锦绣香江 (2015)

Splendid River
2015 / video / 5mins 11secs
The video shows the replica of the Secession building in Cao Fei’s hometown of Guangzhou, where the building houses the offices of a real estate business. Copying is a common phenomenon in China, where anything from popular brand-name products to icons of Western architecture or even whole towns are faked, as in the case of the Austrian village Hallstatt. During Cao Fei's solo exhibition at Secession, Cao creates a site specific outdoor installation Splendid River (2015), four Chinese characters temporarily decorate the Secession’s façade, replicating the replica of the Secession building in Cao Fei’s hometown of Guangzhou.