Seven rarely seen, short films by Yang Fudong were screened at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing on May 28, 2010. Curator Li Zhenhua and Zhang Yaxuan introduced the films which span over 12 years and explore Yang Fudong’s artistic approach to film. Please click here for more information about the screening.

The works screened included:

After All I Didn’t Force You 1998, 2′30″
“After All I Didn’t Force You” (1998), are implicitly a reaction to the forms of individualism in a developing modern mass society. Yang Fudong strings together takes with different characters so quickly one after the other that they “lose face.”

City Lights 2000, 6′
“City Lights” is a mixture of the detective film and slapstick. A young, well-dressed office clerk moves in unison along the street and around the office. Like pre-programmed robots they fit perfectly into their apparently ideally organized environment. The day is entirely dominated by work, but the evening provides space for dreams and creative thinking, allowing a schizophrenic situation to arise. In their heroic conduct the two gentlemen sometimes develop into two gangsters who engage in a form of shadowboxing.

Backyard – Hey! Sun is Rising 2001,13′
Four men engage in acts simultaneously. They smoke, yawn, massage themselves and practice military exercises in a city and in a park. The seriousness with which they perform these acts contrasts with their pointlessness, which creates the effect of slapstick. Yang Fudong reveals that because of social changes, certain rituals have become totally meaningless.

Look Again 2004, 3′
Two young men wear the uniform of 70’s policemen – sometimes they look like runaway criminals. They want to escape reality which is impossible to cast off. They yearn for the bright sunshine life, expecting the time to be captured, to exchange for a calmness of the heart.

The Half Hitching Post 2005, 7′
A beautiful panoramic landscape sets the scene for the narrative of “The Half Hitching Post”. Here, we see only fragments of two stories taking place simultaneously: Two different couples are being witnesses in their attempt to ascend a mountain on a sloped and steep road. The viewer is left unaware of the couple’s ultimate goal as they compete on reaching their destination. Focusing on the journey up-wards the shifting perspective of the camera depicts the mutual hindrances engaged by the couples to sabotage their opponent’s success on reaching their ？nal destination. Juxtaposing the race towards the top with the tranquility of the surrounding landscape lends the video a poetic vibe all its own.

My Heart Was Touched Last Year 2007, 3′30″
A work made for Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion. It perhaps to disscuss about the vacant of time.

First Spring 2010, 9′30″
Featuring young men gathered in Shanghai, dressed in Prada menswear, the black and white film portrays realm where anything is possible.
Inspired by the Chinese adage that “the whole year’s work depends on a good start in spring”, this bold and beautiful film represents an exciting new direction for Prada’s visual communication at the start of this decade.

The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) is a non profit, comprehensive art center founded in Beijing by collectors Guy and Myriam Ullens in November 2007. Please click here for more information about UCCA.