Since his first video work, Light Source (2005), in which the grainy image of a door is split by a beam of light radiating through its slow opening, Cheng Ran has restlessly plumbed the physicality of the moving image, ranging from the cellphone camera to Super 8 to HD. In a pair of recent video works, an erotic spam mail Cheng Ran had received serves as a ruse. From October 19th through 25th, Cheng Ran presents new work "Joss", which is projected on the Palais de Tokyo's façade. The video was made in collaboration with item idem (French artist and designer Cyril Duval). The project inaugurated "Inside", Palais de Tokyo's new exhibition season and in conjunction with "Inside China—L'Intérieur du Géant", an exhibition dedicated to the emerging art scenes in China and France.

"Joss" refers to papier-mâché offerings burnt in veneration to the spirits of the deceased in Chinese culture. This tradition in the contemporary context reflects the consumerism of quotidian life. In the video, these possessions for the afterlife offer a dizzying parade of consumer culture: from luxury fashion to electronic gadgets, fast food to pop cultural icons. Exploding these paper objects with fire-crackers and set in slow-motion, the artists plumb the physicality of the moving image, referencing the explosion sequence in Michelangelo Antonioni's film "Zabriskie Point" and the investigation of time and momentum in Swiss artists Fischli and Weiss's film "Der Lauf der Dinge" (The Way Things Go). Through the ambivalent meanings of celebration and destruction, between exuberance and exhaustion, it takes the pulse of our contemporary desires. "Joss" is projected on the Palais de Tokyo's façade between October 19th and 25th, from 7pm till midnight.

Also on view is an ambitious work "Always I Trust (A re-arranged live performance)" that involves video installation and live musical performance. The 7-channel video installation comprises two recent videos shown together for the first time; "Simply Wild", shot in Super 8 in Amsterdam and "Always I Trust", shot in HD in Shanghai, and starring the Chinese film star Carina Lau Kar-Ling. Nostalgia for the past and the future drives the elliptical turns in the artist's images. In "Simply Wild", a spam email the artist has received is a solicitation of fabricated desire. Misspellings and awkward phrasings vibrate with flickering images in a split screen. In "Always I Trust", that desire is projected against a futuristic city unraveled by a hyperreal dystopia. Cheng Ran has invited four musicians—namely, Li Jianhong, Li Qing, Wei Wei, Wang Ziheng—from China's noise, improv and psychedelic underground scenes to score the installation. The live performance with four Chinese musicians was premiered in Palais de Tokyo on October 19th, and is touring to a few more venues in Europe. "Always I Trust (A re-arranged live performance)" is on view in Orbe New York of Palais de Tokyo throughout the current FIAC week.

Additionally a screening of Cheng Ran's works will take place on December 4th in Salle 37 at Palais de Tokyo.

About the artist

Cheng Ran (b. 1981, Inner Mongolia) graduated from China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. A current residency artist at Rijksakademie, Cheng lives and works between Hangzhou and Amsterdam. Cheng Ran has exhibited extensively and internationally. Recent exhibitions includes, "Decorum—Carpets & Tapestries by Artists", Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2014); "We Have Never Participated", the 8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, Shenzhen (2014); "Now You See New Chinese Video Art from the Collection of Dr. Michael I. Jacobs", Whitebox Art Center, New York (2014); "ON|OFF: China's Young Artists in Concept and Practice", Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2013); "Perspectives 180 - Unfinished Country: New Video From China", Contemporary Arts Museum Houston & Asia Society Texas Center, Texas (2013); Kino der Kunst, Munich (2013); The 26th European Media Art Festival, Osnabrueck (2013); "Video Art in China - MADATAC", Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid (2011); "Moving Image in China: 1988 - 2011", Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2011), etc. Cheng was nominated for "Absolut Art Award" in 2013, and won the "Best Video Artist 2011"of the art magazine Radian.