Beijing Silvermine
& Appropriation Films
An exhibition and screening project, devoted to present Beijing Silvermine photo archive and how artists reuse static photographs into moving image works, manifesting the practices of post-modern appropriation art.
Curated by Yeyou Wu
Guided by Michael Mazière
Screening
Lei Lei x Thomas Sauvin: Retreatment of Old Family Photos
Wed 4 Jul 11:20am-11:50am
Close-up Cinema, 97 Sclater Street, London E1 6HR
Free entry
Screening two engaging short animations Recycled (2012) and Hand-colored No.2 (2016) at first, then following an Q&A with director Lei Lei, an up-and-coming Chinese experimental animation artist. Lei Lei will share his creative ideas and experiences, express his unique understanding of old materials.
Recycled (2012)
Hand-colored No.2 (2016)
Exhibition
Beijing Silvermine & Its Appropriation Film
Thur 5 Jul - Mon 9 Jul 2018
Exhibition Launch: Thur 5 Jul 2018, 6pm
Opening Times: Mon to Fri 9am-11pm; Sat & Sun 9am-6:30pm
London Gallery West Project Space, University of Westminster, Harrow, HA1 3TP
Rooms 3 and 4
Admission free
This exhibition organically combines still photographs and moving images. All photographs on display are selected from Beijing Silvermine archive, which reflect unedited portrait of anonymous Beijing inhabitants. These photos are evoking deep reflections on Chinese people’s collective memory of the recent past. Indeed, the curator aims to present remediation of the photo archive, and show the relationship between found footage and appropriation films. The works on display include selected three sets of photographs within Beijing Silvermine archive, alongside one documentary produced by Emiland Guillerme. Also on show one short experimental animations - Recycled (2012)- crafted by Lei Lei and cooperated with Thomas Sauvin.
Introduction of Beijing Silvermine
Beijing Silvermine is an archive of half a million negatives salvaged over the last nine years from a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing. Assembled by the French collector and artist Thomas Sauvin, Beijing Silvermine offers a unique photographic portrait of the Chinese capital and the life of its inhabitants in the decade following the Cultural Revolution.
Thomas Sauvin
Thomas Sauvin is a French photography collector and artist who moved to China in 2003. He is well known as the founder and owner of Beijing Silvermine archive. Since 2009, Thomas Sauvin has embarked on an unusual adventure: salvaging discarded negatives from a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing that were destined to destruction. He buys these negatives by the kilo, taking away rice bags filled with thousands or rolls of slobbery, dusty and scratched negative film. Once closely examined, images are consistently selected, digitized, and classified... That is the formation of Beijing Silvermine archive. These years, Sauvin has had numerous outstanding exhibitions of his works, and published several types of photobooks.
Lei Lei (雷磊)
1985 Born in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, Lei Lei is an experimental animation artist with his hands on video, painting, installation and audio-visual theater performance also. In 2009, he got a master's degree in animation from Tsinghua University. In 2010, his film This is LOVE was awarded The 2010 Best Narrative Short at Ottawa International Animation Festival. In 2013, his film Recycled was the Winner Grand Prix shorts - non-narrative at Holland Animated Film Festival. In 2014 he was the jury of Zagreb / Holland International Animation Film Festival. and he was the winner of 2014 Asian cultural council grant. Lei Lei's animation installation Books on Books was exhibited at Moca shanghai and TOP museum in 2016. And he hold his solo exhibition Coming soon at OCAT Xi'an museum in 2017. In 2018, he works in Calarts Experimental Animation program as an international faculty.
For more about Beijing Silvermine, please visit: http://www.beijingsilvermine.com
Instagram @beijing_silvermine
For more about Lei Lei’s works, please visit: http://www.raydesign.cn