“When You Move, You Talk to Me”

As an institution dedicated to the dissemination of Spanish language and culture, the Miguel de Cervantes Library in Shanghai promotes intercultural dialogue through a programme that encompasses various disciplines. By bringing together different platforms from China and Spanish-speaking countries, this time it proposes a collaboration with the moving image art festival LOOP Barcelona, unfolding into the group exhibition “When You Move, You Talk to Me.”

Through the works of Pilar Albarracín (Spain 1968), Marcos Ávila Forero (Colombia, 1983), Fang Di (China, 1987), Anna Dot (Spain, 1991), Wang Gongxin (China, 1960), Chen Qiulin (China, 1975) and Héctor Zamora (Mexico, 1975), this exhibition proposes multiples readings of the notion of language. From different perspectives, the selected videos explore the body as a tool for communication, storytelling and as an alternative to the spoken word.

The language of the body then takes on multiple functions: the representation of one’s identity, the expression of the psychological and intimate nuances that connote relationships among individuals, the embodiment of specific cultural codes or the manifestation of certain power structures.

As a collateral proposal to the exhibition, the Library’s Terraza Cervantes (Anfu Lu 208) hosts a dialogue between the videos of artists Iván Argote (Colombia, 1983) and Jiang Zhi (China, 1971). With the delicacy of two moving portraits, these pieces symbolically close the selection, alluding to the “sentient body” as a place where emotions and behavioral, physiological and subjective reactions are manifested in response to stimuli from the outside world.

This proposal would have never been possible without the involvement and complicity of a series of galleries that, year after year, have collaborated with LOOP: ADN Galería (Barcelona), Albarrán Bourdais (Madrid), A Thousand Plateaus Art Space ( Chengdu), Blindspot Gallery (Hong Kong), Bombon Projects (Barcelona), Vanguard Gallery (Shanghai), White Cube (London / Hong Kong) and Vermelho Gallery (São Paulo).

Selected Videos

West Bund Art & Design:

Pilar Albarracín, La estia, 2020
Marcos Ávila Forero, Atrato, 2017
Fang Di, Hit Me!, 2013
Anna Dot, Venen de lluny [Llegan de lejos], 2020
Wang Gonxin, Fashion Color, 2012
Chen Qiulin, Dressing Up, 2014-2016
Hector Zamora, Movimientos emisores de existencia, 2019

Terraza Cervantes:

Iván Argote, Two 50 Years Old White Males Having Emotions, 2013
Jiang Zhi, 0.7% Salt, 2009