Yang Fudong, Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest and Other Stories

The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece presents an exhibition by internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Yang Fudong. The exhibition, which will run from 11 May to to 5 September 2010, will include the complete five-part epic cinematic cycle Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest (2003-2007), the recent six-channel video installation East of Que Village (2007), the monumental 10-channel video installation Close to the Sea (2004), as well as the earlier film Liu Lan (2003).

Fudong creates films, videos and photographs full of psychological tension and melancholy that touch upon subjects related to the rapid transformation of Chinese society in recent years through stories of love and individual struggle. His works always involve a vague narrative and his unforgettable images, sometimes artfully photographed in 35mm cinematographic film, allude to Chinese cinema of the '30s - '40s, as well as to French Nouvelle Vague.

Yang Fudong in his elaborately positioned multi-screen video installations that make it impossible for the viewer to watch all strands of the same story that unfold simultaneously, the artist allows for a unique and personal experience of every work. In his major work, the cycle of Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, Fudong draws inspiration from the 3rd century Chinese tale of the seven sages in the bamboo grove, according to which seven wise men, tired from the intrigues of the imperial court, withdraw to a private space in order to think and create. Similarly, Fudong's seven young intellectuals, symbols of a new ambiguous social class, are depicted wandering, nonchalantly and dreamily, within a marginal space of their own actions and personal pursuits. It is a work that summarises the clash of cultural values in contemporary China, where the old way of living still persists alongside the immense economic, technological and infrastructural advances this country has seen in the last few decades.

Don't miss the exhibition Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest and Other Stories by the Chinese artist Yang Fudong at National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece.