Shi Tou and Mingming will spend May month at NKF studio. About their stay they say the following: "As artists from the most populous country in the world, we would like to observe the lifestyle and urban ecology of the city are are currently in, take city walks, and engage in some photography and documentation within this short time frame. Perhaps we can also make comparisons with the cities we have lived in before, to understand and contemplate about how we are a community on Earth".
Shi Tou's biography
Hailed as ‘one of the most outstanding female artists in contemporary China’, painter- photographer-filmmaker Shi Tou has been actively engaged in various artistic creations and social practice since 1992. She graduated from Guizhou Art Academy China. 1992 Moved into Beijing Yuan Ming Yuan (The Old Summer Palace) Artist Village and started with personal art works. She began collaborating with Mingming in 2001, using photography of performance and installation, video and documentaries to portray the social changes in contemporary China. as well as issues of sustainable ecology and gender diversity. Her leading role in Fish and Elephant (Yu Li 2001) helped this first feature-length Chinese lesbian film win prizes at the Venice, Berlin and Toronto film festivals. She as the art director of the documentary Dream on the Wall (Mingming 2010) won the best short film award at the 2010 Hong Kong Chinese Documentary Film Festival. Her art works and films have been showed in many exhibition and film festivals all around the world. She combines artistic creation with social practice，in 2008, She with friends established China Queer Independent films. From 2008 to now, they go to different places every year, traveling all over China, from cities to towns, and have held 300s screenings, with tens of thousands of audiences watching and communicating. Shi Tou with Dr Li YinHe and Cui Zi'en were first time to have a homosexual topic on TV Interview Program publicly in 2000, its audience rating was 300 million.
Mingming's biography
Filmmaker, photographer, and activist. In 2008, she co-founded the China Queer Independent Film with Shi Tou and a group of queer directors, artists, activists, critics, etc. From 2008 to now, 330 queer screenings and discussions have been held across the country. Her art works and films have been showed in many exhibition and film festivals，including the U.S, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Taiwan, Hong Kong, south Korea, and Mainland China, etc. She directed the documentary Dream on the wall won the best short film award at the 2010 Hong Kong Chinese Documentary Film Festival.