Where is china

Category: Web news art/ Interactive installation

Artist: Tan Tan

2015.8-2015.9

Participation of festivals, exhibitions:

DM@CC—2015 Wuhan Digital Art Invitational Exhibition, Wuhan Art Museum, September, 2015

China, an enormous country, is disappearing from the world rapidly in a way! Because the spiritual realm of the population is being transmitted into mobile phones.People have learned to watch the world on mobiles, to eat on mobiles, to make weddings on mobiles, to be born and dead on mobiles…

That’s why Tan Tan tried to “search China” via mobiles. In August 2015, she built a “channel”on “WeChat”(the most used chatting APP in China), to collect pictures, videos and audios from strangers on one subject “Where is China?”. After more than one month, she released many “web news” with dozens of materials from people all around China, so the audience of the channel could view these “art works”in the news.

On the other hand, Tan Tan generated the materials into QR code，and then used more than 40 of them to make an installation work “Where is China”. The audience can scan the printings of QR codes everywhere around the exhibiting space, and see the art works one by one on their own mobiles.Thus, this work can be regarded as a combination of memories of Chinese people behind the digital patterns…

On the other hand, Tan Tan generated the materials into QR code，and then used more than 40 of them to make an installation work “Where is China”. The printings of QR codes can be put on any surfaces in the exhibiting space, for instance, on the ceiling or floor, or even besides a sign of toilet… When the audience scan them, they will see the contents in a one-to-one correspondence between the materials and the codes on their own mobiles, they can also “follow”the WeChat channel and communicate with Tan Tan and other audience. Thus, this work can be regarded as a combination of memories of Chinese people behind the digital patterns…

"Where is China" at DM@CC—2015 Wuhan Digital Art Invitational Exhibition:

The examples of contents corresponding to the QR codes, people can see them on their own mobiles:

Some contents corresponding to the QR codes are GIF animations and videos:

｛中国在哪里？｝——在乡镇淘宝小卖家腾飞的希望里。

Where is China?--China is in the hope of flying of the rural areas' sellers on "Taobao" .

These pictures are from a "Taobao shop"(Taobao is the biggest online shopping platform in China), which show some artificial wings that the sellers made by themselves. This family factory sometimes sell the wings to the shows of "Victoria's Secret".

｛中国在哪里？｝——在天地空三届的欲望里……

Where is China?--China is in the desires of heaven,earth,hell...

These pictures are also from a "Taobao shop",which are some fake"certificates" such as ID cards, house proprietary certificate，driving license，traffic permit in the "heaven" and "hell" , as well as some paper-made electronics like computers, mobiles and cameras, all these are for the dead. In China, people believe that if they burn some fake money, their dead families can receive some real money in "the other side". Nowadays, people begin to burn more "realistic" paper objects for the dead.

｛中国在哪里？｝——在卡拉OK里吗？

这是一种什么感觉？这是一种相信——中国神奇的卡拉OK让佛祖也疯狂。

Where is China?——What a feeling,here is believing! The magic Chinese Karaoke could make the Buddhas crazy.

If the video can't be played normally, please click here

Watch the related performance “1,000,000,000 mobile universes” －－

Website: www.tan-bo.com Category: Performance, video, sound art, interactive art Artist: Tan Tan, Eric Bribosia Cooperative artists: artist group “Poor CD Band” The premiere of this performance was implemented at the opening of “DM@CC——2015 Wuhan Digital Art Invitational Exhibition” in Wuhan Art Museum, September, 2015. The two third of the performance took place on the big screen in the hall and the mobiles of the performers and the audience. The performance doesn’t exist only if the audience participate fully during the whole process, thus the audience are performers as well! Scanning the QR codes is the core method of interaction between the performers and the audience. During the most time of the show, the audience could only see the work on their mobiles after scanning the codes. For instance, they could enter a “channel”and a “Chatting group” built by Tan Tan in the APP“WeChat”, which is the “top one” communicating application for Chinese people. While in the “channel” named “Where is China”,they could see a number of images and videos representing the impression of “Chinese culture” from people throughout China. In the “Chatting group”,they saw the members of “Poor CD Band”that were hiding in many corners of the Museum. They chatted with all the “performers” including Tan Tan and Eric Bribosia, they even could get some money as gifts, as well as posting some advertisements… At the last stage of this show, TanBo and “Poor CD Band”made a “sacrificial ritual”for the mobiles from them and the audience. Every mobile phone is like a “small world”, which incorporates into a “1,000,000,000 universes”, which is a Buddhist saying, with the network of numerous mobiles. TanBo just hopes to open one of the doors to the“1,000,000,000 mobile universes” ...