"New Pants" band member Pang Kuan's "Self-isolation" art exhibition resonates with Chinese netizens

Today is the fifth day of Pang Kuan 's "self-isolation". Starting last Saturday, he held a two-week "Bye by Disco" performance art exhibition at the "Star Space" Gallery in Chaoyang District, Beijing. The exhibition is held on a wooden platform (home) with a height of 2.5x2.5 meters and a height of 1.2 meters in the gallery. "Eat, drink, play, play, pull, sprinkle and sleep for 14 days". He only brought a box of water, rice, wine, snacks, clothes, a sofa and toilet.

Pang Kuan wanted to make a hole in the floor of his "home" to see what the world looked like below. However, the curator was afraid that this "home" would collapse, so he stopped him and confiscated his fruit knife. Last night, he could only eat apples with the skin on.

This art exhibition is being broadcast live on Weibo and WeChat public accounts. On Weibo, "#Pangkuan going to the toilet" once dominated the entertainment topic list; on WeChat, he attracted more than 3.7 million views. He is the lead singer and keyboard player of the Chinese mainland rock band "NEW PANTS". As early as May 2020, the new pants were performed on Hunan Satellite TV, and the original song "Do you want to dance", which changed all negative words to positive words, caused heated discussions among netizens, and some people laughed and said "even sadness and loneliness are forbidden. ".

It is pointed out that Pang Kuan's performance art exhibition aims to highlight the plight of those who have been isolated. This has inevitably become a sensitive topic in mainland China after the chaos of closure and control in Shanghai. Considering the earlier "Voice of April" turmoil and rumors that WeChat will restrict the dissemination of cross-regional information, some netizens doubt that any platform can allow such a large-scale live broadcast, and it is estimated that the live broadcast will be banned on the first day. After checking, it was found that the live broadcast signal of Weibo was still stable this morning.

In the past four days, Pang Kuan, like most of the quarantined people, used his mobile phone, read books, wrote, and tried his best to move around at home every day. He also wrote down his "everyday" on Weibo, such as his time-killing experience, emotional troubles, Material status and fantasy scenarios, etc. But unlike others, he brought a Bluetooth music player to the showroom, and many people wondered what songs were on the playlist of this avant-garde band member.

Pang Kuan's size and size attracted attention. He defecates for the first time on the 24th, and the audience witnessed the gallery covering sensitive parts with cloth. As for taking a bath, he solved it by wiping it with a wet tissue. Some netizens used documents to record everything he did every day, down to yawning, stretching and scratching.

According to the observation of Zhihu user " MOOOJ ", the audience in the live broadcast room is divided into three categories. Most of the netizens in Shanghai expressed their gratitude to Pang Kuan and felt that they felt warm when they saw themselves in the exhibition; most netizens outside Shanghai were art lovers or fans, who turned from onlookers to accompanying viewing; the last category was passers-by and opponents. Not particularly feeling or thinking it's a show.

Since the backlog of public sentiment needs to be relieved, this performance provides a relatively safe opportunity. Under the epidemic, when people in mainland China saw the descriptions of "14 days" and "Fangtai" in the exhibition, most of them could "understand" the meaning in seconds. "You are looking at Pang Kuan, in fact, Pang Kuan's life state is your current state."

Thousands of people left messages on Pang Kuan's live broadcast room. In addition to calling him a warrior, there are also those who question whether this is true performance art, or pure pomp. The South China Morning Post compared the performance to the movie "The Truman Show." The newspaper quoted Pang Kuan's friend and the mother of "Hedgehog Band" guitarist Zhao Zijian as saying that she had no clue about the performance and asked "Can this exhibition make money?" She even suspected that Pang Kuan was self-harming.

However, Zhihu user "Zhuang Zexi" believes that when a public figure uses his own voice to make a voice that he wants to convey but cannot be conveyed, there is no reason for others to criticize him.

Since the 24th of this month, due to the sudden outbreak of the epidemic in Beijing, it is rumored that the city may be closed within a few days. On the 26th, the Beijing Municipal Government announced that all people will be tested for nucleic acid. Star Space Gallery is temporarily closed due to the epidemic, and there is no reopening time. Pang Kuan's art exhibition no longer allows physical visits, but the live broadcast continues. Some netizens joked that this performance art has been completed after Pang Kuan was officially "quarantined". MOOOJ sighed, "The boundary between reality and illusion is beginning to blur. A 14-day performance is very likely to turn into a 14-day quarantine."

source:

• @Pang Kuanxin pants domestic godfather Weibo content ( Weibo )
• @星Space_StarGallery Weibo content ( Weibo )
• Die of laughter, the new pants sang "Do you want to dance" on Hunan TV, all negative words were changed to accumulated... ( Douban group )
• The "Voice of April" protesting against the closure of Shanghai, the fist fell on cotton ( Duan Media )
• @remonwangxt Twitter post on April 23rd at 10:20am ( Twitter )
• Pang Kuan's "Performance Art" broadcast live at home for 14 days, and was mistaken for Wang Sicong, making toileting a problem ( Sohu )
• The new pants band Pang Kuan held a performance art exhibition, live streaming on a stage to eat, drink, play Lazarus and slept for 14 days. What do you think of this performance art? ( Knowing )
• Truman Show, Chinese style: artist creates quarantine isolation artwork to question China's zero-Covid strategy and raise art awareness ( SCMP )