Beijing, April 20, 2009 — Ou Ning, the Director of Shao Foundation, joins the jury of this year’s Benesse Prize at the 53rd Venice Biennale.
Initiated by the Benesse Corporation in 1995, Benesse Prize is awarded to young artists who are opening new horizons outside the current paradigm with an experimental spirit. All the artists and works in the Biennale, including those in each pavilion and the special exhibitions, are open for consideration. The judging process is executed separately from the official judging, and a new jury group is organised for each Prize. Besides Ou Ning, this year’s jury consists of Hans Ulrich Obrist (Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes, Director of International Projects, Serpentine Gallery), Tom Eccles (Executive director, Centre for Curatorial Studies), and Fram Kitagawa (General Director of Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial).
Past recipients of the Benesse Prize include Cai Guo-Qiang, Alexandros Psychoulis, Olafur Eliasson, Janet Cardiff, Georges Bures Miller, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Tacita Dean and Adel Abdessmed.
The Benesse Prize is a part of ‘NAOSHIMA: Art and Architecture Projects in the Seto Inland Sea’ to be presented by Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation this June at the Venice Biennale. The event consists of a symposium, exhibition, the annual awarding of the Benesse Prize, and an overview of the latest projects by Tadao Ando, Kazuyo Sejima, and Ryue Nishizawa in the Seto Inland Sea area.
The symposium this year will be conducted on June 3, with theme of ‘how to revitalise the Naoshima and the Seto Inland Sea region by creating a cultural sphere based on architecture and art’. Guest speakers include architects Tadao Ando, Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa, and Hiroshi Sambuichi, as well as Soichiro Fukutake — the Chairman and CEO of Benesse Corporation. Francesco Dal Co, one of Italy’s most prominent architectural historians, will be moderating the discussion.
The exhibition, which aims at a retrospective of the art projects in the Naoshima and the Seto Inland Sea area in the past twenty years, will run through June 7 to June 21. In addition to learning about art and architecture, visitors to the exhibition will have a chance to experience the area through the natural environment and local culture on the islands.
In the past editions, one of the features of the Benesse Prize was that the artist was chosen based on the understanding that he/she would be considered to create a commissioned work in Naoshima. Last time, the possible site for the commission was extended to Echigo-Tsumari. This year, it would be further extended to the seven islands in the Seto Inland Sea as part of the Setouchi International Art Festival, which will be launched in July 2010.
Click here to download the original press release by Benesse Corporation.
Presented by Shao Foundation
Co-organised by Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art
When: 15:00 – 18:00, March 27, 2009
Where: Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art
Inquiry: (8610) 6561 0361, info [at] shaofoundation.org.cn
Media package available upon request
The Chinese generation born after 1980 is often stereotyped as being politically insensitive and socially indifferent. While lacking interests in the sort of grand narration that people from one decade before are obsessed with, many from the post-1980 era, or balinghou as they are referred to in Chinese, actually participate in the society in a more self-conscious and pragmatic way. Always fascinated by the social engineering side of things, Shao Foundation invites six Chinese post-1980 writers, activists and cultural critics for the third installment of the CROSSTALK series, which promises to offer a glimpse into balinghou’s minds and their unique way of intervening in the social space. What’s their social responsibility? In what way are they historically conscious? What are they thinking and envisioning? Can they act as good as they think? The event will be conducted in the form of panel discussion, audience participation is cordially encouraged.
After a site visit recently, we realised the UCCA Auditorium blocks mobile signals. To interact with the guest speakers with micro- blogging system, we recommend you to bring cellphones or laptops with Wi-Fi function. The name of Wi-Fi on site is UCCA. No password needed.
Guest speakers:
Cheng Kin Yip
Born in Hong Kong in 1985, Cheng Kin Yip is a member of HKFS Social Movement Resource Centre (smrc autonomous8a) as well as a committee member of Hong Kong Social Movement Film Festival. Cheng edited For Whom the Bell Rings, a documentary about the Star Ferry Pier protection movement. He was an active participant in Hong Kong’s right of abode campaign, the protest against the 6th Ministerial Conference of World Trade Organisation in Hong Kong, and the campaign for democratic planning of the Star Ferry Pier and the Queen’s Pier. Cheng’s social intervention usually takes the forms of cultural activities / actions and artistic creation.
Dick Chu
Dick Chu graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1999. Once a journalist of international news in Hong Kong’s mainstream media, he turned himself into a citizen journalist and joined InMediaHK.net in 2005. Chu has participated in several campaigns for democratic urban planning, historic sites preservation and public space protection. In the end of June, 2006, Chu and six other persons grouped together as ‘Toya7dogs’ and sponsored themselves for a trip Japan to report on the local social movements and the G8 summit. He is currently planning a studio focusing on the research of the culture and history of Tai Po district, New Territories, Hong Kong.
Deng Siu Wah
Deng Siu Wah is a freelance writer whose commentary can be found on various newspapers and magazines in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. A literature major in the university, she also hosts a Chinese- language radio programme on cultural topics for Radio Television Hong Kong. Deng is a member of the social activist group Local Actions and has been forced out by the police during the campaigns protecting the Star Ferry Pier and the Queen’s Pier. She is also one of the ‘Toya7dogs’.
