Tourist Monument's documents fifty Chinese and foreign tourists having their photograph taken on the Circular Mound Altar within the Temple of Heaven, Beijing. It focuses upon the relationship between the moment, the monument and the memento. It is a thinking on the connection people have with their monuments, on our ability to reshuffle their meaning.

Built in 1530 the site was originally an altar for emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties to offer sacrifices to heaven. Succeeding dynasties adapted it making alterations for their purposes. At the outset of the Cultural Revolution it was off limits as a symbol of the decadent past. It is now a historical relic and tourist attraction. The meaning and purpose of this monument has not been constant, but rather infused through the needs of people at various times. The same stone that was once used to offer sacrifice is now used to compose photographs for the mantelpiece.

How is the ancient is carried into the present? In 1961 it was placed under state protection as one of China's key historical relics. The brochures, maps, and information signs within the complex attempt to reconstruct something of a time people know little about. During the successive dynasties the monument performed its intended function, reshaped little by little. Now the function is presented as imagined. Its mystery is at once created and also destroyed by giving it order and predictions.