…One kayak was sailing towards the downtown direction along some river that sends out bad smell throughout the year in the suburb of Beijing. When there was a river or lake, they rowed the kayak; when there was land, they walked. They passed Dongfengbei Qiao, Chaoyang Park, Liangma Qiao, Yan Sha, Dong Zhi Men, Yonghegong Lamasery, Ji Shui Tan, Xi Hai, Hou Hai and Qian Hai, etc; they spent more than five hours and were finally stopped near Zhong Hai. This trip was filmed and edited into a 15-minute single channel video that is shown in the exhibition space. Xu Qu named it “Sailing against the Current”, which is not only the direct narration of the content of the work, but also the extraction of the concept.

Xu Qu designed a rather symbolic plot for “sailing against the current”. It possesses both a Herzog-style caprice and a continent expression in a specific social environment. However, its implementation chose the lighter way; the control of emotional elements and personal experiences provides the work with a calm atmosphere. For the audience who are good at interpreting the text, the hidden meaning carried by this plot is very explicit. What it refers to is the mark of system that exists in the interior of both politics and culture.

…In “Upstream”, form is not the grammatical structure of retailing a concept, nor is it a product of media theory. Its secret gesture is as suspicious as the uproariousness that appears in the picture. This is the conundrum that Xu Qu throws.

(Zhang Xiyuan, Upstream, 2011[Excerpt])