Thomas Kellner in Dongguan, China – Facets of China

The Dongguan Culture Center: A Public Institution for Contemporary Culture

The Dongguan Culture Center is one of the city's leading public cultural institutions and plays a central role in the cultural life of Dongguan, one of the most dynamic manufacturing centres in China's Guangdong Province. Beyond serving as an exhibition venue, it functions as an organisational platform for cultural production, education and public engagement. As part of Dongguan's long-term cultural strategy, the institution contributes to strengthening the city's identity not only as a global manufacturing hub but also as an emerging centre for contemporary art and culture.

The center coordinates exhibitions, educational programmes and international collaborations while supporting research-based artistic production. Through these activities it has become an important meeting place for artists, curators, scholars and the public, reflecting Dongguan's ambition to integrate culture into its continuing urban and economic development.

From Manufacturing Hub to Cultural City

Over the past decades, Dongguan has transformed from a city known primarily for export-oriented manufacturing into a metropolitan region that increasingly invests in culture, creativity and innovation. Museums, art centres, creative industries and independent cultural initiatives have become an essential part of this development.

The exhibition Manufacturing Art: Toward Dongguan as a City of Manufacturing Aesthetics exemplifies this transformation. Rather than separating industrial production from artistic practice, the project explores their interaction and demonstrates how manufacturing, craftsmanship, design and visual culture together contribute to the city's identity.

It was within this cultural environment that German photographer Thomas Kellner was invited to develop Facets of China, extending his internationally recognised portrait project inspired by August Sander into one of China's most important industrial regions.

Huang Xiaoli: Shaping an International Cultural Institution

The Dongguan Culture Center is directed by Huang Xiaoli (黄晓丽), whose leadership has significantly strengthened the institution's international profile. Combining cultural administration with a strong commitment to contemporary art, she has expanded the center's role as a platform for dialogue between local communities and international artistic networks.

Under her direction, the institution has increasingly welcomed collaborations with museums, independent curators and artists from Europe, North America and Asia. This openness reflects a broader vision of cultural exchange in which international projects contribute to the development of Dongguan's own cultural identity while introducing local audiences to diverse artistic perspectives.

Curator Shu Yang and the Invitation to Thomas Kellner

A key element of the exhibition is its curatorial concept, developed by the renowned Beijing-based curator Dr. Shu Yang. Internationally recognised for his work in contemporary art, performance and interdisciplinary exhibition formats, Shu Yang invited twenty artists to collaborate with leading manufacturing companies throughout Dongguan.

For Thomas Kellner, this invitation also represents the continuation of a long-standing professional relationship. The artist and curator first met nearly two decades ago during cultural exchanges between Germany and China and have remained connected through exhibitions and photographic projects. After seeing Kellner's completed portrait project Facetten der Großstadt, created as a tribute to the 150th anniversary of August Sander, at the Lishui Photography Museum, Shu Yang proposed extending the concept into a Chinese context.

The resulting project, Facets of China, became one of the central artistic contributions to the exhibition.

Thomas Kellner: Portraits of the Working People of Dongguan

During several weeks in Dongguan, Thomas Kellner photographed nearly one hundred people working in a remarkable variety of professions. His portraits include engineers, production workers, machine operators, designers, researchers, technicians, craftspeople, managers, entrepreneurs and company founders from leading Chinese companies.

Rather than documenting industrial production itself, Kellner focuses on the individuals whose knowledge, skills and creativity shape contemporary manufacturing. Inspired by August Sander's humanistic approach to portrait photography, the series presents each sitter as both an individual personality and a representative of a broader social and professional landscape.

The project continues Kellner's long-term artistic investigation into work, identity and society. Following the completion of Facetten der Großstadt in Siegen, comprising 1,056 portraits as a visual micro-census of a German city, Facets of China expands this exploration into a new cultural environment while maintaining the same conceptual framework.

Connecting Art, Industry and Society

A defining feature of the Dongguan project is its close collaboration between artists, cultural institutions and industrial companies. The participating manufacturers opened their workplaces to the artists, enabling direct encounters with employees across many different sectors, from robotics and advanced manufacturing to ceramics, toy production, food industries, logistics and product design.

This collaboration demonstrates that contemporary art can become an important medium for cultural dialogue. Rather than functioning as corporate documentation, Kellner's portraits reveal the human dimension behind technological innovation and industrial success. They show that economic development ultimately depends on the people whose expertise and daily work shape the city.

An International Platform for Contemporary Photography

The cooperation between the Dongguan Culture Center, curator Shu Yang and Thomas Kellner reflects a broader commitment to international cultural exchange. By bringing together artists from different countries and connecting them with local industries and communities, the exhibition positions Dongguan as an emerging platform for contemporary art within the Greater Bay Area.

For Thomas Kellner, Facets of China represents another important chapter in an international career that has included exhibitions, curatorial projects and museum collections across Europe, North America, South America and Asia. At the same time, the project demonstrates how photography can connect different cultures through a shared interest in people, work and society.

