Zhang Xu Zhan: Termite Feeding Show

Jan 23 – Mar 30, 2025

Työpajankatu 2 B, rakennus 7, 3.krs, 00580 Helsinki

Zhang Xu Zhan (Taiwan, 1988, lives in Taipei) has made a name for himself internationally with visually and conceptually compelling video installations.

The communicative and sensorial impact of Zhang Xu’s films is amplified by a subtly subversive sense of humour, and by the incorporation of the ancient Chinese tradition of paper craft. 

For generations, his family has been making elaborate models and figures from paper and bamboo, meant to be burned as offerings at funerals and other rituals.

Termite Feeding Show (2024) combines stop-motion animation with performances by actors in insect-like costume. 

This two-channel tongue- in-cheek cabaret has been installed only once before, in an abandoned house outside of Taipei, but the film is part of the official selection for the Rotterdam Film Festival in February this year.

 

Zhang Xu Zhan is represented by Project Fulfill Art Space in Taipei. This is his first presentation in the Nordic region. 

Simultaneously, work by him is also on display at the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kyiv, as part of the Future generation Art Prize (where it received the Special Prize), and at the 11th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Meeanjin/Brisbane, Australia.

 

Kohta Kunsthalle

23.1.-30.3.2025

Tue-Fri 12.00-18.00

Sat-Sun 12.00-16.00

Free entry

Pienoisveistos termiitistä, jolla on punainen pää ja valkea ruumis.