Monumental Construction and Creative Destruction: Spatial Reconfigurations of Beijing in Architecture, Art, and Cinema

Sheldon Lu, Professor of Comparative Literature and Film Studies at University of California, Davis will give a talk on architecture in Beijing at the University of Pennsylvania.

The lecture examines the visual and spatial reshaping of Beijing's urban space through various mediums and forms in recent years: monumental buildings designed by transnational architectural firms, installation works by avant-garde woman artist by Qin Yufen, photography of Beijing-based artist Wang Guofeng, and documentary film by Shi Runjiu. The talk aims at teasing out the tensions between different strategies and practices of envisioning the spatial form of China's capital city.