Huang Yong Ping. Empires, Grand Palais Paris.

A photographic documentation of Empires, the monumental installation by contemporary artist Huang Yong Ping, presented at the Grand Palais in Paris as part of Monumenta 2016.

Conceived specifically for the vast nave of the Grand Palais, Empires brought together hundreds of shipping containers, an enormous aluminium serpent skeleton and an oversized representation of Napoleon’s bicorne hat. Through these powerful symbols, Huang Yong Ping explored the shifting relationships between political power, global trade, conflict and the rise and fall of empires.

The installation transformed the exhibition space into a monumental landscape, establishing a dialogue between contemporary art, industrial structures and the architecture of the Grand Palais.

Photographed by Daniel Schäfer Studio as an independent artistic project, the series documents the scale, sculptural presence and spatial relationships of the installation, exploring the encounter between artwork, architecture and perception.