大湾区之肋 (The Rib of the Greater Bay Area). 2026. China/Hong Kong. Directed by Zhou Tao. Commissioned by M+, Hong Kong. World premiere. DCP. No dialogue. 70 min.
Over nearly two decades, China’s Zhou Tao has earned a venerated position as one of the most unique and surprising moving-image artists of his generation. One constant across Zhou’s practice is his ability to deploy basic filmic devices like composition, depth, and camera movement to play with perspective in ways that are not only visually dazzling but subtly political. Here, the artist recasts photogenic coastal locations from the Guangdong/Hong Kong/Macau Greater Bay Area famed for their social media virality by privileging the candid, the hazy, and the abstract over crisp poses engineered for likes. Constantly shapeshifting, with its scroll-like camera movements accented by a mix of on-site and sourced sound, The Rib of the Greater Bay Area is another transfixing entry in Zhou’s rich body of work.