survey_03 — live performance
1. He Yunchang [He Yunchang] — 何云昌 (b. 1967, Lianghe (Yunnan))
Graduate: Yunnan Arts Academy, 1991
China's most consistent “physical” performance artist: duration, pain and risk as the unit of measure for a work.
- “One, One Out of a Hundred” (一根肋骨, 2008)— the artist's eighth rib, removed in surgery and set into a ring.
- “Ling” / “Half Moon” (半条命, 2003–2004) — standing on one leg in the dark for a full day and night.
- “Gold” (1999) — ninety minutes in air heated to 70° beside burning coal.
2. Li Binyuan — 厉槟源 (b. 1985, Yongzhou, Hunan)
Graduate: Central Academy of Fine Arts, 2011
A generation that grew up with a camera in hand: short actions in the city and in the village, filmed to a single simple scheme.
- “Free Fall” / street actions (2010s) — gestures in the urban environment without warning.
- “Human River” / Face to Face with the Mountain (2013) — cutting a path in his home village.
- “Vendor” (2015) — selling on the street every day as a performance.
3. Tong Wenmin — 童文敏 (b. 1989, Chongqing)
Graduate: Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, 2012
She works with a body bound to nature: earth, wind, plants and the limits of movement.
- “Looking at a Tree” / works with wind (2010s) — long-durational actions in nature.
- “Light” / a series by the sea and in the forest — the body as part of the landscape, recorded on video and in photographs.
- Huayu Youth Award (华宇青年奖, 2018) — the leading prize for young Chinese art.
4. Li Wei — 李暐 (b. 1970, Hubei)
He makes “impossible” photo-performances: a body falling, suspended, breaking through a wall or through water.
- The “Leap” / falls series (from the late 1990s) — shot without digital manipulation, the body genuinely suspended.
- “Breakthrough” / walls and water (2000s) — a figure passing through an obstacle.
- “Gravity” (2010s) — series with glass and mirrors.
5. Chen Qiulin — 陈秋林 (b. 1975, Yichang, Hubei)
Graduate: Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, 2000
She records the disappearing cities and people of the Three Gorges: performance, video and sculpture about displacement.
- “One of a Hundred” / “The Gorge” (2000s) — video and photography on the demolition of homes.
- “Orange” / a series with a masking object (2000s) — the body inside domestic objects.
- The Three Gorges — a subject of both life and art, continued in the installations of the 2010s.
6. Li Xinmo — 李心沫 (b. 1976, Yilan, Heilongjiang)
Graduate: Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, 2008
An artist, critic and feminist theorist: performance as a way of speaking about the body and about violence.
- “Body and Blood” / works of the 2000s — the naked body, ink and the colour red.
- “Wedding Dress” (2010s) — a series on female roles and marriage.
- Curatorial and theoretical work — writings on Chinese feminist art.
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7. Liu Chengrui — 刘成瑞 (b. 1983, Qinghai)
He joins performance with poetry and community life: he worked as a teacher in a village school as part of his practice.
- “Village School” (2005–2006) — living and teaching in Qinghai as an art project.
- “Poetry and Gesture” (2010s) — performances with text and body.
- Group actions in Beijing — participation in the performance communities of the 2010s.
8. Xie Rong — 谢蓉 (born in Chengdu; lives in the United Kingdom)
She works on the border between performance and life: the body, ageing, and relations with nature and society.
- “水” / performances with water (2000s) — prolonged interaction with the natural environment.
- “Dialogue with a Stranger” (2010s) — the participation of chance passers-by in the action.
- The British period — a practice at the meeting point of community and performance.
