Antwerp is not only a mecca for fashion designers with an unconventional way of expressing themselves. The Belgian STIEGLITZ19 gallery also gathers a photographer generation which documents its daily life in unusual photos. The new exhibition showcases works by 223 aka Lin Zhipeng, who plays overtly with nudity and masquerade and uses particularly the Internet as his stage everyday.
“In China’s tradition-laden environment, it may seem as if we of the younger generation already have freedom, but it is freedom that we seek,” Lin Zhipeng tells us, who likes to call himself 'No. 223' like the policeman in 'Chungking Express' by Director Wongh Kar-wei. Together with photographer Ren Hang, he is among the pioneers of contemporary avant-garde photography in China. "Internet users have always had a thirst for novelty and an interest in sharing the lifestyle of young people. The photographs I've taken of the lives of Chinese youths are like that, mainly disseminated and shared online. The youth culture that is the subject of the photographs seems to be that of a minority, marginalized, even to the point of the bizarre, breaking away from the mainstream (often referred to as ìguai kaî online). The young people that I knew and photographed, from 2004 to today, are all growing up. Photographing youth is not just a willful act. I would most of all like to continue photographing my own development, as well as the changes in feelings and experiences around me. Maybe 10 or 20 years later, when I'm middle-aged, with the young people once in front of the camera also aging, our thoughts will no longer be so wild and restless. Maybe we'll be more calm and at peace, and the subject of the photograph will probably also change along with it. When youths are no longer young, the images are no longer intense."
Gallerist Dries Roelens tells GoSee about the works: "Such sense of the unconventional or even uncanny everyday life is particular to this generation or this group of generation, a kind of sense of imaginary existential beauty. They play houses in their everyday lives, building on their own a stage-like private secret and virtual vacuum with neither the bond of traditional moral standard and customs, nor high-spirited social atmosphere, in which their love, sex, sorrow. and happiness are streaming unrestrained through their self-directed and self-performed play of life for self-entertainment."
We asked him if he cooperation with Chinese galleries or how he puts together his program with young Chinese artists. "I have a very strong focus on China, since I travel to China three times per year an have gone to china for 15 years already, so I know all the young people from the start. 223 was the first one to start with this kind of photography, then came Ren Hang, but I also work with Luo Yang, or more established photographers like Chen Wei and Chi Peng, but also Zhe Chen. There is really something happening there; they are far more cutting edge, and if they make work, it is really very much to the point. They really face prison, censorship, and they are very courageous and make a totally new kind of work. 223's book for example was destroyed 2 times in China. Now finally out, he is the pioneer of this kind of photography, a top talent. I always work directly since I have known them all personally for a very long time."
