Lin Yilin in conversation with Gianni Jetzer

​

​

Xiaofei Mo (XM): Thank you everyone for joining us tonight. We are delighted to have Lin Yilin and Giani Jetzer here to discuss their practices and collaboration. Since the early 1990s, Lin Yilin has focused on performance, sculptural installation, and public intervention to investigate the relationship between the body and its surroundings, and to test the limits of public space through absurd yet subtle actions. Last year in 2014, Gianni and Chris Sharp co-curated ‘Le Mouvement’ in the city of Biel in Switzerland, a three-part exhibition which examined the nature and uses of public space, performance, body, and sculpture. As part of this exhibition Lin Yilin Lin presented his latest piece The Departure From Her Feet, in which he slowly rolled down the streets toward the town hall from three different sites in three consecutive days.

I look forward to learning more about this work and your collaboration. To get started, Gianni will talk about the framework and background of ‘Le Mouvement,’ before we move on to discuss Lin Yilin’s practice. I was reading a conversation between Giani and Chris Sharp earlier today and I am curious about what you said about wanting to reduce public space to its fundamental components, as space and body, and that you didn’t want to bring in the political side of public space,  while as  a matter of fact public space is often considered within a socio-political context. This exhibition, for example, featured no activism, so I would love to hear more about that. Over to you, Gianni.  

​

Gianni Jetzer (GJ): Thank you very much for the invitation. It’s a pleasure to introduce ‘Le Mouvement’ and Lin Yilin’ s  work.  ‘ Le Mouvement ’  was a very special case.  First of all,  it was the 12th edition of the  Swiss