San Yuan Li

OU Ning, CAO Fei and U-thèque members made this experimental film by invitation for the 50th Venice Biennial. The film combines individual creativity and group cooperation. With research and footage of Canton's San Yuan district, it examines the urbanization of Canton and the widespread phenomenon known as the 'village within the city.' With San Yuan as the 'village within the city' from which they being their study of Canton, the directors stroll like fl?neurs with video cameras, examining the burdens of history; the conflict and reconciliation between modernization and rural China's patriarchal clan system; the weird architecture and the humanscape of this village within a city. The image are woven together into a piece of black-and-white visual poetry.