Video Art: Site vs Narrative
2009 International Experimental Art Lecture Series
China Academy of Art
With generous support of Mr. Hallam Chow (Qiu Haoran), China Academy of Art launches an annual lecture program on international experimental art in October 2009, to promote creation and education of experimental art. This year’s lecture series is coordinated by Institute of Visual Culture at the Academy, and co-supported by Artforum, and Zhejiang Art Museum.
The International Experimental Art Lecture Series aim at showcasing the most recent international achievements in areas of creativity, theories and curatorship of experimental art and promoting rigorous critical thinking and academic discussions in these areas. This lecture series also seek to establish an international academic community for the practice, research and education on experimental art, with China Academy of Art as its core, and to build a platform for exchange on China's experimental art with audience worldwide.The topic for 2009 International Experimental Art Lecture Series is "Video Art: Site vs Narrative". The lecture features world-renowned artist Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba as speaker, whose films explore Vietnamese history and national identity, and have referenced issues such as the displacement after the Vietnam War. Mr. Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba was born in Tokyo in 1968, now lives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He earned an M.F.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art after receiving his B.F.A. from Art Institute of Chicago. He has had solo exhibitions at, among others, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rome, and Kunsthalle Wien, Austria. His works have also been shown in numerous biennials, including the Venice Biennale, the Istanbul Biennial, the Shanghai Biennale, and the Sao Paulo Biennale.
Tim Griffin, Editor-in-Chief of Artforum, is also invited to deliver a lecture on the impact of contemporary media on artists’ recent engagements with site. In addition, two Chinese panelists, Mr. Wang Jianwei and Prof. Zhang Xianmin, will join the speakers for a panel discussion on the following issues:
1. Can video art be considered a proper genre of fine arts?
2. Challenged by various newer media, how can video art justify its experimentalism?
3. Multi-screen images provide an experience of "spatialized time." May such a property produce a new way of narrative for video art?
4. How do video artists expand the arena between their media and the site?
5. How do video artists deal with the tension between narratives and concepts in their works?
6. What is the ideal space to experience video art – a cinema or a gallery? What kind of possibilities and limits does each of these two sites provide? How do you view the theatre-based video art?
7. Is there an Asian approach of video art?
Program
2:00 p.m. -4:00 p.m., Oct. 25 (Sun), 2009
Screening of Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s selected works.
Lecture Theater of Zhejiang Art Museum. Free for Admission.
2:00 p.m. -4:00 p.m., Oct. 26 (Mon), 2009
Screening of Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s selected works.
Lecture Theater of Zhejiang Art Museum. Free for Admission.
6:00 p.m. -9:00 p.m., Oct. 27 (Tue), 2009
Lecture by Mr. Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, introduction by Hallam Chow.
Panel discussion joint by artist Mr. Wang Jianwei
Lecture Theater, China Academy of Art.
6:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m., Oct. 28 (Wed), 2009
Lecture by Mr. Tim Griffin, introduction by Philip Tinari.
8:00 p.m. -9:30 p.m., Oct. 28 (Wed), 2009
Panel discussion by artist Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Mr. Tim Griffin, Prof. Qiu Zhijie and Prof. Zhang Xianmin, moderated by Dr. Gao Shiming and Philip Tinari.
Lecture Theater, China Academy of Art.
2:00 p.m. -5:00 p.m., Oct. 29 (Thu), 2009
Workshop led by Shen Ligong and Yao Dajun, for M.A. students from departments of new media, experimental art and curatorial studies.
New Media Art Department, China Academy of Art.
6:00 p.m. -9:00 p.m., Oct. 29 (Thu), 2009
Lecture by Prof. Zhang Xianmin, moderated by Prof. Yang Jinsong.
Lecture Theater, China Academy of Art.
2:00 p.m. -5:00 p.m., Oct. 30 (Fri), 2009
Workshop led by Prof. Gao Shiqiang, Qiu Zhijie, for M.A. students from departments of new media, experimental art and curatorial studies.
Experimental Art Department, China Academy of Art.
Introduction of the Speakers:
Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba was born in Tokyo in 1968. He earned an M.F.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art after receiving his B.F.A. from Art Institute of Chicago. He has had solo exhibitions at, among others, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rome, and Kunsthalle Wien, Austria. His work has also been included in numerous biennials, including the Shanghai Biennale, the Venice Biennale, the Istanbul Biennial, and the Sao Paulo Biennale. He currently lives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. His films explore Vietnamese history and national identity, and have referenced issues such as the displacement after the Vietnam War.
Wang Jianwei born in 1958 in Sichuan, he is an outstanding video and installation artist, and even played the role of the sociologist or anthropologist. In his video works, the artist often plays the bystander role. In his work "cycle • planting" (1993-1994), he used the camera to record an entire process of field planting, cultivation, and harvest. In the work (1999) "to live somewhere else", he also recorded how the expropriation of arable land and farmers being forced into the city. Wang also explored how Beijing's high-building construction become so booming, by recording dialogues with Beijing residents, real-estate developers, contractors and official regulators. Wang let himself into the works, challenging the boundaries between art and real life. Wang Jianwei is currently living and working in Beijing.
Zhang Xianmin is a leading film critic in China, a free intellectual as well. He was born in 1964 in Nanjing, and now a professor of literature in Beijing Film Academy. Zhang received bachelor's degree in French and bachelor in Comparative Culture from Beijing Foreign Languages Institute in 1985, then he went to France to study, receiving a master's degree in films from University of Paris III in 1987, and he graduated from the Ecole Film Academy in 1992. Zhang has taught in Beijing Film Academy since 1987, he also taught in institutions like Film Art Research Center and some universities. Apart from teaching, Zhang has actively participated in creation and promotion of China's independent film. Zhang Xianmin has quite some critics for specific policies and measures of the China’s film system and the Film Bureau.
Institute of Visual Culture,
China Academy of Art