It is difficult to imagine that a remote city deep in the Nanling karst mountains could become host of an unmissable international photography festival, while eventually becoming China’s first publicly funded museum of its type. It is a four-hour drive from the metropolis of Guangzhou, but hopefully a high-speed train from Guangzhou will be build within 3-4 years time, which will facilitate a more enjoyable commute.
Lianzhou Foto Festival – since its establishment in 2005 – has had a unique presence within the many other Chinese photography festivals. Founded by the Chinese photography expert Duan Yuting, the festival and the Lianzhou Museum of Photography (opened in 2017 in collaboration with the French curator François Cheval) is the annual rendezvous for both international and local photographic circles. Trying to find an appropriate topic of discussion for each edition, the festival’s mission is to investigate the significance and impact of photography in the era of globalization, to promote photography through a platform of exchange between Chinese and foreign photography professionals, and to foster the development of contemporary Chinese photography. But far from being merely dedicated to festivalgoers, the museum hopes to foster local people to take part in educational events throughout the year. In doing so, the festival has been an important driver of the rejuvenation of the city of Lianzhou, and the brand new museum has turned into a milestone in the city’s development.
This year’s 15th-anniversary theme is titled “A chance for the Unpredictable”. Curated by Director/Curator of Fotostiftung Schweiz (Swiss Foundation for Photography) Peter Pfrunder, it brings together over 70 international artists whose selected works pay homage to photography and explore the uncontrollable aspects that leave traces in an image. The materiality of the photographic image as well as technical experiments appear to be a thread that runs throughout a fair number of exhibitions. Artists play around notions of analogue and digital, rethinking the meanings and functionality of the medium. Below is a brief summary of the main venues and events we saw during the opening week.
This area is composed of several former rice warehouses. In fact as a rice-producing prefecture, Lianzhou’s farmers used to sell their rice to Guangzhou. The curators took over a succession of rather raw spaces, some with rounded shape walls with high roofs supported by wooden posts, echoing the material explorations of some works.
Pfrunder’s theme exhibition invites the viewer through four unidentified chapters. The first group of artists include into the process of creation automatic camera systems, originally developed for surveillance and control. The works of Alex Hanimann (b. 1955 in Mörschwil, Switzerland) provide a conceptual anchor for the event. Alex Hanimann’s series “Trapped” is based on snapshots showing wild animals such as apes, deers, hares, tigers, wolves or elephants, frozen in a state of shock, as they were captured through automatically triggered “camera traps”. Suddenly exposed to the camera, mostly at night, the animals seem to behave like human beings, and they engage the observer in a kind of dialogue through their looks and gestures.
The second group reminds us of ancient techniques of photography, or the times in which the production of images was an adventure and the outcome unpredictable. For instance, Ester Vonplon (b in 1980 in Switzerland) employs an old Cello x Paper kept in the dark for more than 100 years in order to capture the rare natural places that are still intact and pristine (two primeval forests in Switzerland). Another example is Seba Kurtis (b. in Argentina in 1974), who considers the hazardous landscape of immigration in several series using differing techniques: throwing the negatives into the sea, using glitter to visually trace and translate quantitative information, or operating detection system to generate abstract photographic case study.
A third group works with strong concept to leave some space for coincidences and random results, appropriating images found in flea markets, in magazines, in family albums or in the Internet. The fourth group of artists rely on their intuition, using the camera to explore the world without preconceived images. Working as a sort of visual mediation, these artists do not know where and when their project will end, delivering the unpredictable aspect of life. Ji Zhou (b. in 1970 in Beijing), as an illustration, takes pictures of a place, ranging from public parks to greenhouses, at different times and alternative angles. Then, he disassembles these images into fragments and recombines them into a collage to show the integration of time and space. He intentionally chooses locations such as greenhouse and public parks for their ambiguity in artificiality and nature. His interpretation of these composite sites through the approach of collage further enhances the fragmentations of reality.
As Pfrunder explained: “Appropriation, intuition, intervention, coincidence, conceptual destabilisation, unexpected findings, uncontrollable reactions, and the magic of the material: these are some key notions that are common ground to the different approaches.”
The Shoe factory is a stunning old manufacturing complex fully appropriated by local inhabitants, who rush into the rooms with great enthusiasm and take pictures of themselves in front of artworks. This venue unveils a great variety of international and (mostly) local practitioners, including amateur photographers active in local camera clubs. Despite the energetic atmosphere and the diversity of subjects, we remained rather perplexed by the unbalanced level of artworks and curatorial treatment compared to other venues.
Yet a special mention should go to Zhang Yuming, Li Lin, and Mu Ge (b. in Chongqing in 1979) and his series “Behind the Great Wall”, in which he records the 128,658 kilometres he has travelled beyond his hometown in China. In his series "Cultural Wall", Zhang documents large-scale and colourful painted walls adorned with political meanings that have taken over his hometown, a poor and remote countryside. This kind of decorated walls or fences can be seen everywhere in China; they are an integral part of the visual culture. Here Zhang contrasts the overly positive political slogans with the actual living conditions of inhabitants. In doing so, he calls into question the value and functionality of such cultural walls, and the issues surrounding the representation of reality in China.
