Exhibition : West From The Tracks

“I try to follow people’s journeys, hoping to discover little by little the spectacular side of their lives.”
WANG BING

As part of its focus on WANG BING, Cinéma Galeries presents an exhibition of photographs taken by the filmmaker in the 90s, in Shenyang, northern China. Where, a few years later, he returned to film A l’Ouest des Rails. This series, which opens on massive snow-covered industrial complexes, marks the beginning of his documentary work, focused on the social realities of his country. Through his work, WANG BING documents the effects of the changes that have taken place over the last few decades, and paints a critical portrait of a system on the brink of collapse. 

As in his most recent trilogy YOUTH, WANG BING depicts workers as part of the machinery of industry, in one case the steel industry, in the other the textile industry. In film or photo, the filmmaker fixes the memory of individuals and their personal trajectories, preventing them from falling into oblivion. What interests him is the unexpected and the encounters that occur throughout the process of documentary creation, whether photographic or cinematographic. 

Director, photographer, WANG BING is the greatest documentary filmmaker of contemporary China and one of the most important filmmakers today.