Shu Lea Cheang: Wonders Wander
Artist(s):
Title:
- Wonders Wander
Exhibition:
Category:
Artist Statement:
Wonders Wander was a location-based urban event in 2017. It was located in Madrid’s Malasaña Barrio, known as Maravillas (Wonders) during La Movida Madrileña countercultural movement (the 1980s). Participants explored the district, by walking through Malasaña and discovered the off-the-mainstream nouveau queer generation that includes refugees, migrants, functional diversity, transfeminism, open family, subversive motherhoods, sustainable living, and the rise of auto-defence practices for self-empowerment. The Wonders Wander APP, with its GPS guided city-walks, tracked sites of homo-trans-phobic attacks that extended to peripheral Madrid. Along the way, Wonders Wander’s fantasia filmic episodes recount tales of current-day people’s resistance with relentless defiance, seductive sensuality, and vigorous passion. Today, the mobi-web-serial with four fictional episodes set in the city of Madrid is a four-channel video installation, and a 60-minute documentary video distributed by Video Data Bank, Chicago. The restaging in additional urban city space is being considered by municipalities, internationally. Commissioned by Madrid City for Madrid Pride 2017, Wonders Wander had a special mission not only to explore the off-the-mainstream nouveau queer generation, but also to note the rise of auto-defense practices for self-empowerment. The script was based on the accounts of the newly met Madrid-based collaborators, including writers, performers, and refugees.
Video:
Shu Lea Cheang – Wonders Wander from ACM SIGGRAPH on Vimeo.
Other Information:
LGBTQ, Mapping, Transgender, Urban Space, and Violence
