The China Moment

This film program brings together works presented in The China Moment, an exhibition by documenta Institut at Kunstverein Kassel (24.01.–22.03.26). Spanning the 1990s to the present, the selected films reflect artistic responses to profound social, political, and economic transformations in China. Moving between documentary, performance, and fiction, they trace shifting structures, fragile forms of presence, and changing conditions of visibility, offering distinct perspectives on how individuals navigate and reimagine their place within these developments.

Curated by Mi YOU, SU Wei, TANG Han, Anna-Lisa Scherfose

Shifting Structures

09.04.26, 17:00

Moments of instability reveal how systems are held together and how they come undone. Censored histories are revisited through fiction, authority figures begin to mirror the artists they observe, and collective performances unsettle fixed social roles. Elsewhere, a single body interrupts the flow of the city, exposing the fragile balance of urban order. Across these works, agency emerges not outside structures, but through their negotiation, repetition, and reversal.

WANG TUO 王拓
THE SECOND INTERROGATION, 2022–2023
65 MIN
COURTESY WANG TUO

Wang Tuo’s The Second Interrogation focuses on the infamous China/Avant-Garde Exhibition of 1989 and the so-called “Seven Sins” performances, which were censored by the authorities just a few months before the outbreak of the student democracy movement in Tiananmen Square. The memory of this moment, when radical art and protest briefly merged, becomes the linchpin of The Second Interrogation. The work tells the story of an artist preparing a tribute to the Seven Sins. A cultural censorship official, originally tasked with monitoring the work, gradually immerses himself in the subject matter. Their roles begin to blur and the artist begins to observe the ideological undercurrents of the art world, while the censor absorbs the ambiguity and potential of art itself. In the end, the two roles are reversed, and it is the censor who completes the work, reinterpreting both ist historical and contemporary significance.

Wang Tuo (b. 1984, Changchun) lives and works in Beijing. Wang Tuo first studied biology at Northeast Normal University in Changchun. Turning to art, he completed an MA in Painting at Tsinghua University (Beijing) in 2012 and an MFA in Painting from Boston University in 2014. Recent solo exhibitions include K21 (Düsseldorf), UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing), and Present Company (New York). His work has also been shown at M+ Museum (Hong Kong), Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane), National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul), and Power Station of Art (Shanghai). Wang was the recipient of the Sigg Prize 2023 from the M+ Museum (Hong Kong) and the K21 Global Art Award (Düsseldorf) in 2024.

LIVING DANCE STUDIO 生活舞蹈工作室
DANCE WITH FARM WORKERS, 2001
15:30 MIN
COURTESY WEN HUI

In the summer of 2001, the performance Dance with Farm Workers took place in a disused textile factory near Beijing, initiated by Wen Hui together with Song Dong, Yin Xiuzhen, and Wu Wenguang. The location became a temporary stage for a collaboration between ten professional dancers and thirty migrant workers, mainly construction workers from Sichuan.

The documentary shows the entire production process, from the initial problems to the final performance in front of an audience. At the beginning, the different roles appear clearly defined and marked by social distance. But, in the course of joint exercises, physical work, and conversations, the boundaries between the performers increasingly dissolve. Although the final performance is also presented, the focus of Dance with Farm Workers is on the process. The performance does not claim to bring about lasting change in social conditions, but it does make their tensions visible.

Wen Hui (b. 1960, Yunnan) is a dancer, choreographer, and documentary filmmaker based in Beijing. She graduated in choreography from Beijing Dance Academy in 1989, later studying modern dance in the United States and Europe, including at Folkwang University and with Pina Bausch’s company in Wuppertal. In 1994, together with Wu Wenguang, she co-founded the Living Dance Studio, the first independent dance theater group in China, which has become an important platform for socially engaged dance and performance. Her work has been presented widely at international theaters, museums, and festivals, including Zürcher Theater Spektakel, where Report on Body (2004) received the ZKB Prize, and later with Red (2013), supported by the Goethe-Institut. In recognition of her contributions, Wen Hui received the Goethe Medal in 2021.

