SHANCHENGZHIJIAZI

Mud Man

The video work, Mud Man, was exhibited in Aichi Triennale 2016. I directed, wrote a screen play and edited. It was a 15 meter-long 3 channel multi-screen installation video work. At the beginning,people who lost their memories are lying on the ground, but in the end, they spread their arms with blooming flowers and clap their hands as if they are pleased with their breath of own lives. (20'30"-22'46") Received Grand Prix, Asian Art Award 2017 and Zonta Prize, 64th Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, 2018 with this work. Mud Man, a 1-channel short film version, is a postproduction of 3-channel screen video installation that was exhibited in Aichi Triennale 2016. This video is a mixture of documentary records of the Battle of Okinawa with the sound effects made by human beat boxer and beautiful scenery of present Okinawa and Jeju Island in Korea. It is narrative, at the same time, texture of mud and ground and sounds stimulate physical senses. Mud Man depicts how the place people were accidentally born and the memory of their history was spread in a scene a bird making droppings in the sky. Birds' droppings contain fruit seeds and they drop the seeds on the ground of their destination after flying far away. The seeds are made of poems. People who picked up them listen to the reading of poems heard from the inside of seeds. Those people hear the voice of the past through nature and learn about other people who also lived similarly in a place they cannot see and in the past. At the same time, they receive wisdom (skills) for living. This image suggests coexistence which equally shares wisdom to survive beyond the bounds of time and space and is maintained for the future. I am hoping to create works which explore fundamental life connection by overcoming the gaps caused by particular place, religion and race. And, I have tried very hard, acquiring skills and methods anew every time in order to express those works. Mud Man was shot on location in Okinawa and Jeju Island in Korea. It is because the presentation of the work is not limited to one area. The narrative shares the history and culture of human's lands from a wide perspective with contents created by the activities of people's lives, and is meant to recover memories of wars and civil wars, not being buried in political intentions. In addition,possibilities of solidarity in our life is sought in this work: for that, how we could face the past toward coexistence and could think about and convey those memories toward the future.

artist

Chikako Yamashiro

Chikako Yamashiro is a contemporary video artist who was born in Osaka in 1976. She received an MA from the Graduate School of Formative Arts after receiving a degree in Environmental Design from the Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts. She takes her native Okinawa as the subject of her art to create both video and photographic work. Recent exhibitions include: Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize 2018 (The Singapore Art Museum, Singapore,2018，nominated as Signature Art Prize); “From Generation to Generation: Inherited Memory and Contemporary Art” (Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, USA, 2016-17); “SEVEN JAPANESE ROOMS” (Fondazione Carispezia, La Spezia, Italy, 2016-17); “The Beginning of Creation: Abduction/A Child” (Yumiko Chiba Associates viewing room, Tokyo, Japan, 2016); 2016 Aichi Triennale (the former Meiji-ya Sakae Building, Nagoya, Aichi, 2016); the 8th Asian Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, 2015-16); “East Asia Feminism: FANTasia” (Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea, 2015); “and MAM Project 018:Chikako Yamashiro” (Mori Art Museum Gallery 1, Tokyo, Japan, 2012). Selected publications include: Circulating World: The Art of Chikako Yamashiro (Yumiko Chiba Associates, 2016), Chikako Yamashiro (Yumiko Chiba Associates, 2012), and MAM Project 018: Chikako Yamashiro (Mori Art Museum, 2012). Selected awards include the ZONTA Prize at 64th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2018) and the Grand Prize at the Asian Art Award 2017, supported by Warehouse TERRADA (2017). She has participated in the Festival Film Dokumenter (FFD) Yogyakarta(2017).

curator

RongRong & inri

RongRong (China) and inri (Japan) have been working together since 2000. Their works reflect the intimate world that they have created together and push the boundaries of traditional black-and-white darkroom techniques. Their critically acclaimed series of works, such as Mt. Fuji (2001), Liulitun (1996-2003), and Tsumari Story (2012-2014), reflect their shared life and surroundings, delving into the rapidly changing world around them.

In 2007, RongRong & inri established the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in the Beijing arts district Caochangdi. In 2008, they launched the annual Three Shadows Photography Award, a prize aimed at discovering and encouraging China’s most promising young photographers. In 2010, they started a collaboration with the Arles International Photography Festival (Les Rencontres d'Arles) and co-produced the Caochangdi Photo Spring Festival in Beijing for three years – from 2010 to 2012. They have continued this collaboration at Three Shadows’ Xiamen location, where since 2015 they have co-hosted the Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival.

RongRong&inri received the Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize at the 2016 Sony World Photography Awards, recognized for both their careers as artists and their significant impact on Asian photography.