Introduction

U2 by UCCA, in partnership with Centre D'art Contemporain Genève, present a large-scale biennale project in Beijing – LOVELOVELOVE Biennial of Moving Images, Beijing.

This sister biennale to the Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement from Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève will include a work from Simon Fujiwara, shown in Geneva in 2021, and a film by Tao Hui.

Simon Fujiwara's Once Upon a Who? introduces the central themes of the artist's Who the Bær project. Screened as part of a custom-made environment, the stop-motion animation presents Who, the original cartoon figure created by Fujiwara. The narration touches upon all the major themes explored by the project: among them, the origin story of the figure and the significance of the characteristic accessories and shapes Who has been given, the processes of identity formation in regards to gender and race, the effects of mass media, social media, dating apps, and celebrity culture, as well as cultural appropriation and the subject of stolen artifacts and art.

Tao Hui's video The Dusk of Teheran was shot during an artist residency in Teheran. It transposes a heart-rending speech given by the late Hong Kong pop singer Anita Mui into a conversation between a young Iranian actress and her taxi driver. Having gone public about her terminal illness (Mui died of cervical cancer in 2003 at the age of 40), the singer, dressed in a bridal gown, spoke to fans at her final concert of her desire for love and the difficulty of finding it.

LOVELOVELOVE Biennial of Moving Images, Beijing
With Simon Fujiwara and Tao Hui
U2 by UCCA
Chaoyang Joy City Mall
101 Chaoyang North Road
100025 Beijing
July 7 – December 25, 2022
Info via WeChat