ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

媒体包

油罐艺术中心：“消失的马戏团”展览媒体包

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. Shocking Dreams 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.

Sun Xun’s creations are always filled with fantastical colors, interwoven with dreamlike leaps of imagination. The use of different media constitutes Sun Xun’s unique visual language. The short film Shocking Dreams in Circus tells a story of absurd dialogue between various animals in a circus and a letter from a different time and space. In the film’s setting, there is no real dialogue process, as the animals in the film seem to have human behaviors and thinking abilities, while the scenes and behaviors of the people in the frame become absurd and strange. The two seem to interchange or become equal, losing their boundaries… In the exhibition, Sun Xun’s 12-meter oil painting, which is his largest to date, will be showcased as the main attraction of the entire exhibition.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Sun Xun

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. Sun Xun’s works are typically animated films created through hand-drawing. Therefore, besides the animated films themselves, one can also see related hand-drawn drafts or other works produced using different media. Rich in metaphorical imagery, dark tension in his drawing style, and fantastical narrative designs, Sun Xun’s visual language possesses distinctive personal characteristics. In recent years, Sun Xun, starting from new media art, has made numerous attempts in a broader field of visual arts: exploring narrative effects in various creative media such as newspapers, books, woodcuts, ink, and colored powders, examining how to present nonlinear concepts of time and space, and combining his own understanding of social and sociological theories to explore forms of expression between reality and fantasy.

Sun Xun’s works were collected by many art institutions, including White Rabbit Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, Asia Society Museum, and M+.

Sun Xun’s films have been screened at the Venice International Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, as well as at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Netherlands Animation Film Festival, and other special screening events.

现场图

Artworks