1989 in Translation #

2023, Single-channel video, color, sound, 4:28 minutes

In the video, the text displayed on the wall traces an excerpt from the first book the artist Yujie Zhou read about the 1989 protest in Beijing, China. Any information about this major historical event has always been and continues to be banned in the artist’s nation. They only learned about this event when they attended university abroad.

The body movement performed is the daily mandatory gymnastic exercise every Chinese student from primary to high school must participate in among their school.

Yujie Zhou performs this exercise in front of Google Lens, while Google Translate generated illegible text blocks in response to the body movements, continuing a motif of glitches, fragmented information, and the resistance to systemic censorship.

1989 in Translation, video still.

1989 in Translation, Installation View at MoA in Photography 23, Finnish Museum of Photography, Finland, 2023

1989 in Translation, Installation View at QWERTY, Solo Exhibition at Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, Finland, 2023
image credit: Milla Talassalo / Hippolyte