East Contemporary

Julia Stoschek Collection: “New Metallurgists”

Düsseldorf, October 7, 2018 – April 28, 2019, https://www.julia-stoschek-collection.net

I was very impressed on my first visit to the Julia Stoschek Collection in Düsseldorf: A perfect installation of a video-only show. Even the fact that all projections in a video show work as expected in quite extraordinary, but on top of that the light and sound relationships were optimized for a perfect experience. It all had a bit of a corporate touch, with lots of frame-less glass doors and walls. It worked.

The show contained a refreshing mix of recent video art from the current decade from the People’s Republic of China. I glimpsed Shen Xin’s work recently presented at Madein in Shanghai. But it was other works that captured my attention. Here is a selection:

Fang Di, Triumph in the Skies, 2017, 4k video, 5m04s
Fang Di, Triumph in the Skies, 2017, 4k video, 5m04s

Masked tranny-party video with masks. The missing expressions of multiple people wearing the same cute girl mask was eery. Artist (Fang Di I guess) living out his queer fantasies.

Wang Tuo, Smoke and Fire, 2018, HD video, 30m
Wang Tuo, Smoke and Fire, 2018, HD video, 30m

Unclear story, but captivating images. Mixing of some Chinese classic with contemporary rural China, ghost stories with economic reality. (Wang Tuo)

Yao Qingmei, The Ecdysialist-Molt, 2017, 3ch HD video, 9m

Combining opera with state security and police attitudes. (Yao Qingmei)

Zheng Yuan, A Brief History of China Northwest Airlines, 2017-2018, HD video, 28m45s
Zheng Yuan, A Brief History of China Northwest Airlines, 2017-2018, HD video, 28m45s

A Brief History of China Northwest Airlines, is a matter-of-fact description of what is announced in the title (the airline does not exist anymore), assembled from archival footage. It nevertheless very well communicates the tensions and economic power shift during China’s transformation to a “market economy”.

Zheng Yuan’s Dream Delivery (2018, 4K video, 13m) is a very touching video that uses deliverymen as a stand-in to illustrate one effect of the socioeconomic changes in China. The delivery man delivers consumer dreams. But he himself is a consumer. What does the delivery man dream about? Zheng looks at a neglected element within the consumer product lifecycle and makes us re-think something that is core part of the daily consumer experience in China.

Song Ta, Now The Young People What The Fuck Talking About, 2016, animation, 7m04s

Animation parody of explicit on-line forum language from Hong Kong. To me it expresses a kind of emptiness and lack of orientation in society. Also funny in a dirty way. (Song Ta)

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