Yi Zhou
Yi Zhou is a Chinese artist, who was born in Shanghai, but grew up in Hanngzhou and Rome. She graduated in Political Science and Economics between London(LSE) and Paris(AUP). She currently splits her time between Paris and Shanghai, and has a degree in Political Science and Economics.[1]
Yi Zhou is the art director of Tudou.com, the would-be Chinese Youtube since 2010. [2] In 2011, Yi Zhou was named as brand ambassador of Clarins, creating for the first time that a beauty brand chose an artist to endorse cosmetics as the first "artist ambassador". The brand has also stepped into art by being one of the sponsors of Venice biennale solo collateral show of Yi Zhou during the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011.[3] She is also named by Sina.com, which owns Chinese twitter(Sina Weibo), as their fashion & art advisory member since 2012.
Yi Zhou creates large multimedia installation artworks that blend film,digital animation, photography, sculpture, painting,drawing, and contemporary music composition. Her works explore the realm of hyper-realism and neorealism: on one hand, she derives visual and tangible forms from the imagination and dreams, while on the other hand, she gives a surreal aspect to nature itself.
Her work is a complex synthesis of imagination, literature, mythology, philosophy and new technology and is impregnated with Chinese and Mediterranean culture. Her works introduce the disturbing magic of both virtual and supernatural characters and landscapes as well as the ephemeral reality of life, love, and death while using the symbolic language of the unconscious.
Blending ancient expressive methods, such as sculpture in marble and 35mm film, with extremely technologically advanced ones, such as 3D animation, Yi Zhou presents a vision of life, transcending both time and space, inflected with irony, wit and a stream of consciousness. Yi Zhou's approach to art is not only a multimedia one, but it also includes a scientifical approach to art. In 2009, she has collaborated with scientists working with NASA, by creating a sculpture made out of aerogel, thus, creating a first collaboration between an artist and scientists working with NASA. [4]
Yi Zhou held a solo collateral exhibition entitled “Days of Yi” at 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. Many of her video works have also been consecutively selected by Venice Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival.[5] In 2011, she was also invited to show her video works at the FIAC outdoor project in collaboration with the Louvre and Fondation d'entreprise Ricard. In December 2011, Yi Zhou has also done a 15 minutes' piece that she has written and directed for United Nations starring Jackie Chan and Clotilde Courau, which was screened at 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Yi Zhou is a modern-day Chinese Hitchcock and Cindy Sherman; she is from the Twitter/Instagram and Tumblr generation, an image maker and fashion muse, switching front and back of the camera.
Official websites
- Yi Zhou's official site
- Yi Zhou's Weibo for China
- Yi Zhou's Twitter
- Yi Zhou Venice Biennale collateral exhibition official site
- Yi Zhou's Tudou page
- Yi Zhou's Youtube Channel[dead link]
- NEXT: Worldwide Talent Representation
Works
1280 TOWERS — PLACE VENDOME
When the Comité Vendôme, at the beginning of 2006, proposed Yi Zhou to create a public project for Place Vendôme, she based her reflection on the symbolic meaning of the Vendôme Column that gave its name to the square. Created in response to this symbol of sovereign power, Yi Zhou’s project is composed of two 8 meter-high columns, located on a diagonal axis with the Vendôme Column as the central point. Each of these two columns are composed of 1280 small towers that are placed on a circular line next to each other, oscillating between the idea of emptiness and fullness. Their shape, inspired by the Chinese chopsticks, evokes the multitude of Chinese population and its constant growing, and refers to an induced geopolitical signification. Like a human chain in which the feminine alternates with the masculine, the fullness with the emptiness held in a collective initiative that starts in each unity.
Built on the pattern of the infinite spiral, 1280 Towers continue the history of art and humanity started with the Tower of Babel that is more recently reincarnated by Brancusi’s Endless Column and Tatlin’s Monument for the 3rd International tower. Despite very different metaphoric significations, all these artworks symbolize the multitude, the universal, and the infinite.
Collaborations
Yi Zhou has been selected by Sundance Film Festival four consecutive times. Since 2010, Yi Zhou has been appointed as art director of Tudou.com and she has suggested the initiative of bridging Sundance Institute members with 2011 Tudou Video Festival and with China.
Yi Zhou also developed a series of online moving portraits of key international players in the movie/fashion/art industries, posted on Tudou.com and Weibo.com. This project not only introduces these celebrities to the Chinese twitter user, but also shows Yi Zhou's approach to her work as a multimedia artist by creating these portraits for the social media only.(Social media portraits anthology I, Social media portraits anthology II)
The same attempt can also be seen in the social media play that Yi Zhou has written and performed with Nicola Formichetti in September 2011, "The Dream", a short film feauring herself and Nicola Formichetti with the attempt of drawing international attention to emerging Chinese fashion designers' works. She has also written the scale for this film.
