My Tiananmen

About

As indicated by the title, Tiananmen Square Massacre (June 4th, 1989) is an underlying theme of the exhibition. Tiananmen Square, the symbol of both imperial authority and liberation, was the centre of a series of nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations in the spring of 1989. Hundreds of thousands of students and citizens on the square were brutally suppressed by military forces. After the bloodshed, those who survived either were arrested, fled overseas, or adapted to the aftermath of terror, silence, and societal depression. It is still forbidden to speak of this historic event in the place it unfolded. The film works in an exhibition format to explore its lasting emotional impact on the persons involved.

The exhibition is about the notion of history ' Tiananmen as a drastic exemplification ' which is experienced by individuals, later resides in personal memories, and of which the emotional overtones transform across generations. To shed light on the dialogue and dialectic of the cross-generational memories and its representation in films and videos, the exhibition is conceived in a polyphonic manner. Each of the three parts stands for a passage of perceiving or comprehending history as part of our lives, distinct yet contrapuntal to each other. Altogether they form a texture which reflects the complex of the relations between history and the persons who made and are made by it.

[Film Program] Memories in a cross-generational dialogue
Personal and emotional stories of Tiananmen depicted by three generations of filmmakers.

SUMMER PALACE - dir. Lou Ye, 2006, 143min
NO.89 SHIMEN ROAD ' dir. Shu Haolun, 2010, 85min
FIREWORKS OF 1989 ' dir. Francis Li Chen, 2011, 15min

[Video Installations] MY TIANANMEN
Investigates and re-imagines Tiananmen in a post-Tiananmen generation filmmaker's eyes ' representation, displacement, and transformation. artist: Francis Li Chen

[Special Screening] The Inbetweeness
RIVERS AND MY FATHER - dir. Li Luo, 2010, 75min