Practice 1, 2, 3


2015, CN/AT, 2 channel video installation, colour, multi-channel sound, 15 min

Concept, camera and editing: Marlies Poeschl
Based on interviews with: Nunu Kong, Zhou Bei, Dong Han
Second camera: Chen Zhou
Translation: Chen Zhou
Sound: Nick Tsang
Photos: Rudolf Strobl


Exhibition:
Fieldwork/Homework, MUSA Museum auf Abruf, Vienna, AT, 2015
Fieldwork/Homework, Galerie 5020, Salzburg, AT, 2015

“First, you have to stand straight, because they are very confident. So when you stand there, you have to raise your head and lift your chest, stand there as if you are smelling the flowers. And then, since people of this ethnic group are very confident and enthusiastic, you have to imagine you are dancing like Uyghur people. You have to express their enthusiasm.”

The starting point of this video is the rehearsal of a dance at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. It is a dance of the Uyghur minority, an ethnic group, which has its origins in Xinjang, a province in the north-west of China known for its struggle for independence. This video installation  looks at different ways in which minority culture is represented and passed on through the official Chinese cultural industry, but also reflects on my own gaze as an artist coming from a western background.