Qiu Anxiong (CN) | Minguo Landscape

SYNOPSIS

Minguo Landscape is Qiu Anxiong's fourth animation video. Qiu's animations are all made from his black and white oil on canvas paintings, often painted in the style of Chinese ink wash paintings and carrying a poetic, lyrical and dream-like quality. As many of them Qiu's works, Minguo Landscape show a kind of quietness and detachment, calm and timeless quality, which is due to the adoption of Chinese painting style. “Minguo” is the Chinese name for "Republic of China", which started in 1911, when Qing Dynasty ended and "Xinhai Revolution" succeeded.
This was a dramatic historical turning point of China: it was the end of the traditional China and the beginning of a modern one. It ended in 1949, when Mao took over china and changed it to a communist country. During this time in search for a better china, many idealistic young people fought for their believes. The Minguo period was also an intense crossover of traditional Chinese culture and modern western civilization. It was a time with a blooming culture scene in literature, film and art but, at the same time, it was extremely chaotic and difficult because of the Japanese war and endless civil wars. China and its people were in search of themselves and their future.
Today's China certainly shares many similarities to this past period.

ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY

Qiu Anxiong was born in 1972 in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, province in the southwest of China. After graduating at the Sichuan Academy of Art in 1994, he spent six years in Germany, studying contemporary international art and traditional Chinese culture at the College of Art in Kassel. In 2004 he began teaching at Shanghai Normal University, and still lives and works in Shanghai. In 2007 he had a solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo and at Universal Studios-beijing in Beijing.

FILMOGRAPHY

• Minguo Landscape, 2007, 14'33", animation, 4:3, b&w
• New Book of Mountains and Seas Part 2, 2007, 29'30", animation, 16:9, b&w
• New Book of Mountains and Seas Part 1, 2006, 30'15", animation, 3 screens 4:3, b&w
• Flying South, 2006, 9'05", animation , 16:9, b&w
• Jiang Nan Poem, 2005, 12'45", video, 16:9, b&w
• In The Sky, 2005, 8'18", animation , 4:3, b&w