109 - 27|08|09

CASE STUDY CHINA
Curated by Vera Tollmann

Video Screening
Mo 19.10.2009
We 21.10.2009
Thu 22.10.2009
Fri 23.10.2009
Sa 24.10.2009
Su 25.10.2009

In 1980, the fishing village Shenzhen was declared China’s first special economic zone. This marked the beginning of Deng Xiaoping’s open-door policy. Today - nearly thirty years later - 30 percent of all products Made in China stem from these special economic zones.
The video screening "Case Study China" focuses on the Chinese economy, its everyday settings, and side-effects. Since 2002, artists and architects from the MAP Office have been observing a factory in Shenzhen. For artist Xu Tang, it provides a dictionary of modernization, while Lu Chunsheng confronts Trotsky’s murder with the unrevolutionary office life of Chinese businessmen. Mathilde ter Heijne imagines an alternative concept of roles in a matriarchy, Clemens von Wedemeyer and Maya Schweizer rehearse a filmic adaptation of the classic Metropolis. Inspired by Antonioni’s aesthetics, Hannes Böck’s work finds a "soft" access to the building boom, and thus to his own vision of China. Seen through the perspective of Chinese and European video artists, contemporary China is shown in an unusually constructive light. They approach their image through their individual reference systems. The documentary film "Chung Kuo – Cina," shot by Antonioni in 1972, provides for an historical context.

With video works by: Hannes Böck, Lu Chunsheng, MAP OFFICE, Mathilde ter Heijne, Clemens von Wedemeyer / MayaSchweizer, Xu Tan, Zhou Tiehai, Yang Zhengzhong.

Case Study China is supported by the Goethe-Institut München
An event of Asia-Pacific Weeks 2009. Asia-Pacific Weeks 2009 receives funding from the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin (DKLB).

http://www.hkw.de/en/programm2009/apw2009/_apw2009/projekt-detail_apw2009.php