WAZA (art collective)
Encyclopedia
WAZA is an emerging artist
collective founded by Hu Ge (artist/director)
(also known as Hu Fei 胡斐) in 2002, based in Wuhan, China. This collective is a platform for experimental new media art
. From large-scale sculptural installations
that incorporate photography
, video
, sound
and new media
technology to site-specific video
and sound
projects, this young effort is at the forefront of a new generation of local artists pushing the definition of art to a higher level.
WAZA has participated in international festivals including: Sonar
11th Barcelona International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia (2004); Music and New media Conference at the Centre De Culture Contemporanea in Barcelona (2005); and the 37th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam
organized by WORM in the Netherlands (2008). WAZA received first place at the Chang Zhou International Animation Festival (2005), and participated in Creative Experimental Media-an educational program organized by the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing (2008). WAZA held solo exhibitions at Beijing Tokyo Art Projects and Arario Beijing in 2008. The piece "the Floating Chinese Musicians" has already been toured around in different cities in China including Wuhan, Shanghai and Beijing, the work also travels to New York as well same year in 2010 for an exhibition at Arario Gallery supported by PS1 and MOMA.
Videos
Floating Chinese Musicians is a sound installation
and media archive of 30 folk musicians who are preserving a dying tradition while surviving on China’s periphery. Since March 2008, WAZA has concentrated on the reality within China’s inland regions and has had extensive contact with roaming folk musicians to document their lives, performances and creative process. After compiling an extensive archive of primary materials including photographs, sound recordings, video and text, WAZA has selected 30 musicians who roam the country performing in parks and public spaces to represent China’s migrant or ‘floating’ population. This project aims not only to preserve their voices and raise awareness about a disappearing art form, but also sheds light on one of the most controversial and sensitive social problems in modern China.
Since the beginning of China’s economic reform period, which began in 1979, the nation has embarked on a modernization campaign at an unprecedented rate. China’s race to modernize has focused on the first tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou while the inland regions have been neglected, leaving many people isolated from social and economic development. Floating Chinese Musicians brings these issues to light. Self-taught and influenced by growing up during the height of economic reform in Wuhan, a second tier city, WAZA is attempting to preserve a tradition while drawing attention to the ‘floating’ population that is being cast-aside.
Floating Chinese Musicians is created from recycled wood, mp3 players, speakers, sound recordings and a metal frame.
It is a project conceptualized by WAZA and supported by Intelligent Alternative. The piece also travels to New York in 2010 for an exhibition at Arario Gallery supported by PS1 and MOMA.
WAZA UHCMP (Unborn Heroes Cenotaph Media Program), Tokyo Gallery+BTAP
Creative Experimental Media, Ullens Center (UCCA)
There is No Story to Tell, Tang Contemporary Art, China
ShContemporary 08’, Shanghai Exhibition Center, China
Uncertainty, Yuanfen New Media Art Space, China
WAZA No Wave, Arario Beijing, China
Other Programs, Multi-Media Art Activity Week, Fine Arts Literature Art Center
Hello Sadness, Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok
Open House: Post Space, ChART Contemporary, Beijing, China
Floating Chinese Musicians, Intelligent Alternative, Wuhan, China
Normality, Fine Arts Literature Art Centre, Wuhan, China
Warm Up, Minsheng Art Museum Inauguration Exhibition, Shanghai, China
Artist talk and film demonstration, Deutschland und China - Gemeinsam in Bewegung, China
FAT ART 2010 Theme Art Exhibition, Today Art Museum & Modern Sky Entertainment, Beijing, China
"The Personal Dimension", Arario Gallery, New York, United States
Art Exhibition at the Yuen Long Town Hall, HKSAR, Hong Kong (Coming up in late March)
Visual Director, Variety Show at the China National Aquatic Center (Watercube) with the Chinese Water Sports Medalists, Viva China Sports, Beijing, China (Coming Up in April 1st and 2nd)
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
collective founded by Hu Ge (artist/director)
Hu Ge (artist/director)
Hu Ge is an artist and director who was born in China. He is the founder of WAZA which is a platform for new media art forms in China...
(also known as Hu Fei 胡斐) in 2002, based in Wuhan, China. This collective is a platform for experimental new media art
New media art
New media art is a genre that encompasses artworks created with new media technologies, including digital art, computer graphics, computer animation, virtual art, Internet art, interactive art, computer robotics, and art as biotechnology...
. From large-scale sculptural installations
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
that incorporate photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
, sound
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
and new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
technology to site-specific video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
and sound
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
projects, this young effort is at the forefront of a new generation of local artists pushing the definition of art to a higher level.
