A journey through the ages of video games
It may be difficult not to lose yourself in the exhibition “Player of Beings.”
Currently running at the Ming Contemporary Art Museum, the exhibition not only focuses on contemporary artworks themed “game,” but also chronicles games from different periods in a carnival for gamers.
"Player of Beings" explores the development of electronic games over the past more than 70 years from Toys R Us, Famicom, arcades, online and eSports.
“Player of Beings” is underway at Ming Contemporary Art Museum.
Another part of the exhibition titled “Ready Player One” features works by artists in the forefront of international contemporary art, including aaajiao, Cao Fei, Feng Mengbo, Jeffrey Shaw, JODI, Lu Yang and Zheng Guogu, who discuss the relationships between games, social changes and human beings, as well as the evolution of technology.
“When the earliest video game, the cathode-ray tube amusement device, was invented, computers were still at a stage of reading punched tapes," said Chen Baoyang, one of the curators of the exhibition. "Later, the Magnavox Odyssey released in 1972 brought video games from giant mainframes into people’s living rooms. Five years later, the Macintosh was born in a garage and the Atari 2600 was released, which initiated a never-ending rivalry in the gaming industry between consoles and computers. Since then, video games have become part of our lives.”
Beneath the flickering lights on screens, games have become a bridge, connecting people with one other.
One of the highlights of the exhibition is “i.Mirror,” a video created by Cao Fei, one of the most innovative Chinese artists on the international stage. She mixes social commentary, popular esthetics, references to surrealism and documentary conventions in her films and installations.
“It’s perhaps no longer important to draw a line between the virtual and the real, as the border between the two has been blurred," Cao said. "In the virtual world, we aren't what we originally were, and yet we remain unchanged. We always worry about the virtual space’s erosion of reality, but hopefully there are new possibilities of combination in our electronic second life, a new force that transcends this mortal coil."
The exhibition features game-themed contemporary artworks.
Exhibition info
Date: Through March 28 (closed on Mondays), 10am-6pm
Venue: Ming Contemporary Art Museum
Address: 436 Yonghe Rd E.
Admission: 90 yuan
