DETAILS OF LONG MARCH PROJECT in PERFORMA07

Long March Project – The Thunderstorm is Slowly Approaching
The Thunderstorm is Slowly Approaching, by the artist Qiu Zhije, takes the traditional Chinese
dragon dance as a starting point for investigating the pressures to hide national identity
within a ‘host’ culture, in a festive public gathering at Columbia Pavilion in Chinatown,
moving on to the Asian Contemporary Art Fair. The Thunderstorm is Slowly Approaching
includes installation, performance, video, and a ceremonial ten-member dragon dance team
wearing a costume made from camouflage.

Dates: November 10
Time: 12.00 – 14.00 pm at Museum of Chinese in the Americas and Columbia Pavilion; 15.00-17.00 pm
at Asian Contemporary Art Fair at Pier 92.
Co-presented by PERFORMA, Long March Project, and Museum of Chinese in the Americas as
part of PERFORMA07, co- produced by Chambers Fine Art.

Long March Project - Avant-garde
In Long March Project—Avant-Garde, Long March founder and curator Lu Jie; artist and cocurator
(2002) Qiu Zhijie; and artist Ingo Gunther, will introduce Long March Project and
moderate dialogue concerning the implications, desires, and approaches to avant-garde and
performance art in both individual and public contexts. The collaborative end-product of the
workshop will be a physical march, during which participants will walk backwards and in
double-file from the China Institute, through the public lobby of the Museum of Modern Art,
culminating at Times Square.

Artist(s): Long March Collective
Venue: China Institute
Dates: November 11, Time: 10.00-12.30pm (workshop) 13.30-16.30pm (march)
Co-presented by PERFORMA, Long March Project, and China Institute as part of PERFORMA07

Long March Project - Harlem School of New Social Realism
At The Studio Museum in Harlem, international artists and scholars of African and Asian descent
come together to discuss issues of political activism and revolutionary acts in both China and
the United States and the broader global arena. For this event, approximately 20 participants
will gather together for a provocative and performative dialogue to negotiate the possibility of
a new dimension of social realism connected to the production of contemporary art today. Long
March Project—Harlem School of New Social Realism was initiated by artist Gang Zhao in his
home in Harlem during the summer of 2002 and is being expanded for PERFORMA 07.
Artist: Initiated by Gang Zhao, organized by Long March Project

Venue: Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building Plaza, Harlem (opp. Studio Museum)
Dates: November 14, 15.00-17.00pm
Co-presented by PERFORMA, Long March Project, and The Studio Museum in Harlem aspart of
PERFORMA07

Long March Project - In Just a Blink of an Eye
Leading conceptual artist Xu Zhen will produce In Just a Blink of an Eye at the James Cohan
Gallery. Performers, recruited migrants from Chinatown, will seemingly appear in an empty
room, frozen in time and space, and tilted at an impossible angle, as if ready to topple over.
Although an optical illusion, this work serves to create anxiety within the viewer that is at once
exhilarating, as if the viewer has been liberated from constraints of time and space; while also
debilitating in the failure to see the presumed action resolved.

Dates: November 7-10
Co-presented by PERFORMA, Long March Project, and James CohanGallery as part of PERFORMA07
Venues:
Artists: Qiu Zhijie, Gang Zhao, Xu Zhen, and Long March Collective
Curators: Lu Jie and David A.Ross
Associate Curator: Defne Ayas (PERFORMA)
The Studio Museum in Harlem, China Institute, James CohanGallery, Museum
of Chinese in the Americas, public space in Chinatown,Asian Contemporary Art Fair
With thanks to: ALBION,London
Sophia Sheng, New York

LONG MARCH PROJECT
www.longmarchspace.com
Initiated in 1999, and begun in 2002, the Long March Project is a complex, multi-platform,
international arts organization and ongoing art project, that can be simultaneously considered
a curatorial lab; a publishing house; an artistic collection; a meeting place; a gallery space;
a consultancy; a commissioning and production atelier, artistic facilitator, and author. From a
critical distance, all of these avenues of production aim to provocatively construct, and in turn
renew, presumed action and thinking concerning ‘contemporary art’.
China’s revolutionist “Long March” (1934–36) provides the metaphorical framework and
discursive line of enquiry for the creation of a range of different Long March Projects in China
and abroad. In 2002, this monumental 6000-mile journey was physically re-traced by founder
and initiator, Lu Jie, alongside Qiu Zhijie who co-curated this first project titled ‘A Walking Visual
Display’, with the involvement of over 250 local and international artists, writers, and theorists,
Returning to Beijing, Lu Jie formed ‘Long March Space’ which supports an ongoing exploration
by ‘Long Marchers’ across various geographies, discussing ideas of revolutionary memory in a
local context, and collaborating with participants from around the world to reinterpret historical
consciousness and develop new ways of perceiving political, social, economical, and cultural
realities.

For more information on the Long March Project and PERFORMA 07, please visit
www.longmarchspace.com / www.performa-arts.org
Media Contact (Beijing): Long March Space, Alfreda Ka: press@longmarchspace.com
T: +86 10 64387107
Media Contact (New York): FITZ & CO, Dan Tanzilli: dan@fitzandco.com
T: +1 212 627 1455 x226