FILMED BY: SU MING & WU WENGUANG
EDITED BY: WU WENGUANG
DIRECTOR: Wen Hui
SPACE DESIGN: Song Dong, Yin Xiuzhen
MUSIC, SOUND PRODUCTION: Wen Bin
INSTALLATION: Yin Xiuzhen
VIDEO INSTALLATION: Song Dong
SLIDE PHOTOGRAPHY: Mao Ran
INITIATORS: Wen Hui, Song Dong, Yin Xiuzhen, Wu Wenguang

PERFORMERS
Lai Daizhong (27 years old, from Anmin Village, Huilong Town, Wan County, Chongqing, Plasterer in Beijing)
Liang Jicai (28 years old, from Yaba Village, Tonggu Town, Wushan County, Chongqing)
Su Jun (42 years old, from Jinwan Village, Tonggu Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, Electrician in Beijing)
Wan Fangbing (28 years old, from Longqiao Village, Xinying Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, Stevedore in Beijing)
Zhou Zongxuan (52 years old, from Zhuyuan Village, Tonggu Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, House painter in Beijing)
Liang Keyuan (24 years old, from Baicao Village, Zhonglu Township, Wuxi County, Chongqing, Waterproofer in Beijing)
Huang Tianliang (44 years old, from Wangjiawan Village, Yingzhong Town, Zhongxiang County, Hubei, Carpenter in Beijing)
Zhou Zongde (44 years old, from Zhuyuan Village, Tonggu Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, Handyman in Beijing)
Xiao Yinping (16 years old, from Zhangfeigou, Hebian Town, Daying County, Sichuan)
Wei Zhishan (45 years old, from Maoba Village, Tonggu Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, Handyman in Beijing)
Cheng Yisen (18 years old, from Baima Village, Xinying Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, Handyman in Beijing)
Cheng Yixin (21 years old, from Baima Village, Guanyin Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, Handyman in Beijing)
Tian Benxiong (22 years old, from Wanzhong Road, Longbao District, Wan County, Sichuan, Electrician in Beijing)
Zhang Yuxiang (29 years old, from Pianyan Village, Daping Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, Plasterer in Beijing)
Liang Kezhi (26 years old, from Baicao Village, Zhonglu Township, Wuxi County, Sichuan, Waterproofer in Beijing)
Mei Shaotian (29 years old, from Datang Village, Nongba Town, Yunyang County, Chongqing, Waterproofer in Beijing)
Zhang Shangwen (23 years old, from Xiaoting District, Yichang City, Hubei, Plasterer in Beijing)
Xu Yuanping (39 years old, from Longwan Village, Tonggu Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, Plasterer in Beijing)
Tian Benping (35 years old, from Jinwan Village, Tonggu Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, Bricklayer in Beijing)
Tian Songfa (38 years old, from Jinwan Village, Tonggu Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, House painter in Beijing)
Yang Yonghua (24 years old, from Dashi Village, Guanwan Town, Wushan County, Chongqing, House painter in Beijing)
Liang Caishu (35 years old, from Baicao Village, Zhonglu Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, Waterproofer in Beijing)
Zhang Xuye (25 years old, from Xiangshu Village, Xinying Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, House painter in Beijing)
Chen Zhengui (32 years old, from Tiandeng Village, Pingnan Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, Handyman in Beijing)
Su Yong (20 years old, from Qingsong Village, Tonggu Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, Electrician in Beijing)
Liu Rangdeng (25 years old, from Longqiao Village, Xinying Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, House painter in Beijing)
Tan Qingyun (33 years old, from Baofeng Village, Miaoyu Town, Wushan County, Chongqing, Electrician in Beijing)
Huang Shengke (45 years old, from Tonglin Village, Guandu Town, Wushan County, Chongqing, House painter in Beijing)
Li Chengshao (34 years old, from Hongliang Village, Miaoyu Town, Wushan County, Chongqing, Plasterer in Beijing)
Tan Daan (24 years old, from Baofeng Village, Miaoyu Town, Wushan County, Chongqing, Welder in Beijing)
Huang Weixin (Feelance performing artist from New York)
Wang Mei (Choreographer, Beijing Song and Dance Ensemble)
Estelle Soep (Theater actor)
Wang Yanan (Performer, Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble)
Feng Dehua (Journalist, writer)
Zheng Fuming (Dancer)
Bi Yan (Performer, Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble)
Alison Friedman (Student, Brown University, USA)
Yuan Qu (Performer, Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble)
Wen Hui (Choreographer)

