Yingguang Guo
The Bliss of Conformity

Yingguang Guo focuses on contemporary China, here specifically the experiences of young women who enter arranged marriages. The series exhibited at the MEP, “The Bliss of Conformity”, was taken in the People’s Park in Shanghai, where there is an area used as a marketplace by parents seeking spouses for their children, by posting ads in the hope of finding a suitable match.

Yingguang Guo explains that the question of marriage is a central feature of daily life in China. As a student at the London College of Communication, she began to take an interest in the “weight of conformity” that bears down on these young Chinese women. As she experienced European culture first hand, she began to reflect upon the value assigned to women in her own culture.

In addition to the exhibition in the Studio, there is a specially designed virtual exhibition on the MEP website. Its format offers a range of different angles of interpretation for “The Bliss of Conformity”.

Yingguang Guo first came to public attention in 2017 when she was awarded the Jimei x Arles – Madame Figaro Women Photographers Award for this very series. This is her first exhibition in an institutional setting in Paris.

Born in Liaoning, China, in 1983, Yingguang Guo studied first at the Communication University of China, then at the London College of Communication. She has collaborated with various media and press agencies such as China Daily and Reuters. Little by little, she moved away from a purely documentary process to turn towards a more inter-disciplinary style: photography with engraving, drawing, video, and performance.