Yan Xing often positions himself as a bystander, stepping back to observe and respond. In 2013, he was commissioned by the Pinchuk Art Center to produce a new work. He decided to focus on the dichotomy of sexuality and civilization with specific reference to Ukraine. A Gesamtkunstwerk, this work is made up of an installation, two videos, and a performance. The narrative of the work explores how unearthed sexual artifacts are viewed in Eastern Europe. Based on published archaeological documentation, Yan Xing produced replicas of seven wooden phallic objects. These replicas, juxtaposed with everyday items from Eastern Europe, are each imparted with the status of art by means of metal exhibition labels. Beside them, two monitors play videos of kinky sexual content. Every day, well-trained actors perform around the artifacts. One plays an archaeologist analyzing and recording data, some play students of Cultural Studies endlessly debating pertinent moral standards, yet another plays a meticulous custodian of artistic heritage. In combination, the performances, replicas of sexual objects, and delicate black-and-white videos focusing on sexuality sketch out a wacky intermediate zone that, on the one hand, incorporates Eastern European folklore and where, on the other hand, traditional styles are challenged.

Yan Xing uses a specific society as the context for this work to invoke the region's demands for gender equality. He puts his finger on a contradiction that is common to many modern nations: the claims for the origins of civilization in a region are rooted in a shared nationalist sentiment, yet at the same time the national discourse denies the legitimacy of the ubiquitous and all-important expression of sexuality in the past and in the present.