He Xiangyu speaks to Art Basel film curator Li Zhenhua about 'The Swim', his first feature-length film - watch it here

'In the wake of the pandemic, the world began to regress to a division in spirit and mind'

<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/9871/He-Xiangyu" target="_blank">He Xiangyu</a>’s&nbsp;The Swim (2017) is his&nbsp;first feature-length documentary.&nbsp;It focuses on the complex geopolitical situation along the Yalu River between China and North Korea. The artist’s hometown, Kuandian, is located on the north bank of the river, directly facing the border of North Korea. Over&nbsp;a two-year period, the artist produced a piece of micro&nbsp;history based upon personal and biographical narratives. At once investigative and autobiographical, the film examines transgressive acts; it undoes national, terrestrial, and aquatic boundaries to recover the freedom that existed less than a century ago.&nbsp;Curator Li Zhenhua spoke to the artist ahead of the program's launch, and you can watch the film <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/digitalfilmprogramlizhenhua">here</a>.


	Li Zhenhua: I seem to have followed you to the border between China and North Korea to experience the war and life of the characters in the film. That’s your hometown of Kuandian. Can you tell us what your hometown has been like from 2020 until the present?

	 He Xiangyu: In January 2020, my wife, our children, and I returned to South Korea to visit her family before returning to Kuandian to reunite with my family and celebrate Chinese New Year. By then, the news of an unknown virus had spread across the country, and my parents had some information from their circle of hospital colleagues, repeatedly urging us to keep warm at all times and build up immunity&nbsp;–&nbsp;at the time everyone thought that it was probably just some kind of winter flu. The winter in the northeast of China is freezing and the children are too little, so we stayed at our parents’ place and barely left the house.

	But things soon became serious and we watched on the news that United Airlines had started to refuse Chinese passport holders at borders, so we immediately bought tickets and flew back to Berlin, kept ourselves in, and contacted our children’s school to inform them of our travel history. The social atmosphere in Berlin was quite friendly at the time, but then, seemingly just overnight, there were incidents of anti-Chinese sentiment all over the world, and my Chinese friends in Berlin were being abused in the streets. So, my friends in Berlin and I initiated a peace protest in front of the Brandenburg Gate which was widely supported.

LZ: As you look back over the years, how has the world&nbsp;–&nbsp;and it&nbsp;borders&nbsp;–&nbsp;changed?

	HX: Before the pandemic, despite there being a steady stream of distressingly divisive rhetoric and events, the world in general was moving in the direction of unification and people were trying to eliminate borders. But in the wake of the pandemic, not only are people forced to isolate themselves spatially from each other, the whole world began to regress toward division in spirit and mind. Hatred, prejudice, and exclusion reached long unseen peaks. Much of what has been said needs to be repeated again now. All I can do is to keep expressing, remembering, and storing.LZ: The world is still in a state of isolation and there is no telling how much longer it will last. What have you been doing since 2020?HX: I still try to maintain my usual rhythm of work, walking to the studio and drawing every day. I have completed several large groups of 'Palate' drawings&nbsp;since last year, and also have been conceptualizing and making several videos and sculptures, hoping to share my experiences and reflections from this period in artistic forms as the world gradually gets back on its feet.LZ: Does your chosen art form of film have connections to painting?HX: Each medium is bound to be able to do something that cannot be done by another medium. There are things I have to say by painting, and there are things I have to say by film.

More on&nbsp;the digital&nbsp;film program can be found&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/stories/digitalfilmprogramlizhenhua" target="_blank">here</a>.Look out for Roman Singer's&nbsp;Aktion vor der Orangerie/Action in front of the Orangerie&nbsp;(1987) and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/21955/Chim-Pom" target="_blank">Chim↑Pom</a>'s&nbsp;BLACK OF DEATH&nbsp;(2013), publishing Friday,&nbsp;April 23.&nbsp;He Xiangyu is represented by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1264/SCAI-The-Bathhouse" target="_blank">Scai The Bathhouse</a> (Tokyo),&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1316/White-Cube" target="_blank">White Cube</a> (London, Hong Kong),&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1460/White-Space-Beijing" target="_blank">White Space Beijing</a> (Beijing), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1179/Andrew-Kreps-Gallery" target="_blank">Andrew Kreps Gallery</a> (New York).

He Xiangyu The Swim 2017 Documentary Language: Chinese with English subtitles 96 minutes

He Xiangyu speaks to Art Basel film curator Li Zhenhua about 'The Swim', his first feature-length film - watch it here