An amalgam of affection, melancholy and parody ? Yang Fudong mingles elements in the Chinese tradition with rootless western influences. In the films of the Chinese artist scenarios from ostensibly pulsating urban environments whose facades conceal the growing extension of solitude, emptiness and cultivated boredom are entwined with images of remote countryside and meditative silence. Yang Fudong?s films document the traces of China?s vertiginous political, economic and cultural development, oscillating between intimacy and isolation, ostensible security and the calm of chaos.
The characters in Yang Fudong?s films attempt a balancing act between an inner life that bears the stamp of Buddhism and Taoism, a cultural memory appropriated by communism and the frenetic pace of modern capitalism.
For the first time Kunsthalle Wien dedicates an exhibition to the photography, film and video productions of Yang Fudong, among others:
“City Light” (2000); “Backyard – Hey, Sun is Rising!” (2001); “Flutter, Flutter … Jasmine, Jasmine” (2002); “Close to the Sea” (2004); and two episodes of the planned five-part of “Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest”, part 1 (2003) and part 2 (2004).
Born in Beijing in 1971, works by Yang Fudong were shown at the Documenta 11 in 2002 and at the 50th Venice Biennale (Chinese Pavilion and ?Utopia Station?) in 2003 and 2004 at the Liverpool Biennial.
Curators: Sabine Folie, Gerald Matt
Guided tours: every Sunday 4 pm