Lilong

Lilong is a low-rise housing pattern, typical of Shanghai. Characterized by a strong sense of neighbourhood and cohesiveness, this typology of estate, made of two or more blocks of flats with an inner courtyard, has been the prevalent choice of Shanghai inhabitants until 1949. But today, as the city's urban restyling is in full force, the Lilong is quickly disappearing forcing its inhabitants to use public parks for daily physical exercise, variations on Thai Chi and traditional singing.

As these social activities are performed mainly by elderly people, parks become also stages for fragmented “solo” performances. The video LILONG is a peculiar collection of individual portraits, of ambiguous repetitive gestures, shadowed by images of high-rise buildings and bird’s eye views of playgrounds. Whether or not these images are a realist representation of common individual workout, at the same time, they suggest a sense of loss and isolation, confinement and detachment.

Produced as part of a residency at China Academy of Art.

2011 + RENAISSANCE ARTS PRIZE + UK + SHORTLISTED

2010 + SALON VIDEO PRIZE + UK + SHORTLISTED

EXHIBITIONS AND SCREENINGS

2014 + Projekt - Whitechapel Road - London - UK

2012 + ETHNOGRAPHIC TERMINALIA 2011: MONTRÉAL

Eastern Bloc Centre for New Media and Interdisciplinary Art + Montreal + CA

curated by Fiona McDOnald and the Ethnographic Terminalia Collective

2012 + LILONG + Galleria Murat 122 + Bari + IT

curated by Fiona McDonald

2011 + GRAY GARDENS + 25th European Media Art Festival + Osnabrueck + DE

screening curated by Florian Wuest

2011 + THE HEROISM OF VISION +Italian Cultural Institute + London + UK

2011 + SOUVENIRS FROM EARTH + Satellite TV Broadcast + FR / DE

2011 + FACADE VIDEO FESTIVAL + Center for Contemporary Art + Plovdiv - PL

2011 + BLIND SPOT SKOPJE + CreAKTive Cultural Centre + Skopje + MACEDONIA

2010 + CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION + Chelsea College of Art and Design - UK

2010 + LONDON SALON VIDEO PRIZE + Matt Roberts Project Space + London + UK

2009 + STREAMING FESTIVAL + La Hague + NL

2009 + NAMA.TRE PART III - Gallery of Fine Arts Academy Trebinje, Open Air cinema and Town Theatre of Trebinje + Trebinje + BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA

2009 + DURATION:LONDON + Candid Arts Trust + London + UK

2009 + Fu Festival + Galerie O L G A + Wuppertal + DE