Public Programming
SUMMER PROGRAMME III: ALL DAY FILM SCREENING AND CONVERSATIONS
Asymmetry, 102a Albion Drive, London E8 4LY
12-7PM, 08.07.2023
12-1PM, 'The Woman Carrying a Basin Over Her Head‘ (Leung Chi Wo + Sara Wong, 2023, 9’10”)
Screening followed by a conversation with the artists and Nick Yu, Head of Programme
Commissioned by the Asia Culture Center (ACC), Gwangju, Leung Chi Wo + Sara Wong have produced a short film that appropriates a photograph by Kim Ki-Chan (1938-2005), a work from the ACC Archive. In this photograph, four women walk with a basin on their heads in an alley near the bustling Seoul Station in 1970. This way of carrying basins was used to facilitate people in carrying items in crowded streets and demonstrates the body's movement that adapts and changes with the structural forces of the city. The figures’ static gestures in the photograph are re-played by another woman (Park So Young) born many years later, showing the inextricable encounter between individuals and the prevailing socio-historical systems behind their lives as women.
1-2PM, LUNCH BREAK
2PM, Short Films by He Xiaopei
Screening followed by Zoom conversation with director He Xiaopei, and Rachel Be-Yun Wang, Curatorial Research Fellow at Chisenhale Gallery
'Polyamorous Family', 2010, 26'
In this early film, the artist interviews her own polyamorous family, which holds together people of different places and spectrum of skin colours, black, white, yellow, and brown. The director and her family talks about love and jealousy, sexuality and desire, and all the joys and challenges of being in a family.
'The Lucky One', 2011, 36'
The artist interviews an HIV-positive woman in China with only a few months left, who leaves a record of her life history and audio diaries, ultimately revealing her hidden desires and final wishes.
5PM, 'Safe Distance' (dir. by Jamie Chi, 2022, 32’)
Screening followed by a conversation with director Jamie Chi, producer Qiu Bai, and Junko Asano
In the first chapter of a multi-part documentary project documenting the lives of queer Chinese in the UK, Safe Distance delves into the life of Qiubai, the first LGBTQ+ activist who challenged the Chinese Ministry of Education in court over homophobic textbooks. Covering Qiubai’s activism in mainland China and in the UK, Chi’s intimate film-portrait explores how the Sinophone queer community positions themselves in different regions and cultures, especially during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
FREE ENTRY, TICKET HERE
BIOGRAPHY
Leung Chi Wo and Sara Wong have been collaborating since 1992. Having graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the artists co-founded the independent art space Para Site in Hong Kong in 1996. From 1999 to 2000, Leung and Wong participated in a residency in New York, where they premiered City Cookie, their first widely exhibited project, as part of a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council. Their Museum of the Lost series was presented in the Aichi Triennale, Nagoya and Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, Niigata, as well as institutions including SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah and National Museum, Singapore. In 2021, they were artists-in-residence at Delfina Foundation in London. The duo maintained their individual practice throughout the years, including their participation in Hong Kong’s first pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale, residency at MoMA PS1 in New York, and more.
Dr. He Xiaopei is an indie film director and executive director of Pink Space (粉色空间). Spending her teenage years as a shepherd in the mountains, He joined the Chinese Mountaineering Team after University and reached the Namcha Barwa summit in the Himalayas. She later entered the State Council as an economist and conducted economic reforms research for 14 years. From the 1990s, He devoted herself to the feminist and lesbian movement in China and took part in the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. Upon completing her Ph.D. in sexuality and cultural studies in the UK, she returned to China to set up Pink Space, a Beijing-based NGO dedicated to promoting sexual rights and gender equality through representation of marginalised desires and lives in moving images.
Rachel Be-Yun Wang works in curating and art-making, with a practice that involves exhibition, written, and studio production. Her current interests include methods of exhibition and dissemination, new media art, environmental humanities, and archival narratives. She has been involved in exhibition projects such as the Beijing Art and Technology Biennale: Synthetic Ecology (798CUBE, 2022), Ever Archive: The Publications and Publication Projects of Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serralves Foundation, 2022), and Material Tales: The Life of Things (Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, 2021). Rachel has guest lectured at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China, produced multiple publications and vitrine exhibitions with the Hans Ulrich Obrist Publication Archive, and pursues independent writing and artistic practice.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Jamie Chi (she/they) is a Filipino Chinese filmmaker.After graduating with an MA in Cultural Studies from the Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France, Chi studied experimental filmmaking at the University of the Philippines Diliman and joined the Ricky Lee Scriptwriting Workshop at the Cinemalaya Institute. Her documentary Safe Distance: Chapter 1won the Short Film Audience Award at the 33rd Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, while her current filmScorpion Grassis shortlisted for the 17th Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival local competition.Chi is also the co-founder and programme development lead of Queer China UK.
Qiuyan Chen (she/her) aka Qiubai is a Chinese LGBTQ+ activist and socially engaged artist. In 2015-17, she pursued three lawsuits against the Chinese Ministry of Education over homophobic textbooks and continued to advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusive education through various creative means. After moving to the UK, she founded Queer China UK, a community organisation that provides a safe space for Chinese LGBTQ+ diaspora and allies. In recent years, Chen has created many activities with her community network, including Queer Chinese Art Festival, queering Chinatown zine making workshops, Decolonising queer tour in Chinese at the British Museum, and ‘Drag up!’ project.