Don't Talk To My Girlfriendn

2009, 4 min

Wu Yu-Hsin

In 2003, artists including Wei Li Yeh and his partner Wu Yu-Hsin joined the squatted compound of Treasure Hill. The site is no longer a squat, but still represents an important space of activism, art production, and the city's gentrification policies. Th film takes a micropolitical look at a clash between TB10 artist Wei Li Yeh and a resident nun, back in the heyday of Treasure Hill.

Touching From a Distance

Valerie Tevere and Angel Navarez

2008, 6 min.

Usually presented as a two channel video installation, the film is set on the Plaza de la Liberación of Guadalajara, in Jalisco, Mexico. Here, a Mariachi band – a famous Mexican tradition originating in Jalisco – interprets Joy Division's 1979 song "Transmission." Simultaneously, a protest against the inefficient use of regional public funds is taking place. The work vacillates between competing politics of public space as defined in contemporary art and in activism.

Matthew Grover, Untitled, 2007, 2 min

Untitled is the result of the artist rhythmically thrashing his video camera. The brutality unleashed by Grover upon his medium is represented in a beautiful rendition from within the device.

Shahab Fotouhi, Direct Negotiation, 2007, 6 min

The film is reminiscent of the anthropomorphia of the traditional fable – a short, edifyingtale in which animals pursue legendary acts of heroism. But pastoral possibility is instead circumvented by the blunt, deadpan narrative that pervades much of Fotouhi's work.

Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Present But Not Yet Active, 2002, 14 min

This film is the documentation of a 2002 performance addressing spectacle and display in the Biennial industries. Sadr Haghighian invites the curators of the Manifesta Biennial in Frankfurt to the Frankfurt Zoo. Together they witness some key features of the famously innovative and experimental wildlife display.

San Keller, Historia de un artista, 2004, 7 min

For a new, site-specific work at the Cochabamba Biennial, a Mariachi troupe is commissioned to compose and perform a song about the Zurich-based artist's career.

Jakup Ferri, An Artist Who Doesn't Speak English is No Artist, 2003, 4 min

An homage to Croatian artist Mladen Stilinovic, who produced an embroidery of the same title in 1992.

Christian Jankowski, The Holy Artwork, 2001, 16 min

Jankowski collapses at the feet of a televangelist as the preacher holds a public sermon on the theological subtexts and ramifications of art.

Matthew Grover, Thesis, 2009, 3 min

Grover dismantled his camera, removing lens and microphone, reducing its ability to record anything other than itself. The ghostlike captions projected on the screen are a trace of what remained within the device which could still appear on the ensuing recording.

Corinna Schnitt, Das schlafende Maedchen, 2001, 9 min

A Netherlands vacation getaway, a poster of Vermeer’s “The Sleeping Girl,” an insurance salesman searching for his ballpoint pen. Questions of work and play are raised in Schnitt’s film through roundabout, surreptitious means, in a manner that is as shrewd as it is beautifully serene.

Simon Martin, Clayton, 2006, 8 min

Martin reflects on the many implications of the Carlton cabinet designed by Ettore Sottsass. According to Michael Bracewell, the furniture was “as much the articulation of an anti-historicist mission statement as it was a deft-footed style surf on the surging tides of 1980s excess.” Shot on 16mm, Martin’s film raises the question of when “today began”: “With the closure of Warhol’s Factory – or when you woke up knowing the lyrics to the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘West End Girls,’ by heart?”

Dirk Herzog, Pelmeni or Blini, 2005, 22 min

For the Sharjah Biennial 2005, the artist documented the Moscow Biennial of the same year, which had been subject to similar accusations as Sharjah – cultural imperialism, urban marketing, political compromise – making it an unanticipated sister biennial of sorts. In Moscow, Herzog confronts some artists and some heavyweights of the biennial industries with a misleading set of impossible choices.

Dirk Herzog, Multidudes, 2007, 17 min

As unitednationsplaza – a one-year “exhibition as school” – opened its doors in Berlin in October 2006, its agenda of radical experimentation was met with skepticism and enthusiasm in equal measure. In this “portrait of an art project, its surroundings and its organizers,” the organizers answer Herzog’s queries regarding the social influences of artistic production.

Hila Peleg, A Crime Against Art, 2007, 101 min

On the fringe of a leading international art fair, artist Anton Vidokle and curator Tirdad Zolghadr invite a group of experts and art world agents to put them on trial, in order to clarify whether their activities provide space in the contemporary art field for critical potential and possibility.

