(In)visible bodies: Air pollution, performance art and China’s environmental governance

Performance art in Beijing during the 2010s, particularly works like Praying for Blue Skies and Winter Solstice, exposed the ineffectiveness of China’s authoritarian environmental governance by leveraging visible and invisible bodies to critique air pollution. These performances, staged amid severe smog and censorship (e.g., Chai Jing’s Under the Dome), highlighted gaps between government plans and enforcement, using activist art’s emotional impact (Duncombe) and performativity theory (Butler). The study analyzes how public spaces became sites of resistance, revealing the limitations of performative governance in addressing environmental crises.

Zhang, X. (2023). (In)visible bodies: Air pollution, performance art and China’s environmental governance. Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, 10(1), 183–204. https://doi.org/10.1386/jcca_00081_1