CHANGES © Apathy Contemporary Foundation. Photo: BEING

CHANGES

(Guangzhou’s Reopening as the First Step and Turning Point in China’s Exit from Zero-COVID)

Artist: BEING
Organized by: MOGE GALLERY
Duration: 2022.12.26-2023.01.25
Venue: No. 87, Hejing Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, China.

*"CHANGES" (2022) was an independent exhibition initiated by MOGE GALLERY, the predecessor of Apathy Contemporary Foundation. Although the project was not carried out under the Foundation’s current legal identity, it served as a milestone—both in inspiring the eventual establishment of the Foundation and in laying the groundwork for its future mission and direction.

Exhibition Background

At 200 AM on January 23, 2020, the city of Wuhan announced its lockdown: all city buses, ferries, long-distance buses, subways, and train stations were temporarily shut down.
On November 30, 2022, Guangzhou declared an end to its epidemic restrictions, lifting temporary control measures in Liwan, Baiyun, Panyu, and Tianhe districts, becoming the first city nationwide to fully reopen, effectively marking the initial step towards nationwide reopening.
On December 4, 2022, nucleic acid testing requirements were officially lifted.
On December 7, 2022, the Chinese government officially announced the “Ten New Measures” (Shí Tiáo), marking the end of the “Dynamic Zero-COVID” policy. (Issued by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council, the directive—titled “Notice on Further Optimizing and Implementing COVID-19 Prevention and Control Measures”—explicitly removed the requirement for negative PCR test results and health code checks for interregional travel, and eliminated mandatory testing upon arrival.)
On December 26, 2022, the exhibition CHANGES was launched.

Beginning with the lockdown of Wuhan in January 2020, China underwent a 1,049-day period of intensive pandemic control (from January 23, 2020 to December 7, 2022), during which the “Dynamic Zero-COVID” strategy served as the dominant public health framework.

Over the past three years, the world, environment, and everyday life have undergone profound transformations. As both witnesses and participants of history, we, deeply feel the responsibility, urgency, and strong desire to reflect upon and dialogue with these ongoing changes. We have been continuously exploring ways to present and express our responses to the world and the times. This exhibition not only directly addresses the historic moment of China's reopening after three years of epidemic controls but also marks the inception of Apathy Contemporary.

Coincidentally, during this period, Ted, the founder of Apathy Contemporary, briefly crossed paths with the artist BEING. Realizing their shared vision and philosophy, Ted invited BEING to hold a meaningful and contemporary exhibition in Guangzhou. In response, BEING created a unique exhibition tailored specifically to the space and Guangzhou’s geographical context, intertwined with current realities.

The Chinese term "变卦" (CHANGES) holds rich meanings. In Chinese divination (I Ching), changing lines transform one hexagram into another. This exhibition was named CHANGES because of the multiple transformations experienced during the pandemic—the virus itself mutated, and so did nations, societies, and individuals. Guangzhou, initially under strict controls, suddenly reopened, experiencing abrupt policy shifts. What experiences did we undergo during these rapid changes? How have these sudden shifts altered previous paradigms, and how do we now redefine our direction? How do we exist as individuals amid these transformations?

Through this exhibition, we aim to summarize the past three years and initiate a dialogue with our present and future.

Curatorial Foreword

Curating begins with anti-curating.
Reversal is the motion of the Tao. Between heaven above and earth below lies the human realm.
What is thought and felt may take form in language. Yet in the very act of communication, divergence reveals itself.
Trembling quietly—grand truths speak in whispers. Grassland, grassroots, and the common people.
Blank pages, blank spaces, and pure clarity.
Data decorates aesthetics; green pastures feed the white sheep.
More than three years of cyclical transformation—experience held, empathy hidden.
The virus is information—language spoken by heaven and earth to humankind.
It sees the host as medium, the medium as void.
From “observing the boundary between self and object” to “forgetting both self and object.”
From “the decline of one, the rise of another” to “growing together in mutual becoming.”
This exhibition is not merely a display. It is a pause—a reflection on perception, presence, and transmission.
A conversation in fragments, a murmur of echoes, a space held open for what is yet unsaid. （BEING）

Exhibition Realization

Given the widespread infections at the time of reopening, mobility was significantly restricted. Thus, BEING coordinated remotely from Hangzhou via WeChat, with Apathy Contemporary executing the exhibition locally in Guangzhou. From conception to opening, the artist was never physically present in the space, making this exhibition entirely locally implemented by Apathy Contemporary.

