RAPID RABBIT — BESCHLEUNIGTE BILDWELTEN
fand 2011 mit wöchentlichen Veranstaltungen in FRISE Hamburg statt
FRISE Künstlerhaus Hamburg
Arnoldstraße 26
Rapid Rabbit shows tail
30 Wochen Veranstaltungen
Das Programm 2011 in 5 Blöcken zum Ausklappen!
RABBIT'S TRAIL
fand 2011 mit wöchentlichen Veranstaltungen in FRISE Hamburg statt
FRISE Künstlerhaus Hamburg
Arnoldstraße 26
Rapid Rabbit shows tail
30 Wochen Veranstaltungen
Das Programm 2011 in 5 Blöcken zum Ausklappen!
RABBIT'S TRAIL
SCHLANGE & LÖWE | MITTWOCH 13. APRIL: Chen Shihong
Fotografien aus Hangzhou
Chinas illegale Müllarbeiter
In den Jahren 2006 bis 2008 machte Chen Shihong in seiner Heimatstadt Dalian, inzwischen längst ebenfalls eine Viele-MillionenStadt und eine der wichtigsten Meereshäfen Chinas, Aufnahmen von Müllsammlern. Er ist der Auffassung, dass ohne diese – illegalen – Arbeiter, die es überall in Chinas Millionenstädten gibt, diese Städte in ihrem eigenen Zivilisationsmüll längst ersticken würden. Dies die pragmatisch-sachliche Begründung seines Fotoprojekts, das ohne philanthropischen Voyeurismus auskommt. Chen Shihong versteht seine Serie als erzählende Sequenz, in der allen Fotos – und damit allen aufgenommenen Personen und Dingen – dieselbe Relevanz zukommt. Dass er sich im Zeitalter der allgegenwärtigen fotografischen Digitalisierung, gerade auch in China, für digitale Schwarzweiß-Aufnahmen und daher auch Schwarzweiß-Prints entschieden hat, ist als konzeptuelle Entscheidung im Hinblick auf die Stellung der Müllsammler im abgeblendeten gesellschaftlichen Raum zu verstehen.
“Sie sind wie Zugvögel im rastlosen Getriebe der Stadt. Obwohl einige von ihnen viele Jahre in der Stadt gelebt haben, bleibt die Stadt im Grund ihrer Seelen immer ein vorübergehendes Zuhause. Sie trennen Müll, bereiten Ressourcen der Stadt auf, lösen damit zugleich selbständig Probleme der Tätigkeit von Millionen von China's beschäftigungslos gemachter Landbevölkerung.”
Zitat aus einem Text von Chen Shilong – der volle Kommentar des Künstlers – in englischer Übersetzung - wird auch in der Ausstellung zugänglich sein.
Chen Shihong ist inzwischen Assistenzprofessor am Department for Art and Design der Hangzhou Normal University.
Foreword, Chen Shihong
They are like migratory birds in the hustle and bustle of cities. Although some of them have lived in cities for many years, the city is always a temporary home deep in their heart. They sort garbage and recover resources in cities, and solve the issue of employment of millions of idle population in rural China by themselves. They are excluded from the "minimum life guarantee" enjoyed by urban residents. Although these social guarantee measures are just meager subsidies, they are still beyond the hopes of garbage collectors coming from rural area. These people in shabby cloths, carrying a woven bag on their back and pulling a self–made wooden cart, are quite easy to catch the passers by attention. But, most urban dwellers lead a busy and numb life and are just accustomed to the phenomena of garbage collection and garbage collectors.
