New Directions By Nooshfar Afnan New Directions: Nadim Abbas, the artist’s first solo show in mainland China, at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, consists of a single, new work, The Last Vehicle (2016). Curated by Guo Xi, it combines a mixed-media installation with a durational performance, the latter a first for the artist, who recently returned from a year exploring physical theatre in New York. The name The Last Vehicle comes from Abbas’s reading of Paul Virilio’s essay of the same name.  The French philosopher’s main concern is how technology and the acceleration it causes have altered our perception and experience of the world. “More specifically, the title The Last Vehicle, the way I would read it in relation to Virilio’s text, indicates this historical moment when the traversing of space or distances, to get from one point to the other, changes from actual vehicles to this even faster moment of telecommunications, and that way of overcoming distances,” says Abbas. In The Last Vehicle, Abbas takes over the elongated Long Gallery of the …