Screenings of Chang’an Boulevard will take place during regular museum hours on Thursday, September 21 and Friday September 22.
Ai Weiwei will be joined in conversation with MOCA's Executive Director Johanna Burton and artist Charles Gaines on Thursday, September 21 at 6pm, followed by a book signing.
MOCA Artist Film series is an active and dynamic platform for the presentation of artist films. Inspired by film and video works in MOCA’s renowned collection, the series offers engaging and notable screenings and live programs with MOCA collection artists and beyond. With presentations in the Ahmanson Auditorium, screenings and Q&As feature artists, historians, and critics in dialogue with special focus on experiments in long-form, narrative or feature-length films. Centered in the cinema capital of the world, these programs explore the critical issues of our time and our place.
An epic moving image work, Chang’an Boulevard traces the forty-five kilometer long thoroughfare that extends east to west, bisecting the megalopolis of Beijing. Dividing the distance into intervals, the artist recorded a single frame for one minute. The entire film is composed of 608 one-minute segments, running over 10 hours long in duration. Beijing, the capital of China for over 600 years, has a clear architectonic order in its urban planning. The film records the city through the transformation of the urban landscape, capturing the rhythms of the city, its social structure, cityscape, planned economy, political center, commercial buildings, and industrial units–revealing the quotidian and everyday of China’s seat of government and power.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957, Beijing) leads a diverse and prolific practice that encompasses sculptural installation, filmmaking, photography, ceramics, painting, writing and social media. A conceptual artist who fuses traditional craftsmanship and his Chinese heritage, Ai Weiwei moves freely between a variety of formal languages to reflect on the contemporary geopolitical and sociopolitical condition. Ai Weiwei’s work and life regularly interact and inform one another, often extending to his activism and advocacy for international human rights.
Only books purchased at the MOCA Store will be eligible for signing following the conversation on Thursday, September 21 at 6pm. Entry to the conversation and book signing will be on a first-come, first-served basis and advance reservations are required. A reservation does not guarantee access.
General admission to MOCA is free courtesy of Carolyn Clark Powers.
Together Thursdays courtesy of Cliff and Mandy Einstein.
All screenings are FREE with advance reservation. Space is limited. Entry will be on a first-come, first-served basis; a reservation does not guarantee access. MOCA Members enjoy early access to ticketing reservations.
The MOCA Artist Film Series is organized by Clara Kim, Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs, with Alitzah Oros, Public Programming Associate, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
MOCA Artist Film Series is presented by The Edward F. Limato Foundation.
Additional support is provided by 
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