14 October: Lecture Jiang Jun

The urban – rural dichotomy in China has its unique characteristics, which makes the countryside a mirror of contemporary Chinese society. Through this mirror we can identify a series of keywords that define the milestones of China’s urbanization: land reformation, rural industrialization, migrants, Made in China, urban villages…

However, villages in different geographical conditions went on different paths of transformation. Dafen village in southern China, and Huaxi Village in the east of the country represent these two different paths, which can be called the roads of neo-liberalism and post-collectivism.

Jiang Jun is a research-architect, archive-editor and writer, and has been working on urban research and experimental studies, exploring the interrelationship between design phenomena and urban dynamics.  He was the founding editor-in-chief of Urban China Magazine, the chief curator of the exhibition ‘The Street Belongs to … All of Us!’, project director at the Strelka School in Moscow (2010-2011) and visiting fellow at the ESRC Centre of Oxford University (2011-2012). His work has been exhibited in exhibitions such as the Shenzhen Biennale, China Contemporary, Kassel Documenta, etc.