A giant freezer sits in the middle of the Taklamakan Desert. Yet the appliance is in fact plugged in and producing ice. It was transported from Beijing to Tailun, a small village in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, then dragged for 23 days through numerous checkpoints to the centre of the desert, where it was connected to the grid by a 100-kilometre cable and 10 transformers. This seemingly absurd Sisyphean task, carried out by artist Zhao Zhao and his team, serves as a manifesto for the independence of ethnic minorities in China. It also speaks to the desire for an oasis in a region with a notoriously hostile climate, and it highlights the exorbitant costs – financial and environmental – involved in producing and storing ice.
Zhao’s conceptual, multidisciplinary and deliberately provocative approach is an inventive critique of the political, societal and environmental issues and ideologies of our time.

Zhao Zhao (b. 1982) graduated from Xinjiang Arts Institute and later attended the Beijing Film Academy. He spent seven years working as an assistant to Ai Weiwei. In 2017, he was named Artist of the Year by the Award of Art China (AAC). A leading figure in Chinese contemporary art, Zhao has attracted international attention for his subversive practice. He lives and works in Beijing.

Exhibition view Haus für Kunst Uri, Zhao, Project Taklamakan, 2016, video (30 min.), (Uli Sigg), photo: F.X BrunZhao