Detail: Yang Fudong (born in 1971 in Beijing,
lives and works in Shanghai) is one of
the most important figures of China's
contemporary art scene and independent
cinema movement. He came to the
attention of the Western art world in
2002, when he premiered his film An
Estranged Paradise (1997–2002) at
Documenta XI. His films and photographic
work, often rooted in traditional
Chinese painting, examine tensions
between urban and rural, history and the
present, worldliness and
intellectualism. Their atemporal and
dreamlike quality, long and suspended
sequences, dividing narratives, as well
as multiple relationships and story
lines reflect the conundrums of idealism
and ideology of a new generation. At the
same time, the works address the ideals
and anxieties of young people who are
struggling to find their place in the
fast-paced changes of present-day China.
Estranged Paradise. Works 1993–2013,
curated by Beatrix Ruf and Philippe
Pirotte, is Yang Fudong's first major
institutional survey exhibition in
Europe, presenting film, installation as
well as photography from the late 1990s
until today, highlighting the formal
aspects of the construction of cinema in
the artist's oeuvre and its resonance in
Film Noir aesthetics. Following the
exhibition in Zurich, the show will
travel to the UC Berkeley Art Museum and
Pacific Film Archive (21 August–1
December).
The publication Yang Fudong. Estranged
Paradise. Works 1993–2013 will be
published in collaboration with UC
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film
Archive at JRP|Ringier Kunstverlag. It
contains numerous images and texts by
Philippe Pirotte, Colin Chinnery, Ho Rui
An and Rey Chow. With kind support by
Sifang Art Museums in Nanjing.
The protagonists of Yang’s works are
mostly his contemporaries, young people
between the ages of twenty and forty,
who have spent most of their lives in a
society in transformation. The ideals
and anxieties of a new generation, the
dignity of the individual in a rapidly
developing society still in the process
of adjusting to the material conditions
of the constantly changing times, are
recurring themes. This is most obvious
in photographic series like Don’t worry,
it will be better(2000) or Mrs. Huang at
M last night(2006), both depict a fancy
lady and her courtiers, in a hotel room
or at a night out, seemingly enjoying
the trophies of their material success.
The sly glances of the protagonists,
leave the audience in a state of
uncertainty regarding the actual events
and the storyline.