SCREENING
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Ah_Q
Feng Mengbo
2002/video/color/8’
This video work is an extension of Feng Mengbo's video game. The protagonist in the game is an avatar of Feng. The work is shot in the style of a simulation of the short film and live gaming.
Singing With Me
Zheng Yunhan
2004/video/b&w/3
Heroic music from the 1960s and 1970s echoes life of coalminer and the working class in China. Inspired by his father who worked in the mine, Zheng tries to find a positive way to look at the ironic life of the Chinese life.
Made in 1968
Cao Kai
2005/video/color/9’45”
'Made in 1968' is a retrospect to look at the relation between the imagination of Chinese industries and the Soviet regime. In the video, the Yangtze River Bridge becomes the solitary symbol of human civilization when the nature is isolated from the humankind.
Moon Landing Project
Wang Yuyang
2005/video/color/3’
'Moon Landing Project' is the first of the "Moon" series by Wang Yuyang. Wang researched the factuality of the American moon landing project in 1969. Through visual studies, Wang restores the historical scenario and by comparing the two different times and reconstructs the visual connections and conceptual contradictions.
My Heart Was Touched Last Year
Yang Fudong
2007/video/b&w/3’30”
'My Heart Was Touched Last Year' was commissioned by Chanel Mobile Art Project. The work is an exploration of time along with the classical postures of the female protagonist. A elegantly posed lady stands in front of the camera. Her teardrops are captured by the classical black and white photography. Her nonchalance turns into a subtle moment of mystifying emotions.
Hostage
Wang Jianwei
2008/video/color/32’
'Hostage' comes from Wang Jianwei's observation of daily life. It is a dramatized visual specimen of life in post-1949 China. The change of settings, commonality of characters' identities, and the symbolic political interpretations all appear in the same shooting location.
Last Experimental Flying Object
Ye Linghan
2008/animation/color/7’23”
This hand-drawn animation shows whales and flying objects flying back and forth in the same industrial space thus exhibiting a subversion of time, civilization and technology.
Rock Dove
Cheng Ran
2009/video/color/5’
This video utilizes a recording of a bevy of homing pigeons in an artificial environment, simulating the circular processes of social systems. Pipes crisscross atop a factory building, accompanied by pigeons coos and the gurgling sound from the water pipes. Suddenly, fluorescent lighting goes on. Right at the moment when the rooms are lit up, the pigeons get scared by the typical industrial booming sound from the starters, and fly up and down in a flurry, thus extending the lighting moment, and making the fleeting moment stay still. In the twinkling light, this appears brighter than the light itself. After a short period of adjustment, tranquility returns. It seems that there 's no difference whether you are in total darkness or in the light.
0.7% salt
Jiang Zhi
2009/video/color/8’35”
The female gender is always presumed to be the weaker one and thus crying is thought to be one of the natural attributes of women. Just like flirting and coyness, in many occasions crying is a way of admitting a vulnerable position by women in order to gain recognition within an androcratic system. When a woman fails to cry on a seemingly appropriate occasion, she would often be seen as 'cold' or 'shameless' whereas if a man holds back his tears, it is deemed an act of strength. In this work, Jiang reduces the signification of women's tears to a mere physical composite, challenging our habitual reference to its social signification. In this video, celebrity Gillian Chung performs the delicate emotional transition from gently smiling to breaking down in tears. The work demands viewers to forsake our presuppositions, while at the same time heightening our sense of appreciation for the pure visual aesthetics of an emotional transition.
Ping Pong
Qiu Zhijie
1997/DV/color/22’
Following children training for China's national sport, this documentary examines the history of how ping pong was introduced into China, its relationship with the country's political history, and how it has become an official tool to control both people's mind and bodies.
Jerk Don’t Say Fuck
Zhao Liang
2000/DV/color/5’
In China, Tiananmen is a real place that is home to Mao's image, and a conceptual frame for the ever-evolving revolutionary history from 1949 to 1989 to the present. Zhao's film remixes footage of military celebrations in Tiananmen with soundtrack of Sick Doctors, a Beijing band. Music composed by Feng Jiangzhou.
22 Yuan
Du Jie
2001/DV/color/5’
Despite the hustle of urban life in Beijing, people there still find themselves in a state of loneliness. '22 Yuan' is the second video production of Du Jie to explore transgression and everydayness in China with a comedic twist.
Beautiful Cloud
Zhou Xiaohu
2001/animation/color/4’42”
While history can't be changed, it can be re-enacted. Zhou Xiaohu works with handmade miniatures including 2200 clay figures animated in a 2x8 meters replica of The Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen), where military parades meddle with the memory of official history.
News Dance
8GG (Fu Yu + Jia Haiqing)
2002/ DV/color/3’
8GG is the collaborative grouping of two artists, Jia Haiqing and Fu Yu, who explore how the dullness of daily life can become vibrant when reordered. Using randomly recorded CCTV (Central China TV) news broadcast as source material, their recomposition of this material reanimates the commonness of daily life.
Summer of 1969
Cao Kai
2002/DV/color/7’11”
Born in 1969, Cao Kai sees his birth year as an exciting era that influenced his generation deeply. This film looks back at the superstars, an odd list of idols including Mao Zedong, Che Guevara, Martin Luther King, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Macolm X, Pol Pot, and John Lennon. From his viewpoint, he connects the Red Guards in China, with Woodstock, the hippies, Latin American guerrillas, Vietnamese Communists, and political refugees from Prague.
Me
Wu Quan
2002/DV/color/12’
Beijing artist Wu Quan uses this home movie to explore the reality of becoming a father, with all the joy and fear that takes place with the birth of the child.
Fire
Wu Ershan
2002/DV/color/5’
This is a test by fire as the artist plays with questions of life or death. This work was originally made for the Mearzmusik festival in Berlin with music by Feng Jiangzhou.
Burners
Cao Fei
2003/DV/color/1’
This very short film explores desire and fantasy about revolution and liberty, and not only restricted to sex. While mocking male egocentricity, Cao Fei does not want her film to be categorized as "female soft porn". 'Burners' not only depicts sex, but also love and choices on an intellectual level.
Danam
Zhang Dan and Chen Man
2003/DV/color/1’
This piece was created for Danam.org and tests new technologies by combining photography, video, graphic design, and 3D design in videomaking.
Mo Xi Town
Shi Qing
2003/DV/color/12’
Mo Xi is a town where different ethnic groups live together, and where an odd combination of Christian churches in the style of ancient Chinese buildings stand side by side with deserted luxury hotels. This is the setting of a film about four young Tibetan men with snorkel equipment in hand, who meet by chance as they anxiously await a flood.