Ning Ou

San Yuan Li, the collaborative project by Ou Ning, Cao Fei, and the members of U-thèque Organization, is a case study of the typical “urban village” phenomenon of Guangzhou in 1990s. Armed with video cameras, the crew penetrated San Yuan Li as “city flâneurs,” presented a highly stylized portrait of the village, attempting to rethink the debt of history, to document the confrontation and reconciliation between the newly urbanization and the patriarchal-clan-based traditional community, as well as the weird architectures and cultural landscape emerging from this previously rural area. At the end, all the colored footages were eidted into a piece of black-and-white video poetry. The project was exhibited in the 50th Venice Biennale for the first time, and then screened worldwide.

MEISHI STREET shows ordinary citizens taking a stand against the planned destruction of their homes for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In order to widen traffic routes for the Olympic Games, the Beijing Municipal Government orders the demolition of entire neighborhoods. Several evictees of Meishi Street, located next to Tiananmen Square, fight through endless red tape and the indifference of fellow citizens for the right to keep their homes. Given video cameras by the filmmakers, they shoot exclusive footage of the eviction process, adding vivid intimacy to their story.