He Xiangyu at CCA Berlin – Center for Contemporary Arts
The venue for the newly launched CCA Berlin has all of the markings of an up-and-coming cultural middle in a soon-to-be-gentrified space. Inside this semi-industrial area, He Xiangyu’s Home of Nations, 2021, feels oddly at residence. In one of many first scenes of the twenty-nine-minute single-channel video, a Chinese language change pupil pulls an previous carpet down a avenue utilizing a trolley. As soon as he arrives on the “Home of Nations,” a dormitory for worldwide college students in Berlin-Marriage ceremony, the protagonist cuts a chunk of the rug to suit the ground of his room. Within the gloomy photos that observe, Xiangyu tracks the coed’s day by day routine, which is interrupted by episodes of biking via an empty tunnel at night time. Few phrases are spoken all through the twenty-nine minutes of footage. A uncommon dialog takes place over dinner with fellow Chinese language college students; his colleague offhandedly mentions a handed entry examination to review music, offering one of many few glimpses into what these college students hope to achieve from this expertise.
International mobility has elevated alternatives for training, however at a value of rootlessness and isolation. Home of Nations brings this into focus via sustained consideration to a person expertise. The hand held digital camera follows its protagonist carefully. In additional social moments, it feels just like the artist is a part of the gang. Simply earlier than a shot of the coed smoking alone exterior in the dead of night, nonetheless, Xiangyu’s digital camera takes an abruptly steep angle to his topic. The impact is one among intimacy and immediacy, an impact heightened by later footage of an out of doors bondage session with a buddy. The lens holds so tightly to the our bodies, that one can barely see the autumnal woods and grey sky.
— Maximilian Lehner
