Xijing Men is a project-based collaborative team composed of three artists: Chen Shaoxiong from China, Gimhongsok from Korea, and Tsuyoshi Ozawa from Japan. They take their name based on the fact that in Asia, there is a main city in the North, Beijing (Buk-gyeong); the South, Nanjing (Namgyeong); and the East, Tokyo (Dong-gyeong). However, a main city in the West, Xijing (Suhgyeong), does not exist. Struck by this idea, these three artists named themselves the Xijing Men (Suh-gyeong-in) and sought to portray Xijing City. Four projects recount stories about Xijing’s history, society, politics, economics, and culture.
Chapter 1: Do you know Xijing? introduces the imaginary city of Xijing through a variety of media such as video, photographs, and objects, as if it exists in reality. Each artist selects his own tourist island, assumes it is Xijing, and interviews the residents.
Chapter 2: Xijing Theater: This Is Xijing—Journey to the West is a revised puppet play of the classical tale Journey to the West, which was commonly delivered by traditional storytellers in Korea, China, and Japan.
In Chapter 3: Welcome to Xijing—Xijing Olympics, the Xijing Men enact their own version of the Beijing Olympics, which took place in August 2008. The artists organized and participated in 21 Olympic-style and sport-themed competitions; they become the competing players, too. Their own Olympic game follows all the tradition but in their own way; they put out the Olympics flame and award paprika medals.
Chapter 4: I Love Xijing—The Daily Life of Xijing’s President embodies the floating nature of Xijing City by specifying its territory, history, agriculture, constitution, city plan, education, defense, and economics.
This collaborative work by artists from three distinct Asian cultures is a project that dreams of creating a utopian space. It ultimately drives viewers toward an imagination that has both humorous and serious cultural and political overtones.
