This new image launch for 44 Moon News will see the release of two films, Image Relay Writing Part 4, Dreams are for Awakening, and the parallel narrative film Three Dollfish in the Basement, with a live link-up with the creators and performers after the film screening. Guests for the post-screening talk will be Cheng Xinhao, Han Qian, Liang Jianhua, Ou Feihong, Pan He, Taubiko Nizamiuddin, Wan Qing and Zhang Zimu.
Screening I
The fourth part of 44 Monthly's video relay writing, Dreams are for Awakening
2022, 16 minutes 25 seconds
Artists (in order of relay).
Round 1: Zhang Zimu, Cheng Xinhao, Yan Ruifang, Taubiko Nizamiuddin, Chen Sisi
Round 2: Cheng Xinhao, Zhang Zimu, Yan Ruifang, Taubiko Nizamiuddin, Cecilia Chen
Synopsis
The friends of Theatre 44 carry out this installment of the 44 Image Relay with the mindset of picking up the pieces, reorganizing the narrative, and giving the next person a challenge without any burden: "Slowing down, stopping, then backing up, then speeding up again, back to square one, history keeps repeating itself, and a large step of humanity may not be a linear scale. Everyone's consciousness gradually matrixes, suspended in dotted compartments in one camp after another, waiting until Judgement Day arrives to remove the mask, only to discover that my next-door neighbour is missing a mouth, the child about to be born in my belly, is missing an ear, while I cover my eyes in terror and the silence around me is a noise towards madness".
But don't worry, the present moment in time could be an illusion, trying to come to terms with the dense dizziness. With eyes open and images traversing, Pan Yuliang's journey across a hundred years of women still cannot really be reached, the answer lies in the dusty tofu of cosmopolitans, among the ruins of old and new, in the horizontal spreading of the railway tracks and the deep intersection of the port, in the parallax of the left and right eye.
About the artist
Chen Sisi, a native of Wuhu, Anhui Province, is an independent video creator, whose representative work, the ethnographic documentary short film Huan Ruins, received a special mention at the FIRST Youth Film Festival and was selected for film festivals such as the Big Sky Documentary Festival in Montana, and the Shanghai Sealed City documentary short film Window Sill Journal. He hopes to continue exploring experimental images that link individual experiences with real social scenes.
Cheng Xinhao was born in Yunnan in 1985 and graduated from the School of Chemical and Molecular Engineering at Peking University in 2013 with a PhD. He now lives and works as an artist in Kunming, Yunnan. His works are often based on long-term field research and are all related to his homeland Yunnan. Working in physical presence, Cheng Xinhao uses the media of video, installation, photography and text to investigate the complex links between the logic, discourse and knowledge of different sources and the nature, society and history behind them, and the actors embedded in them. In recent years, his long-term projects include "Strange Terrain" (2013-) in relation to the cross-border Mang people, "To the Ocean" (2018-) in relation to the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, and "Yunnan Story Collection" (2021-) in relation to mobility and oral literary traditions.
Taubiko Nizamiuddin is a Uyghur filmmaker, originally from Atushi, with a master's degree in directing from the Beijing Film Academy. He is a director, scriptwriter and producer of several short films, focusing on the narrative of his people in the present context. His short film Night of Arzu was nominated for the Best Drama Short Film at the 54th Golden Horse Awards in 2017 and won the Best Short Film at the 14th China Independent Film Festival CIFF. Maria's Beach was selected for the 48th Rotterdam Film Festival's Voice Short Film Competition and screened in the Community section of the 24th Busan International Film Festival. He is currently a postgraduate student at the University of Paris VIII, Department of Cinematography.
YIM Shui-fong is a Hong Kong artist who graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a Master of Fine Arts degree. She is the co-founder of the artist-run charity Tendaijuku and a member of the artist organisation L sub. Using media such as photography, video, sound, performance and installation, Yim explores the relationship between the individual and society, considers the connection between individuality and collectivity, and investigates how to detect the potential of people within themselves through artistic action. Yim was awarded the 2019/2020 Art New Talent Award (Visual Arts), the WYNG Master Photography Award in 2018, and the Hong Kong Photo Sample Book Award 2021 2nd Prize. Her projects and exhibitions in recent years include: "Round and Out Club" (2022, Grand Museum Contemporary Art Gallery, Hong Kong), "I Am in My City" (2021, Goethe-Institut, Hong Kong), and the Artists' Film International (AFI) screening series (2019, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK).
Zhang Zimu, researcher, curator and author of moving images, focuses on the ecological and social nature of images and video activities.
Screening Film II
Three Dollfish in the Basement
Director: Wan Qing
Screenplay: Wan Qing 44 Monthly
Starring Ou Feihong, Zhang Hanlu, Wu Qin, Cheng Xinhao, Han Qian, Pan He, Liang Jianhua, Feng Junhua, Wan Qing
Plot Synopsis
In the reincarnation office, "people" will face two questions through common labour and perception, negotiation and disagreement: man or woman? New man or real man? --A process that has been going on for 3,000 years.
This film is a parallel narrative to the collective project "Yuliang Out of the Tofu Factory" in the "Good Life" exhibition at the Bund Museum of Art in Shanghai.
About the director
Wan Qing is a video and astrologer who travels mainly between Guangzhou and the Wuling Mountains.
