The Show Must Come Down

"The Places Where I Live" by Oana Camilleri.
Dual videos visible from the outside of the Romanian Culture Institute.


"Neither Three Nor Four" by Yan Jun.
Sound installation within an antique elevator of the institute's building.


"Day Dreams II" by Zhifei Yang.
Live performance in Stockholm on April 24, 2010.
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Yesterday, May 16th, was the last day of the group exhibition Simultaneity, uniting the works of Oana Camilleri, Yan Jun and Zhifei Yang. On reflection, the project was a tremendous accomplishment in networking and long distance communication between the artists and myself as well as the other institutions like the Romanian Culture Institute of Stockholm and Platform China in Beijing, who both played a supporting role in making the event a reality.

After looking through my project notes from the past year, I was surprised to realize that several questions I had posed at the beginning were in the end, answered: What are some of the ways one could exhibit experiences of simultaneity through contemporary mediums? Will this be an exhibition that occurs twice? Same time/different places? Could it occur in a public space and a virtual space at the same time? I think the combination of Jun's soundscapes, Zhifei's performance/video and Oana's videos beautifully articulated and enabled expressions of simultaneity to exist and be experienced by others. There was an overlapping presentation of the works, allowing different elements to occur at the same time both through the Internet where Zhifei's video was placed and in the public exhibition space of Platform China, who hosted the same soundworks created by Jun for the exhibition in Stockholm.

Today, as I packed up the final equipment from the Romanian Culture Institute's space, I thought how wonderful it has been to bring together talented people and the other various elements involved in this experience of exhibition making. It's really hard to pack it all away, but there is a glimmer of optimism that maybe, just maybe simultaneity can be something created and exhibited again.