Video gallery
curated by Hou Hanru, Donatella Saroli
Three short festivals focused on the themes of urban transformation, the creation of imaginary worlds, of the public space as the place of the everyday life and of the protest.
On the occasion of the exhibition The Street. Where the world is made, the Museum’s video gallery, thanks to the support of In Between Art Film, hosts a screening program focused on the themes of urban transformation, the creation of imaginary worlds, of the public space as the place of the everyday life and of the protest. Three short festivals, each one introduced by a debate between international artists, scholars and curators that will describe the genesis and evolution of the videos on display.
Screening programme:
Zhou Tao, Blue and Red, 2014, 25′ 14″
Zhou Tao, South Stone, 2010-2011, 24’ 51’’
The videos will also be displayed on Thursday 18*, Friday 10, Saturday 20, and Sunday 21 in the Museum’s opening hours.
*early closing at 6 pm
Blue and Red
2014, 25’ 14’’ | Courtesy the artist and Vitamin Creative Space
In Blue and Red Zhou Tao weaves together the images of public squares in the city centers of Guangzhou and Bangkok – where he stayed in 2014 during a turbulent time in which there was an attempted coup in the country – with heavy metal mine and rural village in the mountain valley of southern China. The artist films these cities and landscapes, their inhabitants and their activity without intervening directly, using his camera as a patient eye that records everything that happens.
Watch the trailer
South Stone
2010-2011, 24’ 51’’ | Courtesy the artist and Vitamin Creative Space
For almost a year Zhou Tao and Ah Yue lived in the area of South Stone. As with many cities in China industrialization process, Guangzhou is undergoing a form of urban development characterized by the engulfing of rural settlements: a process labeled “village in the city.” South Stone is an example. Zhou and Ah Yue move through the village landscape, devising simple actions that transform physical and perceived space. The camera blends with everyday life and mundane gestures, watercourses, animals, humorous interactions with residents indicate an incoherent social reality. However, South Stone restores a sense of an independent system of living rather than a perception of an abandoned city.
Zhou Tao
Zhou Tao
Born in Changsha (1976), China. Lives and works in Guangzhou.
With a BFA in oil painting and a MFA in Mixed Media Study at the Fine Arts Academy in Guangzhou, Zhou Tao has developed a singular and outstanding career in both the Chinese and international art scene for the last decade. He places his body in the living environment as a medium – often for a protracted length of time – and, as a consequence, real surroundings, constantly morphing due to human interventions such as urban expansion, industrialization, social conflicts and ecological degradation are transformed into theatrical realms of tension and negotiation while a compelling lyricism is constantly evoked, and a new language is born out of the mesmerizing oscillation between realism, romanticism and a welcomed but uncanny lightness of being.
Zhou’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Times Museum, Guangzhou, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; and Museu d’art contemporani, Barcelona, among others. His 2017 work The Worldly Cave [Fán Dòng] was presented at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017), Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj, the 5th Auckland Triennial and most recently, at IFFR 2018, Tate Modern and Centre Pompidou.
Video gallery
curated by Hou Hanru, Donatella Saroli
Three short festivals focused on the themes of urban transformation, the creation of imaginary worlds, of the public space as the place of the everyday life and of the protest.
On the occasion of the exhibition The Street. Where the world is made, the Museum’s video gallery, thanks to the support of In Between Art Film, hosts a screening program focused on the themes of urban transformation, the creation of imaginary worlds, of the public space as the place of the everyday life and of the protest. Three short festivals, each one introduced by a debate between international artists, scholars and curators that will describe the genesis and evolution of the videos on display.
Screening programme:
Zhou Tao, Blue and Red, 2014, 25′ 14″
Zhou Tao, South Stone, 2010-2011, 24’ 51’’
The videos will also be displayed on Thursday 18*, Friday 10, Saturday 20, and Sunday 21 in the Museum’s opening hours.
*early closing at 6 pm
Blue and Red
2014, 25’ 14’’ | Courtesy the artist and Vitamin Creative Space
In Blue and Red Zhou Tao weaves together the images of public squares in the city centers of Guangzhou and Bangkok – where he stayed in 2014 during a turbulent time in which there was an attempted coup in the country – with heavy metal mine and rural village in the mountain valley of southern China. The artist films these cities and landscapes, their inhabitants and their activity without intervening directly, using his camera as a patient eye that records everything that happens.
Watch the trailer
South Stone
2010-2011, 24’ 51’’ | Courtesy the artist and Vitamin Creative Space
For almost a year Zhou Tao and Ah Yue lived in the area of South Stone. As with many cities in China industrialization process, Guangzhou is undergoing a form of urban development characterized by the engulfing of rural settlements: a process labeled “village in the city.” South Stone is an example. Zhou and Ah Yue move through the village landscape, devising simple actions that transform physical and perceived space. The camera blends with everyday life and mundane gestures, watercourses, animals, humorous interactions with residents indicate an incoherent social reality. However, South Stone restores a sense of an independent system of living rather than a perception of an abandoned city.
Zhou Tao
Zhou Tao
Born in Changsha (1976), China. Lives and works in Guangzhou.
With a BFA in oil painting and a MFA in Mixed Media Study at the Fine Arts Academy in Guangzhou, Zhou Tao has developed a singular and outstanding career in both the Chinese and international art scene for the last decade. He places his body in the living environment as a medium – often for a protracted length of time – and, as a consequence, real surroundings, constantly morphing due to human interventions such as urban expansion, industrialization, social conflicts and ecological degradation are transformed into theatrical realms of tension and negotiation while a compelling lyricism is constantly evoked, and a new language is born out of the mesmerizing oscillation between realism, romanticism and a welcomed but uncanny lightness of being.
Zhou’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Times Museum, Guangzhou, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; and Museu d’art contemporani, Barcelona, among others. His 2017 work The Worldly Cave [Fán Dòng] was presented at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017), Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj, the 5th Auckland Triennial and most recently, at IFFR 2018, Tate Modern and Centre Pompidou.