Introduction to the Exhibition

Li Zhenhua

Translated by Laura H

Every work in this exhibition is a means of communication, a way of expressing information. It's as when a dancer takes to the stage in full costume and make-up and is granted the freedom to indulge in performance. In this case, we transcend the boundaries of gender, are free to experience the clash between modern and traditional ideals, through the exploration of homosexuality and beyond. It is an exercise in the evolution of conceived notions of morality, or gender, and of sexuality and an extension of our basic truths - an intuitive sense of meaning and understanding. Like a dancer in costume, like a performer on the stage, the meaning is implicit, the emotion intuitively felt.

Cui Zien has worked to systematically transmit homosexuality through his art. In a sense, his works are a summary of homosexuality, threaded together through movies and literature all expressing Cui Zien's inner-most aspirations - that homosexuality will be seen as normal, and to address directly love and sex within the bounds of homosexuality. By viewing his work, we will follow the development and the path of homosexuality and the way society's standards have changed to the point that homosexuality is accepted today.

The International Short Film Festival is a touring exhibit, set to visit Guangzhou, Shanghai, and now Beijing. All of the films included in the exhibit are means for expressing information, communicating. Similar in medium and sense to the Internet - an arbitrary connecting and meeting - this film festival brings together short films from around the world, each sharing vivid imagery from home, each conveying visual information about where they have come from. All of the films could be considered compressions of the spirit and intense feelings are evoked, simply in viewing the films. This form of communication is short, yet extremely powerful.

Why this Exhibition?

For a long time, I've looked for some sort of sensory stimulation, something to move me. This yearning is not premeditated - it is just a need to "see" and to feel - to understand something instantly and intensely - to experience a reflex emotion and revel in the intensity of it. The anticipation of the novelty of the type of reaction, and of a transformation cannot be materialized by simply hosting an exhibit or an event that can give a temporary rush of adrenaline. This is more of a mind game, a brain teaser. To yearn for this does of course does effect and change the psyche and the soul. Over time, everything comes to have meaning - your mind comes to sense everything. It is at this point that a breakthrough is needed, as if suddenly your physical being can take no more - as if your stomach is in spasm, or the pain from a monthly period, or the intense sorrow after one makes love. The pain is beyond fears and risks that you can control, that are logical to you.

I became interested and aware of homosexuality issues in 1998 when I read Li Yinhe's writings. At that point, I was very much moved, very much affected by his words. I became increasingly interested in the struggles of homosexuals, the inner most feelings and the creative nature, and was driven to explore the topic in depth. But I discovered that sexuality was not as straight and narrow as I had first anticipated, it wasn't just about men liking men, or men liking women, or women liking women - but that it goes beyond gender and is more about an observation and appreciation of beauty. I want to thank SARS for the time and peace I have been awarded so that I am able to bring together many of my ideas together in this project and the opportunity to meet with Qiu Zhijie and create this exhibition. It was in this time of quiet and retrospection that I thought upon Cui Zien's film and I was overcome with the plan to bring the International Short Film festival to Beijing, originally only scheduled to tour Shanghai and Guangzhou. I also thought to bring dance into the exhibit and invite a dancer to perform, whom I have long respected and admired. If it had not been for the time granted for me to think, to conceive this collaboration of talent, this exhibition would not be happening today. This exhibition is my opportunity to live out my dreams, my plans. My hopes are that the atmosphere at the event will be a relaxed one - friends having a drink, communicating openly. Art is my escape from loneliness, an excuse to escape. This excuse is brilliant and white, dangling in from of me. And when the night comes, my excuse disappears, my soul and spirit begin to see, and seek primal desire, but before I know it, it is light again. In my hand I have a wine glass, but in it there is already no drink.

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