City Beneath the City

City Beneath the City is a contemporary art installation that explores the buried histories of Silicon Valley through displays of artifacts excavated from the site of the Market Street Chinatown in downtown San Jose. Developed by artist Rene Yung, City Beneath the City was first exhibited at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art for the Zer01 art and technology biennial thematic, “Seeking Silicon Valley.”

Throughout Fall 2012, archaeologists from the Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project worked closely with Rene Yung to bring City Beneath the City to our campus home. To bring this artwork to Stanford University, Rene Yung redesigned City Beneath the City into an exhibition suitable for a public passageway. This new iteration of City Beneath the City transforms the everyday spaces of archaeological research into unexpected places for reflection.

We have developed this webpage to provide internet access to images of City Beneath the City, and to the wall signs and brochure developed to accompany the exhibition. City Beneath the City is no longer at the Stanford Archaeology Center, but please browse through photos and other materials from the exhibit’s run at SAC below.

Please click on links below for PDF files of CBC info sheets:

CBC Info Sheet 1 (1.8MB)

CBC Info Sheet 2 (0.3MB)

CBC Info Sheet 3 (0.5MB)

CBC Artist’s Statement by Rene Yung (0.4MB)

CBC Photogalleries

1.Installing the City Beneath the City

2. City Beneath the City Opening Reception

3. City Beneath the City Exhibit

Media Coverage of CBC @ SAC

1. KQED: “Stanford Showcases ‘Forgotten’ History of San Jose’s Chinatown”

2. Palo Alto Weekly: A Lost City Remembered: Artist finds poetry in the fragments of San Jose’s old Chinatown