SoengJoengToi
August 3 – September 26, 2019
Installation and events at SYNNIKA, Niddastraße 57, 60329 Frankfurt am Main
Introduction talk with the artists, Friday, August 2, 17:00 – 19:00
Opening with food and drinks on Friday, August 2, 19:00 – 21:30
SJT Workshop on Saturday, August 3, 11:00 – 13:00
SJT Film screening and discussion on Tuesday, August 13, 20:00 – 23:00
Regular opening times: Sundays and Tuesdays from 16:00 – 18:00
and by appointment (hello@synnika.space)
SoengJoengToi (SJT) is a platform in Guangzhou (CHN) founded in 2017. It stems from the needs of artists for a mutual practice space. SJT is located in Changgang subway station, Haizhu District, embedded in a community of local inhabitants. So far, 13 long-term practice projects have been stationed at SJT. The newly founded SYNNIKA space in Frankfurt am Main invites SJT to setup a temporary branch of its organization in Frankfurt. At SYNNIKA the group presents its membership model as well as their artistic practice. The installation features various SJT-related projects such as Fong Fo, Folding Room, Traveller, the Band Hellkitty, BenGuangDaHuaLang, Theater 44, the Round Table Group, with various newspapers, catalogs, self-published zines, publications and videos. On Friday, August 2, 2019 at 17:00, an introduction by independent curator and SJT-Member Li Xiaotian will offer the public an opportunity to have a first view as well as conversations with the artists, followed by an opening event with drinks and food at 19:00. On the day after the opening SJT will host a discussion on the current political conflicts in the Chinese Pearl River Delta.
From International Trade War to Mass Demonstrations in Hong Kong
– observations of everyday life in the South of China
Workshop with SJT on August 3, 2019, 11:00
at SYNNIKA, Niddastraße 57, 60594 Frankfurt am Main
Millions of people recently took the streets in Hong Kong protesting against a new law which would allow extradition to mainland China. The introduction of this law is widely seen as the Chinese government in Beijing strengthening its control over the former British colony. Hong Kong’s economical, social and political relations with the Mainland are manifold and inseparable from China’s industrial ascendance in becoming the „Workshop of the World“. On the other hand, Mainland China’s economy is facing many difficulties while undergoing major changes. It is still heavily relying on hundreds of millions of migrant workers toiling in its factories and precarious service jobs. The trade conflicts with the US signal that China’s export and depth fueled growth model is increasingly difficult to maintain. In this workshop we want to take a closer look into these tendencies. How do they relate to parallel developments in Europe? How can we relate to the class conflicts in the South of China?
Further reading: http://chuangcn.org/2019/06/winter-is-coming/
SJT Moonlight Film Screening
on Tuesday, August 13, 20:00
at SYNNIKA, Niddastraße 57, 60594 Frankfurt am Main
Burning (2019), 10’07’’
by Ou Feihong
“A young beautiful mother is taking care of her children while sorting out pigwash in the suburb of Guangzhou. She said, there was no other way for us. The overall environment has tightened and deviated to the right since the end of 2017. Looking around and seeing all evil, incapable as I am, can only go to the ruins to paint and set them on fire.”
Cast: He Quan, Xie Shaoya, Liang Manyong
Ou Feihong is a Freelancer, currently working and living in Guangzhou, China.
Fairyland yet to dream: archeological site of Guangzhou Children’s Park (2019), 07’04
by Xin Wei
This short video is inspired by the Guangzhou Children’s Park that was demolished in 2001 due to the excavation of the ruin of Nanyue Kingdom Palace. Wei used it as a narrative framework, linking it to the discussion on how homogenized methods of production compose contemporary happiness.
Xin Wei (born 1992 in Guangzhou) currently lives and works in Guangzhou and Shanghai. He graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He creates research-based narrations using mixed media, including writing, programing, sculpture, and moving image. His recent research is primarily concerning with the production logistics behind everyday objects that carry messages of social class and exist within the society of spectacle. He purchases small projects from online retailers and commissions factories around China to witness their work process. With these actions, he attempts to create a re-narration of the production-consumption-production circle.
Those Squares (2019), 21’08’’
by Lu Xinyang
“Will you still experience nostalgia when the world starts to forget everything? Will you believe in the power of daydreaming? Will there be an explanation to everything that exists or has disappeared? Will you still remember those everyday feelings? This video documents the changes and memories that take place by the roads – just a small corner of a big city.”
Lu Xinyang is an illustrator but now makes videos for documentation. She is a video game lover, an ordinary and friendly person, daydreaming in her conservative daily life.
Occupy Qing Xi Park (2017), , 07’42’’
by Zimu Zhang
“I returned to the small town Qing Xi where I grew up and documented how migrant workers were utilizing the public space, particularly the town park in their leisure time. They performed a certain type of occupation of the park (time, space, mind…). Together with participatory filming from the workers and my own reminiscence, the video serves as an affective archive of the world factory coming to an end.”
Zimu Zhang is a moving image practitioner and researcher. She is currently conducting her PhD research at City University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on the conjunction of moving image with new materiality and the society of control. She is also active in film curating, alternative space building and socially engaged art practices. She is the co-founder of the Moonshine Screening Project, one of the proprietors of the co-organized space SoengJoengToi in Guangzhou.