Suspended Ruins

Etonmars, Xingye 唐一踢李星也
Co-creation by community mini 社群共创

A Rebellion of ‘Space’

What does it mean for a place to exist outside ownership, hovering between decay and utility?

Photography, Video,
Community Involvement,
Installation Performance

2023 – ongoing

This installation emerges from my own inexplicable feelings while moving out, of an attic filled with collective trauma due to the policies during the pandemic in central Shanghai, 2022.

Beneath the pitched roof of an old lane house, just beyond the attic wall, lies an abandoned, in-between space, neither owned nor entirely disowned. Over time, past and present residents of the apartment have discarded unwanted furniture, empty bottles, and worn-out cardboard boxes here, a slow accumulation of remnants that transformed the space into a liminal storage of both material and memory. The only direct access is through the attic window. Each time an object is placed into this void, there is a fleeting sense of transgression, as if a fragment of the space has been stolen—despite belonging to no one.

Phase 0
Exploring the Suspended Space Outside of the Attic

What does it mean for a place to exist outside ownership, hovering between decay and utility?

Who, if anyone, would concern themselves with this dusty, dangling rooftop corner, reeking of sewer, suspended above a residential building where each square meter is priced at 100,000 RMB?

It is a meditation on neglected urban recesses, forgotten thresholds, and the subtle negotiations between absence and possession.

As the last residents with access to this threshold, we chose to confront its ambiguity before leaving it behind—an act of witnessing, an ephemeral occupation, an unresolved question.