Exhibition by artist Ming Wong at Ullens Center in Beijing

The exhibition is Wong’s first show in Beijing and includes. Scenography for a Chinese Science Fiction Opera.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Ullens Center for Contemporary Art is presenting a solo exhibition, Ming Wong: Next Year, which opened Thursday and runs to Aug 9.

The Singaporean artist is keen at exploring nonlinear, heterotopian notions of temporality through works that combine his ongoing research into the modernization of Cantonese opera, the archeology of science fiction movies, and the French New Wave film classic Last Year at Marienbad.

The exhibition shows his two latest works. In Scenography for a Chinese Science Fiction Opera, Wong turns the gallery's nave into a stage, fusing the aesthetics of the spaceship referenced in Chinese and American cinematic history with traditional cloud patterns based on the Chinese cosmology of immateriality. Continuing the futurist theme, Wong has re-staged Last Year at Marienbad with his film 明年 | Next Year | L'Année Prochaine. The two pieces continue with thematic threads evident in the artist’s previous works, continuing his exploration of temporality.

The exhibition is the first installment of UCCA’s Secret Timezones Trilogy, a suite of consecutive solo exhibitions by contemporary Asian artists whose works reveal dislocated temporalities lying dormant behind mundane objects.

If you go

10 am-7 pm, Tuesday to Sunday, through Aug 9. UCCA, 798 Art District, 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang district. 010-5780-0200.