Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest

As her director’s choice to accompany her film JET LAG, Zheng Lu Xinyuan has chosen the five-part work of an artist which premiered to great acclaim at the Venice Biennale: Yang Fudong’s SEVEN INTELLECTUALS IN A BAMBOO FOREST. In 2003, Yang Fudong made the first part of his groundbreaking nearly five-hour film. Afterwards, a further part was made each year until 2007, each shot in black and white on 35mm film.  Bringing an old Chinese fable up to date, the film is about a group of young, disillusioned city dwellers who have to find a way of dealing with China’s towering capitalist economy. Part 1 begins on the Yellow Mountain, an idealized version of nature that is depicted in countless Chinese watercolor paintings. This is followed by a long journey to self-knowledge that leads through a sealed-off city apartment (Part 2), a farmyard (Part 3), a fishing village (Part 4) and Shanghai’s luxury leisure facilities (Part 5). Questions emerge about the dissonance between men and women, the individual and society, the past and the present, reality and an ideal world. (bik)

With thanks to the Marian Goodman Gallery.