The beginning of 2013 will see Stop-Motion Animation Residency Project by SUN Xun in ShanghART Beijing Space. For nearly 3 months between the end of January and late April, the artist will be accomplishing his long-planned stop-motion animation work. By then ShanghART Beijing will be altered into an "animation studio" and be fully open to visitors. It marks SUN Xun' s rarely seen long-time residency project during the past five years in China, whereas the unknowingness of the exhibition site and outcomes is predestined by the time span, spatial dimension and the act of residency per se. Deprived of title, duration and opening time, this project will maintain a state of reading and interpretation constantly. Both what will happen and what will be presented in the end are bound to be the "unexpected" expected by the artist.

Sun Xun was born in 1980 in Fuxin in Liaoning province, China. He currently lives and works in Beijing. He graduated in 2005 from the Printmaking Department of the China Academy of Fine Arts. In 2006 he established π Animation Studio. As a young artist, Sun Xun made an impressive result during recent years. He has received several notable awards including the "Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (CCAA Best Young Artist)" and "Taiwan Contemporary Art Link Young Art Award" in 2010, and the Civitella Ranieri Visual Arts Fellowship 2011/ 2012. 2012, his latest wood printing animation film Some Actions Which Haven't Been Defined yet in the Revolution has been nominated by Berlinale Shorts 2012 jury in 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. Merely 2 years after SUN Xun's work 21 GRAMS entered Venice Film Festival in 2010, being the first Chinese animation film nominated by this festival, the artist brings animation work once again into top three A-class international film festivals.

The works of Sun Xun are mainly drawing short animation. Sun Xun also exhibits his individual cell drawings and other mixed media works, sometimes alongside his films. His series of small mixed media works titled "Shock of Time" (2006) challenged notions of time, history and narration and utilized media such as newspapers, books and other documentary material that served to highlight certain passages of history. 21 GRAMS (2010) was produced 3 years after its commencement and mainly completed by pastel and fusain on canvas. It constructs a questioning and impressive world in black and white. "Some Actions Which Haven't Been Defined yet in the Revolution" (2011) is made by woodblock printing – a technique that was an important tool of the Cultural Revolution. This printing technique was used as an important means of communication to quickly convey information. Clown's Revolution (2010), Beyond-ism (2010) and new works on schedule prove Sun Xun's new attempt and breakthrough to use Chinese ink painting into his work. Although it is difficult, there is no doubt that the works are the perfect match with traditional and contemporary art.

Reality and fantasy, time and history run through Sun Xun's work all the time. Works such as "21 GRAMS", "Magician's Lie" and "Requiem" feature a key protagonist; a magician dressed in a black suit and a high top hat. The magician has been in search of another world, probably a utopia. Over the course of this character's expedition, the sequences are dreamlike and apocalyptic. Sun's works explore themes of societal development and revolution, referencing such theorists as Marx, Adorno, and Horkheimer. His major animation works include: "Some Actions Which Haven't Been Defined yet in the Revolution"(2011), "Clown's Revolution"(2010), "Beyond-ism"(2010), "21 KE (21 GRAMS)"(2010), "People's Republic of Zoo"(2009), "New China"(2008), "Coal Spell"(2008), "Requiem"(2007), "Heroes No Longer"(2007), "Lie"(2006), "Mythos"(2006), "Lie of Magician"(2005), "A War About Chinese Words"(2005).

Courtesy of the artist and ShanghART Beijing, for further information please visit www.shanghartgallery.com.