AND_04.2020

AND_04.2020 opens with the voice of a man emerging from the noise of traffic. Shortly after, words appear on screen: the, then, about, as, until. Their juxtaposition is as undecipherable as the man’s words. Made following a brief visit by Downsbrough to Beijing in 2015, the video is a reflection on language and the city, offering a filtered image of the Chinese urban experience: orderly traffic, choreographed pedestrian crossings, but also small gestures of disobedience that break the apparent control.
The phrase in time place / the] shift alludes to the economic and political changes of contemporary China and to the artist’s displacement through space and time.
Finally, the title AND_04.2020 suggests that the work does not represent an ending, but forms part of a larger conversation.