Wasted Echoes: Monologue of 2.7 Grams

Text｜Wen-Yao CHEN

Frome: ARTCO Monthly, October 2010

The Théâtre de la Condition des Soies, one of the oldest venues at the Avignon Off Festival, hosts the solo exhibition "Jeter dans le vide" by Zhang Junyi. Positioned along the unavoidable path that spectators traverse upon entering the theater, the exhibition is immersed in the cool and dim atmosphere unique to the cellar, where the rough texture of the building's surface remains evident despite being painted white, creating a fragmented and somewhat labyrinthine space. However, within such intricate conditions, eight art pieces, including photography, animation, video, and video installations, are thoughtfully arranged.

A vibrant orange trajectory leaps out from a corner resembling ruins—where is it heading? "Trajectoire II," characterized by the crisp sounds of ping pong balls transitioning from slow to fast and back to slow, precisely illustrates the animated trajectory on the screen. Following this rationality, the atmosphere becomes mysterious with the projection installation "Ombre" ("Shadow"): the shadow of a ball unpredictably skims across a pond-like surface, accompanied by the sound of serving, bouncing arbitrarily without response, gradually fading away. In a smaller adjacent cave, someone continues to point downwards, accompanied by an incomprehensible yet rhythmic female voice: "Slowly, lightly, quickly..." uttered in degree adverbs by the artist Miaowen. Turning the corner, a childlike voice prompts one to crouch down: in the scene, ping pong balls fluctuate in rhythm with the child's counting, but the numbers may not match, resembling a ball flying from outer space or someone picking it up (are you the only one left in place?), returning to the corridor and faintly hearing another frequency of ping pong ball sounds. Unveiling a curtain, you step into a narrow, peculiar corner and encounter a thick book with the title "Le son du cadrage" ("The Sound of Framing"). Curious, you open it to find a hollow space with a screen embedded, and a ping pong ball bouncing. It hits in all directions, as if trying to exhaust something, yet the sound shows no flaw, and the space seems to be tireless (or is it just enjoying itself?).

"Am I progressing along a predetermined trajectory, or am I wandering among infinite divergences?" The artist, with persistent elaboration, unfolds multiple layers of auditory and visual perception, posing this question.