LIU Yujia’s latest projects are all related to the “borders” and the regions inhabited by the ethnic minority groups. She often gets her inspiration from conducting long-term research and coming into contact with various people in these areas. In her latest work, THE PALE VIEW OF HILLS (2018), we observe in extreme quietnesss the life of a local woman, through the kind of long takes typical of Chantal Akerman. This approach generates a middle ground between fiction and documentation: we seem to be seeing all the details of this particular woman’s life, but in the meantime her mysterious past is shadowed from us; in other words, the protagonist appears to be “living evidence” and we are witnessing the remains of her history and how it gradually dissolves. The spaces in the film are worthy of particular heed, since they often constitute conflicting relationships: quiet living spaces are contrasted with bustling display spaces, the monochromatic Gobi Desert with polychromatic interiors, and ethnic decor with delocalized public spaces (such as the billiards room and the dance hall). These spatial conflicts compose the rhythm of this extremely quiet video, and suggest a perturbated multiplicity of time here.