How does one’s position determine what is seen and how it is perceived? And how does this, in turn, shape the understanding of things?
These questions form the starting point of this series of works. The images were photographed along the Grand Canal of Alsace, located in the tri-border area of Germany, France, and Switzerland.
This area features vast nuclear power plants, complex industrial zones, and large hydroelectric power stations. The river is part of this industrial landscape. The riverbank and riverbed are concreted, and the water flows through man-made channels. The power of the water is not visible; it appears as a smooth, completely calm surface.
In contrast, delicate grasses, branches, and twigs take center stage in the work. Unassuming yet tenacious, they defy the man-made structure. Their natural disorder forms a quiet counterpoint to the constructed landscape. This photographic work explores this tension and reveals how fragile the boundary is between humanity’s quest for control and the resistant force of nature. The work comprises six framed photographs, presented in pairs.
“River” is part of the artist’s Rhine River project. The project began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the government set up checkpoints on bridges across the Rhine—the river that forms the border between Germany and France—to control the movement of people and prevent the spread of the virus. In the aftermath of the pandemic, Germany established border control points on bridges with the same aim, but this time targeting migrants, thereby highlighting the river’s political significance once more. Through his photographs of the Rhine, Zhao reflects on how nature is treated and the various meanings attributed to it.
About Lidong Zhao
Lidong Zhao (born in 1986 in Jiangsu, China) lives and works in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. He studied photography at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany, from 2013 to 2018. Previously, he studied oil painting at Xiaozhuang University in Nanjing, China.
His artistic work explores the relationship between objects and the environment. He approaches photography without a fixed plan, allowing himself to detach from preconceived and learned ways of seeing in order to become part of the environment rather than an external observer. By acknowledging that he, as a photographer, is also part of this environment, he questions the possibility of an objective view and the separateness of things.
His works have been exhibited at the Museum für Neue Kunst in Freiburg, the Kunstverein Freiburg, the Kunsthaus Essen, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, Taiwan, among others. His works are also held in various private and public collections. [Official Website]
