The Oriental Scene investigates the concept of Chinoiserie architecture in the UK in the context of de-colonialism. The project uses a replica of the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing in Kew Gardens as the main object of investigation, which includes objects, drawings and documents to show how the pagoda was represented in various mediums. In the 17th and 18th centuries, while Europe was experiencing a wave of Chinoiserie, Sir William Chambers built a replica of the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing at Kew in 1762, which was destroyed by the Taiping army in 1856. No photographs of the Porcelain Tower were left before photography was widely used. There are subtle differences in the depiction of the Porcelain Tower in the imagery preserved in the East and West, leading to misunderstandings; for example, the number of storeys of the Porcelain Tower is shown in European prints and book illustrations in both nine- and ten-storey versions. However, according to Chinese Han Buddhist tradition, in most cases, the pagoda must have an odd number of storeys, and the Nanking Tower is nine. The fact that Kew’s Pagoda has ten storeys raises the suspicion that it has been misrepresented by the image, showing a slightly paradoxical relationship between reality and fiction. Prompted by the ‘wrong number of stories,’ this project explores the appropriation, de- contextualization, and reassignment of meaning to oriental symbols across time and space. The project is concerned with the interrogation of Orientalism and the authoring of visual narratives. Rethinking how pagodas have been used to create images of the East and used by the West to portray cultural otherness. It also revolves around the juxtaposition and combination of historical and contemporary artistic works and visual documents, pointing to the process of visual cultural transference regarding the pagoda. This project uses photography to present these images in a contemporary form. Through the erasure of Orientalism, the architectural redaction engages with the debate on the cultural ownership of the East, revealing the history of cultural colonisation behind the oriental scenes created by the West and the institutional problems of the museum.
Yuxing Chen (b. 1998, China) is a London- and Shanghai-based artist whose work critically engages with the historical and contemporary implications of Chinoiserie. Through photography, she examines how Orientalism has been adopted, romanticized, and perpetuated in the Western imagination. Her practice interrogates issues of decolonization, cultural difference, and the exoticized gaze, challenging dominant narratives and representations. Yuxing has been awarded the IPE Award from the Royal Photographic Society and is the winner of the Constructed Photography Global Sino Award 2024. Her works have been selected as TOP20 Chinese Contemporary Photography, finalised for the Encontros da Imagem Discovery Award(2024, PT), the Grand Prix Images Vevey (2023, Switzerland), long-listed for the OD Photo Prize (2023, UK), selected for the Copenhagen Photo Festival(2024, DK), Athens Photo Festival (2024, GK ), the PhMuseum Days Exhibition(2023, Italy), nominated for the 4th 1839 Photography Prize(2022, China). Her work has been exhibited widely in Italy, England, Germany and other countries. Her work is in private and public collections at the Zhejiang Art Museum and the University of the Arts London. She has been featured in the British Journal of Photography, Chinese Photography, RPS Journal, GUP magazine and many other press.
Getxophoto is an image festival created and managed by Begihandi, that has been taking place in Getxo—Basque Country, Euskadi—since 2007. This festival is part of a cultural ecosystem with the aim of being more participatory, hybrid, committed and sustainable. This thematic Festival is conceived as a platform that addresses contemporary challenges through different proposals, from visual storytellers around the world, in an attempt to create spaces for reflection and establish a collective conversation. Getxophoto is characterized by the radical defense of public space (both physical and online). For this reason, most of its programme is composed of outdoor installations, highlighting, on the one hand, the link between the image and the environment and, on the other, generating a more horizontal and participatory relationship with the public.
This year, after PAUSE, PLAY and REC, the festival reaches a milestone: its 20th edition. The common thread for this anniversary edition could only be… RESET—a button that invites us to reboot the system. Anniversaries are moments to celebrate and rejoice, but also excellent opportunities to look back and take stock, to review our archives and get a glimpse of what we have changed; and equally a time to project forward with renewed energy, just as when soil is ploughed so that seeds can be sown again. The edition therefore welcomes proposals that address experiences of change, reworking, recycling and reinvention; of life cycles and celebrations; of individual or collective stories of resetting—a system reboot in any of its many forms.
María Ptqk is the curator of GETXOPHOTO 2026.
Copyright © Yuxing Chen and Getxophoto, all rights reserved
