A short Biography
of Wen Pulin
Photograph by Yang Xinyuan,
at a brunch in the Kempinski Hotel, Beijing, in August 2005.
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Wen Pulin 温普林 (“盲流艺术家”), born in Liaoning
province in 1957, of Manchu origins.
Wen graduated in 1985 from the central Academy of Fine
Arts in Beijing, with a major in film. It appears that Wen’s life has
two central themes – contemporary expressions of art in China, and the
cultures and traditions of Tibet.
In the first instance, the rise (not the marketing) of especially performance
art can hardly be envisioned without him. As a trained film director,
he initiated and was responsible for the recording of many art-related
events, such as the Great Wall performance with Xu Bing and others in
1988 (the so-called Great Earthquake 大地震). An accomplished artist and
author himself, Wen was probably the earliest organizer of such artistic
gatherings and “happenings”, whether they were held with or without official
approval. As a systematic cinematic author and recorder, over the years
he created a visual archive of great depth and value, spanning the crucial
time period from 1985 to 2002.
The second great interest of Wen, in things Tibetan, the Great West of
China as it is sometimes called, began with a trip in 1986, and an extended
stay after the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989. Every year, Wen spends
at least two months in Tibet; one of his sons (aged 14 at the point of
this writing) is a so-called “Living Buddha 活佛”; he personally donated
funds to restore Tibetan temples, and re-introduced the subject of Tibetan
culture to a Chinese audience which had become increasingly politicized
about the subject. His publications and documentaries (including one on
Celestial Burial 達木天葬台) feature Tibetan religious customs, the
arts, vanishing life styles and value systems.
Books by Wen Pulin include chronicles of live in Tibet, such as Ba
qie Living Buddha 巴伽活佛 (published first in 2000, this book was printed
in over one million copies); a volume on the recent history of Chinese
performance art (Zhongguo xingdong中国行动, 1999); he also edited a bi-lingual
journal called Xizang renwen dili 西藏人文地理 Tibet Geography; his film
Pa-dga' Living Buddha was shown at the 18th Hong Kong International
Film Festival in April 1994.
Thomas Hahn
Sep. 29, 2005
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Interviews with Wen Pulin
Interviewer |
Date |
File |
Yang Du 杨渡 |
March 19, 2001 |
open |
Lin Li 林黎 |
August 29, 2001 |
open |
Jin Xiaofeng 金小风 |
1999 (?) |
open |
Wang Yin 王寅 |
Feb. 16 + 19, 2004 |
open |
Jin Feng 金峰 |
July 26, 1999 |
open |
Zhang Xiangyu 长翔宇 |
2001 |
open |
(Note:
all files in PDF format, opening in separate window) |
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