Chongqing - On Sep 8, the Chongqing Art Museum unveiled a sweeping visual archive that treats buildings as history and rivers as narrative threads. Architecture Through A Historical Lens: Photography Exhibition on 20th Century Heritage · Chongqing Travelling Exhibition & Photography Exhibition on the Yangtze River Civilization brings together 345 photographic works, serving as both a standalone cultural event and a satellite program of the upcoming 2026 Yangtze River Civilization Forum.

The exihibition showcases the cultural and natural heritages along the Yangtze River (Photo: Feng Xiaolou)

The second section narrows the lens to Chongqing itself, featuring 56 works on local heritage. The display arrives at a meaningful moment: this year marks the 40th anniversary of Chongqing's designation as a national historical and cultural city. Among the 39 local sites spotlighted are the solemn monument at Jiefangbei, the modernist cluster at Chongqing University that sheltered wartime academia, and the Datianwan Stadium complex — each image layering urban memory onto mountain topography.

The exihibition showcases Yangtze River's cultural and natural heritages (Photo: Feng Xiaolou)

Curators describe the exhibition as an effort to move architectural heritage beyond aesthetic appreciation and into living memory. "These are not merely buildings," the organizing team noted. "They are material carriers of national memory." By placing the works within the context of the Yangtze River basin and Chongqing's specific topography, the show aims to make static structures speak across generations.

Shan Qixiang, the former director of the Palace Museum, was introducing the preservation of Dazu Rock Carvings (Photo: Feng Xiaolou)

The opening drew senior figures including former Palace Museum director Shan Jixiang and China Cultural Relics Society president Gu Yucai. The exhibition runs through September 20 and will subsequently travel to other cities. A selection of the Yangtze River civilization photographs will also be displayed at the 2026 Yangtze River Civilization Forum on Sep 15, providing visual grounding for the forum's theme of cross-civilization dialogue.

"Our concept of heritage preservation has evolved," said Shan. "In the past, we focused on protecting the concrete things like relics and ruins. Now we combine preserving the physical materials with their cultures and memory."