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Beilin Liu

China, I love you

Doc. expérimental | hdv | couleur | 40:2 | Chine | 2014

En 1951, Isidore Isou inventait avec son Traité de bave et d’éternité, le cinéma lettriste reposant sur le montage discrépant du son et de l’image. En reprenant ce principe, Liu Beilin propose une vision caustique de l’héritage de la révolution culturelle anti-bourgeoise qui devait amener le prolétariat chinois vers sa libération définitive. Dans China, I Love You, la jeune cinéaste monte des boucles sonores du traité avec des fragments de discours politiques datant de 1966, formant un mantra monolithique que viennent perturber des sonorités tout à fait actuelles, ainsi que des images d’archives à la beauté fanée montrant la vie quotidienne en Chine pendant la révolution culturelle : des gardes rouges souriants, la gymnastique matinale, des paysans dignes. Tous les clichés de l’époque sur l’Empire du Grand Timonier. Mais le témoignage d’un professeur humilié et torturé pendant cette période bénie et le continuum assourdissant de la société consumériste d’aujourd’hui viennent pointer abruptement ce que fut l’avenir d`une illusion.

Beili Liu has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. She has held solo exhibitions at venues such as the Hå Gamle Prestegard, Norwegian National Art and Culture Center, Galerie An Der Pinakothek Der Moderne, Munich, Germany, Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center, Shanghai, Hua Gallery, London, UK, Nordisk Kunst Plattform, Brusand, Norway, the Chinese Culture Foundation, San Francisco, and Buffalo Arts Studio. Liu has been included in group exhibitions at the National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, the Austin Museum of Art, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Granary Gallery, Fiskars, Finland, the Kaunas Biennale, Lithuania, From Lausanne to Beijing, the 7th International Textile Biennale, China, and Hamburg Art Week, Germany. Liu’s work has received critical reviews from Art in America, Sacchi Review, UK, Helsinki Sanomat News, Finland, Stavanger News, Norway, China Daily, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, China ArtNow, Fiber Quarterly, Canada, Handelsblatt, Germany, Hamburg Abendblatt, Artillery Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Art Slant Los Angeles, Buffalo News, Detroit Metro Times, and Austin Chronicle, among many others. Liu has received awards and prizes including artist fellowships at Art Farm, Djerassi Foundation, Fiskars AIR Onoma Foundation, Finland, and Fundación Valparaíso, Spain. Her solo exhibition In Between was named one of the “Top Ten Exhibitions in Shanghai” in 2009 by Sacchi Review, UK. Liu received the San Francisco Major’s Award for her contribution to cultural exchange in 2008, and was named twice "Artist of the Year", by Austin Visual Art Association and the Austin Critics Table Awards. In 2011, Liu received a Distinction award at the Kaunas Biennial, Lithuania. Liu received a Walter and Gina Ducloux Fellowship in 2011 and a University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in 2012. Born in Jilin, China, Liu now lives and works in Austin, Texas, USA. She is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Texas at Austin.