© Jun Yang, AS I SAW, performance

© still from Jun Yang, Camouflage, video, 02

"I am a slow camera," Jun Yang mentions about his work AS I SAW, a series of performances that will take place every day for one week in the window of Index's street-level gallery. In his performance, Jun Yang recreates an event or an object from a photograph in that day's edition of the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. His reconstruction is then photographed and is published the following day in the news section of Svenska Dagbladet. When previously performing this work, Jun Yang has, for example, built replica airplanes, acted out large advertisements or played the part of a Scotsman whose kilt is lifted by a breeze. The aim of newspaper photography is to efficiently convey current information. Jan Yang's reconstructions are the contrary: they resemble the careful work of historians or archeologists. The photographic documentation of these scenes or performances and its publication also plays a crucial role. It all seems reminiscent of a sketch by the Swedish comedians Hasse and Tage where "the true nature-lover" tenderly returns a dried fish to the sea. Interpretations, including misinterpretations, are a fundamental part of communication between people. Interpretation and identification is a recurring theme in Jun Yang's art. He is raised in Vienna, where his parents emigrated to from China, as a child he had to interpret German for them because of their poor command of the language. In a new video work produced for the exhibition at Index , connected to AS I SAW, Jun Yang narrates a story containing apparently disparate, large and more intimate events that together treat issues and raise questions about identity, including the identity of Jun Yang himself. The video contains for instance events like the recent visit by Japan's prime minister to North Korea, whose leader apologises for the kidnapping of Japanese scientists whose expertise was considered essential to North Korea; or the re-routing of airplanes after September 11, since "suspect individuals" has been found on board; or Gucci bags - fashion accessories that supposedly lend the bearer an identity, etcetera. By consistently mixing the private, the public and the political, Jun Yang succeeds is posing essential questions about the creation of identity and how fragile this construction can be.

Thanks to Svenska Dagbladet, the Austrian Embassy Stockholm, and to System-Text AB.

For further information and press images, please contact Index.

The Index exhibition programme is curated by Andreas Gedin, Helena Holmberg, Mats Stjernstedt and Niklas Östholm.