Friday Tour | Stephen McDowall

Sorry - this tour has been cancelled owing to industrial action

Stephen McDowall is a Senior Lecturer who specialises in late-imperial China and its global connections. Through his tour, Stephen will tell us two stories about monuments, map-making and nationhood. Beginning with the work of Qiu Zhijie, the tour will help us think about the long history of map-making in China and its role during periods of dynastic change, when maps can serve the function of trying to save and consolidate a culture’s knowledge and orientation towards the world. Then, with Lara Favaretto’s Momentary Monument – The Library as a backdrop (a library that is being dispersed by gallery visitors who take books away with them) he will talk about the Beijing city walls. Built in the 15th and 16th centuries, the walls were dismantled between the 1950s and 1970s during a period of political turbulence – but were ‘re-mantled’ in the twenty-first century with the original stones! This raises questions about the nature of monuments that resonate with Favaretto's installation.