Poverty is not only a shortage of materials, but also "the sense of being deserted" spiritually. Professor James H. Mittelman from America University, USA once expounded in his works that "The Globalization Syndrome", "in the context of globalization, the so–called marginalization is being pushed to the margin of the economy, and going beyond this margin implies that the labor income is lower than paid–out in the labor." Thus, poverty is the marginalized experience and feelings being locked by structural pressure." Urban residents hold a complicated view towards out–of–towners. On one hand, they care and are sympathetic with out–of–towner out of their human nature. On the other hand, they keep clear distance away from them. Their shabby outfits are regarded as smearing the city image. In extreme cases, a very few garbage collectors steal from households or public assets while patrolling in streets and lanes so that they are always linked with social security issues and are regarded as an unstable social factor. Some local governments once attempted at "direct intervention by government" or "corporate operation". Anyhow, since garbage collectors are charged, the garbage collection business is of slim profit margin approaching unprofitable, and garbage collectors already are at the bottom of most societies. Racism refers to discrimination and inequality between different races and nationalities, not inequality between social groups. While, facing the fact that the group of garbage collectors are discriminated against and isolated in social life, we can´t help but think about the term of "racism" although they are also citizens in the People´s Republic of China. No other person does dirtier work than them (physically and environmentally), no other work hurts more seriously their health. They aren´t recognized for their contribution to the environment and national economy by sacrificing their health, but are discriminated and not accepted by other social groups. Few from the government or society recognize their contribution to the society. They neither have lofty spirits of contribution, nor are aware of their contribution. They live at the bottom of Chinese society. What they do is only for one aim–––survival.
To me, they are not just a group of out–of–towners in shabby clothes who need care and compassion, their work doesn´t harm the environment as other people may think, and to the very contrary, their contribution to environmental protection is also extraordinary. Developed countries adopt a garbage classification and recovery system in general and residents discard garbage in accordance with different types for convenience of recovery and reuse. But, the garbage classification system demands a developed social system to support and it still needs a phase–in period in China and many other developing countries. The group of garbage collectors is comprised of the poor from inland provinces and some local low–income people. They sort out metals, plastics, paper and other recoverable and recyclable wastes from garbage or patrol in streets and lanes, buying recyclable waste and old objects from units and households. It builds a complete Chinese–type system of garbage classification and recovery.
At the beginning of the last century, the documentary photography pioneer Eugene Atget recorded the Paris collectors. However, history is processing repeatedly: the situation of today´s Chinese collectors is almost the same with the one more than one hundred years ago. In the second half of last year, and to complete my work for master degree, I began to record them with photographs. As a part of modern public media, photography has social functions of monitoring the environment, passing on culture, socializing and entertaining. I hope that more people would understand and care about them, even no actual help is given, but we hope at least they are far away from discrimination and unfair treatment. Otherwise, my photographs is seemingly a pillage on them. Of course, I believe that this part of history shall be recorded objectively. I am fully aware of the social function of documentary photography in history although the social environment has made it really difficult for photographers to follow closely the shooting object from an independent angle of values, which results in that the documentary photography with a tradition of strong ethic awareness and individual values are moving close to interests of business and political groups gradually. However, many masters like Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine and Bill Brandt in the history of photography influence me. Just like what was said by Mr. Ruan Yizhong, a Taiwanese photographer, a photographer shall be a witness of human nature and the era. A photographer is expected so.
Fotografien aus Hangzhou
Chinas illegale Müllarbeiter
In den Jahren 2006 bis 2008 machte Chen Shihong in seiner Heimatstadt Dalian, inzwischen längst ebenfalls eine Viele-MillionenStadt und eine der wichtigsten Meereshäfen Chinas, Aufnahmen von Müllsammlern. Er ist der Auffassung, dass ohne diese – illegalen – Arbeiter, die es überall in Chinas Millionenstädten gibt, diese Städte in ihrem eigenen Zivilisationsmüll längst ersticken würden. Dies die pragmatisch-sachliche Begründung seines Fotoprojekts, das ohne philanthropischen Voyeurismus auskommt. Chen Shihong versteht seine Serie als erzählende Sequenz, in der allen Fotos – und damit allen aufgenommenen Personen und Dingen – dieselbe Relevanz zukommt. Dass er sich im Zeitalter der allgegenwärtigen fotografischen Digitalisierung, gerade auch in China, für digitale Schwarzweiß-Aufnahmen und daher auch Schwarzweiß-Prints entschieden hat, ist als konzeptuelle Entscheidung im Hinblick auf die Stellung der Müllsammler im abgeblendeten gesellschaftlichen Raum zu verstehen.
“Sie sind wie Zugvögel im rastlosen Getriebe der Stadt. Obwohl einige von ihnen viele Jahre in der Stadt gelebt haben, bleibt die Stadt im Grund ihrer Seelen immer ein vorübergehendes Zuhause. Sie trennen Müll, bereiten Ressourcen der Stadt auf, lösen damit zugleich selbständig Probleme der Tätigkeit von Millionen von China's beschäftigungslos gemachter Landbevölkerung.”
