A Statement on the cancel of screening of of Xu Ruotao\'s film Expressionism
I recently curated an online exhibition of Chinese director/artist Xu Ruotao\'s films, featuring seven films he has made (and collaborated with other directors) over the past decade, and have planned several discussions or Q&As. The first screening from March 1 will be his 2018 film Expressionism, and a Q&A session with him is scheduled for March 6.
On the first day of the streaming of Expressionism, I received a message from the Xu Ruotao, that the police in his area wanted to talk to him. In morning of March 3, (the evening of March 2, EST), Xu Ruotao was called to the local police station, where he was asked to take a statement by the State Security and asked to stop the screening and cancel the discussion, as well as to pass on the department\'s warning to me.
I am not in China at the moment, so these threats will not affect me much for the time being. But considering the situation of the director Xu Ruotao, who is under the watchful eye of the local authorities, and the fact that this is the second time in the recent past that he has been approached by the authorities for filmmaking,as he facing a lot of difficulties, so I agreed to suspend the screening of the film and not to hold any more public discussions with the director.
At the same time, I feel it is necessary to state this publicly in order to response to the public, and to remind you of the realities of our artistic activities and the real problems that we are facing all the time. We cannot paint over the reality, but rather choose to make it public.
最近我策劃了一個在線的中國導演/藝術家徐若涛的電影個展，將他過去十多年間製作(以及與其他導演合作)的七部影片放到網上公開展映，並計畫了幾次討論，這個活動計畫是從2021年的3月1日到月底維持一個月。從3月1日開始首先放映的是他在2018年完成的《表現主義》，並計畫在3月6日有一個跟他的問答環節。
《表現主義》剛開始放映的第一天，我收到導演徐若涛的信息，他所在地的當局要約他談話。北京時間3月3日上午（美國東部時間3月2日晚），徐若涛導演被叫到當地的派出所，在那裡被國保要求做了筆錄，並要求他停止這部影片的放映和取消討論，同時也讓他轉告該部門對我的告誡。
我目前不在中國，這些威脅對暫時我影響不大。但是考慮到導演徐若涛的處境，他正處在當地有關部門的眼皮下，而且這已經是他近期內第二次因為拍攝電影被官方找上來並做筆錄，他面臨許多難處，因此我答應了暫停該影片展映的要求，也不再舉行跟導演的公開的討論，最多只做私下的非正式的藝術探討。
同時，我還是覺得有必要公開說明此事，以便解答公眾的疑問；同時提醒各位，我們所處的藝術創作的真實環境，以及時刻面對的真正問題，因此我們不能對現實加以塗抹，而是盡可能的選擇公之於世，並以鑑來者。
朱日坤
2021年3月2日夜(美國東部時間)
A Statement on the cancel of screening of of Xu Ruotao\'s film Expressionism
I recently curated an online exhibition of Chinese director/artist Xu Ruotao\'s films, featuring seven films he has made (and collaborated with other directors) over the past decade, and have planned several discussions or Q&As. The first screening from March 1 will be his 2018 film Expressionism, and a Q&A session with him is scheduled for March 6.
On the first day of the streaming of Expressionism, I received a message from the Xu Ruotao, that the police in his area wanted to talk to him. In morning of March 3, (the evening of March 2, EST), Xu Ruotao was called to the local police station, where he was asked to take a statement by the State Security and asked to stop the screening and cancel the discussion, as well as to pass on the department\'s warning to me.
I am not in China at the moment, so these threats will not affect me much for the time being. But considering the situation of the director Xu Ruotao, who is under the watchful eye of the local authorities, and the fact that this is the second time in the recent past that he has been approached by the authorities for filmmaking,as he facing a lot of difficulties, so I agreed to suspend the screening of the film and not to hold any more public discussions with the director.
At the same time, I feel it is necessary to state this publicly in order to response to the public, and to remind you of the realities of our artistic activities and the real problems that we are facing all the time. We cannot paint over the reality, but rather choose to make it public.
Zhu Rikun
March 2, 2021 NY