As you go… the roads under your feet, towards the new future

Assessing the regional implications of China’s latest global infrastructure initiative

As you go… the roads under your feet, towards the new future is a long-term research undertaking that reflects on the Belt and Road Initiative and how it will alter the aesthetics and practices of everyday life in different local contexts. The inquiry was conceived and initiated by Biljana Ciric in 2019 after conducting curatorial research in East Africa, Central Asia, and several Balkan countries, where the project is now situated. The three-year project has been conducted via cells, organizations, institutions, and individuals: What Could Should Curating Do (WC/SCD) (Belgrade), Zdenka Badovinac (Ljubljana), Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai), Times Museum (Guangzhou), Artcom (Astana), Robel Temesgen and Sinkneh Eshetu (Addis Ababa), and The Public Library (Bor). The project does not attempt yet another critical investigation into Chinese colonialism, but rather seeks to unpack the complexities certain regions are dealing with—their current connections to the Belt and Road Initiative also leading to their established commonalities. These include socialism, non-aligned legacies (as in the Non-Aligned Movement, but also the relationships between China and African and other Asian countries during the twentieth century), neo-geopolitical settings, economic influences—especially of the Chinese and Arab world within of similar patterns, that have even employed the same companies through different regions—being agents of their own cultures, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.