UCCA Beijing

Meridian: UCCA Spring Festival Day Two: Public Performances and Film Screening

2018.2.3
14:00-18:00

Location:  UCCA Nave, UCCA Auditorium

In celebration of the upcoming Spring Festival and the transition to the new year, UCCA presents a series of performances, talks, and workshops featuring artists who have reshaped our understanding of traditional Asian art.

Meridian takes its title from Traditional Chinese Medicine’s model of a body crisscrossed by channels that transport qi and blood, an alternative to Western anatomy which continues to be used today. Rather than understanding traditional art mediums as relics, we might view them as a network of intersecting past, present and future concerns. For this three-day festival, members of the public are invited to join artists and performers to explore the novel possibilities of traditional mediums, reexamining their assumptions about these mediums, learning about the ways in which traditional techniques are used in contemporary art, and mapping out the development of these art forms within varying spatial and temporal contexts.

The second day of the festival features two free public performances featuring Japanese calligrapher Mami, Japanese Shamisen musician Sakata Atsushi aka Tokyo Ghetto Shamisen, the Far Wind Chamber Music Ensemble, and a screening of Kevin Macdonald’s documentary Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang.

Schedule

2.3 (Sat) 14:00-15:00 Public Performance: Brush and Strings

2.3 (Sat) 15:30-17:00 Documentary Screening Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang

2.3 (Sat) 17:00-18:00 Public Performance: Brush and Strings

Public Performance: Brush and Strings

Type of Event: Performances

Location: UCCA Nave

Times: 14:00-15:00, 17:00-18:00

Event Introduction:
UCCA presents two free public performances featuring Japanese calligrapher Mami, Japanese Shamisen musician Sakata Atsushi aka Tokyo Ghetto Shamisen, and the Far Wind Chamber Music Ensemble. Brush and Strings, the title of the performance, refers to the East Asian stringed instruments and calligraphy featured therein, hinting at the new possibilities emerging from the collaboration of these traditional art and musical forms and allowing audience members to discover both how they have evolved both in and beyond East Asia.

Language: n/a

Ticketing: Free

*Seating is limited; ticket-holders for Sky Ladder and the current exhibition enjoy priority seating;
*Please keep mobile devices on silent.

Performers

Mami (Calligrapher)
Mami (b. 1990) began learning calligraphy at the age of nine, going on to major in it in at Daito University. After graduating, she began to develop her unique style, a fusion of the visual linguistic art of Shodo, Japanese calligraphy, and graffiti. She now participates in more than 80 events a year in hopes of introducing the world of Shodo to others, as well as creating paintings and other visual art.

Sakata Atsushi aka Tokyo Ghetto Shamisen (Shamisen Musician)
Sakata Atsushi aka Tokyo Ghetto Shamisen is a contemporary Japanese musician whose free-spirited style offsets the traditional Japanese shamisen he plays. A student of the renowned musician, Takahashi Chikuzan, he transforms typical shamisen melodies into contemporary music whose distinctly rhythmic quality resonates deeply with listeners. Sakata integrates experiences from his daily life into his work, and often takes inspiration from, and performs in, natural settings. He frequently collaborates with creative figures from other fields, creating cross-disciplinary work that appears on nontraditional stages.

Far Wind Chamber Music Ensemble
The Far Wind Chamber Music Ensemble was established in March 2014 by students from the departments of conducting and folk music at the Central Conservatory of Music. The ensemble’s mission is to explore the possibilities of unifying music and stage performance, promoting and collaborating with young modern Chinese composers, and incorporating various types of folk music into their performances.

Li Liangzi (Zheng Musician)
Li Liangzi graduated with a Master’s from the Central Conservatory of Music, and currently teaches at the South-Central University for Nationalities. She has performed both traditional and contemporary zheng works, and is acclaimed for her blend of power and poeticism.

Li Cangxiao (Erhu Musician)
Li Cangxiao is a MFA candidate majoring in erhu at the Central Conservatory of Music, coached by Professor Yu Hongmei, a prominent erhu player and dean of the Department of Chinese Traditional Music at the Central Conservatory of Music. Li has performed in numerous solo and ensemble concerts, including The First Erhu Concerto: Cang Xie and Li Linjiang, and has been invited to participate in music festivals at home and abroad. Li Cangxiao won the silver medal for CCTV’s National Instrumental Music Competition, the top prize at the first “Dunhuang Cup” National erhu Competition, bronze medal for the China Golden Bell Award Erhu Contest, and two top performance awards for a competition held among music schools by the Ministry of Culture.

Liu Fanhe (Pipa Musician)
Liu Fanhe studies pipa in the graduate program at the Central Conservatory of Music. As both a soloist and member of ensembles, she has been invited to perform in numerous music festivals and concerts in countries including Germany, Austria, Denmark, America, France, and Costa Rica. She has performed alongside the Costa Rican National Symphony Orchestra, Denver Symphony Orchestra, and the China Youth Symphony Orchestra, among others. Her performance has earned her first prizes in the 2016 Hong Kong Art Festival’s solo performance category, the First National Instrumental Music Competition, and the American “Flying Cup” National Instrumental Music Competition. In 2015, Liu’s first solo album of modern pipa music was released by Universal Music Press, which included her in their CCOM Young Performers Series.

Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang

Event Type: Screening

Time: 15:30-17:00

Location: UCCA Auditorium

Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Runtime: 76 minutes
Genre: Documentary
Country: China/USA
Language: Chinese, English
Subtitles: Chinese with Chinese and English subtitles
Synopsis: Told through the artist's own words and those of family, friends and vigilant observers, Sky Ladder captures the work and life of the Cai Guo-Qiang, whose frequent use of gunpowder serves as both an ancestral homage and an acknowledgement of humanity's fleeting nature. Cai engineers ambitious, large-scale artworks that transcend physical permanence, etching themselves into the viewer’s memory. Sky Ladder also looks at the reasons behind Cai’s meteoric rise to fame and the widespread appeal of his art.

Language:
Chinese with Chinese and English subtitles

Ticketing:
40 RMB/Adult
30 RMB/UCCA member

*Enjoy UCCA Member ticket prices with the purchase of a yearly membership card (RMB 300);
*Collect your ticket from reception 30 minutes before the event begins;
*Please no late entry;
*Seating is limited, and tickets must be collected individually;
*Please keep mobile devices on silent.

Ticketing QR Code

180203天梯购票码

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Special Thanks to

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