Dinu Li

Born in Hong Kong, China, Dinu Li is an artist living and working in Manchester, UK. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009, the 3rd Bucharest Biennale in 2008; The Map: Navigating the Present at Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden; Museumsnacht in St Gallen, Switzerland; Where Memories Take Me at the Petra Rietz Salon, Berlin; Central Asian Project at Space, London and Cornerhouse, Manchester; and Liminal Britain at San Antonio Art Gallery, Texas.

Dinu Li's practice encompasses film, photography, video installation and performance. Drawing inspiration from archives, world histories, anecdotes, chance encounters and the figments of imagination, Li's work explores the politics of space and the poetics of time, and is characterised by the interplay between the public and the private, the global and the local, and the personal and the political.

Li has undertaken residencies in Kazakhstan, China, the New Forest, UK and in New York City. He has participated in numerous symposiums including Tate Modern, The British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Li's work has been reviewed in Portfolio, Next Level, NY Arts Magazine and is featured in Charlotte Cotton's The Photograph as Contemporary Art (Thames and Hudson). In 2007, Li published a major monograph of his work The Mother of All Journeys (Dewi Lewis Publishing), and was short-listed in the same year for the Contemporary Book Award at the Rencontres d'Arles Awards. He is an ArtSway Associate.

Education

BA Photography from Liverpool John Moores University, 2001

Key works

• Family Village, 2009
• Ancestral Nation, 2007
• The Mother of All Journeys, 2007
• Slightly Less Than Four Times The Size of Texas, 2007
• Chronicle of a Dream Foretold, 2007
• Episodes of Time, 2007
• Press The Star, Then Say Hello, 2007
• Age of Transition, 2005
• Secret Shadows, 2002

Solo exhibitions

• 2010 Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is Mystery, QUAD, Derby, UK
• 2009 Family Village, Danielle Arnaud, London
• 2009 Family Village, text + work, the Gallery, the Arts University College at Bournemouth, UK
• 2009 The Mother of All Journeys, Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong
• 2008 Ancestral Nation, ArtSway, UK
• 2008 The Mother of All Journeys, Museumsnacht, St Gallen, Switzerland
• 2008 Press The Star, Then Say Hello, Manchester Art Gallery, UK
• 2008 Where Memories Take Me, Petra rietz Salon, Berlin
• 2007 The Mother of All Journeys, 42 New Briggate, Leeds, UK
• 2007 Chronicle of a Dream Foretold, The Bigger Picture, Manchester, UK
• 2005 Age of Transition, BCA Gallery, Bedford, UK
• 2005 As If I Were A River, Bury Arts Gallery & Museum, UK
• 2004 Outside Are Our Dreams, Chapman Gallery, Salford, UK

Selected group exhibitions

• 2009 ArtSway's New Forest Pavilion, 53rd Venice Biennale
• 2009 Distance Decay, Diorama, Arles, France
• 2009 The Map: Navigating the Present, Konsthall C, Farsta, Sweden
• 2008 The Map: Navigating the Present, BildMuseet, Umeå, Sweden
• 2008 Secret Shadows, Pingyao International photography Festival, China
• 2008 Visions in the Nunnery, Nunnery Gallery, London
• 2008 Being Here. Mapping the Contemporary, The 3rd Bucharest Biennale
• 2007 Central Asian Project, Tashkent Biennale, Uzbekistan; Underground Hall, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Tengri-Umay Gallery, Almaty, Kazakhstan; SPACE, London; Cornerhouse, Manchester
• 2007 London Is The Place For Me, Rivington Place, London
• 2006 3 UK Artists in Central Asia, Exhibition Hall, Almaty, Kazakhstan
• 2006 In Exposed Areas, Kulturbunker, Cologne
• 2006 Liminal Britain, University of Texas at San Antonio Art Gallery; University of North Texas Art Gallery
• 2005 The Mother of All Journeys, Victoria and Albert Museum
• 2005 Escaping: Fugitive Geography, Contact Foto Fest 05 Toronto
• 2005 Open ev+a 2005, St. Mary's Chapel, Limerick
• 2004 Assembly, Liverpool Biennale
• 2004 Home, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery; Artsdepot, London; Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery; Derby Museum and Art Gallery; Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester
• 2004 Family Stories, White Space 798, Beijing
• 2004 Trace, Hirschl Gallery, London
• 2004 River Journeys, The Lowry, Salford
• 2002 Ten Thousand Li, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool; Photofusion, London; Impressions Gallery, York; Folly Gallery, Lancaster; Collins Gallery, Glasgow.

Curatorial projects

• 2006 – 2007 Make it a Better Place – Holden Gallery, MMU, Manchester
• 2006 – 2007 Look 07, Artistic Programmer
• 2002 – 2004 Home – Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester

Publications

• ArtSway's New Forest Pavilion: a collateral event of the 53rd international art exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, ArtSway and text +work (the Arts Institute at Bournemouth), 2009, illustrated catalogue featuring an essay on Dinu Li by Dr. Jean Wainwright. ISBN 978-0-9558406-5-4 (ArtSway) / ISBN 978-0-901196-38-5 (text+work, the Arts Institute at Bournemouth).
• Family Village, with texts by Theresa Gleadowe, Peter Bonnell, Stephanie James, Steve Pharaoh, text+work, AUCB, and ArtSway, ISBN 978-0-901196-34-7
• Making Worlds- Participating Countries Collateral Events, Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, 2009. Official Catalogue for 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, ISBN 9788831796965
• The Mother of All Journeys, Dewi Lewis, 2007, ISBN 978-1-904587-41-5
• Necessary Journeys, Arts Council England in association with bfi, 2005, ISBN 0-7287-1112-5
• The Photograph as Contemporary Art, Thames & Hudson, 2004, ISBN 978-0-500-20380-4
• As If I Were A River, exhibition catalogue, CITE, 2003.
• Ten Thousand Li, exhibition catalogue, Open Eye Gallery, 2002.

Further reading

• Mark Sinclair, "The Mother of All Journeys", Creative Review, June 2007.
• Zoe Gray, "Father Land, Mother Tongue", Wasafiri, 48, 2007.
• Robert Clark, "Age of Transition", Guardian Guide, November 2005.
• Edgar Allen Beem, "The Long Road Home", PDN Magazine, August 2005.
• P. Elaine Sharpe, "Geography", Dislocation Ezine, 15, 2005.
• Mariko Takeuchi, "Pick Up Photo", Ryuko Tsushin Magazine, January 2004.
• Jane Griffths, "As If I Were A River", Flux Magazine, 3 August 2003.
• Rebecca Geldard, "Ten Thousand Li", Time Out, May 2003.
• Greg Leach, "The Mother Of All Journeys", Next Level, 2002.
• Sajid Rizvi, "Chinese Infusions", Eastern Art Report, 47, 2002.
• Mike Dawson, "Dinu Li", Flux Magazine, February 2002.
• Robert Clark, "Ten Thousand Li", Guardian Guide, February 2002.
• Wing Fai Leung, "Ten Thousand Li", Point (Art & Design Research Journal), 12, 2001.

Sources

• Family Village, with texts by Theresa Gleadowe, Peter Bonnell, Stephanie James, Steve Pharaoh, text+work, the Arts University College at Bournemouth and ArtSway, ISBN 978-0-901196-34-7

External links

• Official website
• Dinu Li : Family Village at Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art