PRODUCTION CREW
COORDINATOR: Zheng Fuming
PUBLICITY: Wu Kejia
TECHNICAL: Su Ming
STAGE MANAGER: Zhang Qiao
COSTUMES: Zhang Xiaoyan
PRODUCTION: Living Dance Studio, Ocean Art Center
PERFORMANCE DATE AND VENUE:
23 August 2001, 20:00
3. Floor, Ocean Art Center

LIN YILIN 林一林
SAFELY MANEUVERING ACROSS LIN HE ROAD, 1995
38:44 MIN
COURTESY LIN YILIN

On a hot afternoon in 1995, Lin Yilin began stacking bricks into a wall on Lin He Road in Guangzhou as part of his performance. By repeatedly carrying the bricks from the end of the wall to its beginning, he slowly moved them across the street. The video documentation of this performance shows cars swerving, drivers honking their horns, and passersby stopping to watch this silent act of resistance against the pace of the city.

The moving wall becomes both an obstacle and a symbol of security: it succeeds in forcing a temporary pause in rapid urbanization, in which individual agency
becomes visible and possible. With his mobile interruption of traffic flow, Lin Yilin
highlights the fragility of urban systems and simultaneously negotiates the physical and ideological effects of modernization on the individual.

Lin Yilin (b. 1964 Guangzhou) lives and works between New York and Guangzhou. He studied at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and co-founded the Big Tail Elephant Group in 1990. His work has been featured in major international exhibitions, including Cities on the Move (1997), and the Johannesburg Biennale (1997), Taipei Biennial (1998), Gwangju Biennale (2002), Venice Biennale (2003, 2015), documenta 12 (2007), Lyon Biennale (2009), and Havana Biennial (2015). Lin’s work has been shown and collected by institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum (New York), MoMA PS1 (New York), Kunsthalle Bern, MAXXI (Rome), and M+ Museum (Hong Kong).

Holding Presence

09.04.26, 20:00

Waiting, calling, withdrawing. A closed exhibition turns into a shared pause; a voice insists on itself within the anonymity of the crowd; a life unfolds beyond the frameworks of society. These gestures remain understated, yet they mark different ways of being present or deliberately absent within a rapidly shifting social landscape.

WU WENGUANG 吴文光
DIARY: SNOW, NOVEMBER 21, 1998, 1998
14:29 MIN
COURTESY WU WENGUANG

On November 21, 1998, the group exhibition It’s Me, curated by Leng Lin, was scheduled to open at the Imperial Ancestral Temple near the Forbidden City in Beijing.

However, due to a last-minute cancellation, the doors remained closed. In Diary: Snow, November 21, 1998, Wu Wenguang documents the situation: artists, curators, and journalists stand in the snow in front of the closed gates, talking to each other, waiting and lingering.

Filmed with a handheld camera, the video maintains a calm, observational tone. The camera is as excluded as those present; the art remains locked inside. Thus, the work becomes less a documentation of the exhibition than a silent record of its exclusion from the public. Instead of protest or dramatization, Wu shows a moment of pause in which collective waiting itself becomes the content.
The video is considered a turning point in Wu Wenguang’s practice and in Chinese independent documentary filmmaking. Against the backdrop of an exhibition that sought to address fluid subjectivity in the globalized art field, the work takes on additional significance.

