Should a film always be watched in one sitting? Shanghai-based artist Yang Fudong prefers to spread out the experience. His Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, for instance, consists of five parts that are simultaneously projected in different rooms.
'I'm more interested in working in art spaces than cinemas,' says Yang at New York's Asia Society, where the exhibition is showing until September. 'That way, the experience is open-ended. Visitors can choose how they view the films - they don't have to watch them in any order. They can also choose the amount of time they want to spend watching. It's about giving the viewer a choice.'
Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest is a careful piece of art. It shows the social, political and personal dislocation of urban intellectuals in modern China. The films, totalling 230 minutes, depict the group of seven in a variety of locales: an urban setting, a scenic mountain location, a coastal village, an apartment, and so on. Their conversations and activities show how they have lost the ability to connect.
They can't relate to the countryside or the city. They can't relate to people they know or to strangers. It seems the modern mainland has rendered them impotent, and they've had no choice but to withdraw from society.
Although the films are beautiful, they are a powerful indictment of how the mainland has divested itself of traditional values.
Yang plays down the political and social aspects of his work. He'd rather focus on the spiritual emptiness of his protagonists. 'Everyone has to walk the path of life without being certain of where they'll end up,' he says. 'This leads to a sense of uncertainty, of anxiety. We only have one life, and we worry that it won't be perfect. You can feel this anxiety throughout the film.'