The Impossible Truth by João Miguel Barros was presented at the Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau

In April, The Impossible Truth by João Miguel Barros was presented at the Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, in Lisbon, in a session led by Cláudia Ribeiro with the participation of Professor Filipe Figueiredo.

The publication revisits To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain, the seminal 1995 performance created by artists associated with the Beijing East Village, now considered a foundational moment in Chinese contemporary art. Through extensive research conducted over several years, João Miguel Barros expands the understanding of the performance beyond the single act that took place on 11 May 1995, examining the wider artistic, political and social context surrounding it across an entire decade.

Bringing together more than 200 previously unpublished images, archival material, interviews and testimonies, The Impossible Truth proposes a critical reexamination of the performance and of the narratives that shaped its historical reception. The book also explores questions of authorship, memory, documentation and intellectual property, tracing the trajectory of the work from the Beijing East Village to the Venice Biennale of 1999.

During her presentation, Cláudia Ribeiro described the publication not simply as a photography book, but as “a true research project” that navigates the tensions between representation, myth and truth. Drawing parallels with films such as Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa and Blow-Up by Michelangelo Antonioni, Ribeiro reflected on the impossibility of establishing a single, definitive account of history and on the fragile relationship between image, memory and reality.

The session highlighted the philosophical dimension of the publication, as well as its contribution to the ongoing reassessment of one of the most discussed performances in contemporary Chinese art.

Combining visual documentation, historical investigation and critical reflection, The Impossible Truth positions itself as both an archival work and a renewed space for dialogue around performance, photography and the construction of artistic narratives.

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