Inspired by the architectural text “Steadfastly Lower the Standards in Nonproductive Construction” (1955), which informed the counter-narrative coined for the previous iteration of “Steadfastly Raise the Standards in Nonproductive Construction” (2018), curator Evonne Jiawei Yuan addresses the canonical forms of “productivity” anchored by the two architectural typologies – monument and skyscraper – as well as its dialectics of “productive” and “nonproductive,” with artworks by eight artists (-duo)s including Chen Wei, Cui Jie, Liu Ren, Liu Wei, Lu Lei, Inga Svala Thorsdottir & Wu Shanzhuan, Joey Xia, Zeng Jiahui in Long March Independent Project, “Steadfastly Revise for the Standards in Nonproductive Construction, Part I: Solid Molds.” The notions of monuments bind people’s will to social production, and the skyscrapers’ pursuit of height and speed in the context of the social output are mutually supportive and reliant on one another.

For instance, juxtaposed diagonally, the two large-scale installations by Inga Svala Thorsdottir & Wu Shanzhuan, Cause in Projection (2017) and Cause in Perspective (2017), highlight their intertextual connections. They were primarily devised for an architectural idea entitled “Cause and Examples Projected from It” as a pair of library models. “Cause,” as an abstract “origin” or “reason,” suggests an infinite spindle structure through two opposing processes of construction, namely, “projection” and “perspective,” where the vanishing point of focal-point perspective and the starting point of projection overlap, as the myriad of worldly things split and multiply in-between. Likewise, if the notion of “(non-)productivity” is considered a “cause,” then “projection” and “perspective” would best correspond to “lowering” and “elevating,” and any single construction would institutionalize this very “cause.”

In addition, Joey Xia’s Terrestrial Echo of Solar Energy (No.1–10) (2022), commissioned by the Long March Independent Project for this exhibition, responds to Georges Bataille’s association between surplus solar energy and “unproductive” consumption, as mentioned in The Notion of Expenditure (1933) and The Accursed Share (1949). His images, incarnated by ten flags hanging beneath the skylights on the elegantly jagged roof, provide a fresh view of the significance of architecture as objects and a means of conditioning.

“Steadfastly Revise for the Standards in Nonproductive Construction, Part II: Liquid Circulates,” focuses on the other two architectural genres, civic squares and frontlines, that encourage the mobility of “productivity.” Civic squares are public spaces where the exchange of opinion and social integration occur, undifferentiated in both the physical and virtual worlds. Instead, frontlines are dedicated to regional activities as part of the infrastructure network. Eleven (sets of) works of art by Shuyi Cao, Julian Junyuan Feng, Hu Wei, Liu Chuang, Liu Yujia, Nabuqi, Pu Yingwei, Zhang Ruyi, and Vivien Zhang are included in this exhibition, investigate architectural projects, urban narratives, natural spectacles as attributes of “productive” or “nonproductive” architecture, and the political order concealed in their “standards.” The artists adopt “revision” as their creative approach, attempting to heal the land damaged by “production” and construction.

Venue: Long March Independent Space, Beijing

Dates: 2023.3.11–5.7