Jiajia Zhang at Milieu
Solo Show «How To Spend It», October 16 until November 15, 2025
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Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
In Franz Schubert’s Gefrorene Tränen from the Winterreise (1827), the singer realizes too late that he has been crying. His tears have already frozen. Emotion lags behind the body; time freezes between movement and stillness. This suspended temporality runs through the exhibition, where cycles of work, leisure, and feeling repeat without resolution. The title borrows its language from the Financial Times’ luxury supplement How to Spend It — a magazine devoted to the consumption of taste, wealth, and lifestyle. There, “spending” signals abundance and agency. Here, the question is asked from a place of depletion: What remains to be given when attention, care, and solidarity have already been exhausted? One video gathers YouTube recordings of men performing Gefrorene Tränen. Different faces, the same song. Across each, a digital clock begins at 12:12, advances briefly, and then resets. Time stretches, freezes, returns. Repetition transforms grief into an ongoing condition — emotion automated, archived, endlessly replayed. Another video, filmed during a vacation, drifts through beaches, pauses, and gestures of rest. Over the images, Heike Geißler reads from Arbeiten — reflecting on exhaustion, labor, and the loss of solidarity through automation. Work and leisure merge; the vacation becomes work, and work dreams of leisure. Between these rooms stands a mirrored door engraved with the words Fiscalité – Gestion – Adaptabilité — administration, management, adaptation. Nearby, a yellow plexiglass panel glows, marked with the inscription Pressione Massima — the language of infrastructure, found on a safety system that promises protection while reminding us of its limit: maximum pressure. Each of these languages — French, Italian, English, German — speaks of control, efficiency, and security. Yet in their friction, their fragility becomes perceptible. Between frozen tears and endless sunsets, the exhibition unfolds as a fabric of climates and languages, of exhaustion and duration. The catastrophe does not arrive suddenly; it unfolds slowly, hidden in repetition, sustained by confidence that the surface will hold. And still — the sunset never ends.
Exhibition by Jiajia Zhang
Hier ist ein Zirkus des Kapitals. Ein Musterbuch der Fassaden, welche die Welt zusammenhalten - der Spass, den man sich kaufen kann. Eine Meditation über Arbeit. Die Illusion des Neuen, welche die Alltagseinöde übertüncht. Nett muss man es sich einrichten, um die Angst zu ertragen. Wenn es sich herausstellen würde, dass das Leben tatsächlich so ist, wie es ist und es gäbe kein Ausserhalb davon, würdest du nicht wollen, dass die Welt zerbricht? Wenigstens für einen Moment in deiner Fantasie? Ein kleiner Bruch, ein Zerschlagen der Normalität? Ein Rettungsring für einen Abend. Bis du dich wieder einfindest im Rhythmus deiner aktiven und passiven Phasen. Dann kannst du wieder diszipliniert sein und dich üben. Und das gleiche wie immer machen. Aber diesmal etwas besser. Variation des Gleichen. Stillstand in einer zyklischen Welt. Ein neuer Mantel aus der Herbstkollektion (er war schon mal da): auch billiges Glück ist echtes Glück. Selbst wenn es immer wieder neu nachgefüllt werden muss. Alles was uns atmen hilft ist Teil unserer Überlebensstrategie. Dann also in den Urlaub fahren. Der Sonnenuntergang gehört uns allen. Doch geniesst man ihn mehr, wenn man ihn verdient hat. Noch besser ist es, keine Geldsorgen zu haben. Manche Leute träumen aber während den Strandferien, sie würden zu spät zur Arbeit kommen. Gedankenbilder dieser Art begleiten mich, wenn ich durch die Ausstellung ‚How To Spend it‘ von Jiajia Zhang streife. Jedoch pulsiert durch die Ausstellung eine Stimmung, die in keiner Weise dem Zynismus der behandelten Themen unterliegt. Hier ist Leben, ein Spiel, wie eine Katze mit einem Wollknäuel spielt. Es gibt Luft voller Potenzial durch die Neugier ästhetischer Untersuchungen. Eine Ahnung von Handlungsmöglichkeiten, die erst noch erfunden werden müssen. Nicht jedes Versprechen ist ein leeres Versprechen und es gibt Dinge, die noch nicht versprochen wurden. Vielleicht ist die New Mentality irgendwo da draussen zu finden.
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on Vacation (after HG) , 2025, HD Video, 16:9, 7’28‘‘, Color, Sound, Voiceover with kind permission from Heike Geißler, tacheles! and Hanser Berlin» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on Vacation (after HG) , 2025, HD Video, 16:9, 7’28‘‘, Color, Sound, Voiceover with kind permission from Heike Geißler, tacheles! and Hanser Berlin» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on Safe Crash, 2023, Found glass, lacquered wooden frame, mirror, vinyl, fabric, 25 × 51.5 × 5.5cm» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on How To Spend It (Attention, Collapse, Affection, Control, Absence, Circulation, Anxiety, Consumption, Afterglow) , 2025, Photo transfer on canvas, lampshade, 40 × 60 cm» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on How To Spend It (Attention, Collapse, Affection, Control, Absence, Circulation, Anxiety, Consumption, Afterglow) , 2025, Photo transfer on canvas, 40 × 120 cm» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on How To Spend It (Attention, Collapse, Affection, Control, Absence, Circulation, Anxiety, Consumption, Afterglow) , 2025, Photo transfer on canvas, label, magazine cutout, photo print, 40 × 50 cm» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (Bern)(detail) , 2025, Replication of found plaque on silver foiled PVC plate, 203 × 99 cm» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on Twelve Twelve, 2025, HD Video, 16:9, 20’08‘‘, Color, Sound, Found Footage of people performing Gefrorene Tränen from Schubert’s Winterreise Liederzyklus» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on Twelve Twelve, 2025, HD Video, 16:9, 20’08‘‘, Color, Sound, Found Footage of people performing Gefrorene Tränen from Schubert’s Winterreise Liederzyklus» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on Cassetta Pubblicità (Amicizia Irl /New Mentality) , 2024, Stickers, top with tag, plastic eggs, ribbon with magnets, found mailbox, 32 × 31 cm, (detail)» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on Pressione Massima, 2024, Found protection plexiglass, 39 × 51 cm» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on How To Spend It (Attention, Collapse, Affection, Control, Absence, Circulation, Anxiety, Consumption, Afterglow) , 2025, Photo transfer on canvas, newspaper clipping, vinyl sticker, magazine cutout, ribbon of, honour, party hat, 40 × 120 cm» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on How To Spend It (Attention, Collapse, Affection, Control, Absence, Circulation, Anxiety, Consumption, Afterglow) , 2025, Photo transfer on canvas, newspaper clipping, vinyl sticker, magazine cutout, ribbon of, honour, party hat, 40 × 120 cm» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
Exhibition View Solo Show Jiajia Zhang «How To Spend It ; view on How To Spend It (Attention, Collapse, Affection, Control, Absence, Circulation, Anxiety, Consumption, Afterglow)(detail), 2025, Photo transfer on canvas, newspaper clipping, vinyl sticker, magazine cutout, ribbon of, honour, party hat, 40 × 120 cm» at Milieu, Bern, 2025 / Photo: Jiří Makovec / Courtesy: the artist and Milieu
