UKI (2023, 80:00, color, 4K)
Selected showings:
FILMFEST MÜNCHEN, Munich, 2023.
LAS ART FOUNDATION, Berlin, 2023.
Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2023.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2023.
ICA, London, 2023.
Coined as a Scifi Viral Alt-Reality Cinema, UKI’s storyline unfolds as we follow a defunct replicant REIKO dumped on Etrashville - a vast dump for electronic trash - who tries to revive themselves with the help of Etrashville's transgenic inhabitants. Parallel to REIKO’s trajectory is that of an infected city and a conspiring biotech corporation GENOM Co. As the plot thickens, REIKO’s body is coded and decoded to re-emerge as UKI the Virus. Setting back GENOM's bio-engineering scheme, UKI the Virus swarm through the infected city to liberate the occupied bodies. Through virus becoming, viral love, we claim our viral bodies. ““This extraordinarily visually intense film moves from 3D graphics to game engine generated cinematic mise en scène to visual effects enhanced live action scenes in an extraordinary tour de force of contemporary digital collage.” – Matthew Fuller, Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Shu Lea Cheang
Artist and filmmaker. Her genre bending gender hacking practices challenge the existing operating mechanisms and the society’s structural
boundaries. Her work builds social interface with transgressive plots and open network that permits public participation; constructs networked installation and multi-player performance in participatory impromptu mode; drafts sci-fi narratives in film scenario and artwork imagination.
She made four feature-length films - FRESH KILL (1994), I.K.U. (2000) and FLUIDø (2017) and UKI (2023), respectively termed Eco-Cybernoia, Scifi Cyberpunk, Scifi Cypherpunk and Scifi Viral Alt-Reality Cinema. In retrospect, these three decades of films seek to define a genre of Sci-Fi New Queer Cinema.
Celebrated as a net art pioneer with BRANDON (1998 - 99), the first web art commissioned and collected by Guggenheim Museum, New York, Cheang represented Taiwan with mixed media installation, 3x3x6, at Venice Biennale 2019. In 2024, she was awarded the LG Guggenheim Award in recognition of her visionary engagement with emerging technologies and their broader social impact. In 2020, she initiated Lab Kill Lab which led the creation of Hagay Dreaming. She now assumes the role as director of its theatrical version.
Organizer
