In his works, Jianwei Wang has shown an interest in a personal re-appropriation of collective history by bringing to the fore his own experience. This is also the theme of the Ceremony, My Visual Archive installation, which forms part of a series, together with the works: Connection (2000), Bukharin is a Traitor! (2002) and Theater (2003), reinterpreting traditional Chinese filmography. The work consists of two srceens back to back* : on the first is shown a montage of war-film extracts, retracing the coming to power of the Communists at the end of the 1940s; on the other are extracts of revolutionary operas from the time of the Cultural Revolution. They feature the eight “standard operas”, being the only productions authorized in China at that time, combining traditional Chinese theatre with Western ballet, against a background of Communist propaganda. It is through these selected pieces that the artist relives the atmosphere and culture in which he grew up. In a succession of scenes, apparently denuded of any critical desire, Wang emphasizes the ritual character of movement and posture, which, through repetition, became the language of power, as much in politics as in aesthetics.

Marion Bertagna
(Texte extrait du catalogue 'Collection installations nouveaux médias', éd. Centre Pompidou, 2006)
Translated by Diana Tamlyn
*The installation is shown this way at the Centre Pompidou during the Fall festival in October 2003.