PRESENTATIONS OF CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCES, ACTIONS AND FILM
WEDNESDAY 26 – THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER
He Chengyao
Shu Yang
Yang Zhichao
Wang Chuyu
Zhu Ming
Kira OReilly
Richard Dedomenici
Alex Bradleys
Paul Hurley
China Live is a mini festival of 8 performance works from China and the UK. Co-curated and presented in collaboration with Live Art UK and China Arts Centre, the festival offers the opportunity to experience some of the visceral and challenging performance work being created by the current generation of Chinese artists, presented alongside works by UK artists. Common to all these works is the desire to communicate across borders.
Included are He Chengyaos intimate audience interactions in Kiss and Kira OReillys remarkable explorations of the body as a site for narrative and intervention.
Other works offer contemplative but extreme physical actions including Zhu Mings fragile works performed within a giant balloon and Paul Hurleys durational performance, Becoming Snail exploring desire, love and sexuality.
Much of the work is uncompromising and highly political; Yang Zhichao can be observed making paintings of UK daily life using blood and ink in Chinese Red, whilst the one-man subversive think-tank that is Richard Dedomenici creates poetic acts of low-grade civil disobedience. Material Files of Sino-British Cooperation is a strong critique of trade relations between East and West by Wang Chuyu. Shu Yang conducts conversations about modern China under the shadow of a huge Chinese Communist Party flag in Dialogue in Chinese Style, whilst Alex Bradleys Subject: Two Steps Back questions the nature of passivity and activism by asking what it means to be British.
The China Live tour will be accompanied by China Live: Reflections on contemporary performance art, a Chinese Arts Centre and Live Art UK bilingual publication including commissioned essays, artists pages and statements, and reflections on the experiences of China and its Performance Art scene by British artists.
For more details and booking information on the China Live programme please contact Arnolfinis Box Office or visit www.arnolfini.org.uk
China Live is financially assisted by Arts Council England.
The China Live publication is financially assisted by British Council Artist Links.
