Officine dell’Immagine in Milan hosted the first italian solo show by the renowned chinese artist Xing Danwen (Xi'an, 1967). Curated by Silvia Cirelli, this exhibition proposed a selection of the most significant works carried out by this exceptional and multifaceted figure during her 25-year career.

Danwen grew up during an extremely complex period of contemporary China, characterised by the famous Cultural Revolution of 1966 and, later, by the repression of student revolts, which culminated in the known 1989 Tiananmen Square protest. From this cultural and social background Danwen developed a personal glance towards the abrupt changes of her mother country in which the western myth of progress is taken to the extreme. In the whole work of Danwen there is an accurate analysis and concentration toward the progress’ consequences both psychological and environmental. She investigates the concept of memory , the inconsistency of time and the misleading appearance about things using different media (photograph, video, performance).

The famous series Urban Fiction opened the exhibition. Globalization made urban landscapes everywhere similar and blurred the boundaries between them. So often, "here" can be anywhere. With this work, Xing Danwen has brought her vision and perspective to these urban spaces. The architectural structures she photographed are all maquettes, Urban Fiction is playful and fictitious, wandering between reality and fantasy. As it happens with James Casebere’s photographs of the American suburbs , Danwen investigates the bleakness and loneliness of Chinese estates. Life is lived in a utopian way, where a sense of perfection forcibly avoids a deep sense of isolation.

The series of photographies called disCONNEXION has been included in the show. Danwen traveled to South China’s Guangdong Province, one of the most developed areas in the country where people make their living by recycling piles of computer and electronic trash, operating in rough environmental and social conditions. This huge amount of electronic trash is shipped from industrialized countries - Japan, South Korea and from the United States, the largest exporter - and dumped here. The concept is to combine multiple images and create an installation that conveys the immensity of the problem as well as the unbearable details of those wastelands.

The exhibition ended with the video Sleep Walking, the triptych Born with Cultural Revolution, both inspired by the theme of memory, of cultural identity and the changing evocation of time, and with the most recent work by Xing Danwen, I Can't Feel What I Feel (2012), a video showing a touching performance of the artist herself. Danwen, starting from the concept of identity wants to overtake the individual and speak to everyone not giving answers but only suggest universal questions.