In 2009, Image Tunnel will hold a series of salons and independent movies entitled “A Dream of Shanghai”, which focus on the developments and changes in Shanghai. The photographers and directors invited will share with us their views and memory. In the meantime, “A Dream of Shanghai” is Image Tunnel’s summary of the past and plan for the future. It is the heart and soul of our series of works.
Crystal Memory ——April and May 2009 @ Image Tunnel
9th May, 2009
Alart Salon: 14:00
Discussion of Maleonn’s images
Photographer Maleonn will come to the salon
a. More than 200 photographs showing the photographer’s search
b. Entitled and
Independent Movie: 19:00
Documentary about Maleonn
Director LIU Xi will come to discuss with the audience
Backgrounds:
Thus says Maleonn
Visual art is a challenge to language expression.
Photography by itself is silent—it cannot tell anything specific. To me, this is our fate. What we own is quite limited. The camera cannot provide logic or clues, but some ambiguous symbols.
Fortunately, it’s not the end. It is this ambiguity of visual signs that makes a puzzle for the viewer. Where there’s a puzzle, there’re explorers. The curiosity of human beings will force them into the puzzle and to search the way out. That’s the most wonderful part. Everyone find his own exit during this search and interpretation, and thus the puzzle becomes rich and transparent.
A documentary about Maleonn
LIU Xi
A summer afternoon, I found a photo album entitled “Shanghai Fable”. On the front page are some words: “The city itself is meaningless. The fact that we live here gives the city and our lives meaning.”
The photos in this album are like paintings and dreams, full of emotion. At the beginning of each series, some poem. “Life is a circus show without audience. We perform for ourselves lonely. Yet even if we don’t have audience, we have to live, to the abundance of life.” I was curious about the artist’s thoughts.
I began to shoot this documentary about Maleonn, the artist last August. It was hard. Once we worked overnight, I was so tired that I nearly fell asleep. But Maleonn was still working.
16th May, 2009
Alart Salon: 14:00
Global art in motion: performance that travels
Kara, Steffie, Kevin, Steffie, CUI Han, CHEN Ying, etc
Independent Movie: 19:00
-- 1. The very beginning
HAN Yuqi, MAO Guangju
Background:
Global art in motion: performance that travels
Steffie
-Artist’s powerpoint
-Dance performance
Kara
-Artist’s powerpoint of some sculptures and drawings
-Performance
-Afterwords/Q&A
Kevin and Steffie
-Artist’s (K’s) powerpoint
-Performance with banjo and dancing
Artist’s Statement
Experimental Performance, Version Two, Shanghai
I’ve always been fascinated by anything that can inspire an almost unanimous reaction in a group of people who are outwardly very diverse but crucially linked by something so basic and often unnoticed. I consider this phenomenon to be like an invisible master key. I seek to exploit these ties and the eerie lack of difference by engaging with the audience and this performance.
I enjoy the concept of the audience being the performance. This is one of the reasons I do not like to explain what this performance consists of beforehand; I like my audience to be naive to the fact that not all acts consumed in leisure are safe. I want them to come not expecting anything because this act could be considered closer to sociology than art, and any prior explanation could taint the interaction. Though I’d suspect the previous isn’t true, I’d still like to maintain the same controls that I began with during the first version in Olympia, Washington. For in the future, I’d like to reperform this in another location, gaining more results to contrast to those previous. To do this, we all know that from a scientific standpoint one must keep the controls fixed. This introduction is already against the basic idea of the performance—preying on the unknown—for you are now the informed and the forewarned, but because this will be happening in a culture not of my own upbringing, I feel that it is respectful and fair to give at least the obligatory artist’s statement, regardless how vague.