Dong

China, 2005: the painter Liu Xiaodong goes to the Three Gorges area. In Fengjie, the demolition work which is deconstructing the old town - soon to be swallowed up by the dam water - fills the air with the relentless sound of picks and sledgehammers. The painter chooses eleven labourers from the worksites to be the characters and models for a painting that he intends for an ongoing series.
Thailand, 2006: in Bangkok, eleven young women are models for him. The painter doesn't know the country's language or its customs. So, as he says, he can only "paint the faces and bodies with no exotic landscapes or scenery."

"I followed the painter from a town in the course of being demolished to a tropical city and I filmed him. I had in front of me two groups of people and two cities far apart. But I saw the same human condition and something of Asia today." Jia Zhang-ke