the politics of power

an article on the new exhibit at the museum of outdoor arts located in englewood co:

photographer li zhensheng hid more than 30,000 negatives he shot during china's cultural revolution under the floorboards of his home in harbin. they now form part of the politics of power: art & images from china's cultural revolution...

it seems that china's rise to power did not come overnight, and was not entirely bloodless. the theory of productive forces was the brainchild of communism and marxism to transform a large number of small agrarian villages into a unified industrialized economy. alongside this ambitious undertaking, mao launched a propaganda campaign called the cultural revolution in order to quelch the student & worker uprisings. this period in chinese history nearly caused total economic collapse, and the loss of an estimated 20-30 million lives. the exhibit intends to shed light on some of the previously secretive events through the photographs of li zhensheng.