Tong Wenmin：From South to North
Subjective Narratology｜Scarred Landscapes
2022.09.24 Saturday 14:00
Location
the front hall of Macalline Art Center
Guest Speaker: Binyuan Li
Moderator：Yuan Fuca
Date: September 24,2022
Time: 14:00-15:30
The place where the Xiang water converges with Xiao water in Yongzhou was called Xiaoxiang. Xiaoxiang was not only rich, but also the mythical center of the state of Chu. The picture of Xiaoxiang as well as its eight scenes became an important motif for literati painting, symbolizing the scholarly class during the Northern Song Dynasty. Later, the motif gained further expansion in Japan, Korea and other East Asian regions.
Xiaoxiang is also the hometown of Li Binyuan and where many of his important performances were created. However, these are not the elegant landscapes sought by the ancient literati and scholars, but rather over-consumed fields, wastelands mixed with construction waste, and waterfalls formed by broken irrigation systems. ......
In the final session of "Subjective Narratology", Li Binyuan will recollect the legacy of his work and talk about the scars left on himself during his creation, and draw a picture of Xiaoxiang that is constantly polished, chiseled and reshaped by the artist's body - without geographical displacement and alienation, this hidden personal landscape is deeply connected to the land and the life it provides.
Subjective Narratology
Accompanying the exhibitions Patty Chang: We Are All Mothers and Tong Wenmin: From South to North at Macalline Art Center, Subjective Narratology is a series of artist-led public events. Invited artists will give hour-long talks on their most important moments of subjectivity. Each event will comprise of an experiential story told by the artist, with specific visual materials beyond art: screenshots, tweets, images, texts, quotations, situations, bodies. Non-linear narratives, incomplete materials, misremembered information, eclectic decisions, or mysterious moments all contribute to the practice of the artists engaged in creation today.
About the Artist
Li Binyuan was born in Yongzhou, Hunan Province, China in 1985; graduated from the Department of Sculpture, Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2011. His work has exhibited throughout the US, Europe, and Asia, and is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art. Li explores physicality, substance, surrounding environment, conceptual cognition, and social values through physical actions, video works, and performances which are the port of entry to the social fabric of everyday society.
His experiments occupy urban and rural spaces, from public scenery of the streets to natural sites, or remote post-industrial locations. Using his body as a sculptural material to enact creative investigation. He uses ruptures and repetition to manifest how sculpture and performance are intertwined. Rearticulating social conduct while interrogating our experiences of the everyday life. His recent major solo exhibitions include ‘Cinema Paradiso’ (Pingshan Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, 2020), ‘The Last Letter’ (Observation Society, Guangzhou, China, 2020), ‘Li Binyuan’ (HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2019), ‘Absorb’ (MU Artspace, Eindhoven, Netherlands, 2019), ‘Land: Zhang Huan and Li Binyuan’ (MoMA PS1, New York, USA, 2018), and ‘Social Behaviours’ (CFCCA, Manchester, UK, 2015). Meanwhile，Li is the winner of The Merit Award by Inward Gazes - Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art (2015), The Golden Key Award nomination at the 37th Kassel Documentary Festival (2020), The Chinese Youth Artist Award of the 14th AAC Art (2020), The Grand Prize Winner of the 17th Sovereign Asian Art Prize (2021).
