Video art comes to Lhasa: Benchungâ's Floating River Ice, 2003

A travelling show of video artists including the Chapman brothers, Paul McCarthy and Mat Collishaw is breaking new ground in Asia with, notably, a stop in Lhasa in Tibet. Next on the itinerary of “27 Reasons We Still Need Superman” is the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator (9-11 July).

The show is the brainchild of Beijing-based curator Tim Crowley, who conceived it when working with the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. The idea is to bring video to new audiences and to see how they react, as well as encouring local artists to add works at each stop. So from Crowley’s original selection of 18 videos—which included Christian Jankowski’s The Hunt, 1992-97, and Angus Fairhurst’s A Cheap and Ill-Fitting Gorilla Suit, 1995—was added, for example, the Tibetan artist Benchung’s Floating River Ice, 2003, and the total keeps rising.

The videos are displayed in different ways, from cinema auditoriums (the Agnès B space in Hong Kong) to outside screenings (Kuala Lumpur) or even simple projections on white walls (Ho Chi Minh City). Crowley has had to navigate government regulations everywhere, but particularly in Tibet. “The reaction there was great because video as a medium to make art is a new idea,” says Crowley. “It was a first for Lhasa, and amazing that it was allowed to be shown at all, as Lhasa is still a very militarised zone with a curfew intact, very much the city under siege,” he says. Early next year the project will move to South America, with Moscow, Vladivostok and Tehran in between.