October: The Unrealized Century, directed by Shanshan Xia and produced by 33 Studio, follows one of the world’s most exciting contemporary artists Cai Guo-Qiang to Moscow for the launch of his 2017 solo exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Coinciding with the centenary of the October Revolution in Russia, Cai Guo-Qiang returns to Russia in the hopes of staging an explosion event in the city’s Red Square while continuing his decade-long search for the grave of Konstantin Makismov, the first Soviet art expert sent to China during the honeymoon period of Sino-Soviet relations in the 1950s.

Shanshan Xia is an independent producer and director. In 2013 she founded 33 Studio after leaving Cai Studio in New York where she managed international exhibitions and projects. She is the associate director and co-producer of the Netflix documentary Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016.

Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape is presented in parallel with Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality as part of 2019 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces. For this exhibition he has created all new art works inspired by his home country’s culture and its enduring philosophical traditions, including a monumental installation of 10,000 suspended porcelain birds.