Vortex|Chen Zhou Tells Zang Stories

2022.11.10 Thursday 20:30

Location

53 Huangpu Road, Panorama Hotel, 28C Floor, Hongkou District, Shanghai.

Performer:Chen Zhou

The word "zang (脏)" in Mandarin means dirty, but its pronunciation is exactly the same as the word that means "true (真)" in Wenzhou dialect. 

There is a saying that goes: "When you can smell shit, you are not far from the truth." This is the beautiful connection between "dirty"(脏zang) and "true", and this connection is achieved through renunciation. Perseverance has a good reputation, giving up, on the contrary, is "dirty"(脏zang). However, the "truth" often appears unexpectedly from the relief that comes after giving up. "In the crowd once and again, I look for her in vain. When all at once I turn my head, I find her there where lantern light is dimly shed. "

A loud fart, stinky, but amusing. That's the moment of love. The eternal truth echoes in the laughter that requires no explanation.

Program:

I: A love joke

II: Fear meditation

III: cliche-clear shit-truth

IV: Fake magic show

V: The taste of sweetness

VI: Drinking or dancing

About the Performer: Chen Zhou

Chen Zhou (b. 1987, China) currently lives and works in Shanghai.

His early works center on the spiritual predicaments in contemporary life and try to respond to and deconstruct them humorously and absurdly. From 2022, Chen turned internally to human spiritual force and sentience. Specializing in abstract narrative cinematic images, paintings, and writing.

Chen creates tranquil and intuitive scenarios that seek to provoke the viewers into introspection by capturing a vague gap between the lived experience of reality and the trance of void. He likens it to the trigger of an inner mirror.

About the Vortex

Vortex is a long-term project. We will update the content of performance lectures by artists and talks by experts both on- and offline. Following the fundamental approach of connecting local practice, theories, and context, we hope that this nonstandard art venue will become a place of torrents, flux, and confluence.

The Macalline Center of Art (MACA) is a non-profit art institution located in the 798 Art District of Beijing and officially inaugurated its space on January 15, 2022. Occupying a two-story building with a total area of 900 square meters, MACA unites artists, curators, and other art and cultural practitioners from around the world. Through its diverse, ongoing, and collaborative approaches, the Center establishes a new site on the contemporary art scene. Guided by the “work of artists” and backed by interdisciplinary research, the Center aims to bring together a community passionate about art and devoted to the “contemporary” moment so as to respond proactively to our rapidly evolving times.