ShanghART is pleased to announce Close to the Sea •The Revival of the Snake - YANG Fudong Solo Exhibition which will be on view from 12th May to 15th June 2012 in ShanghART Beijing and ARTMIA Gallery. This show will be Yang Fudong's first Beijing solo show and the premiere of his works in China.

In this ten-channel video installation, a concert is being staged at the seaside. Accompanied by various musical instruments, the love story of a young couple is unfolded on the same location. The videos set on the centre, display two scenarios taking place simultaneously: one shows a young couple riding a horse along the sea and the other a pair of lovers struggling for survival after a shipping accident. The other eight screens deliver at the same time the performance of diverse musical instruments, a trumpet and a cello played on the rocks, for example. The background music, which is hallucinatory, dreamlike and even uncoordinated, reflects the conflicts between ideals and reality. The young lovers, despite the threat of death, continue with their discussion of ideal, faith and anticipation.

This work tells the end of the story of a soldier going into exile. On a sunny winter's day, the icy ground is stared with snow and life seems as peaceful as the weather. A soldier, escaping from a battlefield, comes to this deserted place which is plagued with the smell of death, He is wandering, attempting to leave this uninhabited world. The only option left to him, however, is walking, ceaselessly and endlessly. What is waiting for him? A hibernating snake is startled awake from its nice dream and then sees a human, eyes blindfolded and hands bound at his back, kneeling on the freezing ice-covered lake. Who is sentenced to death by the sound of gunshots reverberating around the mountains?

About the Artist:

YANG Fudong was born in 1971 in Beijing and trained as a painter at China Academy of Art between 1991 and 1995, and then later in the Department of the Photography there, as well as the Film Academy Beijing in 1996. Starting in the late 1990s, he embarked on a career in the mediums of film and video and is among one of the most successful and influential Chinese artists today.

YANG Fudong's recent important solo exhibitions include: 2011 The Distance of Reality, Yang Fudong's Solo Exhibition, Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center, Havana, Cuba; Yang Fudong, Utopia and Reality, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Tapiola Finland; One half of August, Yang Fudong Solo Exhibition, Parasol, Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London, U.K.; Yang Fudong: No Snow on the Broken Bridge, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney, Australia; 2010... In the Bamboo Forest..., Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland; Yang Fudong, Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest and Other Stories, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece; Yang Fudong Solo Exhibition, Kino Kino, Sandnes, Norway; 2009 Yang Fudong: the General's Smiles, Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Dawn Mist, Separation Faith, Yang Fudong's Solo Exhibition, Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai; Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, Asia Society and Museum, New York, U.S.A.; Yang Fudong, East of Que Village, MuHKA Media, Antwerpen, Belgium.

At the same time, YANG Fudong's recent work The Fifth Night will be exhibited in the Vancouver Art Gallery from 12 May to 3 September 2012. Until 6 May, his works are shown in the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art in the group exhibition La La La Human Steps. And the new work Yejiang/The Nightman Cometh will be exhibited during the THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORKS OF TIMES - REBIRTH AND APOCALYPSE IN CONTEMPORARY ART-The First Kyiv International Biennial of Contemporary Art from 17 May to 31 July 2012.

About the Exhibition:

VIP Reception: 12th May 2012, 17:00-19:00

Duration: 12th May - 15th June 2012, 11:00-18:00 (Closed Mon.)

Address: ShanghART Beijing & ARTMIA, 261 Cao Chang Di, Old Airport Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China

Website: www.shanghartgallery.com