About Tan Tan

Tan Tan is an intermedia artist who currently lives and works in China. She is currently an associate professor at the School of Experimental Art of Hubei Institute of Fine Arts (Wuhan, China), and the head of the Performance and Media Studies Center.

Education

PhD, Studies in Performing Arts & Media at Ghent University, Belgium. Supervised by Professor Prof. Dr. Christel Stalpaert, Prof. Dr. Katharina Pewny, and Prof. Dr. Chokri Ben Chikha.

Master, Experimental Film/Video, China Central Academy of Fine Arts and Calarts Cooperation Master program, China, U.S.

Bachelor, Drama, Film &TV Literature, Communication University of China, Beijing, China.

Selected awards

China Dream won “Magmart X Prize” at Magmart Festival 2017, March, Italy

Lost in Home won "The Best Exploration" Award at 5th XI'AN International video festival, China, October, 2014

Positive won "New Emerging Experimental Filmmaker Academy Awards" at 2nd Beijing Film Acadamy New Media Art Triennial, Beijing, October, 2010

A Disappearance Foretold, for which I worked as a photographer, won “Scam International Award” at Cinéma du Réel Film Festival 2008, France

Live won “The Best Experimental Film Award-professional group” at 14th Beijing Student Film Festival, April, 2007

INTERMEDIA ART

Moving image

PERFORMANCE 

MUSIC/SOUND

Urban space

social intervention

spiritual healing

Tan Tan is a rare “trans-disciplinary artist” in China, whose works freely crossover the fields of theater/performance, film/video, and contemporary visual art. She has a profound educational background that blends Eastern and Western art and philosophical theories, sociopolitical studies, and spiritual enrichment. In recent years, she has dedicated herself to activist, socially engaged art, and participatory, site-specific theater and performance art, as well as expressive art healing. Instead of centering her work on personal expression, she takes a broader, bird’s-eye view of humanistic themes.

For instance, she explores ecological and spiritual crises in urban development, creating four films shot in abandoned ruins to question the friction between humans and nature. She also organized an art party in a demolished, security-guarded neighborhood in the city center, launched a satirical fake real estate project with posters at bus stations and a faux “sales office” to critique overdevelopment around an urban lake, and invited the public to create musical instruments from recycled garbage, culminating in a sound and physical performance.

Her work also involves “institutional critique,” addressing the capitalist and human resource-driven hidden rules in the contemporary art world. From 2015 to 2017, she led a large-scale intermedia and performance art project, “Venize Biennale”, which consisted of a hoax claiming a prize at the “Venice Biennale,” a fake official website, and over 100 artworks by more than 60 artists worldwide, “smuggled” into the “real” Biennale’s exhibition halls.

Building on her extensive experience in social observation and activism, she has increasingly focused on how people from different classes, genders, ages, and races can find harmony in today’s world of conflicts—both among humans and in the distorted relationship between humanity and the universe, as reflected in the pandemic, systemic collapses, wars, and the challenges posed by AI. In 2021, she initiated a continuously evolving, publicly participatory, interdisciplinary project titled “Space Art 2020”, which humorously examines the “Post-Pandemic Anthropocene” through a sci-fi lens. The project uses non-theatrical environments and invites the public to perform as themselves within a cross-dimensional structure of art-making.

With her artworks, she has participated in numerous international art events, such as 60th Berlin International Film Festival, 2011 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), 43rd Tampere Film Festival, 35th Göteborg International Film Festival, 2012 Images Festival（Canada）, 2019 InSEA World Congress Delegate Digital Exhibition(Canada), 4th Chinese Women Artists Video Art Festival(Mexico), Wuzhen Theatre Festival 2016 (China), 2019 Creative China Festival at La Mama Experimental theatre (The U.S.), Beijing Fringe Festival 2021(China), 2022 International Istanbul Biennial(Turkey), Shekou Theater Festival 2023(China). Her works are collected by SFE TV (German contemporary art channel), Beijing Li Xianting Film Foundation, and Wuhan Art Museum.

She is also involved in research and curatorial work. In April 2024, she was invited to the 70th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen’s special program “International Visitors,” where she collaborated with seven other programmers from different countries to build an international network. In 2014, she was selected by the China Artist Association for the “Middle-aged and Young Chinese Artists and Scholars Overseas Research Scheme,” conducting research at several art centers in Belgium and Ars Electronica in Austria. In 2013, she was invited to be a jury member for the International Competition Program of the 43rd Tampere Film Festival and served as the curator for the experimental film/video art program “China Experience” at the same festival.

