Ma Yansong was invited by the "Art in Qiaoshan - 2022 Guangdong Nanhai Land Art Festival" to create the art installation "Lighthouse of Time" at Taipingxu, Xiqiao, Nanhai, Guangdong.

The West River flows eastward, and the sound of the waves remains.
In the vegetable fields, fish ponds, and under the banyan trees,
you can watch the riverside changing with each passing day.

The market, bakery, and ferry,
the courtyard is no longer bustling,
but life is still going through ups and downs.

The palace of the former Tanka people,
is now covered with colorful new clothes,
the symbiosis of the new and the old,
can it take you out of the mottled world in front of you,
feel the vitality and energy of the new life,
imagine the unknown, and embrace the future.

The old market building where the installation is located is located in Taipingxu, facing the Xijiang River. The north goes to the market, and the south goes to the market.

Taipingxu began in the late Ming Dynasty and flourished in modern times. It was once an important node on the waterway connecting eastern Guangdong and western Guangdong.

In the 1980s and 1990s, fishermen, merchants, and villagers gathered here to trade on the 3rd, 6th, and 9th day of the lunar calendar. This was the most dazzling "landmark" in Xiqiao at that time.

With the development of urbanization, most villages are facing the same problem: the outflow of young people and the decline of village vitality. The market economy and the Internet era have also gradually weakened the importance and necessity of places like markets.

The deserted streets, the old two-story buildings made of red and green bricks, the occasional cement houses, and the few old people sitting at their doorsteps chatting, all declare that the prosperity of the past has become decadent.

The original appearance of the site

When history moves forward and the function of the site is no longer important, the emotional value and inspirational space it carries are the value left by the building.

"Although the building has been abandoned, many plants grow towards the sun from the gaps in the building structure, making people feel the vitality. We hope to create a new life of co-growth from the abandoned so that people can feel new energy and perception from the old structure, and also bring a new understanding of the time dimension to the entire region."

— Ma Yansong

Between the quiet village and the rapid development visible on the riverside, MAD attempts to juxtapose the two-time scales of "history" and "future" through design, creating a surreal scene and allowing people to return to their imagination.

The three-story building structure is wrapped in reflective materials. The old street environment is reflected in the structure, and the boundaries become surging and blurred.

The first trial version of the Lighthouse of Time, the structure and roof are wrapped in silver reflective material.

The towering multimedia lampposts are covered with colorful clothes. During the day, the colorful clothes flutter in the wind, fresh and romantic; at night, the multimedia lampposts become the new "lighthouse" of Xijiang River, adding a surreal and dreamy color to Pingsha Island and Xijiang River on the opposite bank.

"Lighthouse of Time" will be exhibited in the Taipingxu Art Area of ​​"Art in Qiaoshan - 2022 Guangdong Nanhai Land Art Festival" from December 2022 to summer 2024.