Daniel Schmid, Tosca's Kiss, 1984, 84 min

Little-known avant-garde filmmaker Daniel Schmid's documentary depicts the "Casa Verdi," the first nursing home for retired opera singers founded by composer Giuseppe Verdi in 1896. Schmid documents how the singers – many once gloriously successful – struggle to live up to triumphant roles of the past.

Keith MacIsaac, Skulptur Projekte Münster 07, 2008, 47 min

In 1977, artist Michael Asher submitted a caravan as his contribution to Skuptur Projekte Münster 07. In 2007 the caravan disappeared, only to be found several days later at the edge of a nearby forest.

Philis Liu, How to Live a Natural Life, 2007, 4 min

How to Live a Natural Life is three and a half minutes of two-dimensional collage animation. Inspired by a zoologists' perspective, which encourages human beings to view themselves as "naked apes," the artist transforms the presentation into an animated "educational" video for the general public. With dry humor and sarcasm, Liu forces the audience to confront and examine the animalistic behaviors that still exist in society today.

Su Hui-Yu, Wang Jia-Ming, Huang Yi-Ju, Bad, 2005, 6 min

A collaboration by artist Su Hui-Yu, theater director Wang Jia-Ming and interior designer Huang Yi-Ju, this short features a crude parody of Michael Jackson's classic 1987 music video, updated for 2005 in the subterranean parking lot of Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Originally the opening film for a multimedia theater production on Taiwan's popular media, it has subsequently been presented on its own as a work of video art. Getting into the action themselves, the trio of artists reveals the irresistible power of idol worship and the impact on today's young people of the proliferation of popular culture through the media.

Wu Hsuan-Hsuan, Bathroom, 2009, 6 min

The notion of alienation and isolation has long been a consistent thread throughout Wu's work. Bathroom is the fifth piece of the I Don't Know What You Are Talking About series, in which the performances – by the artist herself – imply private space, while the audience/ pedestrians construct the public sphere. The intimate action and performances in the public space enhance the sense of being an outsider while emphasizing the superimposition of urban lives.

Chen Szu Han, Then I said, Have a Nice Day, 2009, 3 min

The artist seeks out people distributing flyers and, while seeming to make small talk with them, folds their circulars into paper airplanes. She then returns the flyers and wishes them a nice day. In a city like New York, rife with all manner of consumer behaviors, the artist's action seeks to transform "objects intended to encourage consumption" into "things that have no positive effect on economic growth." By chronicling her brief contact with the workers distributing the flyers, viewers are also given a glimpse of their situations.

Xu Chia Wei, Hong Kan Coliseum - March 14th, 8 min

In the legendary Hong Kan Coliseum, Chinese-Malaysian singer Fisher Leong shares her perspective on touring through numerous Asian cities. Her voice echoes through the empty concert hall, describing the cities she has visited as more and more the same, as well as the development of her own performance into a more fixed pattern.

Hsu Chia-Wei, Fan Hsiao Lan, The Invisible Garden, 17 min

Open contemporary art center, operated by artists for more than ten years, was recently evicted. The video documents the activity of the center during its final days, when a garage sale was held and a secret garden concealed within the space was discovered.

Hoho Lin, Release in, 2010, 7 min

Using the tilting effect of camera optics, Hoho Lin transforms the image of urban space into a comical scene where pedestrians, bikes and cars move about as if cartoons.

Zhuang Kai-Yu, About Johnny 125, 2009, 6 min

Much influenced by the cult film Scorpio Rising, where the affection for machines borders on the obsessive, a moped is not only conceived anthropomorphically but also remains sublime for its owner.

Zhuang Kai-Yu, About Apocalypse Now More, 2008-2009, 4 min

Two dying mosquitoes with the image of the film Apocalypse Now as a backdrop. The violence of human nature in the film is offset by the demise of the insects.

Chen Wan-Jen, Mr. Bill, 2007-2008, 10 min

The Microsoft Windows desktop image first morphs into an individual playing golf and then a ship cruising by. The repetitive movement deliberately imitates the visual pattern of screen savers to emphasize viewing habits in the information age.

Huang Shih-Chieh, EP-2, 9 min

EP-2 (Eye Process 2), documents the events in a laboratory in which mad scientists bring machines to life using optical sensors. The living machines posses not only human traits, but also personalities and certain idiosyncrasies.

Su Yu-Hsien, Chiang Chung-Lun, Robbie Huang, Opening Speech of Wonderism, 4 min

Three young artists declare themselves 'Wonder BoyZ' and establish a fictitious art movement known as Wonderism. Wonder BoyZ practice traditional Chinese arts including calligraphy, colophons and ink paintings and hold an exhibition together in a local art center. The inaugural speech, mimicking the tone of old-fashioned Chinese, pokes fun at art production in Taiwan.

