The Screening Room: Wang Tuo, The Northeast Tetralogy
Wang Tuo, The Northeast Tetralogy (2018-2021) unearths suppressed histories such as the May 4th Movement (1919) and the Jeju Uprising (1948–1949) interweaving them with current-day events, and an imagined near future. Wang Tuo takes the Northeastern region of China’s modern history and its contentious geopolitical position as an entry point and puts forth the notion of “pan-shamanism.” The artist proposes the collective unconscious as a catalyst for shared belief or power, and its potential as a medium to connect histories through time and space. The films transcend the otherworldly and the profane, fact and fiction, and past and present to probe how we recover and reflect on cultural and political history. Spanning four years of research, the tetralogy marks a major milestone in Wang Tuo’s practice. The growing KADIST collection currently holds over 450 videos by over 400 artists. KADIST San Francisco’s new screening room and annual programming aim to provide a dedicated space to profile the diversity of video art and its form by featuring video works from the KADIST collection. Wang Tuo, The Northeast Tetralogy screening schedule Smoke & Fire (2018) , 31:18 mins April 14–May 13 Distorting Words (2019) , 24:38 mins May 17–June 10 Tungus (2021), 1:09:27 mins June 14–July 15 Tungus will begin at 12:30 pm, 2 pm, and 3:30 pm Wailing Requiem (2021), 28:01 mins July 19–August 12 An additional work, The Interrogation (2017) will feature on Kadist. Tv , a media portal that draws from KADIST’s international collection of artworks with over 100 KADIST-produced artist interviews, curated playlists, and artist spotlights. Wang Tuo will be artist-in-residence at KADIST San Francisco from March 27 to April 16, 2023. Also on view From the collection: Be here, or even better, be nowhere