chris.zhongtian.yuan@gmail.com
vimeo

Chris Zhongtian Yuan (b. 1988, Wuhan) graduated from the Architectural Association in London and University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Their practice examines the ways in which spaces of absence and exile are politicised through sound and texts. Recomposing vernacular sonic and spatial materials, interwoven with explorations into structure and technique, their work investigates narratives and politics simultaneously building and dismantling our everyday spaces. They often foreground spectres of resistance through interpersonal relations: tracing a Punk musician’s exile from childhood memory; resurrecting mother’s disappeared paintings of Mosuo women; probing uncertain present and historical solidarity amongst nation-states through an imagined dialogue with a distant friend.

Chris was awarded K11 Art 11 Prize for Wuhan Punk (2020), and Aesthetica Art Prize for Counterfictions (2018-19). They co-curated artists moving image projects for receiving OCAT Institute’s Research-based Curatorial Project Award.

Recent & forthcoming exhibitions:
2023, Macalline Art Center, Beijing (solo, forthcoming)
2023, Reading International, Reading (solo, forthcoming)
2023, All Trace Is Gone, No Clamour for a Kiss, ArtReview, London (screening)
2023, To Your Eternity, Today Art Museum, Beijing (group, forthcoming)
2023, IFFR, Rotterdam (screening)
2022, Cloudy Song, Somerset House, London (screening)
2022, Follow the Feeling, Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou (group, forthcoming)
2022, Polyphonic Bodies, Whitechapel Gallery, London (performance)
2022, Dangxia Art Space, Beijing 
2022, Wuhan Punk, NOWNESS Asia (solo screening)
2022, B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Frankfurt
2022, All Trace Is Gone, No Clamour for a Kiss, V.O Curations, London (solo)
2022, Play and Loop IV, Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong
2022, Soul Hunter, Surplus Space, Wuhan
2021, The Perfect Flaw, Huayu Youth Art Award, Huayu Art Centre
2021, The Dwelling Place of the Other in Me, Power Station of Art, Shanghai
2021, I Could Not Recall How I Got Here, Tabula Rasa Gallery, London
2021, 9/11 Twenty Years On, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York
2021, Videoex, Zurich
2021, Art Lovers Movie Club: Wuhan Punk, ArtReview, London (solo screening)
2021, Wuhan Punk: Chris Zhongtian Yuan, Frank Davis Memorial Lecture, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London (performance lecture)
2021, A Continuation of Decentralized Reality with Expanding Intimacy, OCAT Institute, Beijing
2021, Spring Time, Palm Trees, Antenna Space, Shanghai
2021, Hyper Fuctional, Ultra Healthy | not/nowhere Presents, Somerset House, London

Selected awards, commissions & residencies:
British Council Short Film Travel Grant (2023)
Somerset House Film Commission (2022)
Arts Council England Project Grant (2022)
Huayu Youth Award Finalist (2021)
K11 Art 11 Prize Winner (2021)
V.O Curations Residency (2021)
Film London FLAMIN Fellowship (2021-22)
Aesthetica Art Prize Winner (2020)
OCAT Institute Research-based Curatorial Project (2020)
Film & Video Umbrella Commission (2020)
Rice University SOA Fellowship (2014-15)
Salt Lake City 69.70 International Competition Honorable Mention (2013)
Metropolitan Design Center Research Travel Fellowship (2010)
University of Minnesota Global Excellence Scholarship (2007-11)

Selected texts:
Foundwork Diagloues, interview by Alexis Aceves Garcia (2023)
LEAP F/W 2022 Crisis as Norm (2023)
Strange Intimate Archive, Mn Artists, Walker Art Center (2022)
A Heavy Choking, A Monster Roars, A Neglected Dawn, Chán Magazine (2021)
Ghost World by Travis Jeppesen for Huayu Youth Art Award, translated by Dot Jia (2021)
Artforum Critics’ Picks by Fiona He (2021)
OCAT Institute, Close, Closer, in conversation with Sophie Xiaofei Guo (2021)
Wuhan Punk, AArchitecture 40 (2020)
Aesthetica Magazine, Between Reality and Fiction, in conversation with Manijeh Verghese (2020)
Film & Video Umbrella, Steven Bode, Wuhan Punk (2020)
Film & Video Umbrella, Iris Long, Unreal (2020)
Aesthetica Art Prize, Counterfictions (2020)

Publications:
Counterfictions, Published by Page Bureau (2022)
K11 Wuhan, 1815, Yoojin Choi, Year Without a Summer (2020)
K11 Wuhan, 1815, Maja Mazurkiewicz, Re-imaging Nature in History (2020)
K11 Wuhan, 1815, Xin Wang, Water Spilling from the Eaves Deafens Me (2020)
K11 Wuhan, 1815, Doron von Beider, Entropy (2020)


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