Zhao Liang, City Scene, film still, 2004, L.A. Galerie -Lothar Albrecht, Frankfurt ©Zhao Liang.

Chinese artist Zhao Liang presents his City Scene video, a project that shows a poetical portrait of his country’s contemporary metropolises, at Sala Minerva in the Circulo de Bellas Artes.

In short scenes or vignettes, Liang shows the stoicism with which Bijing’s inhabitants respond to their country’s urban and social conditions.

Zhao Liang has worked equally on video art, documentary films and photography, and each of his works offers sharp observations on China’s social reality. By exploring this country’s urban and rural life, he shows a clear connection with the underprivileged whom he considers the engine of their society. The everyday aspects ignored by public institutions catch his attention, and he acts as a chronicler of daily life. Economic growth and the structural transformation of China form the backdrop to his work.

The Sala Minerva in the Círculo de Bellas Artes presents his City Scene (2004) video. With this piece, Liang not only documents an uncomfortable side of life in China, but he also takes advantage of the opportunity to create a strange, poetical portrait of his country’s contemporary metropolises. In short scenes or vignettes, he shows Beijing’s inhabitants dancing on a bridge, getting drunk, receiving massages, playing golf or being beaten until they bleed, reflecting on the stoicism with which Chinese citizens respond to their country’s urban and social conditions.

Currently, Zhao Liang (1971) is the director of the Three Shadows Moving Image Studio. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Art in Luxun, he studied at the Beijing Film Academy. Liang has participated in various film festivals such as Berlin. In 2007 he was awarded the Montgolfière d’or at the Festival of the Three Continents in Nantes for Crime and Punishment (2006).