Qingmei Yao, Une goutte d’étoile, 2014; Courtesy of the artist and Magician Space

Qingmei Yao, Winner of the Prix Spécial du jury du 59ème Salon de Montrouge, born in 1982, lives and works in Paris and Limoges, presents several poetic and farcical films - some of which were produced specially for her exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo – as well as diverse objects, accessories and technical elements that come together to create a specific environment. In this way, Qingmei Yao's works dialogue with each other and are set out in a unique installation relating to live performance while they expose what happens behind the scenes.

Through absurd and critical performances integrating music and dance, costumes and theatre sets, as well as video and photographic elements, the artist is continually at work on the formulation of a political and social investigation. Fascinated by the survival in China of a cumbersome communist ideal, she portrays poetic, obstinate and distorted characters that ponder the conquest and the loss of power, the meaning of hierarchy and the symbolism of authority.

The works Professeur Yao and Sculpter un billet de 100 euros are coproduced with le Pavillon Blanc, Centre d'art I Médiathèque de Colomiers.

Curator Bernard Marcadé

About the Artist

Qingmei Yao (b. 1982, Zhejiang Province) is a young cross-disciplinary artist, graduated from the National School of the Villa Arson (Nice, 2013), currently lives and works in Paris and Limoges. The concerns of her practice revolve around the formulation of political questions, working between performance, video, photography, and writing. Her art is deep rooted in the political and social, offering methods of critical resistance, and frequently finding their form in areas overlapping burlesque parody and poetry with a critical inquiry. The work enact micro-interventions to question and perturb reality and its surroundings, and in other moments more overt political action is employed, often with sensitivity towards how metaphorical and symbolic gestures gain and lose traction with power through alteration, displacement, and when taken out of context. Taking dramatic expression using elements borrowed from cinema, theatre, and contemporary dance: personalized costumes, script writing, mise en scene, set design, and live music, Yao remains interested in the complex legacy of communism. Of its ‘embarrassment’ and subsequent rejection for a consumer capitalist society, she glides into a parody of idealistic characters, obstinate, satirical, but often with a sincere melancholic streak running throughout.

Major exhibitions include an upcoming solo exhibition in Magician Space, Beijing (2015); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and group exhibitions in FIAC, (OFF)ICIELLE, Paris (2014); Museum Rochechouart, France (2014); Foundation de doute, France (2014); 59e Salon de Mountrouge, Ville de Montrouge (2014); Chapelle des Carmelites, Toulouse (2014); and Centre National d’Art Contemporain Villa Arson.

About the exhibition

Duration: 10 Jan - 22 Mar 2015

Venue: Magician Space

Opening Hours: 10:30-18:00 Tue - Sun

Tel: 010-58405117

Add: 798 East Road, 798 Art Zone, No.2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing

Courtesy of the artist and Magician Space.