Wu Wenguang (b. 1956, Yunnan Province) studied Chinese Literature at Yunnan University (1978–82) and moved to Beijing in 1988. A pioneering figure in Chinese independent documentary film, his work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, San Francisco International Film Festival, and Open City Documentary Festival (London). In 2005, he founded the Village Documentary Project to encourage rural villagers to document their own lives. In 2010, he initiated the Folk Memory Project, which records personal histories of famine survivors across China.

KAN XUAN 阚萱
AI!, 1999
1:22 MIN
COURTESY KAN XUAN

In Ai!, we follow artist Kan Xuan through a pedestrian underpass at the busy Fuxingmen subway station in Beijing. The shaky handheld camera initially follows her perspective as she calls out her own name and responds to herself with a determined, “Ai!” Shortly thereafter, the camera shows the artist from an external viewpoint as she moves against the growing stream of commuters.

As the crowd becomes denser, the tension between the individual body and collective movement is made more apparent. Passersby hardly react, dodging or continuing on their way as the camera and artist push through them. In the raw, simple visual language of the video, the seemingly absurd gesture is transformed into an act of self-addressing.

Calling out one’s own name becomes an insistence on one’s own voice amid urban anonymity. Ai! Responds subtly to the psychological conditions of a rapidly modernizing China and negotiates individualism as an attempt to assert one’s presence in the flow of the crowd.

Kan Xuan (b. 1972 Xuancheng, Anhui Province) is based between Beijing and Amsterdam. She studied at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou (1993–97) and was a resident at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam (2002–03). Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing), Ikon Gallery (Birmingham), Guangdong Times Museum (Guangzhou) and Guangdong Times Art Center (Berlin), among others. She has participated in group exhibitions at M+ Museum (Hong Kong), Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), Guggenheim Museum (New York), and in the Venice Biennale (2007, 2013), Gwangju Biennale (2011), and Istanbul Biennale (2007). She is the recipient of the Contemporary Chinese Art Award (2014) and the Award of Art China (2020).

WANG BING 王兵
MAN WITH NO NAME, 2009
99:52 MIN
EDITION OF 6 + 2 AP
COURTESY WANG BING & GALERIE CHANTAL CROUSEL, PARIS
©WANG BING

Wang Bing’s Man with No Name portrays a man who has withdrawn from society on the outskirts of Beijing. Without commentary, music, or explanatory context, the camera accompanies him over the course of a year as he goes about his daily routines: growing food, collecting water, repairing his simple shelter, and living with minimal resources. The observation is sober and intimate at the same time, unfolding as a repetition of physical labor and loneliness.

Originally conceived as a character study, the film developed into a work in its own right. Wang does not explain, he accompanies. By foregoing narrative or moral interpretation, a space is created in which the man appears not as a symbol or case study, but as an independent presence. His actions follow an inner logic that is not fully revealed but remains consistent. Thus, the film refuses both social diagnosis and psychological explanation. Instead, it shows a radical form of individuality: a life beyond institutional structures, sustained by perseverance and quiet self-organization.

Wang Bing (b. 1967, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province) studied photography at the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts (1992) and film at the Beijing Film Academy (1995). His films have been presented at major festivals and institutions worldwide, including at Venice, Cannes, Locarno, and the Centre Pompidou. He won the Golden Leopard at Locarno for Mrs. Fang (2017), received the EYE Art and Film Prize in Amsterdam (2017), and the Chanel Next Prize (2021). Recent works include Jeunesse (Le Printemps) (2023), which premiered at Cannes, and Man in Black (2023). He has taught at Le Fresnoy and given masterclasses at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (Paris). He lives and works between Paris and China.