As for Li Lin (b. in Shandong Province in 1974), he probes into the relationship between images and collective memory. A mixture of contemporary and historical images (belonging to his father and his father’s relatives) unveils the forgotten story of a farm where his dad was sent in his youth. It corresponded to the moment when Mao Zedong decided (from the 1950s onwards) to send thousands of landlords, intellectuals, rich farmers, counter-revolutionaries, and prisoners amongst others to be re-educated in the countryside. Today this farm has become a “development zone” and has faced almost complete demolition in 2018. This series fuels the debate on historical amnesia in today’s China.
Established in the heart of the old city, Lianzhou Museum of Photography combines sleek modern design with local architectural elements. It comprises a succession of imbricated spaces and winding walkways; a maze-like structure where one could easily get lost.
The festival coincides with the unveiling of the museum’s four winter exhibitions: French Denis Darzacq’s “Prey for the Shadows”, Chinese duo Birdhead’s “Welcome to the Birdhead World Again”, Chinese Zhang Xiao’s “Apple”, and Indian female artist Sukanya Ghosh’s “Repairing the Work of Time”. While following the guided tour of the museum with French co-director François Cheval, he has emphasised the fact that they are now capable of producing museum quality prints and handcrafted frames, all done locally (Guangdong and Shenzhen). Besides in accordance with their constant striving to promote contemporary photography, they do not only publish an exhibition catalogue but also individual volumes for each artist displayed at the museum.
To Cheval, it feels like they have created “a useful tool” with "first and foremost a pedagogic role.” This year outcome “remains largely positive in spite of certain constraints.” Indeed while it previous years the festival was greatly affected by the suppression of some works, this year it seems fair to say that only a few artworks were withdrawn. This is the case of one picture by Zhang Xiao (b. in 1981 in Yantai) showing a polluted watering place. Fortunately, this removal did not disturb the overall narrative: enquire into the absurdity generated in the rapidly developing China by focusing on the production of apples in his hometown in Yantai.
Some artists were luckier than others, though. Angolan artist Delio Jasse was not able to display his works at all, but he had the chance to showcase them in a slideshow during one of the projections at night. The issues surrounding the compliance to regulations in China are a reality; we believe that it should neither reduce to silence nor overstated.
Chinese artists have an “innate sense of the periphery” says Cheval, which enable them to constantly use metaphor. This notion is particularly visible in Zhang Xiao’s photograph of fake plastic and perfect shaped apples hung in real apple trees by all villagers during winter. Instead of capturing frontally his disagreement over the side effects of apple industrialization, he creates a performative photograph that comments on the rural status quo in China.
“This museum is a bridge, a new platform for exchange” explains Cheval, and artists are invited to appropriate the venue to create exclusive artworks, such as Darzacq’s “choreographed” videos shot with local amateur dancers, and Birdhead’s installations (which we will talk about later this week).
The opening week has ended with announcements of the 2019 prizes. The jury was composed of an international panel of judges, including Lianzhou Museum co-directors Duan and Cheval, independent arts curator and publisher Yumi Goto, Director of PhotoEspaña Alejandro Castellot, Bao Dong, Hai Jie and managing editor of Art in America Richard Vine.
This year prizes include the Punctum Award (40 000 CNY, 5 100 €) given to Li Lang for his series “A Long Day of A Certain Year”. This photographic installation encompasses pictures he systematically took out of the window while on a round trip on a high-speed train across China.
The Jury Special Prize (10 000 CNY, 1 300 €) was given to Bénédicte Kurzen and Sanne de Wilde for their collaborative photographic project discovering the mythology of twinhood in Nigeria.
And finally Chen Ronghui won the Youth Award for his series “Freezing Land”. This prize dedicated to one young artist under the age of 35 allowed him to also win 10 000 CNY, 1 300 €. Chen is a young Chinese photographer born in 1989. He works for "Sixth Tone," an online English-language media outlet based in Shanghai. In the “Freezing Land” series, which is on view at the Granary, he pays tribute to the millennials of the frozen and forgotten regions of northern China.
Overall this year’s festival confirms that Lianzhou Foto is an edgy event that puts quality over quantity. It was and remains a unique springboard for emerging Chinese artists to launch their career internationally, while providing foreign photographers – and curators – the chance to connect with the local scene.
More information:LIANZHOU FOTO FESTIVALA Chance for the UnpredictableNovember 30, 2019 - January, 3 2019www.lianzhoufoto.com
LIANZHOU MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY WINTER EXHIBITIONSNovember 30, 2019 - April 5, 2020Lianzhou Museum of Photography, 120 Zhongshan South Road, Lianzhou, Guangdongwww.lmop.org.cn/en
