Zexuan Zeng
Zexuan Zeng is a winner of FotoSlovo Awards 2026. His project the internal crusade caught the attention of the jury with a personal examination of the Long March as a political and cultural symbol, shaped by his own upbringing in Jiangxi. We were delighted to present an exhibition by Zexuan Zheng, organized by FotoSlovo, at Athens Art Fair at Platform Projects, taking place at the end of September 2026.
Zexuan Zeng
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«All suffering is a journey, and all journeys must lead to success».
I was born and raised in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, the center of CSR, where the "Long March" begins. "The Communist Party came out of here" is how they put it. Patriotic education was the content of my schoolbooks, and party emblems with red stars and signs about the "Long March" were on almost every street corner. Growing up, the return of Hong Kong, the Three Gorges Project, Family Planning, and the recent Epidemic, etc.
I began to realize that it evolved into a political tool for transforming individual suffering into a necessary sacrifice required by the collectives, with the meaning embedded: "All suffering is a journey, and all journeys must lead to success."
«The Communist Party came out of here» is how they put it».
In the summer of 2024, I undertook a two-month journey along the route, documenting the symbolic representations of the "Long March" and the people who live along it. We live in an illusion constructed by false tales, our intentions are revealed as some kind of task, and our experiences are hammered into certain struggles. The image of the god we worship is so blurred as to be weathered by the vulgar soul. This work is in response to these questions.
The final work comprises a photobook of 110 photographs in sequence. Often presented as photo installations in exhibition contexts, it contains prints of various sizes, contact sheets, negatives, archival photographs, maps, written texts, and archival documents.