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Since 2017, Chen Fankuan had led a team to investigate and seek the cultural relics within the mountains of the southern West Lake area, mapping the ruined sites of the lost dynasties. In 2018, with newly discovered relics and sites, Chen started the research project funded by the China Academy of Art, focusing on the areas from Mount Phoenix to Mount Wu, where the ruins of the imperial palaces of the Southern Song Dynasty were buried. At the end of 2018, the project was upgraded into a national training program and received funds from the Ministry of Education. 

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Six Ruins of Mount Wu is a series of works based on a part of the research program. In cooperation with archaeologists, the epigraphs from Mount Phoenix to Mount Wu were recombined into enigmas of riddles, echoing the entwined, overlapping histories that the landscape had witnessed.

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