PhD researcher ZHANG Zimu put together a collection of 3 short-medium length videos to shed light on the reconfiguration of local/translocal geology and ecology via moving-image creation. These works were all shot in the Chinese Southwestern regions with local dialects. 張子木策劃放映：三個有關中國西南地區地質生態的活動影像作品。
**feature image: video still from Yang Xiao’s The Mountains Sing (2021)
2021.12.12, 3-5pm @ Floating Projects | 據點特別影像策展計劃。2021年12月12日下午三點至五點 | 116 min screening time followed by discussion with guest curator Zhang Zimu 116分鐘作品分享+50分鐘策展人張子木短講及研討
Screening: Vernacular Geomedia poetics from the Southwest cliffs
China’s southwest geo-landscape is densely covered with mountains and rivers. The peoples’ outlooks, languages and everyday cultures are also more hybrid and diverse. With China’s rapid process of modernization and urbanization, humans and more-than-humans in this region are coming together and commoning more often.
For this screening event, I invited three recent moving image works made in the Chinese Southwest: two in Chongqing, and one in Guangxi province. Each of them has a distinct aesthetics and usage of its the medium, ranging from daily mobile shooting to refined cinematic productions. The three moving image practitioners also have slightly different active platforms, varied from contemporary art, community cultural practices and independent art cinema, all of which have some crossover, yet still maintain some separation. United under their Southwest geographies, these three films share many intersections, such as their focuses on the geographic, natural and human-made landscapes, sensitive captures of various discursive registers and embedded power schemes, representations of localities and dialects, sincere exploration and construction of moving image materialities, as well as social relations generated from moving image activities….Both Yu Guo and Wan Qing’s works cover urban-rural transitions, examining the urban geo-landscape and spectacle along with their discourse. They also carry out experiments on “working together”: dialogic processes with other creators (Yu Guo’s film includes the other two researchers, Xu Wei and Rui Lanxin’s writings on the film location, the Horn Town); spontaneous documentations of encounters with other people and species; and further treating editing and screening as a continuous regeneration of the film work (“Synchronicity Film” as initiated by Wan Qing). The Hawfwen in the northern Zhuang ethnic regions in Guangxi, can also be seen as an encounter of cooperation and escape between the mobile folksongs and audiovisual technological means. The Zhuang folk songs’ transmissions across different geographies, chronotopes and media can be regarded as a grassroots ethnic poetics, as a moving image monad of the Southwest’s fluctuating geo-landscape and psyche.
I hope that through this screening event, along with the audiences and the participating actors from southwest soils, people, flora, fauna, mountain rocks as well as their filmic reproduction, will join in the making of a “Synchronicity Film”.
放映：西南山壑的方言地理媒介詩學
中國的西南地理地貌密佈山丘和河流，人群的面貌、語言、日常生活文化也更加交雜與多元。在中國現代化與城市化的急速進程中，人與超越人類的各種存在形式於此地域似乎有著更緊密的碰撞與共享。
