Cheng Xinhao's Psychogeographic Walks Map Yunnan's History Through Stone-Kicking and Rail Journeys

Chinese artist Cheng Xinhao employs durational walking performances to investigate Yunnan's layered histories and psychogeography. On December 1, 2019, he began a 465-kilometer, 19-day trek along the Yunnan–Vietnam railway, collecting one piece of track ballast per kilometer, documented in the video 'To the Ocean' (2019). This journey concluded in Hekou, a border town facing Vietnam's Lào Cai province. Another project, 'Stratums and Erratics Part 1' (2023), features him kicking a serrated stone 900 kilometers from Kunming to the China–Myanmar border, traversing historical routes like the Burma Road. His practice integrates anthropology, having studied the Mảng people since 2013, resulting in works like 'Silver… and Other Elements' (2020), a four-channel video exploring silver piastres repurposed as dowries. Cheng's video 'March of the Elephants' (2022) examines wild elephant migrations in Yunnan, analyzing their symbolic interpretations during a 2020-2021 northward march. Influenced by Werner Herzog's 'Of Walking in Ice' (1978), Cheng describes his body as a 'probe' that reveals perceptions between landscape and history. His work will appear in the 15th Gwangju Biennale from September 7 to December 1.