MALEONN

MALEONN

LEAVES OF GRASS n°1, 2007 - 2008

Solo Exhibitions

2014Maleonn - Studio Mobile, Magda Danysz Gallery, Shanghai

2013A specimen of time, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Paris, France

Maleonn - Studio Mobile, Magda Danysz Gallery, Shanghai

2012 Maleonn - Studio Mobile Project, Magda Danysz Gallery, Shanghai

2011Solo Exhibition, 2902 Gallery, Singapore

Solo Exhibition by Maleonn, Espace Art 22, Brussels, BelgiumWhite on White, AJG Contemporary Art Gallery, Seville, Spain

2010Solo Exhibition, CO2 Gallery, Rome, Italy

A Departure from Reality III: The Tender Truth, Blindspot Gallery, Hong KongMaleonn Solo Exhibition, Stills Gallery, Sydney, Australia

Solo Exhibition, Galleri S.E, Bergen, NorwayWhite On White, Solo Exhibition, Magda Danysz Gallery, Shanghai, China

2009Kingdom of Illusions, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Paris, France

What Love Is, Ofoto Gallery, Shanghai, ChinaShanghai Legendary, Art Next Gallery, New York, USA

2008Fantastic, MAG Visual Art Center, Hong Kong. China

arden of Mirrors, Shanghai Art Museum, ChinaMaleonn Solo Exhibition, Ogilvy Headquarter Art Centre, New York, USA

Endless Dreamer, CO2 Gallery, Rome, ItalyMaleonn, Galeria Tribeca Arte, Madrid, Spain

MALEONN - Solo Exhibition by Maleonn, Espace Art 22, Brussels, BelgiumDays on the Cotton Candy, Kasia Art Project Gallery, Chicago, US

Marbles, Gossip Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand

2007Nostalgia, Around Space, Shanghai, China

Labyrinth, Craig Scott Gallery, Toronto, CanadaCicada, Zendai Moma, Shanghai, China

2006Sweets and Sours, Art Sea Gallery, Shanghai, China

Transfigurations, Craig Scott Gallery, Toronto, CanadaWonderland, Aura Gallery, Shanghai, China

2005Face to mask, Advance Gallery, Shanghai, China

Shadow Maker – Maleonn, Pingyao International Photography Festival, ChinaMaleonn Photography Exhibition, Esplanade National Art Centre, Singapore

Group Exhibitions

2014Flux realities : a showcase of chinese contemporary photography, 4th Singapore International photography festival, Singapore

INSIGHT, Gallery Magda Danysz, Shanghai

2013Choices, Gallery Magda Danysz, Shanghai

Ennemi Public, Gallery Magda Danysz, Shanghai

2012Overlook, Gallery Magda Danysz, Shanghai

Guate-photo, Guatemala

2011Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Ballarat, Australia

Cracked Culture?, Palazzo Giustinian Recanati, Venice Biennale, ItalyFOTOFESTIWAL, Lodz Art Center, Lodz, Poland

Far Away Beauty Lingers, Other Gallery, Shanghai, ChinaCath Alexandrine Danneskiiold-Samsøe Gallery, Denmark

Green Square Exhibition curated by Cath Alexandrine Danneskiold-Samsøe, Denmark

20102020 Group Show, Above Second ArtSpace, HK, China

The 4th Duolun Young Artists Exhibition, Shanghai Duolun MOMA, China 2010 “Rehearsal”Shanghai Biennale

CDS Art & Visibility, Art CopenhagenNordic Art Fair, Danmark

Soul of China, Magda Gallery, Paris, FranceVejle Art Museum, Exhibition curated by Cath Alexandrine Danneskiold -Samsøe, Denmark

Nature of China – Contemporary Art Documenta, True Color Musuem, ChinaRESHAPPING HISTORY China from 2000 to 2009, Today Museum, China

Chinese Contemporary Photography, Fremantle Arts Centre, AustraliaPassing China Gallery Sanstorium, Istanbul, Turkey

2009Youth Fine Art Biennale, Chongqing, China

Passing by China-Contemporary Photography, Eli Klein Fine Art, New York, USAReversed Images, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA

GetxoPhoto Festival, Getxo, SPAINTheatre – Shanghai Metropolitan Photography, Liu Hai Su Museum, China

