The Past Is a Foreign Country
Yanhan Peng + Tracing the Elephant (Mark Qu, Shiyun Yu, Yanzhi Wang)
“The Past Is a Foreign Country” is a three-chapter archive of inquiry on image, materiality, and the relationship between substance and self. It examines what has constructed the Anthropocene in the long passage of time: environment, human history, and artistic pursuits in particular. Imagine the particles of time/light floating and dancing in an infinite space, resonating with each other, and eventually reflecting the sheer massiveness of impact they have on life. The exhibition aims to revisit this kind of construction and an entity’s “wave-particle duality” that bewilders us, urging us to produce a new connection with the past, a will to transcend and concede.
Tracing the Elephant was a community of inquiry founded by curator Yanhan Peng, together with designer Mark Qu, architect Shiyun Yu, and art historian Yanzhi Wang. TTE is dedicated to establishing an inclusive space for contemplation, coexistence, and action rooted in various social contexts by organizing cross-cultural art, design, and publishing practices.