Recent activities (exhibitions, film festivals, performances…)

2024

• Lift-Off Filmmaker Sessions - hosted by Lift-Off Global Network, September

• Growing Inward! Participatory Art Healing Co-Creation Exhibition, Shenzhen, July

• Goethe Institute AI Short Film Competition and Screening, Beijing, July

• Aranya Theater Festival “Invited Observers Group", Qinhuangdao, June

• 70th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen – Film and Media Arts in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, April

• Human-Machine Integration: The Age of Robotic Art, 798CUBE, Beijing, January

2023

• Lianzhou International Photography Annual Exhibition, Lianzhou, December

• The 6th Documentary Exhibition of Fine Arts: Returning to Void and Dimension, Hubei Museum of Art, Fine Arts Literature Art Center

• Work as Director/Dramaturg for site-specific participatory theater performance「Space Ark 2020_Day 1381」, Shekou Theater Festival, Shenzhen, November

• 4th Chinese Women Artists Video Art Festival, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, October

• 9th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, Urban Village Tangram, Shenzhen, August

• 1st Hubei Youth Fine Arts Works Exhibition, Wuhan, May

• 1st Sphinx Meta Theater Festival, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, New York, Paris, Berlin, April

• Good Luck Youth Arts Festival-Wuhan Stop, March

• “Yangtze Video Art Community 2010-2011” Intermedia Art Exhibition, Wuhan, February

2022

• Hi Shorts! Film Festival, Experimental Shortlisted, Xiamen, December

• Artistic residency at Yangshuo SugarHouse, Guangxi, December,

• 10th Reel China Biennial at NYU, New York University, October

• Mis(s)placed Women? (2009-2022)，7th Istanbul Biennale, September

• Work as Director/Dramaturg for site-specific participatory theater performance「Space Ark 2020_Day 968」, supported by YAV Art Platform, Shenzhen, September

• DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, Seoul, September

• Inaugural Exhibition-The Open Door, Le Châlet Art Museum, Wuhan, June

• Against the War, in the Name of Cinema”, a Film Campaign by the New Asian Filmmakers Collective”, toured in China and the UK, from March to July

• "EXIM 2022"-Experimental Video Festival in Macao, China, February

• 2022 Macau International Performance Art Festival, January

2021

• “Double Sided Landscape-Ice and Fire” Art Exhibition, Wuhan, December

• “Mirroring HanKow” Art Exhibition, Wuhan, November

•  Theatre “One-year Anniversary +265 days”, Beijing Fringe Festival, October

• World Nomadic Short Film Week, tour in China, October

• Mis(s)placed Women? (2009-2021)，New Gallery of Visual Arts， Belgrade, October

• “Beyond Words-Art and Healing” Art Exhibition, Wuhan Art Museum, March

• “Moon on East Lake” Art Exhibition, Donghu Shan Art Museum, Wuhan, February

• 3rd Chinese Women Artists Video Art Festival, Mexico City, Mexico, February

2020

• ·2nd Wuhan Photo Art Fair, Wuhan, November

• “Off the Beaten Track- Tan Tan’s Unknown Ritual” Online Exhibition, October

• "EXIM 2020"Experimental Video Festival in Macao, September

• “Trash New Order” 2020 OCT-LOFT Public Art Exhibition, Shenzhen, September

• “Waiting for Testing-Rewriting Theatre History” Participatory Exhibition with Archived Contemporary Performance, OCAT, Shenzhen, July

• “UNDER THE ROCK” Exhibition and Charity, The museum of creative minds, Shanghai, April

• Voice Online Invitational Exhibition, March

2019

• Shalanaya Open Air Festival, Shanghai, November

• 1st Great Wall of Qi Art Festival, Jinan, October

• Art Hefei Contemporary Art Season | “Antidote” Experimental film/video Exhibition, Hefei, October

• Making Time, for your Artlife | InSEA World Congress Delegate Digital Exhibition, Vancouver, Canada, July

• Music residency and concerts at Donghushan Art Museum, Wuhan, March

• Perform in theater “The Dictionary of Soul”, in the program of “Creative China Festival”, La Mama Experimental Theater, New York, the US, February

2018

• “Burnt of Snow” Performance Art Season - the sixth time -19℃, Inner Mongolia, December

• “70,80,90” Wuhan Youth Artist Contemporary Art Exhibition, Tanghu Art Museum, Wuhan, November

• “Thousands of Sprouts” International Female Artists Online Exhibition, November

