Ghost: 2561, Bangkok
Unsoiled: Ecologies of the Image
Artists: He Xiangyu (何翔宇), Li Binyuan (厉槟源), and Yu Ji (于吉)
Curated by Victor Wang
王宗孚
Image: curator Victor Wang and artist Korakrit Arunanondchai in conversation, Ghost: 2561, Bangkok, 2018 The film project, entitled 'Unsoiled: Ecologies of the Imag,' developed by Victor Wang, is a journey into the affinities between contemporary moving image and the intricate connections between political ecology, human geography, and post-colonial globalization.
The film program recognizes that colonial and imperial expansion not only affected human geography, but also had a profound impact on the natural world and non-human ecology. As such, the program aims to examine the ways in which artists have considered adopting a decolonial approach to ecology in their work. This approach recognizes the need to incorporate diverse research fields and perspectives in order to fully understand and address the lasting effects of colonialism on the environment.
For this iteration, Wang will be screening works by Chinese artists He Xiangyu (何翔宇), Li Binyuan (厉槟源), and Yu Ji (于吉) that invite us to confront and rethink the dualism between human and nonhuman worlds and how they influence mobility and ideas of home.
The film programme begins at the Yalu River, a body of water that forms the border between North Korea and China. In his work The Yellow Swim Caps (2016), artist He Xiangyu attempt to swim across the river, which for the artist embodies the complex socio-political division in the region. Located near the artist’s hometown of Kuandian in China, the river has been the site of many historical military conflicts, and a site of migration for North Korean refugees illegally crossing the border in search of a better life.
In Li Binyuan’s Freedom Farming (2014), we see the artist collide, pound and exert his body onto the farm land he inherited from his late father. In a two-hour performance, Li Binyuan leaps and hurls himself into the air, attempting to escape from the land he was given only to come crashing down into the mud-rich soil—it’s an attempt to both separate himself from his past, whilst reawakening his connection to the land by physically opening a space of conversation with it. With local villagers and family present, Li Binyuan performs a type of agricultural mourning of his father’s passing, until his body is completely crippled with exhaustion and pain.
In the North of Taipei, Taiwan, lies the mysterious Qixing Pond, located at Mount Qixing, a peak in the Beitou District. It’s a sacred site for the Ketagalan, a group of indigenous Taiwanese peoples, and a starting point for artist Yu Ji, who spent six weeks researching the location. In her performance and film, Pataauw Stone (2015), Yu Ji takes the site and her reoccurring subject of the stone as a way of navigating this diverse ecological terrain. With her hand-sculpted stone sculpture, Yu Ji drags the artwork up Mount Qixing to explore the Qixing Pond. Slowly progressing up the mountain, her journey begins to reveal a diverse landscape that contains fumaroles, sulphur gas exhaust, hot springs and sulphur crystals, all of which have fuelled industry, tourism, and mining on the mountain.
Film still: Freedom Farming,2014, Li Binyuan, Courtesy of the artist
Installation view, ‘Unsoiled: Ecologies of the Image’, Ghost: 2561, Bangkok, 2018
Title: Unsoiled: Ecologies of the Image
Artists: He Xiangyu (何翔宇), Li Binyuan (厉槟源), and Yu Ji (于吉)
Curator: VICTOR WANG
Speaker: Korakrit Arunanondchai
SUNDAY OCTOBER 14th, 2018
Location: DR. THAWORN PHORNPRAPHA AUDITORIUM, Bangkok
CURATED SCREENING
ศิลปิน: วิกเตอร์ หวัง
ชื่อผลงาน: Unsoiled: Ecologies of the Image
วันอาทิตย์ที่ ๑๔ ตุลาคม ๒๕๖๑
สถานที่:ดร.ถาวร พรประภา ออดิธอเรียม
After the screenings, curator Victor Wang will conduct a conversation with artist and curator of Ghost:2561 Korakrit Arunanondchai about the programme and the themes explored through the films.
Programme:
He Xiangyu (何翔宇),
The Yellow Swim Caps
2016
Single-channel video (colour, sound)
Video length: 17'23"
Li Binyuan (厉槟源),
Freedom Farming
2014
Single-channel video (colour, sound)
Video length: 5′02″
Yu Ji (于吉)
Pataauw Stone
(2015)
Single-channel video (colour, sound)
23'46''
ด้วยการยอมรับว่าการขยายขอบเขตอาณานิคมและจักรวรรดิ ไม่ได้ข้องเก่ียวแต่เพียงภูมิศาสตร์มนุษย์ หากยังรวมถึง สิ่งซึ่งไม่ใช่มนุษย์ โปรแกรมภาพยนตร์น้ีจะสำรวจวิถีท่ีศิลปิน คิดเห็นเกี่ยวกับวิธีวิเคราะห์การปลดปล่อยในความสัมพันธ์ ระหว่างสิ่งมีชีวิตกับภาพแวดล้อม ในงานภาพยนตร์ท่ี หยิบยกข้อกังวลต่างๆ เหล่าน้ีมามองผ่านสาขางานวิจัย ท่ีหลากหลายและมุมมองมากมาย สำหรับโปรแกรมนี้ หวังคัดเลือกงานภาพยนตร์จากศิลปินจีน ได้แก่ เหอ เสียงหยู่ หลี่ ปิ่งหยวน และหยูจี๋ ท่ีเชื้อเชิญให้เราเผชิญหน้าและทบทวน ถึงทวินิยมระหว่างโลกแดนแห่งมนุษย์และสิ่งซึ่งไม่ใช่มนุษย์ และการท่ีมันส่งผลกระทบต่อการเคลื่อนย้ายและแนวคิด ต่อเรื่องบ้าน
SCREENINGS
THE YELLOW SWIM CAP เหอ เสียงหยู่, ๒๕๕๙, ๑๗.๒๓ นาที
FREEDOM FARMING
หลี่ ปิ่งหยวน, ๒๕๕๗, ๕.๐๒ นาที
PATAAUW STONE หยูจี๋, ๒๕๕๘, ๒๓.๔๖ นาที
VICTOR WANG
All content property of © Victor Wang 2009 - 2023 All rights reserved -- BEIJING - LONDON.
All content property of © Victor Wang 2009 - 2023 All rights reserved -- BEIJING - LONDON.