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1998

Fen-Ma Liuming Walks the Great Wall

Fen-Ma Liuming walks the Great Wall
Mutianyu Great Wall Scenic Area Ticket Office, Mutianyu Road, Huairou District, Beijing, China

Sub-collection

Activism or Protest

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architecture

1 sub-collections · 76 items

Empower

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long distance walking

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architecture

1 sub-collections · 76 items

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Fen·Ma Liuming Walks the Great Wall is a performance in which Ma Liuming’s alter-ego casually walks and climbs the Great Wall of China, completely nude, expressing a critical stance against the rigid social structures and conventions symbolized by th

In 1998, Ma Liuming attained even bigger international acclaim for his Fen-Ma Liuming Walks the Great Wall performance. In it, Ma nonchalantly walks and climbs the Great Wall of China, stark-naked. China’s most famous landmark, the Great Wall symbolises a rigid social structure and social conventions, such as the class system. However, regardless of its immense historical significance, Ma, the performance artist, chose to use that tall and lengthy sacred site as a stage for his artistic expression.

In our eyes (Hakgojae Gallery), from the encounter between a naked transgender artist and the symbol of China, the Great wall, we see a strong, artistic desire for the acceleration of China’s reform and opening up. It can be also interpreted as a criticism towards a society intolerant of diversity and different ideologies. Recordings and photographs from the performance became widely known to the international art world and the performance was introduced at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999 under the direction of Harald Szeemann.

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As stated in the Hakgojae Gallery press release.

APA style reference

Liuming, M. (1998). Fen-Ma Liuming Walks the Great Wall. walk · listen · create. https://walklistencreate.org/walkingpiece/fen-ma-liuming-walks-the-great-wall/
Submitted by: Dani Spadotto

pedestrian acts

By de Certeau: In “Walking in the City”, de Certeau conceives pedestrianism as a practice that is performed in the public space, whose architecture and behavioural habits substantially determine the way we walk. For de Certeau, the spatial order “organises an ensemble of possibilities (e.g. by a place in which one can move) and interdictions (e.g. by a wall that prevents one from going further)” and the walker “actualises some of these possibilities” by performing within its rules and limitations. “In that way,” says de Certeau, “he makes them exist as well as emerge.” Thus, pedestrians, as they walk conforming to the possibilities that are brought about by the spatial order of the city, constantly repeat and re-produce that spatial order, in a way ensuring its continuity. But, a pedestrian could also invent other possibilities. According to de Certeau, “the crossing, drifting away, or improvisation of walking privilege, transform or abandon spatial elements.” Hence, the pedestrians could, to a certain extent, elude the discipline of the spatial order of the city. Instead of repeating and re-producing the possibilities that are allowed, they can deviate, digress, drift away, depart, contravene, disrupt, subvert, or resist them. These acts, as he calls them, are pedestrian acts.

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