Whose Utopia?

The film Whose Utopia? by Cao Fei has been presented at the leading art museums Tate in London as well as MoMA and Guggenheim in New York and can now be experienced at Kunsthal Charlottenborg in connection with the end of the exhibition of one of the most acclaimed contemporary Chinese artists.

The film work centers on the lives of workers at the Osram lighting factory in China’s Pearl River Delta region, an area outside Hong Kong that is a site of nationwide migration by people seeking expanded work opportunities in the country’s blossoming economy. Over the course of six months, Cao Fei filmed daily life at the factory, highlighting the mechanized tasks performed by employees, while also interviewing them about their motivations for working there. Based on their responses, she then collaborated with the workers to develop the performances that comprise the central section of the video. In costumes or street clothes, these anonymous figures dance and play music while other employees, unnoticing, continue to work around them. The poetic, dreamlike vision of individualism within the constraints of industrialization illuminates the otherwise invisible emotions, desires, and dreams that permeate the lives of an entire populace in contemporary Chinese society.

Cao Fei’s current exhibition Asia One is on view until 19 February. Further info about the exhibition here: kunsthalcharlottenborg.dk/en/exhibitions/cao-fei/

Film screening: Whose Utopia? by Cao Fei
2 – 19 February 2023
Tue-Sun at 14.30-17.00
Free admission with payed entrance to Kunsthal Charlottenborg