Dawn Breaking is the opening chapter of Yang Fudong’s Museum Film Project. The idea of the series was first conceived while Yang worked on his solo exhibition in Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in 2005. After more than a decade, the first episode has been fulfilled this year in Shanghai Long Museum. Yang set the background of “Dawn Breaking” in Song dynasty which was prominent for achievements in art, culture and science. He also extracted nearly three hundred sentences of Nietzsche's Quotations as the exclusive script. Live performance in the context of ancient oriental history intertwines with the quotes of desire, and power from the German philosopher. A modern interpretation towards the feelings of scholar-officials in Song Dynasty is revealed. Two main filming locations set up inside the museum have been developed into more than ten scenes, such as “Competing for the Throne”, “The Deserted Pagoda” and “The Staircase of Ministers” etc. The public viewing of the filming process and the edited footages presented in the Dailies section of Dawn Breaking constitute the main body of the art work. The artist led the crew of actors and the production team to carry out enormous durational "performances" at the main filming location and the other site, Pagoda of life. The “Dawn Breaking” Dailies section connects the two filming locations and showcases fragmented video clips from the previous filming day, which was updated daily on 36 screens over the duration of filming. Differing from exhibitions in the traditional sense, the artist's long-term presence, the simultaneity between filming and audience’s viewing experience, as well as the subversion of the definition of an exhibition, a film and art-making have all been fulfilled during this grand exhibition.
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