MOMENTUM is proud to present the first solo show in Germany of the pioneering Chinese video and animation artist Zhou Xiaohu. It is curated by English-born curator and writer, David Elliott, who has worked extensively on contemporary Asian art.

Scheiße • 夏色, German slang for faeces and a popular expletive, the artist’s choice for the exhibition’s title, is intended to reflect not upon his view of art but on the conditions in which all work is made, including art. This idea is clearly expressed in Das Kapital No. 1 – Questionnaire Show, (2015), a new site-specific performance and installation Zhou has made for this exhibition which has developed out of concerns that have run as a decisive element throughout his previous work.

Here, Zhou invokes sleazy peep shows and the sultry, inviting glances of Amsterdam “window girls” as ready-mades for a performance. A scantily clad actor reclines in a glass booth, telephone in hand; how she speaks and the style of her presentation mimics the live phone-ins on the adult channels of German TV. But on entering this exhibition visitors are presented with a choice: either they stand and watch or, if they pick up the handset, they are thrust into a scripted exchange of a completely unexpected order.

Instead of revolving around titillation, or the recital of a price-list of future delights, the exchange consists of an ideological ‘discussion’ about a new economic system. This is driven by a complex set of questions developed by the artist that question the economic and social status and role of the performer in the context of wider questions about the Chinese and world economies.

The visitor may either respond or remain silent. The exchange evolves into a kind of questionnaire, bound by common causes and emotions, that are related to global questions that affect us all – about power, economy, statehood, aspiration, communication, interpretation and misunderstanding.

Zhou Xiaohu (b. 1960 Changzhou, lives and works in Shanghai) was one of the first contemporary artists in China to work experimentally with sculptural ideas of video and animation. These works often reflect upon power, the role of the media, and the identity of the artist. Equally important are his social interventions that treat contemporary social paradoxes as ‘ready-mades’ that allow him to formulate art and society assemblages, or what he calls “collaborative installations”. The work of Zhou Xiaohu has been exhibited at MoMA, New York, USA; Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK; Kunst Museum, Bern, Switzerland; Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China; and the International Center of Photography, New York, USA and the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Wien, Austria.

Zhou Xiaohu has participated in such art exhibitions as the Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China (2002); Seville International Art Biennale, Seville, Spain, (2004); China Now, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (2004); Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia (2006); The Real Thing, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (2007); Not Soul For Sale, Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London, UK (2010); the 8th Gwangju Biennial, Gwangju Art Museum, Korea (2010); and Pandamonium: Media Art from Shanghai at MOMENTUM, Berlin (2014). Zhou Xiaohu was awarded the CCAA Award in 2002 and 2006; and in 2014-2015 he is the recipient of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program award to live and work in Berlin for one year.

同谋 Conspiracy 2004
Two channel animation video projection：6 min 12 sec

In parallel with the opening of Scheisse at MOMENTUM, Video Bureau inducts Zhou Xiaohu into their archival holdings, with his video works and texts about his work available to view at the Video Bureau spaces in Beijing and Guangzhou, and at MOMENTUM concurrently with Zhou Xiaohu’s solo exhibition.

Video Bureau is a non-profit organization that aims to provide a platform to exhibit, organize and archive video art. With two spaces in Beijing and Guangzhou, the mission of Video Bureau is to collect and organize artworks of video artists in order to build a video archive that welcomes research and viewing. As an institute opens to the public, every two months Video Bureau features one artist’s video works, and hosts related events.