Assured Stability in Shanghai

Vision Forum is proud to present a new collaboration between Sweden, Norway and China that forms a part of the project Inside Out.

When Li Xiaofei talks to industrial workers. They often express that there is an “assured stability." They mean that there is stable employment, medical care, pension - everything is secured. Their point of view might seem superficial at first glance, but behind this expression of a human desire we find a deeply rooted anxiety about how to survive.

"Assured Stability"— the clear and yet somewhat mundane words possess a sense of universality. We all understand and share the dream of tomorrow remaining bright and trouble free. Still, there is another side to the words that suggest that each individual only becomes a part of an economical system, a cog in a wheel of a seemingly meaningless giant machine of society. And that image can slowly eat its way into our consciousness like a virus. Maybe we find ourselves in a situation where everything has improved on the surface and yet our lives have become empty and meaningless?

The Vision Forum Film Publication is in the Shops

Vision Forum Film is very proud to announce the catalogue "Vision Forum Film Three Film Collaborations between Sweden and China."It looks at three projects that Vision Forum has undertaken in 2011-12: The River by Yang Tingting, Effektivia by Jesper Frilund and Assembly Line by Li Xiaofei. The book is edited by Rudi Heinrichsen, translated by Yan Rong and beautifully designed by Erik Månsson.

"This publication is the outcome of “Film and Visual Art: Globalization and Democracy in Sweden and China” , a project that we have developed, in cooperation with Fei Art Center in Shanghai, in order to inspire young people to become involved in issues of globalization, democracy, and human rights through collaborative film ventures. We have brought together young people from Sweden and China and allowed them to reflect on how human beings respond to the pressure that is put on young people in our globalised world."

For more images click here. To order your copy click here or write to info (at) visionforum.eu.

Jim Speers at Fei Art Center, Shanghai

Long Days — Jim Speer

Opening: October 20 2012, 6pm

To observe things is to recognize the passing of time. Jim Speers uses video to explore economic activities in urban landscapes, attending to the particularity of events and objects.
He films landscapes being altered by social developments, making the viewer an observer to the commonplace scenes gliding into history. The sequences he creates are ordinary today but will need explanation in the future. The videos on display present a mixture of objects, stories and historical facts. Everything is connected: flags and taxi trips are interwoven with people’s memories and plants growing.

More info here.