Following the artist's suggestion, we purchased local grass turf and A4-sized white papers from Taobao, laying them across the gallery floor. Although the artist was not physically present, the placement of each delicate piece of turf felt like positioning individuals and families in space. Removed from their natural soil, these fragile grasses lay vulnerably on concrete floors. Their fates seemed fragile yet determined, resilient yet tragically ephemeral—eventually yellowing, withering, and evoking profound sorrow.

Screenshot of WeChat conversation with the artist BEING & the screenshot of Taobao © Apathy Contemporary Foundation

As I unloaded the bundles from the truck, carrying one in each hand down the road, a sudden wave of sorrow swept over me. Tears filled my eyes—not because I was holding grass, but because, in that moment, it felt as if I were carrying entire families, each bundle a life, a story, a fragile existence.

Ted

Founder of Apathy Contemporary Foundation

Installing an exhibition is hard physical labor—work that could have easily been delegated to hired hands. And yet, I felt a strong, inexplicable intuition: this process mattered. I had to be present. I had to do it myself.Though the labor left me aching and unable to stand straight, what I gained from it was far beyond exhaustion—it was an unexpected encounter with fragility, presence, and grief.For this exhibition, the floor is laid with real grass sod. Each bundle was tied with red string, six or seven slabs in a roll. As I unloaded them from the truck and carried one in each hand, walking down the road, I was suddenly overcome by a wave of sorrow. Tears welled up in my eyes. It felt as if I wasn’t carrying grass—but families, lives, individuals. Their fate was suspended in my grasp. I could sense, unmistakably, the fragility of their existence.They had no say in where they were going. They seemed powerless, like all of us drifting in the wind of this world. Yet every blade of grass—tenacious, unyielding—was trying to live. And in that effort, they resembled us: the living, struggling, enduring.（Ted, 2022.12)

The process of Installation © Apathy Contemporary Foundation. Photo: Ted

0.5 cm of Soil © Apathy Contemporary Foundation. Photo: Ted

The juxtaposition of grass turf and blank white paper symbolizes variations of the "Green Health Code," initiating a dialogue between individual lives and collective destiny.

Installation views of the exhibition CHANGES, Apathy Contemporary

Green fields, green codes, grassroots, common people; white paper, blank spaces, hospitals, "Da Bai" (volunteers clad in white protective suits)—these constitute our era's most unique and profound collective memories. We transformed images of the gallery floor into pixelated mosaics, reminiscent of the "Green Codes" that once governed everyone's daily movements.

This exhibition is a contemporary artistic experiment executed locally in Guangzhou—using ready-made materials within an enclosed space, confronting an open question, and engaging in an immediate dialogue with our times.

··Enclosed Space
··Open Question
··Ready-Made
··The Current Dialogue
（BEING）
‍
This exhibition represents a courageous new attempt: anti-curatorial practices, remote artistic creation, contemporaneity, utilizing ready-made objects, and audience participation as the true beginning of the artwork. Despite the limited space, the artist reconstructed a miniature reflection of the world, allowing us to glimpse the individual's existence against the backdrop of significant historical events. Blank pages float in mid-air; deafening shouts echo in memory.

To Resist Absurdity

We collectively lived through a special era—a vigorous nationwide anti-epidemic campaign abruptly ended and gradually forgotten, as if nothing had ever happened. What could be more absurd?

"As if nothing had happened."