Dissolving
Li Ning
Release year: 2013
Run time: 60 mins
Film type: Experimental Film
Synopsis
It continues the narrative and creative mode of the first-person image. And it was started by what Li Ning heard and felt when he was invited to the Tokyo Art Festival. The historical conflict between the two countries and the cultural exchanges between the folk people finally prompted him to produce a performance art-work during the art festival at the Yasukuni Shrine. But just as everything was ready to go, the entry of some people into the space made him feel that his motivation for doing all this was more the desire for fame and wealth than any pure purpose. He questioned his art and his actions over the years at a time when so many people, things and stuff were overlapping. This even led to and laid the foundation for Li Ning's artistic path in the future. That is, away from the surface politics, no longer putting art in the game entangled in ideology, but focusing on the construction of an ontological art language.
Director biography
He graduated from the Fine Arts Education Department of Shandong Art Academy, specializing in sculpture. In 1997, he founded The Physical Guerrillas, a group engaged in the creation of physical theatre and live performance art, performed at home and abroad.
As an artist, he has created a large number of theatre and film works, many of which have become classics of contemporary Chinese physical theatre and video art, and he is also recognized as a representative of these two fields.
He was invited to perform, or to exhibit, exchange and to create, at the Julidans Art Festival in Amsterdam and the Culturescapes Festival in Switzerland. Since 2010, he has also been invited to participate in the creation of the French Limitrophe Company, a situational drama group, which has toured the Festival d’Aurillac, the Ghent Art Festival in Belgium, the Stoke Art Festival in the UK, and the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, among others.
As an experimental film director, his famous works Tape and Untitled-3 have been collected by dozens of university libraries, art galleries, and museums in the United States. Li Ning has received funding from various national foundations many times to complete his theatre and film works, such as the Dutch Done Foundation (which supported Li Ning and The Physical Guerrillas for 3 years, in 2006, 2007, 2008), and the EU cultural project Chin-A-Moves, as well as the China Independent Film Fund Indie Cinema Fund and so on.
As a curator, he presided over and participated in the operation of the Jinan Fangyu Art Festival, the Weifang Village Theatre Festival, the International Factory Theatre Festival Laiwu, and other platforms to improve China's ecology of art and literary.
Director's statement
Between China and Japan, between individuals, and within human nature Who provides the battlefield of human evil? The Association of Red Guards with the Japanese Imperial Army... The transformation and inner journey of a patriotic youth who wanted to perform at the Yasukuni Shrine. Because it has not been able to verify some important materials, the film is still unfinished.