Over a hundred years ago, some pine trees were cut down and transported through the Dianchi lake by boat, and then to the Xiao’er village by bullock carts. These trees became Grandpa Mo’s house. Four generations passed, while the new building became old house, and then became ruin and earth. On 31 August 2021, the artist cut down a tree and carried it 30 km to the ruin of the house.

The right screen of this two-channel video shows the demolition of a century-old house in four hours, while in the left screen, the artist re-enacts the construction of the house a century ago: he harvests timber from the West Hill and carries the dozen kilograms wood log on foot around Dianchi Lake, and then riding through the fields on the eastern shore of Dianchi Lake and the newly built suburbs, traversing more than thirty kilometres to reach the demolished house. Here, he erects the wood log on the remaining pillar base. The destruction and renewal of a house are thus framed together here. At the end of the video, the owner of the house, Grandpa Mo, appears and tells the story of the house.

百餘年前，西山上的一些松木被砍伐，被拖到水邊， 用船運過滇池，換成牛車，穿過滇池東岸的平原， 成為一所新建房屋的柱與椽。 時光流逝，四代人一度在此居住。 新房變為舊屋，舊屋變為瓦礫與陳土。 2021 年 10 月 31 日，我在西山上尋找到一株倒伏的樹，截取其中一段，在另一個時空中重演了百年前的旅程。

這部雙頻道錄影的右畫面呈現了一棟百年老屋在4小時內被拆除的過程；而在左屏中，藝術家重演了百年前老屋建設的情景：他在西山採集木材，並扛著這根十幾公斤重的木頭步行繞過滇池、騎行穿過滇池東岸的田野和新建設的城郊，穿行三十餘公里，最終到達被拆毀的老屋中，將之樹立於殘餘的柱礎上。 一棟房屋的毀滅與新生在此同框。 錄影的最後，老屋的主人莫大爹出現，講述了這棟老屋曾經的故事。

Cheng Xinhao (b.1985 in Yunnan Province, China) currently lives and works in Kunming, China. He received his Ph.D in Chemistry from Peking University in 2013. Cheng’s works are usually based on long-term field studies, centering around his hometown in Yunnan Province. With videos, installations, photographs and words, he personally investigates the polyphonic relationships between logic, discussions, knowledge, and the part that nature, society, and history play within them. His long-term projects include Strange Terrains (2013-, about the ethnic group Mang in the borderlands of Vietnam and China), To the Ocean (2018-, about the Yunnan- Vietnam Railway), and Tales about the South of Clouds (2021-, about the oral literary tradition in Yunnan).