Beijing's Scorching Summer: Documenting the Nucleic Acid Test Queues | July 2022

Описание: Filmed separately on the evening of July 7 and at noon on July 8,2022, along Qinghua East Road in Beijing.
Amidst the summer“grilling mode,” a record of what seemed utterly ordinary at the time: queuing for nucleic acid tests. By then, discussions about its rationale had quieted; it had sunk into the background like any social custom, becoming an unspoken rhythm of the city. People stood silently in the sweltering heat, completing this highly organized daily act.
When I filmed,it was driven by a vague curiosity and intuition. But upon later review, the significance of these images began to surface—they document a collective bodily experience and social contract of a particular era, on the verge of becoming “historical memory.” The street backdrop, the state of the people, the scorching air together form an honest archive of endurance, order, and uncertainty. Where do we begin to know a city? Sometimes, the answer lies in having the courage to gaze upon and record those moments that “seemed utterly ordinary at the time” but are destined to be continually re-examined in the future—the silent everyday itself.

#SlowDownSeeTheWorld #Beijing #UrbanArchive #HistoricalMemory #DailyRitual #SocialObservation

分别拍摄于2022年7月7日傍晚与7月8日午间，北京清华东路。
在夏天的“烧烤模式”下，记录一段当时只道是平常的日常：排队进行核酸检测。那时，讨论其合理性已逐渐沉寂，它已如同任何一个社会的习俗般，沉入背景，成为无需多言的城市节奏一部分。人们默默站立在高温中，完成这个被高度组织化的日常动作。
我拍摄时，只是出于一种模糊的好奇与直觉。但当后来回看，这些影像的意义开始浮现——它记录下的，是一个特殊时代里，一种即将成为“历史记忆”的集体身体经验与社会契约。街道的背景、人们的状态、空气中的灼热感，共同构成了一份关于忍耐、秩序与不确定性的诚实档案。我们从何处开始了解一座城？有时，答案就在勇于凝视并记录下那些“当时只道是平常”，却在未来必将被不断重新审视的、沉默的日常本身。

#慢下来看世界 #北京 #城市档案 #历史记忆 #日常仪式 #社会观察