Entering Another World Through the Cave (lecture)
2025, HD video, stereo, 55 minutes
Lecture by Yuning Teng
Abstract: In response to Kleine Gesellschaft für Grotten und Höhlen’s new exhibition, „Kontinent des Unbewussten,“ this lecture offers a journey through the visual and cultural history of the cave motif within the context of China. Spanning the country’s thousand-year legacy and its modern transformations, the lecture will explore how cave imagery has evolved as a spiritual, religious, and political symbol, intertwined with complex social changes. In China, the cave motif relates not only to Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and utopian ideals, but also came to symbolize Communist success, as Mao Zedong established his revolutionary bases in cave areas before the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Today, contemporary artists and popular art continue to employ the image of the cave, linking history with present reality and enriching the motif with multiple meanings. As the Chinese saying „bieyou dongtian“ (别有洞天) literally means, „there is another world inside the cave,“ this lecture invites participants to enter another world through the Chinese perspective on the cave.
The lecture by the art historian Yuning Teng is part of the accompinying programme of the exhibition »Kleine Gesellschaft für Grotten und Höhlen, Teil 3: Kontinent des Unbewussten« at Grundbuchhalle in Hamburg.