ZHENCHEN LIU
This is a stop motion video, where one step of a walk around Shanghai equals one click. “La Marche” depicts the city at night through the point of view of the artist Zhenchen Liu. You see how the lights dance across the streets giving you the impression that the video is in some sort a fast forward vortex that is never going to stop.
The constant vibrations can even be heard in the sound composition of Bernd Schurer, which accompanies the video. All of a sudden the music stops or rather reverses itself. The buzzing turns off, when the turtle wakes up. This symbol of slowness in the middle of the frenzy of Shanghai imposes a kind of necessity. The deployment of the animal, shown in detail before our eyes recalls the foundations of the naturalistic chronophotography of the 19th century. Zhenchen Liu buckles the loop of this social and political portrait which resembles those of Paris made by Charles Baudelaire. The contemporary artist, like the poet, sensitive to the mutations of modernity, shows us that “the form of a city changes faster, alas! Than the heart of a mortal”.
Zhenchen Liu born in 1976, lives and works between Shanghai, Paris and Hamburg. He studied painting and video at the Fine Arts College of the University of Shanghai and the Villa Arson, National Superior School of Arts in Nice. Liu’s art focuses mainly on moving images and video installations all centered around the postmodern urban experience.
In recent years, he has received numerous awards and presented his films and installations in various festivals such as Locarno Film Festival, Oberhausen Film Festival and Nuit Blanche in Paris. You can also find his work in the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
This is a stop motion video, where one step of a walk around Shanghai equals one click. “La Marche” depicts the city at night through the point of view of the artist Zhenchen Liu. You see how the lights dance across the streets giving you the impression that the video is in some sort a fast forward vortex that is never going to stop.
The constant vibrations can even be heard in the sound composition of Bernd Schurer, which accompanies the video. All of a sudden the music stops or rather reverses itself. The buzzing turns off, when the turtle wakes up. This symbol of slowness in the middle of the frenzy of Shanghai imposes a kind of necessity. The deployment of the animal, shown in detail before our eyes recalls the foundations of the naturalistic chronophotography of the 19th century. Zhenchen Liu buckles the loop of this social and political portrait which resembles those of Paris made by Charles Baudelaire. The contemporary artist, like the poet, sensitive to the mutations of modernity, shows us that “the form of a city changes faster, alas! Than the heart of a mortal”.
Zhenchen Liu born in 1976, lives and works between Shanghai, Paris and Hamburg. He studied painting and video at the Fine Arts College of the University of Shanghai and the Villa Arson, National Superior School of Arts in Nice.
Liu’s art focuses mainly on moving images and video installations all centered around the postmodern urban experience.
In recent years, he has received numerous awards and presented his films and installations in various festivals such as Locarno Film Festival, Oberhausen Film Festival and Nuit Blanche in Paris. You can also find his work in the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.