XINYAN
Xinyan XU is a visual artist and spatial designer based in Ningbo and Shanghai. Her artistic focus is on supermodernity, contemporary culture, and metropolitan experiences. She uses spaces, places, and computational techniques to create visuals, spatial experiences, soundwalks, and art installations.
创作者及设计师，现居宁波和上海。她通过空间、地点及数字媒介来探索城市超现代化背景下的人际关系、都市体验和网络文化。


Spatial works at naynix
Contact xinyan at xuxinyan_at_yahoo_dot_com
THEWALKS SW16-PLOT ｜ 遛弯儿 16分钟特别企划


Sonic Experience
Walking Exploration
WEBSITE

 I lived in a community called ‘WangGaErCun’ for over 12 years. Over the last 15 years, I moved repeatedly, almost forgetting about this place. A recent podcast mentioning Lu Xun’s Hometown ‘故乡’, unexpectedly brought it back to me. LX wrote of returning to manage family affairs, only to find his hometown unrecognizable.

What does it look like now? On a whim, I searched ‘WangGaErCun’ on a map. The label still existed, but the satellite view revealed only a vast parking lot. A parking lot!? The quintessential NON-PLACE. I traced the map and scrolled through historical street views. Hidden memories flooded in, and with them, mixed feelings.

ANGER? At gentrification, modernization, or city planning? I couldn’t claim that. I was the one who left, chasing a “better” life.
GRIEF? Not quite. This place, too, was moving toward its own “better” on a grander scale.
FEAR? Maybe—knowing some memories, tied to that exact place, are now lost forever, along with all traces of me. With these mixed feelings, I began to wonder.

WHAT IS OUR RELATIONSHIP TO A PLACE THAT NO LONGER EXISTS?
HOW DO WE PRESERVE MEMORIES WHEN PHYSICAL WORLD
VANISHES FASTER THAN WE CAN HOLD THEM?

What makes a place meaningful? By definition, it's a 'non-place' - yet it still means a lot to me.






THE SITE EXPERIENCE

Type 29°51'24"N 121°33'21"E into a map app to reach the correct location and face the powerhouse as the starting anchor point.
Use the digital compass and move around slowly to hunt for ghosted buildings that once existed on the site.

Open the website and click on the colors that appear on the screen to hear the memories associated with each building.


THE WEB EXPERIENCE


Scroll through the satellite view timeline to see how the site has changed over the years.Click and drag color blocks onto the site to explore their locations and associated memories.

Navigate through a pile of memories, layered with old and new site photos.

THEWALKS SW16-PLOT  









Show at Clive Davis Gallery, Brooklyn, NYC


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