Toys, CO2 Gallery, Rome, ItalyPresent – TENSE Biennial, Chinese Culture Center, San Francesco, USA

Children’s Epoch, Aura Gallery, Beijing, ChinaFables, Siamsa Gallery, Tralee, Ireland

2008Shanghai Land, Toomey Tourell Fine Art, San Francesco, USA

Exquisite Corpse, M97 Gallery, Shanghai, ChinaUnited in Art, De Voss Museum, Northern Michigan University, USA

A LOOK AT THE WORLD, Pamplona, SpainThe World of Others, MOCA, Shanghai, China

Group Exhibition, Gallery Caprice Horn, Berlin, GermanyHouse Arrest, Gallery Mai36, Zurich, Swiss

Out of the Spotlight, Ch’I Contemporary Fine Art, NY, USAChina Design Now, V&A Museum, London, UK

2006Happily Ever After, Hardcore Contemporary Art Space, Miami, USA

Diaporama Festival, Nantes, FranceIDAA (International Digital Art Awards), Queensland, Australia

The Virtual Salon, MOCA, New York, US

Awards

2010Gold Medal of ‘China’ theme and Gold Medal of Excellence of 8th Trierenberg Super Circuit, Austria

2009Pingyao International Photo Festival Excellent Photographer Awards, China

2008Photograph of the Year Winner in Fine Art Category, and 1st place – outstanding Achievement, 4th Spider

Awards, BLACK & WHITE World Photographic ArtsAward in photography of Culture China, Annual Culture People by Oriental Morning Post, Shanghai, China

2007The most important 50 international contemporary visual artists by MAC Magazine, Japan

2006The most potential young artists, Art Finance Mag, China

IDAA Award, Queensland, AustraliaCCAA China Contemporary Art Awards nominatioin

The Kingdom of Illusionsby Perrine Pautre

In the strange world of Maleonn, laughing superheroes are covered in bruises, while postmen walk through walls to deliver their mail. Using digital resources and manual re-colourisation techniques, this former film director constructs a fanciful and mischievous universe, where a wild imagination sets up a metaphorical narrative framework. Childhood is at the heart of this kingdom, because Maleonn, whose real name is Ma Liang – a young fictio-nal character who had the power to transform reality at the will of his fantasies – harbours an inner child, one who has never forgiven us for growing up. Born in Shan-ghai in 1972 and endowed with his peculiar name, Ma Liang was always destined to become an artist. The son of the head of the Shanghai Opera and a famous actress, he was surrounded by an “artificial” theatrical universe. The fictional and romantic lives on stage were early on contrasted with a particularly drab external reality. Du-ring the Cultural Revolution, his parents were sent to the countryside and so he stayed alone with his sister for many years. Left alone, the young Maleonn invented a sa-lutary universe, a world of dreams and fantasies. “Photography is my magic brush.” Each photograph bears a dramatic intensity, often tainted with irony. The Postman was born out of the real-life figure of Ferdinand Cheval, a rural French postman who at the end of the 19th century built himself a Palais Idéal [Ideal Palace] with stones that he had picked up whilst on his rounds. Faced with a drea-ry and morose daily life, Maleonn the magician brings a touch of unreality, where imagination is an escape, and memory the melancholy of a lost innocence. A number of recurring objects and symbols occupy this dreamlike universe: scenes from plays, his first child-hood memories, masks, colourful marbles, flying papers, as well as untameable animals... While the Unforgivable Children are playing truant and sending their exam papers off into the wind, the letters of the Postman seem to find their way poetically to their mysterious addressees. Ma Liang accompanies each of his series with poems in which Chinese and foreign literary references are com-mon: Journey to the West, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or perhaps the work of contemporary poet, Bei Dao.

