About the book

“In 1937, modernist painter Pan Yuliang left Shanghai for Europe for the second and last time. Before departing, she had a secret action. Pan hid five young Internationalists in the building of Ampere Foreign Firm, who undercovered as installation workers for her exhibition. The five used the space to produce revolutionary materials before embarking on a journey to Barcelona, joining The International Brigades to fight in the Spanish Civil War… ”

This is a scenario of mixed reality and fiction, protrayed in Intervaux Temporels, Liaisons Universelles, the ninth publication of 44 Monthly. The creation of this book responds to Rockbund Art Museum’s invitation to 44 Monthly to participate in “RAM Highlights: The Good Life”. In the book six writers (Cheng Xinhao, Feng Junhua, Han Qian, Pan He, Wu Qin, and Zhang Hanlu) and two visual artists (Jiang Jianhua and Ou Feihong) weave a parallel universe to reimagine early Chinese anarchist activities – especially the soybean agricultural and factory practices of Li Shih-tseng, and revolutionists coming from the Work-study Program in France. The intercontinental story from a hundred years ago is written in ways that resonate today’s crumbling world shadowed by geopolitical conflicts and the pandemic. The book is also the proto-script of the room installation presented at RAM’s exhibition in the previous building of Ampere Foreign Firm. The multimedia project integrates literature, historical research, visual arts, city tour, workshop, and soybean coffee making, and the visual components include spatial construction, murals, print-making, and new films, made by individuals in the group as well as collaborations.

About 44 Monthly

44 Monthly is an extension of Theater 44 evolved from shared post- COVID-19 experience. Theater 44 has been active since 2016 as a collaborative platform with participants located around the globe. Curators, artists, filmmakers, researchers, journalists, activists, musicians gather as Theater 44, and each project brings about different teaming-ups. Early 2020, Theater 44 initiated 44 Monthly, a collective initiative where quarantined individuals get together online and form temporary creative communities through projects of collective writing, editing, reading, and design. Till this day, 44 Monthly has released 9 publications, 4 short films, 1 radio show. After the lockdown, its members went on field trips to Sanya, Hainan and Yangjiang, Guagndong which inspired more collaborative creations. 44 Monthly can be understand as an instrument to experiment inter-dependent and decentralized creativity while at the same time responding to social issues.

《44月报》是一个关于集体创作的实验，来自44剧场。44剧场自2016年起活跃，是一个成员流动、依项目临时聚集的合作平台，其中参与者包括有艺术家、策展人、导演、研究者、行动主义者、音乐人等等。2020年初新冠流行病爆发，当个体相互隔离时，44剧场发起《44月报》，不同人在一定时间内接力写作、剪辑及设计，在线上共同完成一件作品。至今，《44月报》已发布了九本出版物、四部影像短片、一部广播剧。在封控间隙，成员也在《44月报》创作的契机下，共同巡游探访了海南三亚和广东阳江等地方，激发了更多的集体创作。《44月报》可被视为一种去中心、主体互塑的创造力组织方法，其中多声部的内容也同时回应了时代震荡和社会议题。

參與: 程新皓，馮俊華，韓倩，梁健華 ，潘赫，伍勤 ，張涵露