Statement
The artistic career of Chinese Yingmei Duan begins as a painter in China. In the 90 years she comes to the "East Village", an artists' quarter of Beijing and catches up with the contemporary avant-garde. Thus she attends the now famous performance "To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain". In 1998 Yingmei Duan moves to Germany where she is studying at the HBK Braunschweig with Marina Abramovic, Birgit Hein and Christoph Schlingensief.
As a performance artist, she has been involved in numerous national and international exhibitions, festivals and workshops since that time.
Her work is experimental and site-specific. The artist often realizes her performances in found places in indoor and outdoor space or creates spatial situations that seems necessary for her work. The temporal extension, spontaneity, and the inclusion of the audience play an important role. To create a close connection to everyday life, Yingmei Duan loves to work together with people of different cultures, ages and from different areas of life.
Also, the materials used by her are objects of our familiar surroundings: she builds her installations of paper, garbage, furniture, etc. The artist works with her own body as a means of expression. In vivid images unusual connections are established between the things: sometimes ironic, sometimes tragic, or even mystical. By the use of noise and light intense atmospheres and moods are created.
Yingmei Duan’s performative concepts convey visions between dream and reality, personal fears and desires. Focusing on cultural backgrounds, social constraints and social relationships the performances raise a variety of questions, without giving a definitive answer.