Dramatic or comical, the characters in his fables are there to entertain us. Disguised and made-up, they display the grandiloquent body movements of Chinese opera. In The

Boys from Shanghai or Amber, young adults in military uniform imitate the great figures of communism. With their identity carefully hidden, the characters frolic and gesticulate, egging each other on or, forlorn, wander around like stricken souls. As for Little Flagman, this clown-man has all the regalia of a censor, listening and judging as he hides behind his smiling mask. For the heroes of Maleonn’s photographs hang on to their idealism despite the depressing sets that surround them, or the grotesque situations that they en-counter. Also, when Maleonn evokes contemporary Chi-na and his history, he also engages with what he calls the “sentimental” history of traditional China. In the midst of a calm black and white landscape reminiscent of classical calligraphy, the “laminated” and arrow-pierced character in A Chinese History evokes a strategist from the time of the Three Kingdoms. The use of black and white makes the subjects more serious, more distant from childhood, where melancholy seems to have overcome playfulness. Concerning his photographic references, Maleonn tells us willingly about the work of Czech photographer Jan Saudek, about the theatrical aspect and ambiguous at-mosphere that is produced by his nude photographs, caught between humour and darkness. Impassioned by cinema, he cites the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami , similarly trained in advertising. One thinks too of Tim Burton or Jean-Pierre Jeunet for their luxuriant worlds, overflowing imagination associated with childhood, and their alternative use of black and white or colour depen-ding on the subject. During his career as a director, Maleonn learned how to direct actors and developed his innate sense of stagecraft. A collector of miscellaneous objects, he also thinks up the costumes and props that are necessary for his stage de-signs. During his studies in graphic design in Shanghai’s most prestigious university of Fine Arts, he acquired a perfect command of digital tools. A painter since the age of eleven, certain series such as Portraits of Mephisto are recoloured by hand in post-production. At each stage of the process, the image is constructed with minute detail. He manages, with genius, to fuse numerous artistic media into a single photographic frame in order to bring us ever deeper into the discovery of his kingdom. For it is an infinite world of rare density that presents it-self to the spectator; a world of illusions at once conscious and subconscious. In his symbol-laden photographs, Ma-liang presents an unedited and constantly renewed visual experience. Testimony to a great command of visual and scenic languages, Maleonn’s deceptively naïve photo-graphs captivate and question our perception of reality, enlightening the labyrinth of our spirits and the com-plexity of our existence.

Le royaume des illusionspar Perrine Pautre

Dans le monde étrange de Maleonn, les superhéros hilares sont couverts de contusions et les facteurs traversent les murs pour délivrer leur courrier. Utilisant les ressources numériques et les techniques manuelles de re-colori-sation, cet ancien réalisateur de films met en scène un univers fantaisiste et malicieux, où l’imaginaire délirant sert une trame narrative métaphorique. L’enfance est au cœur de ce royaume, car Maleonn, de son vrai nom Maliang – jeune personnage de conte qui avait le pouvoir de transformer la réalité au gré de ses fantaisies – cultive cet enfant intérieur, celui qui ne nous a jamais par-donné d’avoir grandi. Né en 1972 à Shanghai et doté de ce nom singulier, Maliang était destiné à devenir artiste ; né d’un père directeur de l’opéra de Shanghai et d’une mère actrice, il a baigné dans un univers théâtral « artificiel ». Aux vies fictionnelles et romanesques de la scène s’est très vite opposée une réalité extérieure particulièrement terne. Pendant la Révolution Culturelle, ses parents furent envoyés à la campagne et il resta seul avec sa sœur durant plusieurs années. Livré à lui-même, le jeune Maleonn s’est inventé un univers salvateur, un monde de rêves et de fantaisies. « La photographie est mon pinceau magique». Chaque photographie porte une intensité dramatique souvent tein-tée d’ironie. Le Facteur naquit de la figure réelle du fac-teur Cheval, ce postier de campagne français qui à la fin du XIXè siècle construisit seul un Palais Idéal avec les pierres qu’il ramassait au cours de ses tournées . Face à un quoti-dien triste et morose, le magicien Maleonn apporte une touche d’irréalité ; l’imagination est une évasion et le souvenir, la mélancolie d’une innocence perdue. De nombreux objets récurrents et symboliques oc-cupent cet univers onirique : les scènes de théâtre, premiers souvenirs marquants de son enfance, les masques, les billes de couleur, les envolées de papiers et autres animaux indomptables… Quand Les Enfants impardonnables font l’école buissonnière et sèment au vent leurs feuilles d’examens, les lettres du Facteur semblent se diriger poétiquement vers leurs mystérieux destinataires. Maliang accompagne chacune de ses sé-ries de poèmes où les références littéraires chinoises et étrangères sont courantes : Voyage vers l’Ouest, Le songe d’une nuit d’été ou encore l’œuvre du poète contemporain Bei Dao . Dramatiques ou comiques, les personnages de ses fables sont là pour nous divertir. Déguisés et maquillés, ils ont la gestuelle grandiloquente des opéras chinois. Dans Les garçons de Shanghai ou dans Ambre, de jeunes adultes en tenue militaire pastichent les grandes

