Preface

In the Preface for the “Talks & Exhibition 2008 – Video Art Activities”^[1], I mentioned that “electronic screens infiltrate into every aspect of our lives, … we very much get used to seeing the world through screens. A structural change has occurred in the relationship between human existence and image… Our world is under surveillance of an omnipresent eye. We watch and are watched via screens. It can be said that we live within images, to an extent that certain things might have to be recorded or be reproduced through images, and only after that, do they truly exist.” Ten years later, when almost everybody has a smartphone in hand, we should further understand and perceive the value of the ‘screen’.

I was invited to Taipei to partake the EX!T 2010 – Experimental Media Art Festival in Taiwan and Asia Forum, for which I curated a screening session of Macau experimental film and video, while releasing my treatise The development and status of experimental video in Macao. During the event I met a group of excellent curators, directors, and film and video makers who promoted experimental media art. From them I learned about the situation of experimental media art in various places across Asia, which inspired me to organise “EX^[2][3]” event in Macau. Finally, in 2011, EXiM (EXperimental moving image in Macau) was held in MSAR for the very first time. Since 2011, respectively focusing on experimental moving images from Asia, Taiwan, South Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Portugal and Macau, and China-Hong Kong-Taiwan-Macau, EXiM has invited curators from different places to curate a range of screenings, live projections and multimedia (electronic music, sound + moving image) performances. Genres of EXiM work include 16mm experimental films, video art or experimental animation. This year, Ox Warehouse has moved to a new space – the Post-Ox Warehouse Experimental Site – to continue the event, and EXiM 2018 is no longer focusing on screening activities; instead, works are shown in exhibition format with the focus on Macau experimental film and video creations, inviting local artists who have been creating experimental moving images, featuring Macau works previously shown in EXiM events. The event can be said to be a presentation of a passage on the Macau experimental moving image creation.

In Macau, despite the fact that avant-garde, experimental works of moving image have always received less attention than mainstream features and documentaries, or have been marginalized or even refused by the general public, video art and experimental moving image have long become indispensable creative forms in contemporary art. The Ox Warehouse art space has been pursuing a mission to promote this type of new media, so as to let more people learn about, appreciate and use it for creative purposes. We believe that persisting in the effort always creates more possibilities.

Bianca Lei (2018)

Curator

[1] The Ox Warehouse art space organised for two years in a row the “Talks & Exhibition” – Video Art Activities in 2007 and 2008, inviting video artists from Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, to each show works and give a lecture introducing their personal creations. This format allowed audience further understand video art creation’s concept, process and experience from the artists’ sharing in person, apart from merely watching the work.

[2] The “EX” event was first launched in 2009 in Seoul, South Korea, with “EXiS – Korean  Experimental Film and Video Activity”. In the following year (2010), the “EX!T 2010 – Experimental Media Art Festival in Taiwan” was held in Taipei, to which, Macao works were invited. In 2011, Malaysia and Macau respectively hosted the “KL Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival” (KLEX) and “EXiM – Macau Experimental Moving Image Festival“, and Hong Kong also held the “HKEX –Asian Experimental Video Festival in Hong Kong” in 2014. All these exchange activities encompassing exhibitions, screenings, live performances and forums have helped promote experimental moving image in Asia.

participating artists：
Jose DRUMMOND  |  Alice KOK  |  Yves Etienne SONOLET |  Joein LEONG  | CHAN Lei I & LEI Man Kit  |  Suki CHAN  |  CHEONG In Fong  |  Ivy CHEONG  |  Faye CHOI  |  Ryan FOO  |  HO Ka Cheng  |  Bianca LEI  |  Ella LEI  |  Fish LEONG  |  Napx LEONG  |  Paula LO  |  Leo LUAN  |  Biyi ZHU

Organisation：Ox Warehouse

Sponsors：Macao Foundation, Culture Institute
related links: EXiM,  Ox warehouse facebook