Gao Shiqiang (CN) | Great Bridge

SYNOPSIS

The Nanjing Changjiang Bridge, a symbol in China’s modern political history, has been a fundamental catalyst in a critical moment of cultural revolution and a sign of socialist construction after 1949.
Today this giant symbolic bridge has become unavoidably senile and outdated. In this work the Nanjing Changjiang Bridge exists only as a topic, while another bridge is shown, another symbol of senescence not far from the former, the No.1 Qiantangjiang Bridge. As a sign of modernization in Modern China and a coordinate of China’s achievement in construction before 1949, it is the first bridge of steel designed and built in China. The existence of the two bridges can only be regarded as historical indications of grand narrative, and false and barren witness for such narrative as well. It is the common people in China who are shut in such historical barren narrative, together with their seemly unimportant but substantial lives and destinies.

ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY

Gao Shiqiang was born in 1971 in Shandong province in China. He graduated from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, where he is now a professor in the Experimental Art Department.
He first came to international attention with his participation in the 2003 Guangzhou Triennial.
His work was included in the 2006 Shanghai Biennial and in the satellite project, A Yellow Box in Qinpu, curated by Gao Shiming and Johnson Chang. It was in Yellow Box that the video installation Story was first presented and which now makes its debut outside of China. In addition to filmmaking and teaching, Gao has curated a number of projects dedicated to new media, including the 2005 Blink in Shanghai (a festival of 2-second video).

FILMOGRAPHY

• Red, 2008, 49'54", HDV
• Revolution, 2007, 55'54", HDV
• Great Bridge, 2007, 27'50", HDV
• Butterfly Lovers, 2007, 46'50", HDV
• Standard Tutorial, 2006, 6'33", DV
• One Day, One Night, 2006, 20'15", DV
• Chamber Theatre 3- Womb, 2005, 12'21", DV
• Segment, 2004, 21'22", DV
• Among, 2004, 15'36", DV