MALAYSIAN artist Tan Chui Mui will showcase her first exhibition project 'Just Because You Pressed the Shutter?' at the 54th edition of the Rencontres d'Arles in France.
Founded in 1970, the Rencontres d'Arles is known as the 'Oscar' in the international photography field, and it is the largest, earliest and most influential photography festival in the world. This year, the festival will run from July 3 to September 24.
Last November, Tan with her project 'Just Because You Pressed the Shutter?', nominated by curator Wang Yiquan won the 2022 Jimei x Arles Discovery Award in the 8th Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival. She received a cash prize of RMB 100,000 and am invitation to hold an exhibition at this year’s Rencontres d'Arles.
The Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival was launched in Xiamen in 2015 by Three Shadows Photography Art Centre and Rencontres d’Arles. The Jimei x Arles Discovery Award invites five curators to nominate 10 talented Chinese artists to hold solo exhibitions in Xiamen, while the award winner will represent a new force in the Chinese photography circle to exhibit his/her works on the international stage of Rencontres d’Arles.
Excerpt from the jury report, “The Malaysian artist Tan Chui Mui draws on her own Chinese descent and family stories to explore the profound but undefined issues of land, inheritance, ownership, and photography. By creating a multi-dimensional experience, her exhibition showcases the confusion, pursuit and questioning of identity among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia.
"Meanwhile, she keeps a distance from such attachment to the motherland, and connects land ownership to photography copyright, discussing the two and expressing herself with openness and tenderness. For her, the search of roots is like opening a black box filled with unknown secrets.
"As a female artist, Tan Chui Mui provides a 360° perspective on the boundary of rights and possessions, revealing the hidden links between artworks and reality. The shutter is just a metaphor, unfolding our status of drifting back and forth between day-to-day life and the art world.”
“A photo captures a certain landscape. But the landscape is always there. You did not make the camera. So why is the photo yours? Is it because of your composition? Just because you pressed the shutter?” – Tan Chui Mui wrote in the introduction of her exhibition.
The curator, Wang Yiquan said, “In 'Just Because You Pressed the Shutter?', a map is an image, a film is an image, and the sun, the air, the rain, the soil, potatoes and sorghum surrounded by a fence are all images. Hometown is also an image. However, Tan Chui Mui never pressed the shutter to obtain these images.”
In an interview with The Paper, Wang added, “This exhibition is very special. None of the images in it was taken by the artist herself. There are land titles issued by the land office, scanned maps, old family photos and photos generated by artificial intelligence algorithms. It discusses the ways we can produce images today.”
Asma Manssouri, cultural coordinator at the Alliance Française of Kuala Lumpur said, “We were thrilled to learn that Tan Chui Mui had been selected as the recipient of the 2022 Jimei x Arles Discovery Award! She will be one of the first Malaysian artists to be exhibited during the Rencontres d'Arles.
"In 2021, the duo of Malaysian-Singaporean photographers Chow & Lin showed their work 'The Poverty Line' at the Jardin des Voyageurs. Malaysian-born artist Diana Lui also gives regular teaching workshops within the Rencontres programme.
"We hope that Tan Chui Mui's upcoming exhibition in Arles will raise more interest towards the Rencontres d'Arles from our Malaysian counterparts and shed light on the Malaysian artistic scene for the French and international curators and artists. Let's hope for more and more Malaysian artists included in the festival program in the upcoming years!”
Tan was also the first Malaysian selected for Cannes Cinefondation Residency in 2007, and also the first Malaysian to win the Grand Prix in Clermont-Ferrand in 2009.
Tan said, “I am so happy to go to France again and I will start to practise my French now.” – The Vibes, January 16, 2023
