吴雯婧

Wu Wenjing

Since moving to Japan four years ago, Wu Wenjing has lived between two cultural contexts.
During her time in Japan, Wu repeatedly visited sites regarded as national symbols. Yet, despite returning to the same places many times, she never experienced a sense of having fully “arrived.” Rather, these places consistently appeared to her as spaces that could not be fully reached on a mental or experiential level, precisely because of their strong symbolic weight.
However, through the repeated acts of approaching these sites, attempting to understand them, and conducting ongoing research, Wu gradually formed relationships with them. It was through this process that she came to understand her practice as a form of mapping—a way of re-examining and tracing the distance that emerges between herself and the landscape.
Wu photographs iconic Japanese landscapes, prints them as large-scale backdrops, and brings them back to China. She then photographs people in China standing in front of these backdrops. Once removed from their original cultural context, these landscapes undergo a temporary dismantling and reconfiguration of meaning. They no longer function solely as national symbols, but instead appear as flattened images placed within the Chinese environment.
The people who appear in these photographs come from the same country as Wu, yet do not necessarily share the same experiences or perspectives. While these landscapes gently invite participation, they do not offer complete comprehension. It is precisely this process of engagement without full understanding that constitutes what is referred to here as mapping.