An exhausted delivery rider sprawled on the bench of a roadside park and fell asleep safe and sound. In the dream composed of a long take, laborers gathered together in a Shanzhai park in the desert where dynamic riders became static “statues,” forming a contrast with the speed and efficiency they pursued inexhaustibly around the clock. The all-star lineup of contemporary laborers revealed the other side of the Chinese economic miracle: In an increasingly homogeneous urban life infused with technology and wealth, new kinds of labor and social exploitation surface — byproducts of society’s never-ending mobility and a world of speed without rest, sleep has become a costly risk for these mobile people. In surreal and extremely realistic dreams, the artist made an attempt to capture the elements of fatigue and anxiety in this era — ceaseless mobility day-to-day is frozen in the virtual world, while unremembered faces in real life deserve close-ups in imaginary dreams.

一位已疲乏到極點的外賣小哥癱倒在街邊公園的⻓椅上，熟睡了。而在被⻓鏡頭所虛構出的夢境中，這些個體的勞動者們被聚集在荒漠中的一處山寨公園里：在這里，奔波的外賣騎士成為了靜止的 塑像 ，形成了與他們日夜疲於追求速度與效率的反差。這些原本離散的當代勞動者的集體出場，指向了中國經濟奇跡的反面:在技術與資本共謀下愈發同質化的城市生活，及其所造成的新型勞動與剝削 不能減速的移動和無法停止的勞動，睡眠成為了這些移動者們所無法承受的風險。在超現實卻又極端寫實的夢境中，藝術家試圖去捕捉到倦怠與焦慮 在現實中一直移動著的人，在夢里應該一動不動，在現實中從未被記住的臉，在夢中應該被給予特寫。

Zheng Yuan lives and works in Beijing. He received his master’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015. Working primarily in time-based media, Zheng often operates at the intersection of fiction, documentary, and investigative research. His work focuses on the relationships between identity and value systems within different historical, social, and political conditions. In 2017, he began the “China Northwest Airlines” project, an attempt to process the history of China’s recent economic transfonnBtion through the prism of the civil aviation industry, in particular the story of a failed airline based in his home region of China’s northwest.

His recent solo exhibitions include Forward, Backward, Madeln Gallery, Shanghai, 2020; Up in the Air, Taikang Space, Beijing, 2017. Group exhibitions and screening include The Future is Here, Are You Coming?, University of Chicago, Chicago, 2022; E-Flux Screening roorn, New York, 2022; Between Sci-fi and illusory, MAXXI Museum, Rome, 2022; Future Tense: Microcinema event, War hoi Museum, Pittsburgh, 2022; Double Vision, Tai Kwun – Centre for Heritage and Arts, Hong Kong, 2022; Diriyah Biennale, Riyadh, 2021; A Long Hello, UCCA, Beijing, 2020; UN/ CONVENTIONAL: OCAT x KADIST Emerging Media Artist Exhibition, OCAT Shanghai, Shanghai, 2020; The Mesh, chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai, 2019; OFFLINE BROWSER – The 6th Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition, Hong-gah Museum, Taipei, 2018; New Metallurgists,Stoschek Collection, Dusseldo戊 2018. “Long March Project – Building Code Violations III Special Economic Zone’: Long March Space, Beijing, 2018. His works are also screened at film festivals and online platforms, including Visions du Reel, 2021; Arkipel Festival, 2021; Crashing into the Future, e-flux Artist Cinemas, online, 2021; Hasty Falling Time, 5th floor, Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneve, online, 2020; Out of Blueprints, Serpentine Galleries x NOWNESS, online, 2020; International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 2019; Kasseler Dokfest, 2019; 25 FPS Festival, 2019; Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2017. He was awarded the Jury Award at the 8th Huayu Youth Award 2020.