Rumba II: Nomad

Directed by Cao Fei

The urban fringe of Beijing is the loosen bricks from fragmented land. A result of urban development. The dynamic and complex urban system produced and blurred out the edges between cities and suburbs. The size, scale and land use of different areas are at constant conversion to each other, which becomes the foundation to China urban development and relative space of the society and the economy. In the video, several domestic vacuum cleaning robots are released at urban fringe. The robots navigate randomly in a demolishing area - a scene that we already witness and it could be found in different area under urbanization; a scene that is exciting and also being the norm in China. The robots - as the visitors from the outer space, arrive in our world. By taking in the dust and ashes at the urban fringe, the land reality is collected and made into a sample; a sample that conveys our all time obsession and celebration of modern contemporary.