The great coronavirus museum: how Wuhan turns the pandemic into works of art

• The Portrait: the 'Chinese hero' who will investigate the response to the pandemic for the WHO

On the morning of February 13, archaeologist Fang Qing left his home with

.

He left the Hankou neighborhood, north of Wuhan, and drove 20 kilometers to the gate of the Hubei Provincial Museum.

That day, the city's health authorities recorded 14,840 new cases of coronavirus, almost 10 times more than on the 12th. For the first time since all access to

was blocked on January 23,

the 11 million residents were ordered that they did not leave their houses.

The largest sanitary confinement ever seen until then began.

Fang Qing, 51, like most of the residents of the Chinese city, had already been voluntarily confined for almost three weeks.

But after the announcement of the mandatory quarantine, Fang decided that he had to

.

He had been the director and curator of an 81,909-square-meter site for seven years that houses 240,000 cultural relics from various historical periods in the Hubei province, where Wuhan is located.

Since the city closed, there were already 75 workers and six guard dogs confined within the premises at the museum.

Fang was the 76th.

"The 76 warriors who protect the relics of Wuhan," headlined a local newspaper.

“Even though the museum was closed, it

and continue with the security inspections to prevent theft.

We organized ourselves into patrols for cleaning tasks, disinfecting every corner and making sure that everything was in order, ”explains the archaeologist.

For 80 days, they slept in a large museum hall.

Until April 8, the blockade was lifted and archaeologist Fang left the museum at dawn.

He took a selfie at the door.

“The trees, which had no leaves when I got here, are now blooming.

It is the power of life, "he wrote on Weibo, the Chinese Twitter.

The museum has already reopened its doors and displayed its huge collection, but what the residents of Wuhan really hope is that the next exhibition that Fang prepares will be inaugurated: since the confinement ended, the museum director has collected

, from pieces of the wall of the ephemeral hospital built in 10 days, to the copy of the discharge sheet of the oldest patient who recovered there, a 108-year-old man.

Pieces from the Wuhan exhibition THE WORLD

Fang started the project as soon as the lockdown in Wuhan was lifted.

“We are collecting all the material evidence of the pandemic.

For now, we have

.

The idea is to make a big exhibition to show the bravery and courage of the people of Wuhan during the hardest months, "he explains.

Among the objects collected are dozens of protective suits that doctors used to treat patients.

On them, on the chest or back, there are

during the worst moments.

The idea is to show the courage of the population

Fang Quing, director of the Wuhan Museum

In these months,

that today is quite similar to that of the past.

The city has not officially registered any case of local contagion since mid-May.

The entire population has undergone PCR tests, the streets are full of people, many do not even wear a mask.

The children have returned to schools and international flights operate at the airport.

Nine months later, Wuhan is the showcase for Chinese propaganda.

“At the end of February we only had noodles and rice left.

We also didn't have enough masks or hydrogel.

Luckily, friends from other museums sent us many boxes with vegetables, fruits and hundreds of cans of fish.

Many people offered their help, but we also had many psychological challenges.

Two kilometers from here is the Zhongnan Hospital.

All day we listened to the sound of ambulances.

”says Fang, who is the greatest Chinese expert on the Warring States Period (475-221 BC): seven ancient states that were fighting each other for more than 500 years.

Fan Quing, Director of the Wuhan Provincial Museum

In the exhibition that he is preparing, some of the

of the delivery men at home, many

that the doctors received, the shoes of a delivery man named Xiao Tangsong, who became famous

, will also be displayed in showcases.

for helping a man who collapsed unconscious to the ground and taking him to hospital;

the blue steel fences that blocked neighborhoods and the

red

of an apartment that went viral in networks during confinement.

The window of the house was open for two months and the curtains did not stop blowing, so people thought that the owner had passed away.

Afterwards, the man returned home cured and gave the curtains to the museum.

There is no specific date to open this exhibition.

In Beijing in early August, there was also a display of paintings on the pandemic at the National Museum of China.

177 paintings by professional and amateur artists were presented: from

from Wuhan draped in Chinese flags, to a portrait of the veteran pulmonologist Zhong Nanshan (83 years old), the

.

While the Wuhan archaeologist continues to search for objects that explain what life has been like in the global epicenter of the pandemic, we do not know if there will be something related to the seafood market and wild animals where the first infections were located.

What is certain there will be no copies of the

for hiding and minimizing the outbreak, between the end of December 2019 and the beginning of January.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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