Passion depicts the dizzying fall of a larger-than-life character into everyday life. The story takes place on an abandoned dock at sunset. Hal, an astronaut, suddenly appears on the dock where he meets three idle sailors hanging around. From then on, their lives intertwine while the dock is invaded by a feeling of desire. After an intense struggle, the sailors die in a pool of blood as the passion fades. The decor of Passion is inspired by Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s latest film, Quarrelmade in 1982. A representative figure of the new German cinema born at the end of the sixties, Fassbinder’s prolific career and his anti-aesthetic attitude reflect the rebellion against his era, its politics and its artistic tendencies. In Passion, the artist employs and appropriates not only images from Fassbinder’s films, but also those from the films of iconic French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, as well as visual elements from legendary fashion designer Alexander McQueen , died prematurely. The video simultaneously references sensual and physical passion, as well as the creative passion of an artist. When passion dissipates, so does the force that drives it. But what can make passion stop? It is something like Death, in which the physical body and the impulse of desire succumb to the external world, leaving nothing but emptiness and variegated imagination.
About the artist – Jun-Jieh Wang
Jun-Jieh Wang works and lives in Taipei. He received the Higher National Diploma in Visual Expression from the Academy of Arts Berlin (HdK Berlin). Wang has been practicing video art since 1984 and is one of the pioneers of new media art in Taiwan. He is currently a professor in the Department of New Media at Taipei National University of the Arts. Wang received the Berlin Television Tower Award for all of his work in 1996. He has been invited to numerous international exhibitions, notably at the European Media Art Festivalat the Shanghai Biennale on the West Bund, at theArs Electronica in Linz, at the Asian-Pacific Contemporary Art Triennale in Queensland, at the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, in Cities on the Move from the Viennese Secession, to the Venice Biennale, to the Johannesburg Biennale and to the Gwangju Biennale, etc.
commissioner Florent Basiletti
partners Taiwan Cultural Center in Paris, Ministry of Culture in Taiwan
L’Engagement
from July 1 to September 29, 2024
Fondation Manuel Rivera-Ortiz
18 rue de la Calade
13200 Arles
www.mrofoundation.org
