Some Random Notes on Filmmaking, Art, Music, and Identity

I just watched a great film on that very subject, the Banksy documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop" about the underground filmmaker Thierry Guetta (if you can call him that--film collector is more accurate) who turned his obsession for filming street artists into a career as a "street artist."  I wonder if people who film documentaries about artists aren't themselves aspiring to be the artist in the film.  Of course we can all agree that Jia Zhangke is already an accomplished "artist," in that the films he makes have an artistic quality to them. 

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Excavating China's Collective Unconscious: Some Good Contemporary Chinese Art Shows at Shanghai's Moganshan Art District

JJ's show opened on Sept 6 and I was there to witness his performance piece called "water".  This involved the projection of several historical photos of famous Chinese political figures, including of course Chairman Mao, on a blank wall while JJ used water and a large brush to paint images on the wall.  These images faded along with the projections and were then written over or juxtaposed with each other to form a watery impression of recent Chinese history.  He used water as a motif throughout the performance, painting waves and also projecting images of waves on the wall along with the historic figures.  

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The Ullens Center and Chinese New Wave Art from the 1980s

Last night I attended the opening party for the new Ullens Center in the 798 Arts District in Beijing.  The Ullens Center takes up a large factory space across from the bookstore/cafe Timezone 8.  It has been nicely renovated and painted in white.  The center functions as a museum and knowledge center for Chinese arts, showcasing the Ullens collection. 

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All of Shanghai Under one Roof

One of the highlights of my week was seeing the play “Under a Shanghai Roof” 上海屋檐下, written by the famous playwright Xia Yan 夏衍 （1900－1995).  Xia Yan, ne Shen 沈乃熙， was born in the Zhejiang city of Hangzhou.  He took part in the May Fourth demonstrations in 1919 and traveled to Japan in 1920 to study, where like so many other young idealistic Chinese students, he was introduced to Marxist theory.  He joined the Guomindang in 1924 and after the “failed revolution” of 1927 he entered the Communist Party. 

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