The camera follows the silent gaze of a foreigner walking through a city, capturing fleeting encounters and fragments of text that speak of the restrictions of the Chinese political system's regime of visibility. PENG Zuqiang's "Sight Leak" addresses the tension between visibility and normativity, based on notes by Roland Barthes. While visiting China in 1973, the French philosopher was prevented from getting to know anything other than the official version of the country.
The film takes place between the lines, when it reveals the impasses and ambiguities of the desiring gaze in the midst of the troubled Chinese social context, in which the perspective of the class struggle predominated.
Interviews
Image and sound: B Paolucci and Julia Gil
Editing: B Paolucci and Julia Gil
Recording of the works
Image: Helena Wolfenson, Marcos Yoshi and Tom Butcher Cury
Sound: Tomás Franco
- More about PENG Zuqiang in Collection
- Further info on Sight Leak in Collection