On November 1st, 2017, Changsha was awarded by UNESCO and given the title of "Creative City of Media Arts", and it is China's first and currently the only city to receive this honour. Many sides have been contributing to create the urban artistic atmosphere, and the famous Star City with a rich history and culture has begun to become younger, modern, and artistic. As one of the series of events in Changsha Media Art Festival, Changsha "C+C" International Media Arts Residency Program, is about to start. Inviting both domestic and international young artists for residency and arts creation to achieve in-depth cultural exchanges and to explore a new path of cultural dissemination that corresponds to the zeitgeist.
The multi-interpreted "C+C" media art residency aims to transform the traditional cultural resources into urban innovative and creative vitality factors through media art. Achieving cultural interpretation by means of artistic expression, and making the title of "Creative City of Media Arts" of Changsha become more professional, modern, artistic and diversified. So Huxiang culture could show more diverse fascinations and vigorous vitality to the world.
Meanwhile, for improving quality of the city and meeting the growing aesthetic needs of the masses, and for building an exchange platform for international and domestic youth, during the residency period, a series of public activities will take place in various locations of Changsha, and will eventually presented as "C+C" media art residency exhibition. Rooting on the local land and facing the masses, hence culturally advancing together.
往期国际媒体艺术驻留项目成果展览
A total of 8 young artists participate in this "C+C" media art residency, as they are about to experience their residency and creative activities in Changsha, let us take a look at their introduction first.
Ordered Alphabetically by Last Name
José Drummond (Portugal) is a Portuguese artist currently based in Shanghai. His research-driven practice is an enigmatic and poetic investigation of the space in-between with questions of displacement, transience, and fragmented identities. Making use of a heterogeneous formal language where Installation, Video, Light, Photography, Performance, Painting, and curatorial initiatives intersect, Drummond's process-based hybrid works defy classifications and artistic genres. His works are made with a strong experimental aspect. He is the director of VAFA - international video art festival, in Macau, and holds an MFA in Creative Practice from the University of Plymouth (UK) and the Transart Institute in New York (USA). He is a 2016 Sovereign Asian Art Award finalist and received scholarships from the Orient Foundation (Portugal), the National Centre of Culture (Portugal), and the Cultural Institute of Macau. He participated in Transart Trienalle in Berlin and represented Portugal at Valencia Biennale in 1992.
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MJ Lee (Korea) 's physical body as an indicator of the world artist perceives, This lead her to investigate and expand her perceptions and experience, by creating art that transcends genre, often using the physicality of her own body through performance, video art, sculpture, installation, and any number of physical manifestations.
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Weiyi Li (China) is an artist (weiyi.li), designer (weiyiandfriends.com), curator (bigbadgallery.com), publisher (re-publication.com) and retailor (currently-available.com) who lives and works between these five URLs. She raduated from Tongji University in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in art design, and in 2012 from Yale School of Art with a master's degree in graphic design. In the same year, she won the Rebecca Tylor Porter Award. In 2018, she was shortlisted for the Huayu Youth Award and is currently studying for a PhD in Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art in London.
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MTZ (China) started independent electronic music art creation in 2009. Its outstanding individual melody made it recognized by the domestic pioneer electronic music label and signed to release records in a very short time. He started a national tour in 2010. In 2012, he founded Changsha first new media visual art group M.C.T.L. The team's scope includes: visual installations, music party, visual live, 3D mapping, video art, music video etc.
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Anthony Reed (United Kingdom) is an artist and photographer who now works and lives in Shanghai. He works mainly in medium format film and digital photography. Reed graduated from Norwich University of the Arts in 2007 with a degree in Fine Art. After that Reed moved to China to study Chinese at Qingdao Ocean University and then went on to work as a photographer. His work broadly explores the built environment and the processes of transformation in the past 12 years in China, mostly in his new home in Shanghai but also in many other parts of the country. First as an outsider and observer, then as a habitant, he has witnessed the drastic transitions of this land, documented them with his own visual language and depicted the interactions between these diverse locations and their inhabitants.
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RULA (China) - Urban graffiti artist from China, under the influence of his family, he started drawing at a very young age, he didn't realize what he really wanted until he met Graffiti during 2007. By 2010 he went to London studying Fine Art Digital at University of Art London Camberwell College of Art, and finished his master degree of art. In 2012 he held his first Solo Exhibition at Old Bath Gallery in London. After 4 years living & traveling around Britain and Europe, RULA returned to China to continue his career. In 2017 he launched "WALLSKAR" - an international graffiti artist network which bridges the Chinese graffiti art with the globe graffiti art scene by organizing public graffiti festivals. His studio has provide creative services to multiple brands and organizations including Balenciaga, Moncler, Volkswagen, BMW, PUMA, MISHKA, K11, IFS etc.
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Cunming Sun (China) attended the Jiangnan University and the ENSBA Lyon, respectively, obtaining a bachelor's degree in literature, a degree in arts, followed by a master's degree in art. Sun's work is fraught with signs gleaned from his daily life. His visual language is laconic by nature, by working with ready-made products, often changing the object's original semantics, in order to extend its appearance romantically or ambiguously by means of subtle variation. Sun used his gestures as the response to reality, addressing themes of cultural identity, individuality, and the overarching constructs which govern such concepts. Visual elements are presented in a strained way, illuminating the self-reflective quality of itself. His media-diverse practice encompasses ready-made and found objects in addition to film and video. He is the founder of the brand "Indirect Kiss", which includes podcasts, design and other cultural projects.
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Hutch Wilco (New Zealand) is an independent curator, critic, writer, editor, and project manager. He worked for National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. During his time with the National Museum, he was involved in the development of over 100 exhibitions and artist commissions. He has developed exhibitions in partnership with the Mexican National Archaeological Museum; Staedal Museum, Frankfurt; the Museum of Naples; the Victoria and Albert Museum; the National Museum of China; the Tokyo National Museum; the Australian Center for Moving Image; and the China Art Museum Shanghai. He has also developed and managed exhibitions in the 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015 Venice Biennale.
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In order to strengthen the resident artist's local experience in Changsha and in-depth exchanges with the public, transform the urban cultural experience to artistic creation, and eventually accomplish a co-creation of a public art event by presenting a exhibition, a series of activities will be carried out around 4 significant actions:
In-residence artists "Going into the countryside, into the community, into the university, into the enterprise".
Exploring the relationship between humanities and art and city development in the forms of field visits, salon forums, sharing sessions, workshops, intangible cultural heritage experiences, etc.. Through interaction with the masses, media art is made more public and universal.
往期国际媒体艺术驻留活动
Please stay tuned.
项目时间Duration11.08 - 12.15
指导单位Guidance Unit
主办单位Presenter
承办单位Organizer
执行单位Operator
协办单位Co-organizers