此次的放映項目，我邀請了三部近年來在西南地域所創作的影像作品，兩部拍攝於重慶，一部拍攝於廣西。三部作品的媒介使用和影像美學具有一定的差異性，從手機的日常拍攝到影院播出級別的聲畫製作均有。三位作者的影像工作身份和活躍的平台也是不大相同的，涵蓋了當代藝術、社區文化實踐和獨立藝術電影等範疇，雖有交集，但確實仍有社群分野。但在西南地理的視角下，這三部作品彼此仍有很多交叉性，比如對地理與自然/人工景觀的關注，對不同話語的權力關係的敏銳捕捉，對在地性與地方方言的呈現，對影像物質性和影像活動所產生的社會關係的真誠探索與建設……余果與萬青的作品都涉及到重慶的城鄉變遷，把城市地理景觀和話語作為考察的對象，並據此開展一種「共同工作」的實驗：和不同的創作者的對話（余果的影片包含另外兩位研究者徐衛與芮蘭馨對於拍攝地羊角鎮的寫作）；即時性的紀錄與不同人物和物種的相遇，且將剪輯、放映的過程也看作是作品的持續生成（萬青所提出的「共時影像」）。杨潇拍攝的廣西北部的壯族歌墟，也可以被視作是移動中的民間歌謠與聲畫視覺手段的相遇、合作以及逃逸。壯語歌謠作為一種民間的民族性詩性文化，在不同的地理時空與媒介之中的傳唱，也可視為是西南地理地貌與心理文化于流變之中的影像晶體。
希冀通過此次放映項目，與觀眾一起，協同西南的土地、人群、動植物、山石，歌謠以及創作者對於它們的影像再生產，加入到「共時影像」的持續生成。
Three works in discussion 三段作品與研討
《磧石與危岩：羊角鎮的地表現實》（余果, 47:21, 2019)
Rock and Cliff : the Geological Surface of Horn Town (Yu Guo, 47m21s, 2019)
影片借用一種偽科教片的形式，通過喋喋不休地描述一些場景來展開敘事，而這些不同的描述方式在不斷的相互撕扯間被編織在一起。余果通過對羊角鎮的田野考察並邀請他人共同寫作，用看似對地質地表的描述把羊角鎮的歷史與現實串聯起來，探討當下的土地政策，文化打造以及鄉村建設有關的現實。
Yu’s video essay Rock and Cliff investigates the creation of Horn Town, a new model village and centre of large scale tourist development, and the displaced experiences of rural residents who moved there through governmental projects. Narrating in the style of a pseudo-science documentary but using local Chongqing dialect, the video brings a geological and topographical perspective to various types of ‘rocks’ found in the area, from mythological stones of a mountain cliff, to ruins of the original settlement, to a stone sculpture from a dubious ‘Land Art Biennial’, in order to address issues of land acquisition, top-down development and spatial politics.
參考Reference: https://www.artforum.com.cn/interviews/12357 (萬青採訪余果 Wan Qing’s interview with Yu Guo)
《看不到完整的風景》（萬青, 27:57, 2021)
Can’t see a Complete View (Wan Qing, 27m57s, 2021)
「從新城區的家裡看不到完整的風景，我上附近尋找，直到遇見一位歸途而來的老人…。」這部影像作品是萬青在探討「共時影像」（Synchronicity Film）的系列嘗試之一，「共時性」（Synchronicity）受啟發於榮格（Carl Gustav Jung），它是「天人合一」哲學及他所受訓的占星學的基礎原理，其倫理及語法同時體現在影像的拍攝—剪輯—放映全過程（對應商品的生產—加工—展銷）。「共時影像」中的創作者不是導演，而是社會關係的參與者和時空關係的服務者。
“Not being able to get a complete view from my home in the new town district, I went out to look around until I met an old man returning home…,” says Wan. This work is part of the ongoing practice of “Synchronicity Film” initiated by Wan Qing. The “synchronicity” of Synchronicity Film, which is inspired by Carl Gustav Jung, also the basis of the philosophy of “Harmony between Man and Nature” and of the astrology he was trained in. Its ethics and grammar are simultaneously reflected in the whole process of film shooting, editing and showing (which corresponds to the production-processing-display of a commodity). The creator of Synchronicity Film is not the director, but the participant of social relations and the server of temporal and spatial relations.
《歡墟》（楊瀟, 41, 2021）
The Mountains Sing（Yang Xiao, 41m, 2021)
「歌墟」是壯族地區的山歌集會，曾經廣為盛行。它通常圍繞宗祠或竜樹進行，其間，男女相約而至，即興作詞，你來我往，對唱萬物。傳遞的山歌開啟了一次遷徙。攝影機沿途抵達了不同的歌者與集會，流轉於鄉土與城鎮，尋找著歌墟散逸的踪跡。
“Hawfwen”, a traditional gathering that once-popular where the Zhuang people sing folk songs. It often takes place around the clan temples or under the old trees. Singers are divided into male and female groups. They improvised their lyrics to sing in correspondence with one another. Traveling along with the songs in antiphonal style, the camera has found different singers and gatherings, lingered in the rural areas and urban cities, trying to find the broken echo of “hawfwen”.