figures communistes. Leurs identités soigneusement cachées, ces personnages batifolent et gesticulent, tan-tôt s’entraînant les uns les autres, tantôt esseulés, déam-bulant comme des âmes en peine.Quant au Petit por-teur de drapeau, cet homme-clown qui a tous les atours du censeur, il écoute et juge, caché derrière son masque souriant. Car les héros des photographies de Maleonn s’accrochent à leur idéalisme, malgré les décors déso-lés qui les entourent ou les situations grotesques qu’ils rencontrent. Aussi, lorsque Maleonn évoque la Chine contemporaine et son histoire, il engage aussi ce qu’il appelle l’histoire « sentimentale » de la Chine tradi-tionnelle. Au milieu d’un paysage calme en noir et blanc rappelant la calligraphie classique, le personnage « plastifié » et percé de flèches d’Une histoire chinoise évoque un stratège de l’époque des Trois Royaumes . L’usage du noir et blanc sert des sujets plus graves, plus éloignés de l’enfance, où la mélancolie semble avoir pris le pas sur le ludique. De ses références photographiques, Maleonn nous parle volontiers du travail du photographe tchèque Jan Saudek, de l’aspect théâtral et de l’ambiance ambiguë qui se dégage de ses photographies de nu, entre facétie et noirceur. Passionné de cinéma, il cite le réalisateur iranien Abbas Kiarostami également formé par la pu-blicité. On pense encore à Tim Burton ou à Jean-Pierre Jeunet pour leur univers foisonnant, l’imagination dé-bordante associée à l’enfance et leur utilisation alternée du noir et blanc ou de la couleur selon les sujets. Au cours de sa carrière de réalisateur, Maleonn a appris à diriger des acteurs et à développer son sens inné de la mise en scène. Collectionneur d’objets hétéroclites, il conçoit également les costumes et décors nécessaires à ses scénographies. De ses études de graphique-design dans la plus prestigieuse université d’Arts Appliqués de Shanghai, il a acquis la parfaite maîtrise des outils nu-mériques. Peintre depuis l’âge de onze ans, certaines sé-ries comme les Portraits de Mephisto sont recolorisées à la main en postproduction. À chaque étape du pro-cessus, l’image est construite dans ses moindres détails et il parvient avec génie à faire fusionner dans le seul cadre d’une photographie de nombreux mediums artis-tiques afin de nous emmener toujours plus loin dans la découverte de son royaume. Car c’est un monde infini et d’une rare densité qui s’offre au spectateur ; un monde d’illusions à la fois conscientes et subconscientes. Dans ses photographies aux symboliques prolifiques, Ma-liang offre une expérience visuelle inédite et sans cesse renouvelée. Témoignant d’une grande maîtrise des lan-gages visuels et scéniques, les photographies fausse-ment naïves de Maleonn captivent et interrogent notre perception de la réalité, éclairant le labyrinthe de nos esprits et la complexité de nos existences.

LITTLE FLAGMAN n°5 (détail), 2006

BOOK OF TABOO n°5, 2006

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE STUDIO MOBILE

JUNE 10TH, 2012

1. How do you position yourself? A photographer? An artist? Or a creative talent?

I don’t really care. The title of your interview marked me as a photographer, then I can well be a photographer. That’s not really important.

2. What’s your original purpose of the Studio Mobile? So far, does the influence and social reflection it has brought about meet up your expectation? Is there anything interesting to share with us?

I came up with the original idea when I looked back at what I did: I thought they meant a lot to others but actually there were quite detached from life. My works have become the art pieces in galleries, for which I feel honored and I can make a living based on this. However, I sometimes think my work and life are much too secluded and they have nothing to do with others just like being kept in the ivory tower. Then the idea occurred to me that I wanted to do something for others using my creativity and make my “art” more useful. I hope to transform my creativity and pas-sion into a present and give it to those who like my works or even total strangers. My art should not have a commanding position; instead, it’s my kindness and my keen love for life. I want to share it with others, making the participants happy and positive and therefore realize the friendship among individuals. That’s what I aimed to achieve.

