“A Long Day of a Certain Year” (某年某月某日) by Chinese photographer / artist Li Lang won the Puntum Awards at the Lianzhou Foto Festival 2019. This photographic installation encompasses pictures he systematically took out of the window while on a round trip on a high-speed train across China. The work was installed as a 5 multi-channelled video with an image displayed for a second at a time, starting from the first channel and rotating to the next channel throughout the whole video. The idea was to recreate the space of the train carriage, in which windows display the projected slideshows and voice interviews, mirroring the feelings of one looking out of the window on a train and thoughts running by.
© Li Lang, from the series ‘A Long Day of a Certain Year’ ; Source @ Jimei x Arles
His works uses the images from the train window to juxtapose with recorded voices of about 50 online volunteers about their lives and social realities. He wanted to show through the work that the things that are going on in society are like the view we have from the train: constantly changing, random, contingent, and uncertain. The scenery is familiar yet unfamiliar to everyone. However, the train will come to a halt eventually and sending its passengers back to their reality. This is a metaphor for the relationship between people and society: whether watching or being in it, you cannot leave.
Here’s the artist statement of the work (which I think reads well into the work):
其實一代又一代的人都是這樣的。
————《某年某月某日》畫外音
某年某月某日是一個確定的時間，不僅是日常生活中的昨天，今天和明天終究將會屬於某年某月某日。周而復始的某年某月某日構成生活的全部。
我乘坐在一趟往返有四千六百公里的高速火車上，以統計學採樣的方式拍攝窗外景觀，跟隨火車縱貫這個熟悉而又陌生的國度，穿過城市、鄉鎮、農村、丘陵、平原和荒野。當我木訥地望着窗外，火車前進方向的景觀迎面撲來，然後轉瞬即逝地消失在身後，我突然產生幻覺，未來就在前方，未來被運動所挾持，在我毫無知覺間，未來已成為過去。對我而言，此時此地的現在仿佛是缺失的。只有等到火車抵達終點，我走出車廂，才感受到現在的存在和回歸喧囂的現實。
現實是什麼？
面對這個問題，我和眾多的志願者一起，聊起身處的現實和現實對我們的影響。話語間滲透着講述者對生活最直觀的感受。我再次成為坐在火車上眺望窗外景觀的旁觀者。在生活中，普通人都是現實的旁觀者。
在毫無知覺中度過無數個周而復始無趣的日子之後，我們慶幸自己生活中的平安，暗自慶幸那些不幸的事沒有發生在自己的身上，就像始終坐在火車上觀望着窗外和我們沒有任何關係的景觀一樣。因為我們習慣做為一名安全的旁觀者。但是別忘記,火車終究將會到達終點,我們這幫旅客終究將走出車廂，回到現實。千萬不要覺得現實就像窗外的風景一樣，寧靜無聲。其實，我們只是聽不到外面的聲音而已。
The work is so simply put yet it speaks to such a wide range of audience. They can so easily resonate with the feeling of future uncertainty and the social reality that we face everyday. I extremely adore how he brings the everydayness into his artwork which can also be interpreted more deeply with the current social and political affairs.
Here are the 2 interviews he did (both in Chinese):
#somethingtotalkabout 