參考Reference: https://new.qq.com/omn/20210730/20210730A090KI00.html (《深焦》訪問楊瀟 interview with Yang Xiao by DeepFocus)
About the author and curator of the screening 作者及放映策劃
Zimu Zhang is a researcher and moving image practitioner. She is currently conducting her PhD research on visual culture & environmental humanities at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. She is the recipient of the 2022 Landhaus fellowship at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. Her films have been featured in multiple international film festivals, art and academic events. She has curated screening programs for the Singapore International Film Festival, Inner Mongolian Film Week, Beijing International Short Film Festival and more. Together with friends, she co-founded the Moonshine Screening Project (2017-2019, Guangzhou SJT co-governance space) and Black Tent Theatre (2021-, Guangdong Times Museum), focusing on the ecology and sociality of moving image and moving image activities. Zhang has guest-curated for the Floating Projects several times over the past years; she is a devoted discussant.
張子木，是一位研究者與動態影像作者。目前於香港城市大學創意媒體學院進行博士研究，關注生態視閾下的視覺文化。她是2022年慕尼黑大學蕾切爾卡森研究中心研究獎學金獲獎者。她的影像作品曾在多個國際影像藝術節展出，她也作為策展人參與過新加坡國際電影節、內蒙古青年電影週、北京國際短片聯展等，她與朋友們聯合發起了「月光放映計劃」 （2017-2019，廣州上陽台共治空間），「黑帳篷劇場」（2021- 廣東時代美術館），均以影像與影像活動的生態性與社會性為焦點。過去幾年，張子木曾多次參與「據點」的影像展覽、討論和策展。
About the moving-image makers 影像作者
Yu Guo was born in Tongjiang, Sichuan in 1983, he graduated from Department of Oil Painting of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2016, currently lives and works in Chongqing. Yu Guo’s art practice involves painting, video and writing. Based on the space practice, Yu Guo emphasizes the combination of body and media materials to keep the minutes of the creation process. Recently his works focused on the interweaving of images with texts, as well as the interplay between visible and invisible social fact.
余果，1983年出生於四川通江，於2006年畢業於四川美術學院油畫系，現工作生活於重慶。余果的創作涉及繪畫、錄像、寫作等多種媒介。他的工作以空間實踐為嚮導，強調用身體結合媒介的記錄方式進入現實空間。根據空間實踐，余果強調用身體和媒介結合的方式記錄發生在現實空間中的創作過程。近期作品注重影像和文本間的相互編織，以及社會現實中可見與不可見的互相滲透。
Wan Qing is a video and astrology worker who lives in Guangzhou and Wuling Mountain area.
萬青：影像及星相工作者，現生活在廣州和武陵山地區。
Yang Xiao, born in Guilin, Guangxi. He graduated from Shanghai University and now lives in Shanghai. His past works include THE SUSPENDED STEP (2013), DANCING TOGETHER (2015), and CHRONICLE OF A DURIAN (2017), The MOUNTAINS SING(2021), which have been exhibited in film festivals and art venues in Paris, Hawaii, Busan, Washington,Tours,Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai, Xining, and Guangzhou, etc. Being interested in various medium, he often works in multiple roles in his works, as well as on other directors’ film projects, such as being assistant director and storyboard artist of THE WILD GOOSE LAKE (2019) and KAILI BLUES (2014), and as montage director for THE FALL (2018), UNCLE AND THE HOUSE(2018) and others. His works have been exhibited in several international film festivals at home and abroad, including
楊瀟：⽣於廣西桂林市。研究生畢業於上海⼤學，現居上海。個⼈作品有《動物園》、《霹靂⾹蕉》、《榴蓮榴蓮》、《歡墟》，曾在巴黎、夏威夷、釜山、圖爾、台北、北京、上海、西寧、杭州、廣州等地的國際節展和藝術機構中展出。出於對不同媒介形式的興趣，他常在個人作品中身兼多職，也曾在不同導演的作品中擔任過不同工作：如以執⾏導演與分鏡師的身份參與《南⽅車站的聚會》、《路邊野餐》，以剪輯指導的身份參與過電影《秋⽥》、《合群路》等電影的後期⼯作。