Up to now, I suppose everything has been going on the right track, for all the participants have received my “presents”. I ha-ven’t noticed much in other aspects. For a small team as mine, our ability is limited. Having fully realized that, we are acting in a low-key manner and all the information has been posted on my personal weibo while I’m actually having difficulty handling the increasing demands.

I’ve got a great many interesting stories, but it’s hard to talk eve-rything about them here. I’ll write them down later.

3. What did you do to prepare for the Studio Mobile?

It took us seven months to get prepared. A great deal was done. We designed the detailed plan, including painting the sets and background boards, getting ready for the costumes, producing the props, purchasing and reforming the truck, arranging the locations all over the country and communicating with those who make reservations for the project. Of course I still had to earn money, for the trip will cost us much. Besides, since I won’t be earning any money for nearly one year, I had to manage the rent and some other cost. I also had to look for my companions and persuade them to go through all the difficulties with me. Meanwhile I had to contact some sponsors for my private sa-vings were not adequate anyway, so I needed the help from some companies and friends. But most talks broke down because I don’t want to make this project too commercial, which means the companies could expect little profit. So I have to express my special gratitude to Hangzhou-based clothes brand “Croquis”, agent of printing paper brand “Canson” and the movie company of my friend “Union Square Media Group”who eventually decide to support us.

4. You have received many awards previously. From your view, what do you value most? The praise from others or self-approval? Between the great impact and the final works of the Studio Mobile, which one pleases you better?

Awards did show the approval I have received. I won’t be-have indifferent because they did make me happy. But I have to move on, both in my life and my career, so I have to calm down and talk to myself. It’s especially important for me since I usually act on an impulse.

The Studio Mobile is my action. The photos are presents, the one who sends them out cares about the joy of the reci-pients—that’s my true feeling. These works may not be real-ly “artistic”, but they have been the best I can devote. They are not that important to me, but I can tell the recipients really like the photos I took and most of them told me their true feelings—they enjoyed being part of the project, they like the photos and will always keep them. That’s enough. I don’t have any plans for exhibitions, nor do I have any ideas about what’s following up. The only thing that makes me satisfied is to see them cheerful with the photos.

5. Every city you’ve been to has its unique character. Which city impressed you most?

In fact, I don’t focus much on the city characters. I’m just coming up to people’s cities and take photos for them. What I pay attention to are the people being photographed but not the cities. In addition, cities nowadays are more or less the same, urban views don’t differ much except for those intentionally aggrandized tourist spots.

Most people who want to be a part of my project are into literature and art. Beijing is undoubtedly “the capital of li-terature and art”, for there are over 1000 applicants. At last, I stayed there for five days, working for more than eight hours each day and took photos of over 140 people. Beijing naturally impressed me.

6. You were born and raised up in Shanghai, what is the city like in your eyes and your lens?

Yes, I was born in Shanghai and most of my works were created there. Shanghai is the setting for my works. In fact, my works are all about the city where I was born, grew up and where I’m currently living.

I’ve always hoping to describe my childhood in Shanghai through words or movies, which has been my dream since became of age. In future I’ll do everything to make this dream come true. You’ll see the work which is all about Shanghai.

7. During your trip, who have showed up in your pictures? Did they understand the meaning of the project they were taking part in?

People from all walks of life: artist, photographer, worker, student, teacher, civil servant, security guard, dancer, mo-vie star, movie producer, writer, book and magazine editors, merchant, director, curator, professor, housewife, very old people, many little children, athlete, etc. They were all very glad, truly enjoying the whole process and that’s enough. I shall keep it in my mind, they don’t have to realize what I’ve got; the only thing they need to do is to well keep the photos.

8. You are nostalgic and interested in collecting, so there are always many props in your works. Can you talk about your collections? And does the widely used yellowing color in your works come from your addiction to the old things?

That’s right. I collect a great many things as long as they are useful and may appear in my works. I’ll buy them if I can af-ford. A large part of my collection are the old photographs, various kinds of used papers, including posters, certificates, letters, receipts, notebooks and other things that may easily decay. Also I collect many small toys and puppets.

FANTASY OF IMPROBABLE n°3, 2011