WAZA has participated in international festivals including: Sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
11th Barcelona International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia (2004); Music and New media Conference at the Centre De Culture Contemporanea in Barcelona (2005); and the 37th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam
International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
organized by WORM in the Netherlands (2008). WAZA received first place at the Chang Zhou International Animation Festival (2005), and participated in Creative Experimental Media-an educational program organized by the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing (2008). WAZA held solo exhibitions at Beijing Tokyo Art Projects and Arario Beijing in 2008. The piece "the Floating Chinese Musicians" has already been toured around in different cities in China including Wuhan, Shanghai and Beijing, the work also travels to New York as well same year in 2010 for an exhibition at Arario Gallery supported by PS1 and MOMA.
Videos
2009
- Video Where is Who was exhibited in Dublin during the International Guerilla Video Fest (2009).
- August 18, 2009, the Floating Chinese Musicians installation, originally installed along the East Lake in Wuhan, from September 2009 it has moved to Shanghai for the inauguration exhibition of the Minsheng Art Museum.
Floating Chinese Musicians is a sound installation
Sound installation
Sound installation is an intermedia and time based art form. It is an expansion of an art installation in the sense that it includes the sound element and therefore the time element...
and media archive of 30 folk musicians who are preserving a dying tradition while surviving on China’s periphery. Since March 2008, WAZA has concentrated on the reality within China’s inland regions and has had extensive contact with roaming folk musicians to document their lives, performances and creative process. After compiling an extensive archive of primary materials including photographs, sound recordings, video and text, WAZA has selected 30 musicians who roam the country performing in parks and public spaces to represent China’s migrant or ‘floating’ population. This project aims not only to preserve their voices and raise awareness about a disappearing art form, but also sheds light on one of the most controversial and sensitive social problems in modern China.
Since the beginning of China’s economic reform period, which began in 1979, the nation has embarked on a modernization campaign at an unprecedented rate. China’s race to modernize has focused on the first tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou while the inland regions have been neglected, leaving many people isolated from social and economic development. Floating Chinese Musicians brings these issues to light. Self-taught and influenced by growing up during the height of economic reform in Wuhan, a second tier city, WAZA is attempting to preserve a tradition while drawing attention to the ‘floating’ population that is being cast-aside.
Floating Chinese Musicians is created from recycled wood, mp3 players, speakers, sound recordings and a metal frame.
It is a project conceptualized by WAZA and supported by Intelligent Alternative. The piece also travels to New York in 2010 for an exhibition at Arario Gallery supported by PS1 and MOMA.
2004
Sonar 2004, 11th Barcelona International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art, Barcelona, Spain2005
Speaker, Music and New Media Conference at the Centre De Cultura Contemporania De Barcelona (CCCB), Barcelona, Spain2006
Beyond Experience: New China!, Arario, Beijing.2008
37th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, WORM, Netherlands.WAZA UHCMP (Unborn Heroes Cenotaph Media Program), Tokyo Gallery+BTAP
Creative Experimental Media, Ullens Center (UCCA)
There is No Story to Tell, Tang Contemporary Art, China
ShContemporary 08’, Shanghai Exhibition Center, China
Uncertainty, Yuanfen New Media Art Space, China
WAZA No Wave, Arario Beijing, China
Other Programs, Multi-Media Art Activity Week, Fine Arts Literature Art Center
Hello Sadness, Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok
2009
International Guerrilla Video Festival (IGVFest) Dublin 2009, Dublin，IrelandOpen House: Post Space, ChART Contemporary, Beijing, China
Floating Chinese Musicians, Intelligent Alternative, Wuhan, China
Normality, Fine Arts Literature Art Centre, Wuhan, China
Warm Up, Minsheng Art Museum Inauguration Exhibition, Shanghai, China
Artist talk and film demonstration, Deutschland und China - Gemeinsam in Bewegung, China
2010
Wherever Whenever, Big In China & Fine Arts Literature Art Centre, ChinaFAT ART 2010 Theme Art Exhibition, Today Art Museum & Modern Sky Entertainment, Beijing, China
"The Personal Dimension", Arario Gallery, New York, United States
2011
"Extreme Lessons"Osage Gallery, Hong KongArt Exhibition at the Yuen Long Town Hall, HKSAR, Hong Kong (Coming up in late March)
Visual Director, Variety Show at the China National Aquatic Center (Watercube) with the Chinese Water Sports Medalists, Viva China Sports, Beijing, China (Coming Up in April 1st and 2nd)