GIFTS/PRESENTS/PRESENCE
Meanings and Materialities
Conference – Exhibition

Cable Factory (Valssaamo), Helsinki
6–15 June 2024

Conference 6–8 June 

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    Exhibition 6–15 June

    Open every day 12:00-18:00          Introduction
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    Qiong Zhang


    Sending the Millet
    1 on 1 performance, 2024

    Each participant will receive some foxtail millet as a gift, which is believed to
    bring healing, peace and blessings. During the performance, everyone is
    invited to have a short conversation with the artist first. The work is an
    ongoing process, with each round taking about 5 minutes.

    Foxtail millet is one of the oldest crops and was a main food crop in ancient
    China. It was used in daily cleansing and exorcism rituals in my hometown
    near the Tibetan Plateau. The millet used in this work was freshly brought
    from China by myself and other Chinese students studying in Finland.

    Biography
    Qiong Zhang is a poet and artist-researcher based in Helsinki. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Theatre Academy of University of the Arts Helsinki. Her practice engages with performance art, poetry, photography and film, intertwining performative gestures and choreographed images to reveal hidden political issues in different social-cultural contexts. Her artistic research explores the embodiment of post-colonial national identity and the diaspora of the female body in relation to internalised surveillance and patriarchal narratives, using contamination as a method.

    https://qiongzhang.ink/

    https://www.instagram.com/madbadlizard/