Day 5 is a day for break free.
We were born. We awakened. We survived. We grieved and we regained. Now the body knows what it is made of — and it breaks free.

Chinese artist Li Nu works with weight, ice, and the live body. Three works, one question: what does it actually cost to break free?

"Bull the Wall" begins with mass. Li Nu employs sculpture, installation, and multimedia technology across over three tons of steel plates, moved back and forth, polished and processed repeatedly. In the end, Li Nu found that his fingerprints had all been worn away.  The work is not only a visual experience but an emotional and intellectual one — the breaking of barriers, the crossing of boundaries, the pursuit of freedom and self-transcendence.

"Iron Curtain" is built from ice, on the river between two countries — a border made of the water that connects both sides. Through unique visual effects and the use of materials, "Iron Curtain" explores themes of power, control, and freedom in modern society. Li Nu attempts to reveal the invisible power structures and control mechanisms within contemporary society and reflects on the individual's position and role within these structures. The title "Iron Curtain" not only symbolizes the political separation during the Cold War but also metaphorically represents various forms of segregation and oppression in contemporary society.

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Then the body alone. "Awakening", the video work was taken on a winter night in 2014, Li Nu stripped off his clothes and jumped into a trash bin filled with sewage on the streets of London, finally emerging from the water on the verge of suffocation. There is no wall here, no tons of steel. Only skin, cold water, and the decision to come back up.

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