Heidelberg University CATS Film Night in the Library

Special Screening of CCEARM Animation Artists in Collection

Trauma as Method: Screening, Discussion and Workshop with Female Artists_Lei Lei雷蕾 & Wang-Chen Lee李王真 & Luo Yi罗翼

Film Night of CATS Library again!

Thursday, November 23/4 pm to 8 pm

400.02.12 (KJC)/Voßstraße 2, 69115, Heidelberg.

During the first part "Screening: Trauma as Method", multiple animation films will be presented, which were created by three brilliant animation artists from the Chinese-speaking regions: Lei Lei from Hangzhou, Luo Yi from Tianjin and Wang-chen Lee from Taipei. All animation films revolve around the theme of trauma, highlighting how trauma could serve as a method (consciously or otherwise) to confront the ever-present problematics of our everyday life. In the following workshop “Semantic Association in Image Combination — A + B ≈ C”, the artist Lei Lei will interact with the audience and provide an on-site tutorial on how to transform static images into animations using Chinese comics from the CATS library.

This event is organized and sponsored by the Heidelberg Center for Worldmaking Project “Epochal Life Worlds: Man, Nature and Technology in Narratives of Crisis and Change, CATS Library and China Contemporary Animation Art Archive.

As part of the 6th Nanjing Contemporary Animation Art Documentation, which are organized jointly by China Contemporary Animation Art Archive Museum, Goethe-Institut China and AMNUA. After five years’ events, since 2022, Nanjing Contemporary Animation Art Documentation started oversea screening event during the main event period. Heidelberg’s screening is the first event in Europe. Three invited artists are the collective artist of China Contemporary Animation Archive.

Chinese artists Lei and Luos’s works portrait the experiences related to trauma with the little girl’s suffering from long-lasting fear and shame of the sexual violence, the human struggling for freedom in the suffocating dystopian metropole, or the kafkaesque transformation of a heartbroken young woman’s body into the globe and the Rubik's Cube. Wang’s short film, however, offers a humorous metaphor of the failed attempt to repair the wounds of the roof. So the questions need be asked, how can the animating of traumatic experiences contribute to a stronger resilience of the human spirit? As for several films portrait the nightmares of the females, what is the female’s situation in experiencing and recovering from trauma?

In the following workshop “Semantic Association in Image Combination — A + B ≈ C”, Lei Lei will engage in discussions with the live audience and collect ideas. Using the facial expressions, props and scenes from the Chinese comic “Dangerous Roads” (危险的路, Shanghai 1957), she will transform the static pictures into animated form, creating new interpretative possibilities.

We look forward to the communication that these works will inspire, and we are very grateful to our talented artists for their courage and creativity in bringing these films to life.