We regularly collaborate with ELEKTRA, a media arts organization with a strong focus on moving images. This satellite event of the ELEKTRA Biennial, offers us the opportunity to discover the exceptional work of Taiwanese multimedia artist, Shu Lea Chang.
Veuillez noter que certaines mentions écrites en anglais dans l'oeuvre ne sont pas traduites en français.
UKI’s storyline unfolds as we follow a defunct replicant REIKO dumped on Etrashville - a vast dump for tech - who tries to pull themselves back together with the help of its transgenic inhabitants. A virtual BioNet owned by GENOM Co. has occupied human bodies and re-engineered red blood cells into nano-computing self-generated orgasms. Parallel to REIKO’s trajectory is that of an infected city in which a besieged diner gathers the infected to exchange own orgasm data for fresher, intenser, mutual orgasm.
Shu Lea Cheang
Shu Lea Cheang is a Taiwanese-American artist and filmmaker who lived and worked in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s, until relocating to Europe in 2000. She received a BA in history from the National Taiwan University in 1976 and an MA in Cinema Studies from New York University in 1979. Since the 1980s, as a multimedia and new-media artist, she has navigated topics of ethnic stereotyping, sexual politics, and institutional oppression with her radical experimentations in digital realms. She drafts sci-fi narratives in her film scenario and artwork imagination, crafting her own “science” fiction genre of new queer cinema. Over the past decade, she has emerged as a prominent figure in new media art. Cheang is one of the leading multimedia artists dealing with multidisciplinary topics. She is regarded as a pioneering figure in internet-based art, with her multimedia approach at the interface between film, video, internet-based installation, software interaction and durational performance. Her work is often interactive. She is most noted for her individual approach in the realm of art and technology, creatively intermingling social issues with artistic methods. Cheang has also written and directed the feature films I.K.U. (2000),* Fluidø* (2017), and UKI (2023), and directed Fresh Kill (1994).