Within this institutional framework, the Dongguan Culture Center becomes more than an exhibition venue. It serves as an active cultural partner, enabling artistic production, encouraging international collaboration and supporting projects that contribute to a deeper understanding of contemporary China through the language of photography.

Special thanks go to the participating companies in Dongguan for their openness and generous support of this project. I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all the employees who took the time to be photographed and shared their personal stories and their work with me. Without their trust, hospitality, and shared commitment, this photographic project would not have been possible in this form.

Participating Companies

Topstar Technology Co., Ltd.
Fuyida
Dongguan Wist Culture Technology Co., Ltd.
Guangdong Hayidai Toys Co., Ltd.
Inicio
Marco Polo
Guangdong Dingtai High-Tech Technology Co. Ltd.
Rucci Healthy Sleep Co. Ltd.
Guangdong Dingyi Trendy Play Culture and Creativity Co., Ltd
Beta Three
Dongguan Changlian New Material Technology Co., Ltd. CLT
Guangdong Sunli Intelligent Logistics Equipment Co., Ltd.
Dundunjia
HEC Group
Hudef Sport Inc.
Misum Technology

From the Great Wall to Contemporary China

Thomas Kellner's relationship with China extends far beyond his recent portrait project in Dongguan. For more than two decades, the country has played an important role in his artistic development, providing subjects for his photographic work, opportunities for exhibitions and curatorial collaborations, and a continuous dialogue with artists, museums and cultural institutions.

China first entered Kellner's artistic practice through his internationally recognised architectural photography. As part of his ongoing exploration of world architecture, he photographed the Great Wall of China using his distinctive analogue contact-sheet technique. Like his interpretations of the Eiffel Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge or the Grand Canyon, the Great Wall became a visual investigation of perception rather than a documentary representation. Through the fragmentation and reconstruction of the motif, the work transforms one of the world's best-known landmarks into a dynamic image that reflects movement, memory and the process of seeing itself.

Building Long-Term Cultural Relationships

Alongside his work as an artist, Thomas Kellner has developed strong professional relationships within China's contemporary photography scene. As an independent curator, he has participated in portfolio reviews, photographic festivals and exhibition projects that brought together photographers from Europe and Asia.

One of these long-standing connections is with the Beijing-based curator Dr. Shu Yang, whom Kellner first met nearly twenty years ago during cultural exchanges involving the Siegen-Wittgenstein district and the German-Chinese Friendship Society. Since then, both have remained in contact through exhibitions and photographic events in China. Their shared interest in contemporary photography and international cultural exchange eventually led to a renewed collaboration in 2026.

A further milestone in this relationship was Kellner's participation as curator of the exhibition LOOK! at the Pingyao International Photography Festival, one of Asia's most important events dedicated to contemporary photography. The exhibition presented international artistic positions to a Chinese audience and further strengthened Kellner's role as both artist and curator within global photographic networks.

From Lishui to Dongguan

Another important chapter began in Lishui, a city internationally recognised for its commitment to photography. During a visit to the Lishui Photography Museum, Dr. Shu Yang encountered Thomas Kellner's completed project Facetten der Großstadt, created as a tribute to the 150th anniversary of August Sander's birth. The series, consisting of 1,056 portraits, impressed him through both its conceptual ambition and its contemporary interpretation of Sander's humanistic approach to portrait photography.

This encounter became the starting point for a new collaboration. Kellner was invited by Dr. Shu Yang and the Dongguan Culture Center to participate in the exhibition Manufacturing Art: Toward Dongguan as a City of Manufacturing Aesthetics and to create an entirely new body of work in China.

The resulting series, Facets of China – The Working People of Dongguan, transfers the conceptual framework developed in Germany to one of China's most important manufacturing centres. Rather than simply documenting industrial production, Kellner portrays the people whose knowledge, craftsmanship and innovation define the city's identity. Engineers, technicians, designers, production workers, managers and entrepreneurs appear as individuals while simultaneously representing the social diversity of contemporary working life.

Photography as a Cultural Dialogue

For Thomas Kellner, photography has always been a medium of cultural exchange. His projects are rooted in careful observation, long-term research and direct encounters with people and places. The invitation to work in Dongguan therefore represents more than an international commission; it continues an artistic dialogue between Germany and China that has evolved over many years.

Facets of China demonstrates how contemporary portrait photography can bridge different cultural traditions while remaining faithful to a shared humanistic perspective. Inspired by August Sander's systematic observation of society and realised through Kellner's own visual language, the project reflects the universal dignity of work and the individuals who shape the economic and cultural life of their communities.

With exhibitions, curatorial collaborations and photographic projects spanning more than two decades, China has become an important chapter within Thomas Kellner's international career. The portraits created in Dongguan continue this dialogue and contribute to an expanding body of work that connects artistic practice, cultural exchange and contemporary photography across continents.