Ghosts, Icons, Clouds, Dreams

10.04.26, 17:00

Before transformation becomes visible as history, it is first felt—in the body and in the altered rhythms of everyday life. From Hong Kong’s wig industry and its haunting memories of Asia’s late twentieth-century modernization, to Mao’s portrait on banknotes and its crisis of representation in the digital age; from the “data center clusters” of Southwest China, where natural clouds and digital clouds converge, to the dreams of laborers in a tech-driven society obsessed with speed and efficiency, the moving-image works of four Chinese artists trace worlds that hover between visibility and erasure. Elements once taken as stable—systems of work, value, data, and the past—begin to flicker, dissolve, or return as haunting presences.

BO WANG
AN ASIAN GHOST STORY, 2023
37 MIN

Narrated by the ghost of a deceased hair donor, this film is about haunting memories of Asia’s late twentieth-century modernization. In the post-war era, the export of real hair wigs contributed to Asia’s economic development, with Hong Kong serving as a key hub connecting Mao’s China to the Western market. In 1965, the U.S. imposed an embargo on “Asiatic hair,” later labeled “communist hair,” which led to a significant reconfiguration of light industry in East Asia. Departing from this moment, the film examines Hong Kong’s role as a transient space that mediates and sanitizes connections between different worlds through stories of movement, diaspora, and migration. It also explores the relationship between U.S. imperialism and the East Asian order during the Cold War era.
Bo WANG (b. 1982, Chongqing, China) is an artist, filmmaker, and researcher based in the Netherlands. His works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art in New York, Garage Museum in Moscow, International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Visions du Réel in Switzerland, Image Forum Festival in Tokyo, DMZ Docs in South Korea, Times Museum in Guangzhou, Para Site in Hong Kong, among many others. He received a fellowship from the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar in 2013 and was an artist-in-residence at ACC-Rijksakademie (2017–2018) and NTU CCA (2016).

TANG HAN
PINK MAO, 2020
22:30 MIN

In 1999, shortly before China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, the People’s Bank of China issued the fifth edition of Renminbi banknotes, which remain in circulation today. For the first time, a single portrait of Mao Zedong appeared on every denomination. Despite official representations and common perception, the 100-yuan banknote is pink rather than red—a juxtaposition of color and authority that invites closer examination. As digital payment methods increasingly replace cash, banknotes are becoming invisible, placing the representation of Mao’s portrait in crisis in the digital age. Through a serious tone and colorful images, the artist casually challenges entrenched notions of digitalization, globalization, capitalism, and gender.
TANG Han (b. 1989, Guangzhou, China) is an artist based in Berlin. She works across the mediums of film, video, and installation, exploring questions about representation and meaning, and shedding light on the interplay between the seen and the spoken in diverse cultural contexts through storytelling. Her works have been exhibited internationally, including at the 14th Mercosul Biennial (Porto Alegre), Para Site (Hong Kong), Science Gallery London, the 22nd Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil (São Paulo), KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), and OCAT Shenzhen, among others. She has screened works at film festivals and institutions, including Bangkok Kunsthalle, Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art (Berlin), Taiwan International Documentary Festival, DOK Leipzig, as well as Image Forum Festival (Tokyo).

HE ZIKE
RANDOM ACCESS, 2023
16 MIN

Set in Guiyang, a mountainous city that houses significant data infrastructures—including the first iCloud data center in Asia and the renowned FAST telescope servers—the film unfolds as a science fiction narrative grounded in real locations and histories. It is also the center of the Chinese Karst landscape, where geological information and meteorological clouds are stored within the mountain structures. Following the unexpected crash of the city’s main data center, two characters travel through a disordered digital reality, moving across the city amid flashes of ancient memories and imaginaries of the future. Encountering both information stored in the Cloud and expanded versions of themselves, the protagonists must find their way through a rapidly changing world.
HE Zike (b. 1990, Guiyang, China) is an artist who works with mediums including video, writing, performance, prints, and computer programs. By incorporating personal memories into her research and fieldwork, her practice illuminates the interplay between time, mundane lives, and the technological environment. She weaves the disorder beneath the surface of contemporary life through a narrative approach. She was a finalist for the 5th VH Award of Hyundai Motor Group and was selected for the residency program of Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council, in 2023. Since 2021, she has co-initiated the interdisciplinary project Under the Cloud, which visits and studies the technological infrastructure in Southwest China. Her works have been exhibited in Whispers on the Horizon, Taipei Biennale (2025); Cosmos Cinema, Shanghai Biennale (2023); Dream Screen at Leeum Museum of Art (Seoul, 2024); and Stay Connected: Navigating the Cloud at Tai Kwun (Hong Kong, 2025), among others.

