The Periphery of the Base

An infrastructure project unfolds in the unforgiving natural environment and the scorching heat of the Gobi Desert. An endeavour so immense in scale that the individuals navigating through it appear minuscule in comparison.

Camera movements that are simultaneously erratic and precise, manual and digital, planned and random, injecting a surrealistic quality into landscapes shaped by human activity, be it agricultural or industrial. This indeterminate logic is what accommodates the profoundly surprising art of Chinese director Zhou Tao, author of the highly proclaimed The Worldly Cave (2017) and Osmosis (2019). At first glance, The Periphery of the Base may seem like the camera’s simple depiction of a barren landscape under a stifling atmosphere, where workers move around inside an undetermined engineering structure so immense that they seem minuscule by comparison. In no way objective, this plotless description focuses on colour, the proportions between figures and background, the different shot sizes and the spectacular nature of the landscape to upend our understanding of the topography, while giving the impression of a continuous pictorial movement. While the workmen are taking a break or returning to their base camps after a day of toil, whirlwinds and sandstorms infuse a feeling of exhaustion that is countered by the infinite resources of the camera, breathing new life into a suffocating mechanical environment. When the sun sets and the figures and vehicles leave, the traces and impressions of a tireless observation persist firmly in our memory.

Antoine Thirion