Survival Techniques: Narratives of Resistance at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok

Opening Reception: February 26th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Location: Art Center, Center of Academic Resources, Chulalongkorn University
Exhibition Dates: February 26th to March 26th, 2011

Special Lecture at Jim Thomson Art Center on March 7th. For more information please click here.

Happiness or failure (Zhang Peili), pure blood or bastards (Shen Shaomin), offense or humor (Rainer Ganahl), consciousness or unconsciousness (Yang Zhenzhong), tolerance or intolerance (Artur Zmijewski)?

In this show, artists explore the realm of doubts, borders and passages. It is not about the obvious; it is not about a simple reaction. It is the art of dissimulation, yet it is incredibly true.

In this video based exhibition we invite the audience to take their time in order to delve deep into the realm of uncertainty. The artworks presented are videos in various forms: documentaries, performances, conceptual works, and interviews.

The last two years in Bangkok have been full of unrest, due to social and political uncertainty; having an understanding of this tumultuous time in Thailand gives insight to the works chosen for this show, which seem to extraordinarily significant and universal. It is quite a testimony to the uneasiness that many people feel in the country, when thinking about nationalism, ethnicity and power, mirrored by a personal/private space, poetry and death as beauty or as Bohumil Hrabal explains in I Served the King of England:

“… The essence of life was about questioning death, how will I behave when my hour comes, and that basically death, or rather that questioning oneself, is a dialogue from an infinite and eternal visual angle. (And that) the resolution of the problem of death is already the beginning of thinking in terms of beauty and the beginning of thinking about beauty because it is savoring the absurdity of one’s path that anyway will end with a premature exit, that pleasure of experiencing one’s own demise, that fills man with bitterness and therefore with beauty…”

Artists:
Zhang Peili, Happiness, 2006
Rainer Ganahl, I Hate Marx, 2010
Yang Zhenzhong, I Will Die, 2000-2007
Shen Shaomin, I Am Chinese, 2006-2008
Artur Zmijewski, Them, 2007, courtesy of Vanabbe Museum

Short Artists CVs (to be expanded)

Zhang Peili is a video artist, considered by some to be the “Father of Chinese video art.” Born in 1957, Zhang lives and works in Hangzhou.

Rainer Ganahl has lived and worked in NYC since 1990.

Yang Zhenzhong, born in Hanzhou, China in 1968. Lives and works in Shanghai.

Shen Shaomin born 1956, Heilongjiang province, China. Lives and works in Sydney, Australia and Beijing, China

Artur Zmijewski, born 1966 in Warsaw, Poland. Lives and works in Warsaw.

For more information, please contact:

Siriwat Pokrajen (PR Officer)
Telephone: 081-629-0457
Email: siriwatpokrajen@yahoo.com, info.artcenterchula@gmail.com

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