Ever increasing circles

All the films for the opening show range in run time, from 10 to 21 minutes, and echo Lu's novel in an attempt to explore how people will live in the post-pandemic era.

Yang Beichen, director of Maccaline Art Center, says that artists chose to present all of their works in the medium of video because it's synonymous with the younger generation. Books and still images don't provide enough attraction to the young compared with dynamic visual presentations.

"Films can better express emotions and the thoughts of the inner mind," says Yang, who is also a scholar in video art.

Artist Tao Hui's video work Stay Wild records a young woman skating through a college town, a factory, an urban setting and a city center while singing a folk song. Tao says the skating in the film is a metaphor for the passing of time and individuals can use their bodies to measure changes of a city.

Other artists also made films based on their own experiences to show the changing of society and passing of time. For instance, artist Fang Di, who works for a State-owned company and has been sent to work at various overseas ports, focuses his lens on stories of migrants from different times and regions.

Yang, the director, says that all the artists were asked to read Lu's novel and draw inspiration from it and their own life experience. The art center invited the novelist and artists to share their stories with audiences following the opening of the show.