A tree on which uniforms are hung, street clothes, photographs of factory staff, drawings made by workers in 2005 and 2006—when Cao Fei approached employees of OSRAM Lighting China Ltd in Guangdong—: all this forms part of a new installation conceived by the artist in the continuous process of reflecting on her experience involving the project What Are You Doing Here?
The German company Siemens is chiefly concerned with the engineering and electronics industries. In 1987, it launched the Siemens Art Program, seeking to establish a dialogue between employees and artists. From 2000 to 2006, under the title What Are You Doing Here?, the program asked a series of artists in China, including Cao Fei, to organize projects in collaboration with employees of Siemens’s subsidiaries in that country. The workers were then asked to reflect on their own work environment and to get actively involved in the artists’ work process.
Another physical manifestation of Cao Fei’s dialogue with the workers is the video Whose Utopia. With a slower pace and piano music accompanied by a guitar that sounds interspersed with working machines, dancers shown running harmonic movements in positions similar to those of birds, including rigorous scenes of work, surrounded by machines and still lifes surely full of boxes containing bulbs to illuminate.
The 9th Bienal do Mercosul | Porto Alegre takes place from September 13 to November 10, 2013, in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. It consists of an exhibition of contemporary art, including performances and events of various kinds, presented in different venues across the city. Its pedagogical program, Cloud Formations, started on May 17, 2013, along with special public programs and film screenings.
