Contemporary Chinese photography stars at Jimei × Arles

Founded in 2015 by Chinese photographer RongRong (who also also founded China’s first photography museum, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre) with Sam Stourdzé, director of Rencontres d’Arles, the Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival is the biggest of its kind in China. It returns this November with 30 exhibitions by over 70 artists, including shows brought over from Arles and exhibitions devoted to emerging Chinese image-makers.

The Jimei x Arles Discovery Award nominees features work by ten new Chinese photographers, for example – with one image-maker selected from the show to win 200,000 RMB plus a place in Arles’ prestigious Discovery Awards. This year the nominees are: Coca Dai (1976), Hu Wei (1989), Lei Lei (1985), Pixy Liao (1979), Lau Wai (1982), Shao Ruilu (1993), Shen Wei (1977), Su Jiehao (1988), Wong Wingsang (1990), and Yang Wenbin (1996). They were selected by curators Dong Bingfeng, Li Jie, Chelsea Qianxi Liu, Holly Roussell and Wang Yan.

Pixy Liao’s work has also been nominated for the second Jimei × Arles – Madame Figaro Women Photographers Award, the first-ever photography award for women in China. In addition to Liao – whose book Experimental Relationship Vol I has also been nominated for the Paris Photo/Aperture Foundation First Photobook Award – the other women on the shortlist are: Chen Xiao & Zhou Yichen, Du Yanfang, Gan Yingying, Shao Ruilu, Song Shuyang, Wu Mengyuan, and Zhou Yang.

Play Station, from the series For Your Eyes Only © Pixy Liao. From the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award

Last year’s Jimei x Arles Discovery Award winner was Feng Li, who exhibited his series White Night at Arles this summer. Feng Li now returns to the Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival with new work, White Night at Rencontres d’Arles, which he was commissioned to make while in France. This year Arles also showed the series The Bliss of Conformity by Guo Yingguang, who won the 2017  Jimei × Arles – Madame Figaro Women Photographers Award, and was nominated for the 2017 Jimei × Arles Discovery Award.

The Fluctuation show also gathers together work by female Chinese photographers – seven in total, many of whom are also nominated for the Jimei × Arles – Madame Figaro award; Cai Yirong, Cao Mengwen, Du Yanfang, Gan Yingying, Song Shuyang, Wu Mengyuan, and Zhou Yang. This show was curated by Gan Yingying, and is included in the China Pulse and Crossover Photography section, which was selected after an open call for curatorial projects.

This section also includes: A Long Day in a Regular Year by Li Lang (curated by Liu Jie); Eyes of Sky – 1950’s and 1960’s Aerial Photos of Southeastern Coastal Cities of China (proposed by Xu Lin and Gu Zheng); and You Are Not Paranoid, Observe Yourself Being Watched (curated by Shanghai and New York-based MiA Collective). The Local Action section, meanwhile, features work by image-makers and curators who are based in and around Jimei, which is in the Xiamen coastal district of East China.

Different types of peaches, 1990s, courtesy of The Archive of Modern Conflict, from the show Anything That Walks – Vernacular Food Photography from China, which is the 2018 Collector’s Tale

The Collector’s Tale returns to Jimei x Arles this year, putting the focus on another prominent archive put together by a collector based in China. This year the exhibition Anything That Walks – Vernacular Food Photography from China has been put together by Beijing-based, Dutch photographer Ruben Lundgren with Timothy Prus from London’s well-respected Archive of Modern Conflict, collating an eclectic mix of amateur photographs of Chinese food and food production.

Jimei x Arles also stages an exhibition of work from another Asian country each year, and this year it’s picked out South Korea, with the Greetings from South Korea section featuring exhibitions of work by three generations of South Korean image-makers. Jimei x Arles also includes work by Western photographers, including eight exhibitions taken from this year’s Les Rencontres d’Arles plus the Arles 2018 Book Awards exhibition, and now a new section called Project Room, dedicated to photographers who push the boundaries of photography. The inaugural Project Room will be 3DPRK – Portraits of North Korea by Beijing and Ljubljana-based photographer Matjaž Tančič, which was recently published by celebrated Chinese photobook specialist Jiazazhi Press.

The opening weekend, which will take place from 23-25 November, will feature events and activities such as a portfolio review, lectures, and guided tours. Jimei x Arles will have three main sites around the city this year – Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre and Jimei Citizen Square Main Exhibition Hall, in Jimei district, and new creative zone North Shore Art District in Xiamen’s city centre.

www.en.jimeiarles.com

From the series Judy Zhu, 2008-2013 © Coco Dai. From the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award
From the series Proposal for Public Assembly Encounter, 2018-ongoing © Hu Wei. From the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award
I’m just Wan Chai girl, 2018 © Lau Wai. From the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award
Potted Landscape Art Exhibition, Bonsai Art Exhibition Office, 1979 © Lei Lei. From the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award
Do Not Be Afraid of Life or Death You Have Already Seen a Lot, 2018. Interactive time-lapse still photography + still life objects display © Shao Ruilu. From the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award
Cherry Blossoms, 2015 © Shen Wei. From the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award
From Experimental Relationship Vol I © Pixy Liao. From the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award
Film Still from The Storm in the Morning, 2018-18, single channel digital film © Su Jiehaoi. From the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award
Impression Dusk, from the Dazzling Black Series, 2018 © Wong Wingsangi. From the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award
Euphoric Mirror 28, 2016 © Yang Wenbin. From the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award
From the series White Night in Arles, 2018 © Feng Li. From the show White Night in Arles
Flesh and Bones © Yingying Gan, included in the show Fluctuation
From the Mirror series © Shuyang Song, included in the show Fluctuation
From the series Falling © Mengyuan Wu, included in the show Fluctuation
From the series A Long Day in a Regular Year, 2018 © Li Lang, which is included in the show China Pulse
Imagining of the Neon Lights, 2016 © Chen Zhuo. From the show Axis Art Collective in the Local Action section
Splendid tranquility, 1985 © Li Shixiong, from the show Turning point – Fujian photographers from the 1980s, included in the Local Action section
Boyhood (Busan), 1946 © Limb Eung Sik, from the show included in the Greetings from Korea section
Untitled 12, from the series Rose is a Rose is a Rose © Chung Heeseung. From the show Same Seasons, Different Memories – Greetings from Korea
Swimming Pool, 2016, from the series Better Days © Seunggu Kim. From the show Same Seasons, Different Memories – Greetings from Korea

Diane Smyth

Diane Smyth is the editor of BJP, returning for a second stint on staff in 2023 - after 15 years on the team until 2019. As a freelancer, she has written for The Guardian, FT Weekend Magazine, Creative Review, Aperture, FOAM, Aesthetica and Apollo. She has also curated exhibitions for institutions such as The Photographers Gallery and Lianzhou Foto Festival. You can follow her on instagram @dismy