Verschichtet - Global

Large format photo-collages about modernization and globalization in China

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Introduction and Background

verschichtet-global #x is an ongoing work series dealing with China´s fast transformation to a market society due to the effects of globalization and historical changes in the postcolonial /post modern society.On one side we observe a western-style democratic system in South China´s Hongkong driven by a capitalist market society, on the other hand it is is also a threat for the government in Beijing because it could cause the loss of power and control for the central government if this system would swap over to China´s mainland.At the same time we can observe the effort to copy the successful capitalistic system in all major boomtowns of mainland China since almost twenty years now, so Shanghai, Shenzen and Beijing are developing to globalized and dynamic world-class cities among many others not so well known in the west.In former times of traditional china Confucianism was an important cohesion for society. In the 20th century, the big communistic leaders tried to achieve a stable society by using propaganda and ideologies, once religion was killed.

For some time it looked like that it could work but in the end China suffered a tragic episode during civil war and Mao´s dictatorship.Since the rise of capitalism in China during the last decade of the 20th century and his ongoing story of success, the huge country found a new way of building stability and cohesion. What happens now is, that the central government is using the success of capitalism tolegitimize it´s own dictatorship and the one-party system as a well working system.The process of globalization transformed the pearl river-delta in south china to the most crowded spot of factories and production-force worldwide. Labour is much to expensive in Hongkong nowadays, therefore most of the former industries of the island moved over to mainland china because of the cheap work-force just across the border. Migrant workers from all over China are forced to work in slave-like conditions, it is them who build mega cities of enormous scale.Are this forces of change, inequity and unfairness going to transform the political system ?How does the present generation cope with this changes ?

Do we observe the development of a hybrid system of communism and capitalism and are our considerations too occidental, to accept the possibility of a functional mixture between communism and turbo-capitalism ?My collage series layered-global #x is trying to find ways to visualize this processes, ideas and questions.verschichtet-global #x is an ongoing work series dealing with China´s fast transformation to a market society due to the effects of globalization and historical changes in the postcolonial /post modern society.

On one side we observe a western-style democratic system in South China´s Hongkong driven by a capitalist market society, on the other hand it is is also a threat for the government in Beijing because it could cause the loss of power and control for the central government if this system would swap over to China´s mainland.At the same time we can observe the effort to copy the successful capitalistic system in all major boomtowns of mainland China since almost twenty years now, so Shanghai, Shenzen and Beijing are developing to globalized and dynamic world-class cities among many others not so well known in the west.In former times of traditional china Confucianism was an important cohesion for society. In the 20th century, the big communistic leaders tried to achieve a stable society by using propaganda and ideologies, once religion was killed.

For some time it looked like that it could work but in the end China suffered a tragic episode during civil war and Mao´s dictatorship.Since the rise of capitalism in China during the last decade of the 20th century and his ongoing story of success, the huge country found a new way of building stability and cohesion. What happens now is, that the central government is using the success of capitalism tolegitimize it´s own dictatorship and the one-party system as a well working system.The process of globalization transformed the pearl river-delta in south china to the most crowded spot of factories and production-force worldwide. Labour is much to expensive in Hongkong nowadays, therefore most of the former industries of the island moved over to mainland china because of the cheap work-force just across the border. Migrant workers from all over China are forced to work in slave-like conditions, it is them who build mega cities of enormous scale.Are this forces of change, inequity and unfairness going to transform the political system ?How does the present generation cope with this changes ?Do we observe the development of a hybrid system of communism and capitalism and are our considerations too occidental, to accept the possibility of a functional mixture between communism and turbo-capitalism ?My collage series layered-global #x is trying to find ways to visualize this processes, ideas and questions.