In 2023, the CCA accompanied Xu Tiantian to Meizhou Island, documenting her fieldwork on the destabilizing terrain that is the ocean and its delicate ecosystem. As environmental and social crises escalate, film has become a curatorial tool for us to more intimately engage with sites and communities undergoing transformation, a narrative format to focus on the construction of new value systems rather than buildings as such. In this talk, Irene Chin, Curator of Contemporary Architecture, presents the process behind the making of the film and exhibition Into the Island, and the CCA’s approach to investigating contemporary issues in the built environment and architectural practice.

Into the Island is currently on view as part of Memoryscapes, featuring the work of architect Xu Tiantian and Tsuyoshi Tane. Into the Island was first presented at the CCA as part of Groundwork, a three-part film and exhibition series exploring the conceptual development and field research of contemporary architects cultivating alternative modes of practice.