With The Way of Water, Chinese artist Le Nghi Teng presents a photographic project that centers on stillness and inner orientation. The work constitutes a personal exploration of her cultural background, translating Taoist philosophy and classical Chinese visual principles into a contemporary, autobiographical visual language.
The renovated Fotomuseum opened on Katendrecht, historically the site where the first Chinese migrants arrived in the Netherlands. As a port area, the peninsula symbolized arrival, transition, and the beginning of a diaspora history shaped by labor, displacement, and cultural exchange.
Le Nghi Teng arrives here not as a migrant, but as the heir to a cultural and philosophical tradition that once entered the Netherlands via Katendrecht. Her work is not an illustration of history, but a contemporary echo of it: an inner homecoming and a connection with roots that lay long beneath the surface.
In an age dominated by technology, control, and the ability to manipulate, Teng's work offers a gentle counterbalance. Drawing on the Taoist principle of wu wei, she uses water as both an image and a life principle: soft and formless, yet unstoppable. Her photography emerges as an organic process in which emptiness, movement, and memory converge, touching on a broader contemporary need for deceleration and mindfulness.
The presentation is complemented by work by guest artist Kyra ten Brink, who also explores inner connection.