ShanghART Gallery 香格纳画廊
中文

Coal Spell
SUN XUN 孙逊
2008
single-channel animation
7 minutes 56 seconds
Edition of 6 + 2AP
SXU130

About Coal Incantation:

When we sleep deeply, everything becomes history. ---Sun Xun



Coal Spell, inspired by this old five Yuan RMB note, is an account of the rise and fall of Fuxin, an old industrial coal city located in northeastern China. As a result of the experiences and nostalgia of his upbringing, the artist began to question both History and Power:

In a mysterious dark city, yellow sand storms wreak havoc.  Several huge smokestacks located in the middle of the city pierce the sky, emitting black fumes, which blanket the sun. The sound of doctrine rings out daily in order to banish various curiosities about this world. The city is a tremendous prison where history is boxed up like a monster – a brutal, fierce monster. One particular day, people were forcing the screaming Soviet Union excavator to clumsily open the skin of the land, gradually closing the heart of the city…even the changes of history can be closely watched.

People’s money, pattern is just the illustration…

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Related Exhibitions:
Art & Coal, MKM Museum Küppersmühle of Modern Art, Duisburg, Germany 06.08, 2018 -10.28, 2018
The New Voices of Chinese Cinema @French Cinematheque, Paris, France 01.11, 2017 -02.20, 2017
2013 Ikono on Air Festival, Berlin, Germany 09.06, 2013 -09.29, 2013
ON | OFF, UCCA, Beijing 01.12, 2013 -04.14, 2013
2012 Xi'an International Animation Film Festival, Xi'an 09.06, 2012 -09.09, 2012
The 58th Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, Colgate University, Hamilton, U.S.A 06.16, 2012 -06.22, 2012
Sun Xun: The Parallel World, A4 Contemporary Arts Center, Chengdu 03.17, 2012 -05.17, 2012
3rd AmerAsia Film Festival, Montreal, Canada 03.01, 2012 -03.11, 2012
Alternative Narrative, V Art Center, Shanghai 11.12, 2011 -11.30, 2011
5th Cinema Digital Seoul_Film Festiva, Seoul, Korea 08.17, 2011 -08.27, 2011
New Experimental Media: China and Hong Kong, Jordan Shnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, U.S.A. 04.06, 2011 -04.10, 2011
World Film Festival of Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand 11.05, 2010 -11.16, 2010
The 5th Beijing Independent Film Festival, Beijing 10.01, 2010 -10.07, 2010
VIS VIENNA INDEPENDENT 7th International Short Film Festival, Vienna, Austria 05.27, 2010 -06.02, 2010
24th Image Forum Festival 2010, Tokyo; Kyoto; Fukuoka; Yokohama, Japan 04.28, 2010 -07.21, 2010
CPH PIX Copenhagen Film Festival 2010, Copenhagen, Denmark 04.15, 2010 -04.25, 2010
Looking through Film: Traces of Cinema and Self-Constructs in Contemporary Art, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal of He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen 04.10, 2010 -06.10, 2010
4th BilBolBul International Comic Festival, Bologna, Italy 03.04, 2010 -03.07, 2010
35th International Filmets Festival of Badalona, Badalona(Barcelona) Spain 11.06, 2009 -11.14, 2009
11th Osian's-Cinefan Film Festival, New Delhi, India 10.24, 2009 -10.30, 2009
11th Wiesbaden International Weekend of Animation, Wiesbaden, Germany 10.15, 2009 -10.18, 2009
International Amsterdam Film Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherland 10.09, 2009 -10.11, 2009
14th Split Film Festival, Split, Croatia 09.12, 2009 -09.19, 2009
8th International Kansk Video festival, Moscow, Russian 08.23, 2009 -08.29, 2009
20th Sao Paulo International Short Film Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil 08.20, 2009 -08.28, 2009
International Festival of Animated film AniFest 2009, Praha, Czech Republic 05.01, 2009 -05.04, 2009
55th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Oberhausen, Germany 04.30, 2009 -05.05, 2009
10th Jeonju International Film Festival, Jeonju, Korea 04.30, 2009 -05.08, 2009
The 2009 BeFilm The Underground Film Festival, New York, U.S.A. 04.28, 2009 -05.02, 2009
Coal Spell, Platform China, Beijing 05.03, 2008 -06.03, 2008