ZHENG YUAN
DREAM DELIVERY, 2018
9:49 MIN

An exhausted delivery rider sprawls on the bench of a roadside park and falls asleep, safe and sound. In a dream composed as a long take, laborers gather in a Shanzhai park in the desert, where dynamic riders become static “statues,” forming a sharp contrast with the speed and efficiency they pursue inexhaustibly around the clock. This all-star lineup of contemporary laborers reveals another side of the Chinese economic miracle: within an increasingly homogeneous urban life infused with technology and wealth, new forms of labor and social exploitation surface—byproducts of society’s never-ending mobility and a world of speed without rest, sleep has become a costly risk for these mobile people. Through a surreal yet highly realistic dream, the film attempts to capture the fatigue and anxiety of this era, freezing ceaseless day-to-day mobility in a virtual world. At the same time, unremembered faces from real life deserve close-ups in imaginary dreams.

ZHENG Yuan (b. 1988, Lanzhou, China) currently lives and works in Beijing. Working primarily in time-based media, his practice operates between fiction, documentation, and essayistic forms. His works have been shown at UCCA Beijing, Tai Kwun (Hong Kong), the University of Chicago, and the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, as well as at film festivals such as the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Visions du Réel, and International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. He holds a master’s degree in Film/Video from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Scenes of Transition

10.04.26, 20:00

At the turn of the 1990s and early 2000s, artistic practices developed alongside rapid urban and social transformation. Early documentary approaches encounter emerging avant-garde circles, while experimental and narrative forms reflect on new conditions of visibility and participation. Urban villages, global art networks, and shifting cultural infrastructures appear as overlapping fields. What emerges is not a single narrative, but a set of partial views onto a landscape in formation.

WATCH OUT: RED AVANT-GARDE!, 1990
IDEA AND REALIZATION: MONICA DEMATTÉ 莫妮卡 德玛黛, LUO YONGJIN 罗永进
WITH THE HELP OF: REVIS MEEKS AND HOU HANRU 侯瀚如
35:37 MIN
COURTESY MONICA DEMATTÉ

Shot in spring 1990 across Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, Attenzione alle avanguardie rosse (Watch Out for the Red Avant-Gardes) was initiated by Monica Dematté in response to an invitation by critic Fei Dawei. Originally planned as a French production, the film was instead realized independently by Dematté together with photographer Luo Yongjin and filmmaker Revis Meeks. Featuring interviews with key artists of the time—introduced in part by Hou Hanru—the documentary offers an early overview of China’s emerging avant-garde scene. Filmed on a modest budget and edited in Guangzhou, it was screened in Art Chinois 1990 – Chine Demain Pour Hier and on several subsequent occasions.
Monica Dematté is an Italian curator, writer, and researcher working between Italy and China. She holds a PhD in the History of Art in India and East Asia and has been active in China since the mid-1980s. She has curated over one hundred exhibitions and contributed to major international platforms, including the Venice Biennale and the Singapore Art Museum. Her work focuses on Chinese contemporary art, with publications such as Art, an Individual Research (2008) and contributions to PRIVATE photography review. Since 2014, she has been Artistic Director of Mo Art Space (Xinmi, Henan).

Luo Yongjin (b. 1960, Beijing) is a photographer based in China. He studied at the PLA University of Foreign Languages in Luoyang (BA, 1982) and later completed an MA in Art History at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (1992), with additional training in oil painting at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts. After working as a teacher and media professional, he has exhibited widely since the 1990s. Recent solo exhibitions include OFOTO & ANART (Shanghai), OCAT Art Museum (Xi’an), and AKI Gallery (Taipei). His work has been shown internationally across Europe and Asia and featured in over one hundred group exhibitions.

