Becoming the Other—On Silence, Voice, and the Ethics of Representation

2025.06.07 Saturday 15:00

Location

MACA Art Center, 706 Beiyi St, 798 Art Zone, No.2 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing

Speakers: Yun Feng, Yang Yunchang, and He Yining

On June 7, MACA invites artist Yun Feng, anthropologist Yang Yunchang, and researcher and curator He Yining for a conversation exploring how artistic practices can engage with the question of the Other. Drawing on their own fluid experiences of identity, the speakers will re-examine the relevance of "Otherness" and identity politics, while uncovering the hidden power structures behind issues of visibility. They will consider how "local knowledge" can be understood as a living intellectual resource rather than a symbolic cultural reference to be appropriated. The discussion will also explore the potential for reimagining one's cultural identity through action and expression.

 

About the speaker: Yun Feng

Yun Feng (b. 1988) was born in Henan, China. He currently lives and works in Beijing. He received his BFA from the Department of Oil Painting at the College of Fine Arts, Xinjiang Normal University in 2011, and his MFA from the Department of Experimental Art at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing in 2016. Working primarily with performance art and cameraless photography, Yun Feng engages in sustained exploration of photogram processes. Using photosensitive paper as his primary medium, the artist records performative bodily traces through direct material interactions. His practice interrogates the boundaries between ephemeral action and photographic documentation.

 

About the speaker: Yang Yunchang

Dr Yunchang Yang is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Sociology and Anthropology, Peking University. He holds a PhD in Anthropology and Visual Culture from University College London, with research interests in the anthropology of art and image, visual anthropology, digital and media art, and Chinese modern and contemporary visual culture. He is presently working on two monographs, focusing on the idea of "amateurism" in photography practices in China and the "ethnographic turn" in contemporary Chinese art, respectively.

 

About the speaker: He Yining

He Yining is a researcher and curator. She is the founder of two publication series: "Floating Island" and "The Starlight." She has participated in writing, editing, and translating over twenty publications, including "Routledge Companion to Photography, Representation, and Social Justice," "The Abode of Anamnesis," and "The Port and the Image" series. Her past curatorial projects include "Decolonial Gaze" (Goethe-Institut, Beijing, 2025), "Photographic Geomancy" (Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, 2024), "The Port and the Image" series (China Port Museum, Ningbo, 2017/2019/2022), "China Imagined" (Grote Kerk, Breda, 2020), and "The Abode of Anamnesis" (OCAT Institute, Beijing, 2018). She served as co-curator for the 8th Singapore International Photography Festival (2022) and the 3rd Beijing Photo Biennale (2018).

MACA Art Center is a non-profit art institution located in the 798 Art District of Beijing and officially inaugurated its space on January 15, 2022. Occupying a two-story building with a total area of 900 square meters, MACA unites artists, curators, and other art and cultural practitioners from around the world. Through its diverse, ongoing, and collaborative approaches, the Center establishes a new site on the contemporary art scene. Guided by the “work of artists” and backed by interdisciplinary research, the Center aims to bring together a community passionate about art and devoted to the “contemporary” moment so as to respond proactively to our rapidly evolving times.