How much visibility does queer art currently afford in China? During the month of August, UCCA will be holding a series of events, including artist conversations, panel discussions, and screenings, aimed at helping the public answer this question.
In his final collection of writings, philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty describes the creation of art as the intertwining of the visible and the invisible. Queer art gives physical expression to that which is often invisible to the public, and thus dismantle the dichotomy between “inside and outside.” For the audience, Merleau-Ponty states that the act of perception is not a neutral process, but rather necessarily creative. Therefore visibility for queer art is vital in allowing audiences to not only interact with the artists and share in their experiences, but also participate in the interweaving of the visible and the invisible.
For the finale of our month-long survey on queer visibility in contemporary China, UCCA invites Shanghai-based independent queer collective CINEMQ to present SKIN, a mix tape of short films exploring sensuality, surfaces, and sub-surface identity. The program combines classic queer archive, new experimental works and pop cultural meditations on our need to touch and be touched, to feel and be felt up. Sites of love and loathing, of passion and prejudice, both seen and unseen; skin is contradiction, raw and revolutionary.
Ticketing: Free
Note:
*Collect your ticket from reception 45 minutes before the event begins;
*Please no late entry;
*Seating is limited, and tickets must be collected individually;
*Please keep mobile devices on silent.
Y’all Better Quiet Down Now! (1973)
Director: unknown
Runtime: 4’8”
Fāgogo (2017)
Director: Pati Solomona Tyrell
Runtime: 9’3”
Exhibition (2016)
Director: Felix Qiang
Runtime: 10’10”
Moisturizing (2017)
Director: Daniel Brathwaite-Shirley
Runtime: 4’30”
Excerpt from Under the Skin (2013)
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Runtime: 2’
Alindanaw: A Butterfly That Keeps on Flying (2014)
Director: Rod Singh
Runtime: 10’30”
Expiration Date (2017)
Director: Shwenn Shunya Chang
Runtime: 4’23”
Taste of Love (2017)
Director: Paul Scheufler
Runtime: 4’30”
Love of the Half Eaten Peach (2015)
Director: Ian MacKinnon
Runtime: 1’50”
Transgressions (2002)
Director: Stuart Gaffney
Runtime: 4’30”
Y’all Better Quiet Down Now! (2012)
Director: Conny Karlsson Lundgren
Runtime: 9’40”
Matthew Baren (Filmmaker, Co-founder of CINEMQ)
Matthew Baren is a filmmaker and independent programmer. He is from UK and currently based in Shanghai. He is a co-founder of ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival, and was festival director and programmer for 2 years. He has previously worked with the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest, and APQFFA.
CINEMQ
CINEMQ is an unrefined queer underground collective based in Shanghai. Founded in 2015, they pull together the filthy and gorgeous of queer world cinema, an eclectic mixtape of short films, visuals and music, for monthly screening events at some of Shanghai’s best venues. From SHADE to KINK, HORROR to TRANSCEND, their themed programs challenge a diverse audience on how they think about issues of gender and sexuality in life and in media. Beginning in late 2016, they launched CINEMQ media platform, publishing weekly articles and content on Chinese and East Asian queer screen culture. (You can find them at http://www.cinemq.com, or follow their Wechat account CINEMQ.)