Tang Shui’en
Born in 1983, Tang Shui’en is a researcher of youth’s self-governance and media activism. He got involved in the punk scene in 2000 and developed an interest in the activist philosophy of the punk community. In 2006, Tang went to Europe and visited several anarchist squats and youth governance centres to investigate their resistance culture from a youth–social perspective, as well as their interaction with the new social movements, such as anti-neo liberalism and anti- globalisation. Currently, Tang is conducting small-scale experiments to explore the possibilities and actual methods through which youth can trigger social changes by means of self-governance and activism.
Andrew Yu
Andrew Yu began backpacking in 2000 and has since traveled in most provinces in the southwest China when he was deeply affected by the under-developed status of education in rural areas. In April, 2004, he initiated and volunteered for the ‘One More Kilogram’ project (1KG.org), which encourages backpackers to carry one more kilogram of luggage to fill the needs of the schools in the countryside. Since the August of 2006, Yu has been working full-time for the project as a social entrepreneur.
Zhang Yueran
Zhang Yueran was born in 1982 in Jinan, Shandong province and graduated from the National University of Singapore School of Computing. A leading figure of the new generation literary writers in China, she won the gold metal in the third ‘New Concept’ Writing Contest in 2001, the Best New Talent award in the third Chinese Literature Media Awards and first prize in the fifth Spring Literature Awards in 2005. Her novel Shiniao (Oath Bird) was prized the Best Novel in the Chinese Novel Chart in 2006. She has also won an honorary mention for her essay Yueyuan Zhi Ye Ji Qita (Full Moon Night, etc.) in People’s Literature Awards. Zhang is the editor of the serial literature book Li (carp).
Moderator:
Leung Man Tao
Leung Man Tao was born in Hong Kong in 1970 and grew up in Taipei. He got involved in cultural and journalistic work since 1989 — before graduating from the Philosophy Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1994. Leung is a commentator of Phoenix TV and writes regularly for the outspoken weekly Southern Weekend, as well as a dozen of other newspapers and magazines in mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. His books Changshi (Common Senses) and Zaoyin Tai Duo (Too Much Noises) were published recently.
Presented by Shao Foundation
Co-organised by Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art
Shao Foundation will co-present the mainland Chinese premiere of Peter Watkins’ La Commune (Paris, 1871) together with Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art. The screening is scheduled to complement CROSSTALK Beijing #3, a panel discussion focusing on the social participation of the post-1980 generation of Chinese people through writing and activism. There will be three screenings, each of which accommodates 150 viewers. The first screening is free for all, while the latter two are free for the first 30 audiences. Others will need to purchase ticket for RMB 15 at the door, which gives you access to other on-going exhibitions at UCCA.
The following guest speakers of CROSSTALK Beijing #3 will join the post-screening discussion on March 26: Cheng Kin Yip, Dick Chu, Deng Siu Wah, Tang Shui’en, and Andrew Yu.
To RSVP, please send your name, occupation, cellphone number and your preferred date of screening to 1980 [at] shaofoundation.org.cn. Media professionals please also let us know the names of the media you work for. After all seats are filled, we will publish the audience list of each screening on www.shaofoundation.org.cn, and will notify you by email.
Screening time: Mar 26 1:00pm – 7:00pm
Apr 5 1:00pm – 7:00pm
Apr 12 1:00pm -7:00pm
Screening venue: Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (798 art district, Beijing)
Thanks to Peter Watkins, Rebond pour La Commune, 13 Production, Hong Kong Social Movement Film Festival.
About La Commune (Paris, 1871)
La Commune (Paris 1871) is the most accomplished work of British director Peter Watkins and a perfect example of movie as a tool of social activism. An activist director himself, Watkins challenges the absolute authority of the film director and the undemocratic practice of relegating the audience as passive consumers with artistic innovation. Though La Commune is the result of his elaborate design and direction, the active participation of actors is crucial to the film’s production — the director sets the framework, and everyone in the team fills in the content. For instance, the dialogue and discussion — which constitute the majority of the film — are rehearsed based on the actors’ thorough research of the roles and their own real-life identity, experience and ideas. It’s a collective production with ‘mediated democracy’.
Watkins often uses anachronistic method to create a sense of alienation: the actors in La Commune are shifting between the roles they play and themselves. In some cases, they even talk about their own feelings and comment on the roles they play. Women discuss the french female in 1999 while having meeting in the Paris Commune; and men’s topics include television, modern media, and the decline of Japan. By showing the aspiration to a brave new world and the energetic high spirit of the people of the Paris Commune, the director intends to provoke the contemporary people, who lack the ideal and the sense of responsibility for social reform. The film also takes a close look at some of the Commune’s dreams left unfulfilled.
In La Commune, Watkins leaves us a lot of space and materials for discussion by introducing both cinematic alienation and actor / audience’s participation. The actresses who play the women in the women’s federation later continue their discussion of relevant topics in the real life, which symbolises the shift of social activism from the screen into our life.