Xu Jian-Yu, The Good Citizen Guild, 25 min

The artist conducted interviews with pedestrians following the student movement in 2008, in order to examine the aesthetic side of a political event. The demonstration that is supposed to be pubic and collective becomes a matter of personal choice and taste.

Wu Haohao, Criticizing Zhaoguang, 30 min

The heated conversation between Zao Guang and Wu Haohao reveals the struggle to be an artist in China. A candid camera lens documented specific provocations, and the artist's naughty interventions.

Peng Hung-Chih, Taking Money Project, 10 min

After announcing that the material of the artwork can be freely removed by the audience, Peng stages a performance with his friend Ah-Zhong, who is covered in hundred dollar bills – the amount of money provided by the Cultural Ministry to fund the exhibition. When Ah-Zhong is revealed to the audience, all of the bills are taken in less than one minute, exposing his naked body.

Yu Cheng-Ta, Universes in Universe 1: worldmap, 9 min

Two girls were invited by the artist to piece the world map together nation by nation. The image of the world, capable of reflecting cultural stereotypes and differences, is arranged through their impression of each nation.

"Memory One: Water"
Curated by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

The Anthem, 2006, 5 min

Luminous People, 2007, 15 min

Weerasethakul and crew travel along the Mekong River on the border between Thailand and Laos, recruiting local people to enact stories and fake ceremonies on their boat. While the cast and crewmembers comment on the footage they have made, the spirit of a dead father is summoned back to the living.

Like the Relentless Fury of the Pounding Waves/Mae Ya Nang, 1994, 11 min

A romantic radio drama broadcast, about a sea goddess waiting for her lover, links different people in various locations: onboard a ship, riding in taxis, at work in the studio. The shifting montage of sights and sounds creates a new story-telling dimension.

Nokia Short, 2003, 2 min

An abstract moving image of bodies and water are captured using a low-resolution mobile phone camera.

Ghost of Asia, 2005, 9 min

Two young boys and a girl were invited to tell a story about a ghost who lingers on the seashore. The work is represented on two screens—the ghost appears on only one, acting according to the childrens' instructions.

Thirdworld / Goh Gayasit, 1997, 5 min

Shot in Panyi, a small island in southern Thailand, the film constructs a narrative from local sound and images. The rough production quality manifests the Western view of a “Third World.”

"Memory Two: Phantoms"
Curated by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

The Anthem, 2006, 5 min

116643 225059, 1994, 5 min

Weerasethakul dials the telephone number of his mother, invoking her presence through a sustained absence.

My Mother's Garden, 2007, 7 min

Jewelry designed by Victoire de Castellane recalls Weerasethakul's mother's garden of wild orchards, tropical insects and carnivorous plants.

Windows, 1999, 12 min

The reflection of windows flickering on a television monitor can only be captured on video because of the compatible interaction between the screen's refresh rate and the camera shutter speed—it is otherwise imperceptible to the naked eye. One of Weerasethakul's early hand-held camera works.

This and a Million More Lights, 2003, 1 min

Layered images of the interior and exterior of both florescent and natural lights. Originally made on the occasion of the Nelson Mandela Foundation's "64446" concert.

Emerald / Morakot, 2007, 11 min

Three actors recite poems and tell reveries in Morakot, a defunct hotel in Bangkok haunted by ghosts of the 1980s, when Thailand first opened its doors to global economic change.

Mobile Men, 2008, 3 min

Two young men film themselves on the hood of a moving truck. They act provocatively—gesturing and showing off their bodies—well aware of the camera's presence.

Vampire/ Sud Vikal, 2008, 19 min

Weerasethakul and crew set out on an expedition in the jungle of northern Thailand in search of the legendary Nok Phii (Ghost Bird), rumored to have disproportionately large eyes and to feed on animal blood. Since no visual evidence has yet proved its existence, Nok Phii serves here as a figurative cinematic invention.

"Memory Three: Cinema"
Curated by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

The Anthem, 2006, 5 min

Worldly Desires, 2005, 43 min

Co-directed by filmmaker Pimpaka Towira, the film juxtaposes two scenes in the jungle—one at night and the other during the day—as a showcase for singing, dancing and celebrating the quest for romantic love. Dedicated to the memory of filmmaking in the jungle from 2001 to 2005.

A Letter to Uncle Boonmee, 2009, 18 min

The film imagines the small houses of a remote village to be the various dwelling places of Uncle Boonmee, who has been reincarnated into several different lives over time. Weerasethakul delivers a personal letter to Uncle Boonmee specifically about the film project.