• The 39th Show of Cement Park Live House, SOWERART Space, Shanghai

• International Factory Theater Festival Laiwu, Laiwu, October

• Fangyu Art Festival, Jinan, October

• Silk Bridges - A meeting between contemporary artists from China and Costa Rica, Veritas University, Costa Rica, September

• Waha Festival 2018, Romania, July

• “A Pink River”（performance art）in response to the “MISPLACED WOMEN?” project by Tanja Ostojić, performed at Annual Manifestation Against Sexism Gent, Belgium, March

2017

• Qingdao Independent Film Festival 2017, Qingdao, December

• Urban Nomadism: 2017 Hangzhou Liangzhu Big Roof International Moving Image Exhibition, December

• “Encore” International Engravings Exhibition, ADGY International Cultural Center, Beijing, December

• "Trouble Diaries: A political statement" International Female Artists Exhibition, Wuhan, November

• "Art night Kempten" Biennale 2017, Kempten, Germany

• 2nd Chinese Women Artists Video Art Festiva, Mexico City, Mexico, August

• Venize Biennale World Tour 2017-Documenta Stop, Kassel, Germany

• Art Now Live Tour 3, Kassel, Germany

• "Images Vivantes" Art Exhibition, Lesbrouss'art Gallery, June

• Venize Biennale Online Exhibition 2017, May to November

• Venize Biennale 2017 "TRANS-BORDERING ART", Venice, Italy, May

• Lecture performance“The Principles of Survival of Today's Artistic Career/Life” at the international conference "DANCE NOW-work with(out) boundaries", Gent, Belgium, March

• Solo exhibition “Unknown Ritual No.1”, Le Clignoteur Art Space, Brussels, Belgium, January

2016

• Wuzhen Theatre Festival, Wuzhen, October

• “Paint one another, know one another” Sino Foreign Fine Art Exhibition, Yan Huang Art Museum, Beijing, September

• TanBo Solo exhibition "Venize Biennale World Tour 2016-Chongqing Stop", Chongqing Changjiang Contemporary Art Museum, June

• Chinese Short Film Festival in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolian National Art Gallery, Central Palace of Culture, Mongolia, June

• Videos&Experimental Films by Artists in Wuhan, The Project of Moving Image XII, U&M Art Space, Guangzhou, May-June

2015

• Beijing Fringe Festival 2015, Beijing, September

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

• Chinese Women Artists Video Art Festival, Mexico City, Mexico, June

• 1st Changjiang International Photography & Video Biennale, Chongqing, April

• 11th IAWRT Asian Women's Film Festival, New Delhi, India, March

• TanBo Intermedia Performance “Shadow/ Matter”+Improvised Music/Sound Art Workshop, Wuhan, February

2014

• "EXIM 2014"-Experimental Video Festival in Macao, November

• "Self-Consistency" Installation and Video Exhibition at Creative Capital International Art Festival, Wuhan, October

• DANS QUELLE VIE TU MONDE(S)?-2014 “The China-French Cultural Spring”， Wuhan, June

• 2014 “Sound/Body/Image/Power” Multi-Media Art Festival “Faith- Pain and Itching” Performance Art Session + Contemporary Art Exhibition, Chi K11 art space, Wuhan

• Academy+Space "Social Dimension"-Young Artists Invitational Exhibition, Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, April

2013

• 1st ASEAN Biennial, Nanning, December

• 2rd Wuhan Design Biennale, Wuhan, November

• 3rd Beijing Film Academy International New Media Arts Triennial Exhibition, Beijing, October

• China Central Academy Of Fine Arts Agnès Varda's Award, Beijing, October

• The 10th Beijing Independent Film Festival, Beijing, August

• "Constelacion"videoarte en femenino,Calera de León, Spain,July

• Experimental Film/Video 27th Image Forum Festival, Tokyo, Japan, April-May

• 43th Tampere Film Festival-"Retrospective of Tan Tan", Tampere, Finland, March

• "FestArt"exhibition of 43th Tampere Film Festival-"China Experience", Tampere, Finland, February

2012

• 4th "Festival Shadows"Chinese Independent Film Festival, Paris, France

• "Eyeseverywhere: East and West Women Artists"exhibition, The Gallery of Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, Wuhan, June

• 25th Images Festival, Toronto, Canada, April

• 42th Tampere Film Festival, Tampere, Finland, March

• 35th Göteborg International Film Festival, Göteborg, Sweden, January

• 41th International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, January