Connective Video Art: Hong Kong’s Yau Ching Meets Berlin’s Mathilde ter Heijne

Description

Connective Videos: Berlin – Hong Kong is a collaborative platform between Germany and Hong Kong. The project, presented by Goethe-Institut Hongkong, encompasses the video art collections of the Videoart at Midnight and the Videotage Media Art Collection. In six screenings throughout 2018, Connective Videos aims to learn, compare, and reimagine compelling stories told by various German and Hong Kong artists.

The 5th edition of Connective Videos showcases several works by Yau Ching (b. 1966) and Mathilde ter Heijne (b. 1969), including Ching’s Suet-Sins Sisters (1999). This documentary video seeks to point out to a long and repressed tradition of lesbian culture in Chinese society through lesbian icons from pop culture. The video also features interviews with two lesbians from two different generations, in which they discuss issues of sex, coming out, their relations with the family, and sexual identity.

Another video that will be screened is Ter Heijne’s Lament – Song for Transitions (2014), which was inspired by lamenting, an ancient and international oral tradition that combines singing and crying. Up until this day, women sing these songs at transitional moments in life, such as funerals and weddings, to express suffering and sorrow, heal pain and trauma, and connect the past with the present to advance into the future. The material for this video was recorded at a workshop where Finnish singer Pirkko Fihlman was invited to teach an almost ancient Karelian lamenting technique.