ARTISTS
Cao Fei: Whose Utopia
Cao Fei鈥檚 2006 video Whose Utopia highlights the workforce at the OSRAM lighting factory located in China鈥檚 Pearl River Delta region. At the time the film was made, OSRAM was one of the largest manufacturers of light bulbs in the world. Fei created the work during her six-month artist residency at the factory. She filmed daily activities, documented the production process and collaborated with workers to develop a variety of performances that were staged and filmed within the factory.
As the video unfolds, documentation of the production line evolves into surreal performances by the workers. Each person transforms into a character of their own design鈥攆rom a ballerina to a tai chi master. They dance or play music, while the production of light bulbs continues to happen all around them. The aim, according to Fei, was to 鈥渞elease the workers from a standardized notion of productivity.鈥� Her poetic intervention into the factory creates moments that transform an industrial, highly controlled, impersonal space into a fluid arena for self-expression.
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Cao Fei鈥檚 2006 video Whose Utopia highlights the workforce at the OSRAM lighting factory located in China鈥檚 Pearl River Delta region. At the time the film was made, OSRAM was one of the largest manufacturers of light bulbs in the world. Fei created the work during her six-month artist residency at the factory. She filmed daily activities, documented the production process and collaborated with workers to develop a variety of performances that were staged and filmed within the factory.
As the video unfolds, documentation of the production line evolves into surreal performances by the workers. Each person transforms into a character of their own design鈥攆rom a ballerina to a tai chi master. They dance or play music, while the production of light bulbs continues to happen all around them. The aim, according to Fei, was to 鈥渞elease the workers from a standardized notion of productivity.鈥� Her poetic intervention into the factory creates moments that transform an industrial, highly controlled, impersonal space into a fluid arena for self-expression.
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