May Festival(2006)

Organizer: Caochangdi Workstation, Beijing Storm
Support: DOEN Foundation Borneoco

Curator's Notes:
In May of 2006, Caochangdi Arts Workstation will celebrate its one-year anniversary. We have chosen to name this year’s exhibition “May” to commemorate this milestone. Within theWorkstation’s framework of “Performance and Image,” this year’s festival showcases works created by young people.

The Performance Space exhibits works created by members of the Young Directors Project. Eight creative projects were chosen out of the applicants to the Project. The creators consist of professional dancers and directors as well as people with no professional training who merely love the arts, including a few people for whom this is their first time to direct their own work. Their backgrounds vary from film directors to architects to editors, among others. The eight projects received small creative grants and rehearsed either at the Workstation or other venues. These works exhibit a diversity of content and style and will be performed twice at the Caochangdi Workstation Theater.

The Image Forum showcases independent documentaries also created by young people. For many of these young creators, this is only their first or second time making a documentary. They come from various professional backgrounds, including freelancers in film and television, designers, and schoolteachers. The subject matter of these works varies as well: One occurs in Heilongjiang Province; one documents a village election in Hubei Province; one records four years of Beijing's 798 Factory Art District events; one explores the hopes, dreams, and love of a man running a pirated DVD enterprise in Shenzhen; one work shows the loony antics of some artists from Henan Province’s Nanyang city. Students from the China Art Academy’s New Media Art Department, students majoring in New Media Art at the Beijing Film Academy, and film majors from the Yunnan Art Institute also contributed documentaries, shorts, and experimental shorts that they have worked on in school.

In addition to the youth showcase, this Image Forum also presents works by villagers from the countryside who used photography and film to document village elections, village self-governance, or daily life in their villages. Finally, we will present documentaries by filmmakers of all ages but whose works nevertheless are in keeping with this year’s celebration of youth.

For this year's festival, we also have arranged lectures on such topics as theater, dance, documentary film, and photography. German choreographer Arco Renz from Belgium will introduce contemporary dance in Belgium. Swiss performance artist Daniel Aschwanden from Austria and German performance curator / critic Peter Stamer will talk about their works. In addition, theater director Zhang Xian will lecture about theater; film producer and critic Zhang Yaxuan will talk about young film creators; experimental film artist and critic Li Zhenhua will talk about the young generation of contemporary Chinese experimental filmmakers and artists; and visual artist and theater director Wang Jianwei will lecture about her multimedia visual art / theater works. German choreographer Arco Renz from Brussels and the Living Dance Studio’s Wen Hui will be hosting workshops and master classes throughout the festival.

Curator: WU Wenguang

Contents
Performance: Young Choreographers
On Bus 300 to Carrefour/"Feng Ying" Experimental Modern Dance Studio
.Gone.exe.../Lin-yun-yan Body Image Experimental Studio
POUR/ He Yufan, Jiang Jun
Q/Void dance studio
Mind the Gap/Atsushi Takita，Yusuke Toyomi
House/Wang Yannan
Fire Bird/Chen Danfeng
Trace/Tian Zhimin

Cinema Forum
Tian Li/Song Tian
Blatant Way/Hu Min
Senior Year/Zhou Hao
Paigu/Gaoming Liu
Dream Walking/Huang Wenhai
Outsiade/Wang Wo
798/Shen Xiaomin
Try to Remember/Zhong Jian
Snippets/Yan Junjie
Student’s short films/New Media Art, China Fine Art Academy, Beijing Film Academy, Yunnan Art Academy,etc.
China Village Documentary Project
Seen and Heard/Jian Yi
Fuck Cinema/Wu Wenguang
Performance video: Rehearse of Report on Body/Living Dance Studio

Performance Workshop
Workshop1: Body & Move/ Wen Hui
Workshop2: Created with Dance/Arco Renz

Lecture
Lecture 1: Contemporary Dance in Belgium/ Arco Renz
Lecture 2: Headroom Project /Daniel Aschwanden & Peter Stamer
Lecture 3:Theatre Hebbel am Ufer- located in Berlin-Kreuzberg/Carena Schlewitt
Lecture 4: My work in Theater/ Zhang Xian
Lecture 5: New Age of Documentary/ Zhang Yaxuan
Lecture 6: New movment of Video Art /Li Zhenhua
Lecture 7: New Media and Theater/ Wang Jianwei

Curators: Wu Wenguang, Wen Hu
Coordinator: Yan Lifang
Projector: Mao Ran
Stage Manager: Zheng Fuming
Teachnica director: Su Ming
Sound/Video: Wen Bin
Light: Wang Wenli
Video editor: Pei Yanfeng
Program editor: Pei Huifeng
Translation: Xiao Fang
Vidoe technician: Xiong Jiang
Teachnican assitants: Wen Dake, Li Chenglong
Assitants: Zhang Yinfeng, Li Chuncui
Volunteers: Li Yongjie, Wang Juanhua

Jury members of "Young Choreorghpers Project":
Wen Hu, Wu Wenguang, Tian Gebing

Conductor of Coaching for "Young Choreorghpers Devoment Project":
Arco Renz


>>Go to Young Choreorghpers Project<<