Edition 2007
RONGRONG & INRI
RongRong was born in 1968 in China, inri in 1973 in Japan.
They live and work in Beijing.
They live and work in Beijing.
After studying painting and then photography in Fujian province, RongRong joined the East Village art community in Peking, home of the entire avant-garde of the period in a totally marginal social context. There he photographed the daily life of his friends, known for performances that pushed their naked bodies to the limits of endurance. After East Village was shut down by the authorities, RongRong created the series Ruins, on the demolition of Peking's urban landscape. The photographer inri brings a near-ferocious intensity to works on the far fringes of the conventional. She first met RongRong in 1999 at an exhibition in Tokyo and since 2000 they have been living and working together in Peking. Both are fascinated by the changing world around them, seeking harmony between their bodies and nature as they photograph themselves naked in extreme conditions: snow, ice and the burning heat of the desert. Their series include In the Great Wall, In Bad Goysern and In Helsinki and in tandem they have published Transfiguration (2003) and Liu Li Tun (2005). Liu Li Tun could be described as their first work, as it contains photos dating notably from their first years together. Some of these photos were shown in Peking and New York in 2006.