Zitat aus einem Text von Chen Shilong – der volle Kommentar des Künstlers – in englischer Übersetzung - wird auch in der Ausstellung zugänglich sein.
Chen Shihong ist inzwischen Assistenzprofessor am Department for Art and Design der Hangzhou Normal University.
Foreword, Chen Shihong
They are like migratory birds in the hustle and bustle of cities. Although some of them have lived in cities for many years, the city is always a temporary home deep in their heart. They sort garbage and recover resources in cities, and solve the issue of employment of millions of idle population in rural China by themselves. They are excluded from the "minimum life guarantee" enjoyed by urban residents. Although these social guarantee measures are just meager subsidies, they are still beyond the hopes of garbage collectors coming from rural area. These people in shabby cloths, carrying a woven bag on their back and pulling a self–made wooden cart, are quite easy to catch the passers by attention. But, most urban dwellers lead a busy and numb life and are just accustomed to the phenomena of garbage collection and garbage collectors.
Poverty is not only a shortage of materials, but also "the sense of being deserted" spiritually. Professor James H. Mittelman from America University, USA once expounded in his works that "The Globalization Syndrome", "in the context of globalization, the so–called marginalization is being pushed to the margin of the economy, and going beyond this margin implies that the labor income is lower than paid–out in the labor." Thus, poverty is the marginalized experience and feelings being locked by structural pressure." Urban residents hold a complicated view towards out–of–towners. On one hand, they care and are sympathetic with out–of–towner out of their human nature. On the other hand, they keep clear distance away from them. Their shabby outfits are regarded as smearing the city image. In extreme cases, a very few garbage collectors steal from households or public assets while patrolling in streets and lanes so that they are always linked with social security issues and are regarded as an unstable social factor. Some local governments once attempted at "direct intervention by government" or "corporate operation". Anyhow, since garbage collectors are charged, the garbage collection business is of slim profit margin approaching unprofitable, and garbage collectors already are at the bottom of most societies. Racism refers to discrimination and inequality between different races and nationalities, not inequality between social groups. While, facing the fact that the group of garbage collectors are discriminated against and isolated in social life, we can´t help but think about the term of "racism" although they are also citizens in the People´s Republic of China. No other person does dirtier work than them (physically and environmentally), no other work hurts more seriously their health. They aren´t recognized for their contribution to the environment and national economy by sacrificing their health, but are discriminated and not accepted by other social groups. Few from the government or society recognize their contribution to the society. They neither have lofty spirits of contribution, nor are aware of their contribution. They live at the bottom of Chinese society. What they do is only for one aim–––survival.
To me, they are not just a group of out–of–towners in shabby clothes who need care and compassion, their work doesn´t harm the environment as other people may think, and to the very contrary, their contribution to environmental protection is also extraordinary. Developed countries adopt a garbage classification and recovery system in general and residents discard garbage in accordance with different types for convenience of recovery and reuse. But, the garbage classification system demands a developed social system to support and it still needs a phase–in period in China and many other developing countries. The group of garbage collectors is comprised of the poor from inland provinces and some local low–income people. They sort out metals, plastics, paper and other recoverable and recyclable wastes from garbage or patrol in streets and lanes, buying recyclable waste and old objects from units and households. It builds a complete Chinese–type system of garbage classification and recovery.
At the beginning of the last century, the documentary photography pioneer Eugene Atget recorded the Paris collectors. However, history is processing repeatedly: the situation of today´s Chinese collectors is almost the same with the one more than one hundred years ago. In the second half of last year, and to complete my work for master degree, I began to record them with photographs. As a part of modern public media, photography has social functions of monitoring the environment, passing on culture, socializing and entertaining. I hope that more people would understand and care about them, even no actual help is given, but we hope at least they are far away from discrimination and unfair treatment. Otherwise, my photographs is seemingly a pillage on them. Of course, I believe that this part of history shall be recorded objectively. I am fully aware of the social function of documentary photography in history although the social environment has made it really difficult for photographers to follow closely the shooting object from an independent angle of values, which results in that the documentary photography with a tradition of strong ethic awareness and individual values are moving close to interests of business and political groups gradually. However, many masters like Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine and Bill Brandt in the history of photography influence me. Just like what was said by Mr. Ruan Yizhong, a Taiwanese photographer, a photographer shall be a witness of human nature and the era. A photographer is expected so.