VPN 虚拟 私有 网络

The Golden Shield Project 金盾工程, is a surveillance system developed in China since 1994 by the Chinese Government and its Ministry of Public Security. This highly sophisticated content-filtering is inter-alia blocking information (i.e. google, wikipedia), social websites (i.e. facebook, twitter), website pro-democracy and freedom of speech (i.e. amnesty international), anything related to the Dalai Lama and the International Tibet Independence Movement, pornographic content, gambling, violence-related websites etc.

As the artist arrived in Beijing for a Research Residency, the first thing that people told him regarding the censorship over the Internet was: “Just get a VPN!” VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, it’s an application that enables any Internet user to create a tunnel through the Golden Shield to other private network avoiding in this manner to be using the selected authorised websites by the Chinese Government. This first approach to the Internet in China undermined all preconceived idea about what was censorship in general and in China in particular.

The work VPN虚拟 私有 网络 is the superposition of the translation in 6 Chinese characters of Virtual Private Network. Inspired by the numerous advertising light signs visible anywhere in the streets of Beijing, this accumulation is also way to express the absorption of signs that foreigners have to recognise or read. In the beginning, eventually, all characters confound and mix up together creating a mess on ones mind. By juxtaposing Chinese characters on top of each other, it also creates a movement of self-censorship. No one has access to the meaning behind the signs exposed, not even a person able to read Chinese. The interpretation of these abstract signs is infinite however there is a message lurks behind the strokes.