The Three Gorges Dam Project has changed the life of thousands of people and caused us to reflect. How do we define our relationship with nature? Exhibiting artist Yun-Fei Ji navigates these concerns and our response to them. Curator and critic Zhu Zhu describes Yun-Fei Ji’s approach as one that uses historical memory as a shield to reflect our contemporary world. Together, they will discuss history, truth, reproduction and the recurrent nature of specific issues.

Guests:
Yun-Fei Ji (UCCA exhibiting artist)
Zhu Zhu (poet, curator, art critic)

Yun-Fei Ji (b. 1963, Beijing) addresses historical memory and contemporary developments using the medium of Chinese ink painting. He received his B.F.A from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 1982, followed by an M.F.A from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1989. Ji developed his artistic practice in Brooklyn, New York, but currently lives and works in Beijing. His painterly practice is rooted in travel and observation, and his interests frequently encompass the effects grand infrastructural projects and natural disasters have on normal people. This exhibition collects a number of his major works, including several scroll paintings more than ten meters long, which have never before been seen together. Realized during the past decade, these works mainly deal with human displacement, often adding a mythological dimension to recent happenings. Trained at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Yun-Fei Ji emigrated to the United States in the late 1980s and made his artistic name working in Brooklyn and showing in a thoroughly international context. His painterly lens switches freely between his two homelands, with some works addressing American events such as Hurricane Katrina while others look at the Three Gorges Dam and the North-South Aqueduct. This is his first solo exhibition in Beijing.
Zhu Zhu, poet, art curator and critic. Born in September 1969. He has published a number of poetry anthologies, which have been translated into English, French, Italian, Japanese, and many other languages. He was the recipients of many awards include the Poetry Prize of 2000 given by Shanghai Literature, and the second Anne Kao Poetry Award. He was invited to participate in the international poetry festival of Val-de-Mame in France and the “Spring of Poets” event. His work includes Driving Towards Another Planet (1994), Salt on Withered Grass (2000), Black Smoke (2004, French version translated by Chantal Chen-Andro), Leather Suitcase (2005), an anthology of essays entitled Reel (2000), an anthology of art essays entitled The Stratagem of the Empty City (2005), an anthology of art criticisms entitled Case Studies: Artists in Art Criticism (2008). Exhibitions he has curated include the Yangtze Bridge (2007), Origin: a Survey of the Star Group (2007) and Case Studies: Artists in Art Criticism (2008).