CAO FEI 曹斐 & OU NING 欧宁
SAN YUAN LI, 2003
39:42 MIN
COURTESY CAO FEI & OU NING

San Yuan Li is a stylized portrait of a former village surrounded by the rapid growth of the metropolis of Guangzhou. It was directed by Ou Ning and Cao Fei and filmed by twelve artists from the U-thèque collective.
Structured largely by the soundtrack by Li Chin Sung (Dickson Dee), the film combines electronic music with the sounds of the city; subway announcements, aircraft noise, and fragments of traditional music merge with the visual material to create a dense audiovisual experience. In six chapters, the film moves from the dynamics of the city to quiet observations of architecture, social spaces, and the residents of the neighborhood.

It was created as a contribution to the 2003 Venice Biennale and shows the tension between urban expansion and the simultaneous continuation of everyday village practices.

Cao Fei (b. 1978, Guangzhou) lives and works in Beijing. Recent solo exhibitions include UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing), MAXXI (Rome), Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhagen), Pinacoteca Contemporânea (São Paulo), Lenbachhaus (Munich), SCAD Museum of Art (Savannah), Museum of Art Pudong (Shanghai), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney), and MALBA (Buenos Aires). Her work has also been shown at the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum (New York), Tate Modern (London), Centre Pompidou (Paris), and in numerous international biennales. She received the CCAA Best Young Artist Award (2006) and Best Artist Award (2016), the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (2021), and the SCAD deFINE ART Award (2024).

Ou Ning (b. 1969, Zhanjiang) is an artist, filmmaker, curator, writer, and activist based in New York. He founded the Bishan Commune (2011–16) and the School of Tillers (2015–16) and published Utopia in Practice: Bishan Project and Rural Reconstruction (2020). Earlier publications include South of Southern (2014), The Chinese Thinking (2012), the journal, Chutzpah! (2011–14), and Odyssey: Architecture and Literature (2009). He founded the touring exhibition Get It Louder (2005, 2007, 2010) and has curated projects such as sound installations at Battersea Power Station/Serpentine Gallery (London) in 2006, the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture (2009), and the Chengdu Biennale (2011). His films include Meishi Street, presented at MoMA (New York) in 2006 and San Yuan Li, presented at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003.

ZHOU TIEHAI 周铁海
WILL/WE MUST, 1996
9:17 MIN
COURTESY ZHOU TIEHAI & COLLECTION OF YUZ FOUNDATION

Zhou Tiehai’s Will/We Must is shot in the style of early silent films and uses intertitles and exaggerated gestures to address the contradictions, uncertainties, and absurdities of artistic work.

The film consists of nine episodes that illustrate artists’ strong desire to gain visibility in the global art system while negotiating power relations between international curators, critics, and local artists. The film’s deliberately anachronistic style refers to and reinforces the irony of the awkward translation of global norms into a local context. Slapstick is thus combined with allegory, revealing the tension between local practice and Western art-historical frameworks. This cinematic examination of the conditions of participation, visibility, and resistance within a system becomes a pointed cinematic satire on the Chinese art world in a phase of intense globalization.

Zhou Tiehai (b. 1966, Shanghai), studied at the School of Fine Arts at Shanghai University. He lives and works in Shanghai and has played a key role in shaping the city’s art scene, founding West Bund Art & Design and directing the Minsheng Art Museum. His solo exhibitions include Yuz Museum (Shanghai), MoCA Shanghai, Ikon Gallery (Birmingham), and Kunsthal Rotterdam. He has shown in major group exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum (New York), M+ (Hong Kong), MAXXI (Rome), Tate Liverpool, Whitney Museum (New York), ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin), and the Venice Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, and Asia Pacific Triennial.