Music has always be the key to Yi Zhou's works. She has collaborated with Ennio Morricone in 6 of her works: Unexpetected Hero(2011), Labyrinth(2011), DVF 2011(2011), The Greatness(2010), The Ear(2009). She has also written the music for Clair de Lune for United Nations, premiered at 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
External links
- January 21st, 2011 Chanel news:“CULTURE CHANEL” EXHIBITION SEEN BY YI ZHOU
- October 6th, 2010 Chanel news:BEST PLACES IN PARIS BY YI ZHOU
- Exhibition site for RH Gallery's "Melodymania" featuring Yi Zhou
- Shanghai Biennale
- Guangzhou Triennial
Solo & Group exhibitions
| Solo Exhibitions |
|---|
|
2012 "Scuplture Labyrinth" , Hanart TZ Gallery, HongKong, China, January 6th - 30th , 2012
"Days Of Yi" , 54th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, June 4th - November 27th , 2011
"The Ear Bridge and The Greatness" , Contrasts Gallery, Shanghai, China, November 14th – December 16th, 2010 "I Am Your Simulacrum" at 20 Hoxton Square Projects. From September 1 to September 11, 2010. "Hegemony or Survival" , Contrasts Gallery special screening space, Shanghai, China
Yi Zhou booth by Art Asia / Scope Pavilion at Basel Miami Art Fair. December 1 -4 2009. "Around the EarBridge", SuZhou True Color Museum of contemporary art. November 1, 2009 - February 25 th 2010. Yi Zhou booth by Art Asia / Scope Pavilion at Basel Art Fair. June 8–14.
“My Heart Laid Bare” Ooi Botos gallery, Hong Kong. From October 30, 2008 to January 10, 2009. "Hear, Earth, Heart" Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris, France, April - May 2008 "1280 Towers", with the support of Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont and the initiative of Comité Vendôme
"Il passato è remoto anzi sarà sempre presente Una scultura, un video, un anello." Galleria Nicola Ricci. Pietrasanta, Italy, May 18, 2007
"Three Cantos: Prefiguration: Inferno, urgatorio, Paradiso" Palazzo Vecchio: Cappella di Eleonora di Toledo, Studiolo di Francesco I, Terrazza di Saturno Projection and Performance on the Façade of Palazzo Vecchio and Torre Vecchia, Florence, Italy, June 2006
"Dreamscape", Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris, France, May - June 2005
"Mountaintank" Performance, Deitch Projects, New York, USA, September 2004
"Y_Game" Noirmont Prospect, Paris, France, September - November 2002
|
| Group Exhibitions |
|---|
|
2011 "FIAC 2011:Cinéphémère" , Fiac Outdoor Project, in collaboration with the Louvre & Fondation Ricard, Tuileries Garden,Paris, October 18th - October 23rd, 2011 "Pure View: Contemporary Art Exhibition" , 5th Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu, China, September 30th - October 30th, 2011 "Melodymania" , RH Gallery, New York, September 13th - October 29th, 2011 "1988-2011 Chinese Video Art" , Minsheng Museum, Shanghai, China, September 9th - November 27th, 2011
Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China OPEN 13. International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations Venice Lido, San Servolo Island. It opens on Sep 1st till Oct 3rd, 2010. "Currents 2010" Currents Video Exhibition, Santa Fe. June 17 -June 27. Giorni Felici: Welcome to the 22nd Century, Fondazione Testori, Milan, Italy "Chinese Contemporary Art", Contrasts Gallery, Shanghai, China
"Vraoum ! Trésors de la bande dessinée et art contemporain" Maison Rouge, Paris. May 28 -September 27. "The Big World : Recent Art from China". Chicago Cultural Center. April 25 - August 30
Guangzhou triennial, Guangdong museum. September 6- November 16. Reperti contemporanei confini. Ventimiglia. October 25 - December 8.
Fiac 2007. Gallerie Jérôme de Noirmont. "Archetype". Grand Palais, Paris - October 18–22 64th mostra internazionale d'arte cinematrografica di Venezia. "Avatars" film screening. September 6-7th 2007 Verismo Magico, Not Gallery, from 18 September 2007 to 26 October 2007 "Good Morning Babylonia", Pékin. February 2d, 2007
Screening short film for La Mer White Space, Amsterdam, NL. - 14 Nov Quarter relocated Turin, Italy - From 11 Nov. to 15 dec Musée du Quai Branly, 27 June 2006
"Biennale d'Art contemporain chinois" Montpellier, France, June - August 2005 "Le futur des villes" Nancy, France, June - August 2005 "Festival Sonar" Barcelone, Spain, June 2005
"Fraicheur de vivre" Shanghai, and Canton Museum of Contemporary art, China, septembre 2004 "Generation Video" Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France, January 2004
"Lovemeforeverandnever" in collaboration with the Crazy Horse Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France,November 2003 40Views of an Icon" by Comme des Garçons Spazio Consolo, Milano, Italy, November 2003 "FIAC 2003: Fantasme Fantastique" Galerie Jerome de Noirmont, Paris,France, October 2003 "Made in China" Fondation d'art contemporain Daniel et Florence Guerlain,France, September 2003 "40Views of an Icon" by Comme des Garçons Hermitage, Moscow, Russia, September 2003 "Biennale de Tirana 02" Tirana, Albania, September 2003 "DVDbyNumbers Presentation" SonyDreamWorld, Paris, France, September 2003 "Something about love" Casino Luxembourg - Forum d'art contemporain, Luxembourg, July 2003
"Premiere Vue" Passage du Retz, Paris, France, September 2002 "Alter Ego" Musee de l'Histoire de l'Art, Luxembourg, Luxembourg, July 2002 "www.whitneybiennial.com," online exhibitio, March 2002 |
References
- ^ Claudia Barbieri (December 1, 2010). "The Frenetic World of Yi Zhou". New York Times.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Nancy Zhang (May 11, 2011). "Zhou Yi: China's leading video artist comes home". CNNgo.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Celia Ellenberg (June 10, 2011). "Meet Clarins' Ambassador Artist". Style.com.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Megha Rajagopalan (September 11, 2008). "Mixed Media". Time Magazine.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Nate von Zumwalt (January 28, 2011). "Short Shot: Yi Zhou". Sundance Film Festival.
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