An Afternoon with Li Xiaofei and The Assembly Line Project
An Afternoon with Li Xiaofei and The Assembly Line Project 《流水线项目系列录像》
Friday, April 27 at 3:00 pm
Michelson Theater
721 Broadway, 6th Floor
Artist Li Xiaofei will screen a series of his video works from his ongoing project “Assembly Line” and feature in a post-screening panel discussion with Zoe Meng Jiang (Ph.d student, Cinema Studies) and Ellen Zweig (artist), moderated by Zhen Zhang (Director of Asian Film & Media Initiative).
“Assembly Line” (2010-ongoing) consists of videos documenting labor and its condition in more than 160 factories from different parts of the world. Operating in between modes of video art and film, the artist resists temptations of narrative and highlights different ways of perceiving workers. Each of Li’s exhibition is a unique permutation exploring elements in and between videos, consistently questioning the relation between spaces of image production and commodity production.
Presented by the Asian Film and Media Initiative. Free and open to the public.
Artist Biography
李消非，1973年出生于中国湖南，毕业于广州美术学院油画系，现居住、工作在上海和纽约。曾获纽约亚洲文化协会（2010）和瑞典IASPIS艺术家基金（2013），李消非从2010年开始创作“流水线项目”，该项目是一种与当下的社会进程和社会变迁联系在一起的实践过程。他进行了大量的实地调研和拍摄，用切片的影像和断裂的叙述等方式，探讨人在高度系统化和体制化的环境里的一个现实处境。
李消非的作品曾参加第四届和第六届深港城市\建筑双城双年展(2013、2017)、第五届波兰波茨南双年展（2016）、第八届柏林双年展(2014)、第十届上海双年展(2014)、第六十届奥伯豪森国际短片电影节(2014)、第五届日本Nakanojo双年展(2015)、挪威巴伦支艺术节（2015）、第三届台湾国际录像艺术展(2012)等国际大展。曾在旧金山现代艺术博物馆（SF MoMA）、奥尔布赖特·诺克斯美术馆、首尔国立美术馆、上海当代博物馆、上海外滩美术馆等地展出。
Born in China (Hunan) in 1973, Li Xiaofei lives in Shanghai and New York. He graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Li has been the recipient of grants and awards from multiple organizations, including the Iaspis International Residency Grant, Stockholm, Sweden (2013),The Sovereign Foundation Fellowship of the Asian Cultural Council, New York, USA (2011).
The “Assembly Line” is an ongoing series of works, which was initiated in 2010 by Li Xiaofei. It is a practice which is related to the process of social change in not only China but on a global scale. Li Xiaofei has been exploring what lies beyond the orderly-ness of the assembly line, the capitalist factory, consumer society, social progress and social mores—the reality of the people living in a highly systematic and institutionalized environment.
Li's work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions internationally, including: Seven Necessities—An Assembly Line Project by Li Xiaofei, OCAT Xi’An, China (2017); 5. Mediations Biennale Poznań, Poland (2016); 2013 and 2017 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, Shenzhen，China (2013, 2017) ; “OVERTIME: THE ART OF WORK”, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, U.S.A (2015); Barents Spektakel 2015”, Kirkenes, Norway (2015); The 10th Shanghai Biennale (2014); The 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2014); 60th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2014); “Descriptive Acts”, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2012); “Melancholy in Progress, 2012 Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition (2012).
For more info see: http://www.lixiaofei.org
"Sofa" (2017, 13 min 47 sec.)
About the Panelists
Zoe Meng Jiang is a Ph.D. candidate at NYU Cinema Studies. Her current research focuses on the dynamics between documentary and art. Her writings have appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, Artforum China, LEAP, Indiewire, Chinese Independent Cinema, among others.
Ellen Zweig is a media artist and writer. She has been working in film and video since the late 90s, creating videos and video installations. Since 2007, she has been working on an homage to the documentary filmmaker Joris Ivens and his last film, “Une Histoire du Vent," filming as Ivens did in China. From 2007-2013, she documented Z'EV's concerts, collecting and editing materials for the feature length video, "Heart Beat Ear Drum," her first documentary feature.
Zhen Zhang is Director of the Asian Film and Media Initiative in the Department of Cinema Studies.