Conceived as a durational film project, About the Unknown Girl - Ma Sise is about the life of a young girl. Yang Fudong got to know Ma Sise through casting her in two of his video works, General's Smile (2009) and The Fifth Night (2010). He became curious about her training in professional acting, and began to wonder how being an actress affects her daily life. The project attempts to uncover all the thoughts that pass through the mind of a 'real' actress, and what kind of future is in store for her. Between daily life and acting, there are a lot of uncertainties as to how her life will unfold. And it is this unknown that Yang senses as the potential to make life full of anticipation. This fascination with the unpredictable is inherent throughout Yang's practice—if cinematic time drives the scene, real time drives our lives. With this project, he went further in the reflection of and play with reality and fiction. The idea of what is fictional I what is acted out in real time and real space is part of that reality which encompasses it; and when one starts scrutinising reality, the gesture becomes an act of fictionalising. About the Unknown Girl - Ma Sise was set out to span three years from 2013 to 2015 but was discontinued with Ma's recent withdrawal from the project. La Biennale de Lyon (2013), where it was first shown, marked the start of the project. The presentation at NTU CCA Singapore comprises footages of Ma from General's Smile： At Hegang, a video documenting her shooting a Chinese TV drama; Yang's photographic series of Ma Sise At Lake Kunming and The Forgotten Bow-knot, and video documentation of the shooting process of The Forgotten Bow-knot.
(Ma Sise's full name is Ma Si She Zuo Wei. Born in 1989 in Xichang, Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Liangshan, Sichuan province; she is an actress and currently lives and works in Beijing.)
List:
Wallpaper
Two projection: 'The Forgotten Bow-knot'(2014) 'At Hegan'(2013)
Four TV monitors: Masise in 'General's Smile',' the forgotten bow-knot' and 'At Hegang'
12 photographs of 'At Lake Kunming' (2014)
Detail pictures:
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