Liu Bolin: The Invisible Man (Video)

Transcript:

I’m Liu Bolin. Right now I’m in my studio.

I’ve worked continuously on “Hiding in the City”. I take my body and hide it into the background. From a certain angle, it looks like I’m invisible.

Today I’m blending into Austrian magazines.

These magazines influence people’s thoughts. Just from the covers, you can see, for example, a country’s wars, leaders, politics, and scandals. Different languages, faces, and events.

It’s very interesting.

I began shooting this series in November 2005. I was working in the artist village Sui Jia Cun. I had a studio there, torn down by the government. At the time, I wanted to protest. Actually, it was like being hit, and hitting back.

I made myself disappear.

I use each work to respond to my encounters. More are focused on China and concerns that arise from its development.

To be an individual means, [in] the relationship you have with your surroundings, you’re not constantly allowing your surroundings to swallow you up. Or, to be an individual, let’s say you live to be 100 [which is more than enough], but in history, you were just a dot.

How did you make your mark?