Peter Watkins, making La Commune (Paris, 1871).
Additional reading:
- Peter Watkins’ Wikipedia entry.
- La Commune (Paris 1871)’s IMDB entry.
- The official website of Peter Watkins.
4:00pm—6:00pm, Feb 28, 2009 | Beijing Angle Modern Art
As the second installment of Shao Foundation’s CROSSTALK Beijing conversation programme, a panel discussion titled ‘Reflection of Times: From Industrialisation to Urbanisation’ will be held in conjunction with the exhibition. From Xiao Wu to Still Life to 24 City, Jia has been constantly examining the changes of China’s reality with his movies, while gradually shifting focus from the small towns in the countryside to modern cities. Although dealing with heavy subjects such as urbanisation, factory reform and historical mutation, he nevertheless chose to portray the underdogs and to reproduce the process of the factory’s relocation in fragments. Together, they constitute urban people’s perspectives on and reflections of an industrial time. During the panel discussion, Jia himself, noted cultural critics and scholars specialised in the study of Jia’s films will be present to talk about the aforementioned topics.
The discussion will be conducted in Chinese with English translation.
Guests:
Jia Zhangke
An award-winning director, Jia Zhangke was born in Fenyang, Shanxi province of China. He graduated from the Literature Department of Beijing Film Academy and started his directing and screenwriting career in 1995. Jia has received many international awards over the years and is now one of the most active directors of Asia. In 2006, his feature film Still Life won the Golden Lion award on the 63rd Venice International Film Festival.
Zhai Yongming
A renowned poet, Zhai Yongming graduated from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in her hometown Chengdu. Her works have been translated into English, French, Dutch, Italian, and German and published in those countries respectively. She is the co-writer of 24 City’s screenplay.
Lin Xudong
Lin Xudong is a film historian and scholar graduated from the Printmaking Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts. He was in the jury of the 6th Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in 1999 and Hong Kong International Film Festival in 2003. In 2004, Lin organised the China International Documentary Exhibition. He is the creative consultant for many of Jia Zhangke’s films, as well as the co-editor of the book Jia Zhangke’s Hometown Trilogy (Jia Zhangke dianying: guxiang sanbuqu).
Wang Hong
Film critic and journalist Wang Hong graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Peking University and is currently the Deputy Editor of Oriental Morning Post (Dongfang Zaobao). He has been invited to many international film festivals as a film critic and started to produce his own documentaries independently in 2006. In 2007, he entered the competition section of Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival with his debut Cat Mountain. As a journalist, Wang is one of the prominent advocators of Jia’s films.
Moderator:
Ou Ning
Director of Shao Foundation
Venue: Beijing Angle Modern Art (4/F, Tower 1, Zhongguo Hongjie, Jia 2 Gongti Dong Lu)
Inquiry: (86) (10) 6561 8327 info [at] shaofoundation.org.cn
3:00pm—6:00pm, Dec 6, 2008
Beijing Angle Modern Art (4/F, Tower 1, Zhongguo Hongjie, Jia 2 Gongti Dong Lu)
Jay Brown, director and co-founder of Lijiang Studio. Photo: Zhou Qiao.
Shao Foundation is honoured to host ‘Lijiang Studio: Experiments in the New Countryside Laboratory’, a talk and discussion session by Jay Brown, co-founder and director of Lijiang Studio. It will be the first of our serial conversation programme CROSSTALK Beijing.
Brown has been working full-time for Lijiang Studio since Feburary, 2004. Located 20 km west of Lijiang, Yunnan, the Studio is a free-form collective of rotating artists, researchers, scientists, farmers, and others working with any medium or discipline. In 2005, Lijiang Studio started bringing artists to the farming community, expecting that the experience would change the people involved and interrogate how art is made. Based in a village, Lijiang Studio’s laboratory is the transition of rural China into the current phase of global neo-liberal capitalism. Being in the middle of Naxi, Pumi, Lisu, Yi, Bai, Han and Tibetan ethnicities on the edge of China allows the studio to see both mainstream and marginal Chinese culture at work. The studio has been aiming at subtle investigations of love, suicide, and mysticism; experimental architecture and student labor; social sculpture and biodynamic agriculture; and even utopian attempts to aestheticize eco-felicitous, bioremediating mushroom sculptures.
Brown studied Chinese language, the history of Chinese art, and contemporary art at Princeton University, where he co-founded with Steve Caputo an innovative architectural design competition called Prospects, and founded Paideia, a group that brings students and professors together for discussions over meals. He has worked for the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Beginning in 2002, Brown worked for The Nature Conservancy’s China Program based in Kunming, the Yunnan provincial capital. He co-founded Lijiang Studio in 2004 with Chinese painter Mu Yuming, and is the president of the Lijiang Studio Foundation.
CROSSTALK Beijing is a new kind of conversation programme conceived and presented by Shao Foundation. We invite artists, scientists, thinkers, architects, designers, historians, sociologists, anthropologists, futurists and software developers to a lecture or conference setting, confronting them with the live feedback from the audience—local and remote—through the use of new web technology known as ‘Micro-blogging’. The event is free.