Parallel Circus

Artist：Sun Xun

9 March, 2024--14 July, 2024

TANK Shanghai, Shanghai, China

TANK Shanghai is pleased to present the solo exhibition "Parallel Circus" by artist Sun Xun, for the first time, his new animated short film "The Shock Dream in Circus" a fantasy land made of oil paintings, along with the creative manuscripts and large-scale original oil paintings related to the film.

Artist Sun Xun is giving an exhibition tour for the audience in TANK Shanghai

Installation view of "Parallel Circus" 

In 2019 Sun Xun went on his most ambitious project yet: the feature-length animated film Magic of Atlas, a 120-minute stop-motion animation composed of different artistic styles. After a long production process, Sun Xun enters the second chapter of the film, Jing Bang, a fantasy land made of oil paintings. The Shock Dream in Circus is Sun Xun's reflection on the core value of Magic of Atlas, and the completion of his exploration and refinement of the oil painting materials. The content of this animation will also echo with Jing Bang. The exhibition will also showcase Sun Xun's largest 12-meter oil painting to date.

Left：Qiao Zhibing, Director of TANK Shanghai

Right：Artist Sun Xun

About "The Shock Dream in Circus":

Shortcut of film "The Shock Dream in Circus"

The short film "The Shock Dream in Circus" tells an absurd dialogue between a letter from a different time and space and various animals in the circus. In the film's setting, there is no real dialogue process, and the animals in the film seem to possess human behavior and thinking abilities, while the scenes and actions of the people in the frame become absurd and strange. The two seem to interchange or become equal, losing boundaries...

Facing the vast expanse of reality and the infinite depths of time and space, human stories seem to be shrinking infinitely, becoming small and insignificant. In the detachment of reality, history collapses... especially in recent years with the global bacterial catastrophe, humanity has momentarily become like a circus. For anyone's life, tomorrow is the projection of today, and yesterday is the projection of today, the day before yesterday is the projection of yesterday, constantly retracing until the source of life, conversely reaching the end of life... Which moment is the complete self? It seems that time and space are just shadows of shadows of shadows... in the vastness of its boundless time and space, meaning loses its meaning, neither big nor small, neither short nor long, neither curved nor straight, neither soft nor hard, neither thick nor thin, neither round nor square... Only that wordless letter in the film is the true entirety!

Shortcut of film "The Shock Dream in Circus"

About Artist:

Sun Xun was born in 1980 in Fuxin in Liaoning province, China. He graduated in 2005 from the Print-making Department of the China Academy of Art. In 2006 he established π Animation Studio. He currently lives and works in Beijing.

As an artist, Sun Xun’s works were collected by many art institutions, including White Rabbit Contemporary Chinese Art Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, M+ Museum, etc. While participating in art exhibitions extensively, Sun Xun has performed special screenings at Hong Kong International Film Festival, Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Holland Animation Film Festival, etc. He was also nominated for Venice International Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival respectively in 2010 and 2011.