Wang Tuo: ‘Tungus’
Wang Tuo, Tungus, 2021. Single-channel video, stereo sound, colour, 69 min 27 sec. Courtesy of the artist
About the Work
In 2018, Wang began exploring shamanic culture in Northeast China, developing ‘pan-shamanism’ to evoke collective experiences across time. Tungus investigates the history of Changchun during the 1948 Kuomintang-Communist Civil War siege, where mass starvation occurred. The film follows two Korean soldiers from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army attempting to flee, paralleling the Jeju Uprising in Korea. In the film, a scholar, hallucinating from hunger, imagines himself at the 1919 May 4th Movement. These overlapping narratives suggest shared traumatic experiences can lead to collective pan-shamanism, reshaping Northeast Asian realities and uncovering contemporary geopolitical dilemmas rooted in historical trauma.
About the Artist
Wang Tuo (b. 1984; based in Beijing, China) interweaves Chinese historical facts, cultural archives, fiction and mythology into speculative narratives. Through film, performance, and painting, the artist’s work is a powerful examination of modern Chinese and East Asian history. The multidimensional chronologies he constructs, interspersed with conspicuous and hidden clues, expose the underlying historical and cultural forces at work within society. Embracing a uniquely Chinese hauntology, Wang proposes ‘pan-shamanism’ as an entry point to unravel the suppressed and untreated memories of 20th-century China and East Asia. Recent exhibitions include UCCA, Beijing; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; MMCA, Seoul; Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf; Queens Museum, New York. Wang Tuo won the K21 Global Art Award 2024; Sigg Prize 2023; Three Shadows Photography Award 2018; and Youth Contemporary Art Wuzhen Award 2019.
About EMAP x FRIEZE FILM SEOUL
For the third year in a row, Frieze Film returns to Frieze Seoul 2024. This year’s programme is presented in partnership with Ewha Media Art Presentation (EMAP) and on view from 2 – 6 September at Ewha Womans University and online at frieze.com.
Curated by Joowon Park and Valentine Umansky, this year’s programme is titled ‘All that Weaves the Universe: Of Quantum Entanglements’. It brings together time-based media works of 37 international artists, unfolding under 8 chapters.
