until 15.10. | #3179ARTatBerlin | Migrant Bird Space currently presents the solo exhibition Fall Right Back To Sleep After A Terror with works by the artist Yafei Qi.
Taking the Nordic ‘Law of Jante’, a fundamental cultural trace of Norway and Scandinavia, as a point of departure, Yafei Qi travelled around Northern Norway and Svalbard in preparation of this exhibition. In so doing, she documented and contemplated on the binaries that these desolated landscapes and their man-made constructions present, between the culturally specific and the universal, the local and the global, history and the present.
Qi Yafei, Fall Right Back To Sleep After A Terror, Courtesy of Migrant Bird Space
As the title implies, what she found in these Northern areas were post-climatic, material witnesses to the forces that has shaped recent history, such as the Cold War, which made its presence in Svalbard through the now ghostly, abandoned towns that used to be Soviet settlements. Yet, it also implies a calm tranquility, a silent peace, which is both comforting and terrifying – what will happen next in these landscapes? Perhaps nothing at all? And is that not the most frightening scenario of all?
Qi Yafei, Fall Right Back To Sleep After A Terror, Courtesy of Migrant Bird Space
Venturing into the void between the human condition and the locality of the specific photos, Yafei Qi’s works actively call the viewer into focus, forcing them to contemplate strange, foreign places as well as their own immediate surroundings. As such, the photos also move between an objective, documenting quality, and a subjective reflection on Nordic culture, the Law of Jante, and how these sociological patterns are inscribed in the material surroundings of the Norwegian people.
Qi Yafei, Fall Right Back To Sleep After A Terror, Courtesy of Migrant Bird Space
Qi Yafei, born in 1987 in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China, lives and works in Oslo, Norway.
2014 – 2016 MFA in Fine Arts, Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Bergen, Norway
2015 (Exchange) MFA in Emily Carr University, Vancouver, Canada
2007-2011 BA in Film and Video Art, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China.
In 2017 took part in IASPIS Residency Program, Umeå, Sweden and later in 2019 in the AArtist in Residence pro- gram, Berlin, Germany.
Her 2016 work “Wearing the Fog” won “Best Experimental Film” at “The Broadway Film Festival” in Brooklyn, NY.
Ihre Arbeit “Wearing the Fog” aus dem Jahr 2016 gewann den Preis “Best Experimental Film” beim “The Broadway Film Festival” in Brooklyn, NY.
Opening: Tuesday, 14 September 2021, 7:00 pm
Exhibition dates: Wednesday, 15 September to Friday, 15 October 2021
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Exhibition Qi Yafei – Migrant Bird Space | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin