Preface:

Over the last few decades there have been continuous attempts to 'declassify' image archives, trying to elucidate the relationships in which they were first brought together, and their subsequent connections to other archives. It led to an increasing interest in the circulation of images. In other words, the emphasis on the exchange of images (of different types) actually reveals that image collections were formed by a myriad of 'flows' that were subsequently embedded in a wider 'visual economy', albeit on a different scale. As historian Elizabeth Edwards notes, 'the processes of collection and description, the contexts in which images are used, and the range of social practices explored in relation to them throughout history', in a sense reveal that all archives are largely 'an accumulation of the microcosmic relationships involved in the objects'.

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Cooperating with the Berlin state library and the German Consulate, we've compiled archival photographs by Fritz Weiss from his early 20th century Southwest China tour. His multidisciplinary working methods renders the photographs valuable for understanding that period's southwestern hinterland. 

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Fast forward a century, and contemporary artists delve deep into themes such as the individual's role in national projects, the repercussions of modernization on geopolitics, and the interplay between ethnic identity and the wider environment, all with Southwest China serving as their canvas. By setting these contemporary pieces alongside Weiss's photographs, we delved into the visual narrative evolution, methodological variances, and interconnections of images from distinctive era.

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