的土地上，我们一边寻找丢失的证件，一边放任脚步在城市中探索和漫游。前南斯拉夫的庞然大物一半沉寂，一半喧嚣，权力与资本符号充溢其中。我们与各国使馆、中方办事处、警察局交涉，与当地人聊天——参战过的老兵、贩毒者、出租车司机、年轻学生、战争遗孀、老人、孩童......还有街头随处可见的流浪狗，历史中紧闭的瞬间逐渐向我们打开。


When we finally realized we might never be able to retrieve those documents, we found that our situation and lives were gradually overlapping with those of the people of this land. We seemed to be on an isolated island, and our identities were also entering a "shelf life" of 15 days. 

当我们终于意识到，也许再也无法找回那些证件时，我们发现自己与本地人的处境正逐渐重叠。我们似乎正处在一座与世隔绝的孤岛上，而我们的身份也开始进入了一段为期15天的“保质期”。


"Lost" has many meanings in English: lost track, disappeared, missing, bewildered, confused, immersed, addicted... Each layer of meaning resonated with our situation at the time. We hope to present an experience of being lost and finding one's way again, of the constantly extended waiting, and of two "outsiders" intimately and intuitively exploring the post-socialist landscape.

“lost”在英文语境中有许多含义：丢失的，迷路的，走失的，失踪的，行踪不明的，迷惘的，不知所措的，失落的，迷失的，投入的，沉迷的......每一层含义都暗合了我们当时的处境。我们希望呈现一段关于迷路和重走的经验，关于不断被延长的等待，以及两个卷入其中的“局外人”对后社会主义景观亲密而直观的探索。













     






         





   






Pristina, Pristine

When "pristine" was anglicized in the 16th century, 
people borrowed the meanings of "early" and "primitive" from the Latin "pristinus" 
and applied them to both the advisable and the indesirable. 
But there has long been a tendency among civilized people
to revere a simpler, purer past. 
The assumption is that things are better
when they are in their oldest or original state. 
Thus, "pristine" has been expanded to describe
the concept of an unspoiled, undamaged or uncontaminated state. 
Something unspoiled or uncontaminated can mean fresh and clean
in the sense of something just made, 
which explains how "pristine" can also mean 
"fresh and clean".

         






             






























                                                         




       







Installation View