Haus der Kunst in Munich is organizing a major institutional survey of work by Shu Lea Cheang titled KI$$ KI$$ KILL KILL. For this first institutional exhibition for the Taiwanese-American director, Haus der Kunst has chosen her 1994 feature film Fresh Kill as the focal point of the show, serving as a prototype and template for the artist's creative output over the past three decades.

Cheang began her career in the film world in the 1980s with her move to New York City, where she encountered a vibrant milieu of independent cinema that sparked her interest in experimenting with video, live television, and network technologies. Through the latter, Cheang has sought to challenge and expand contemporary comprehension of digital culture, while also presaging the advancement of alternative currencies, gamified societies and biotechnologies.

Shu Lea Cheang, Fresh Kill, 1994. Courtesy of the artist.

The exhibition at Haus der Kunst gives Cheang's works a new context through a novel layout that extends across four gallery spaces. Taking their cue from Fresh Kill, curators Sarah Johanna Theurer and Laila Wu have incorporated trash as a primary theme and binding agent that carries the torch of investigation into the murky entangled world of biosphere and technosphere. Each of the four spaces arranged for the exhibition is distinctive in the conjunction of audio, visual and virtual stimuli that visitors can access through internet-based installation, software interaction, and multiplayer performance.

Cheang was selected in 2019 to represent Taiwan at the 58th Venice Biennale, with the Spanish philosopher Paul B. Preciado as curator. The Munich exhibition opens on February 14 at Haus der Kunst and will include a set of guided tours through Cheang's dystopian vision. For updates on this exhibition and more events at Haus der Kunst, please visit their site.

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