The Chinese artist Tianzhuo Chen makes some of the most visionary, cutting-edge, and limitless-seeming work synthesizing currents in contemporary pop culture. In his latest performance, “An Atypical Brain Damage,” a BMW police car covered in Chanel logos gathers dust in desert sands while the performers wash corpses, stand armed with machine guns and analyze the international art market, and dance to the crude Euro techno of Dis Fig in front of a fairytale cottage illuminated by an Apple Logo. Yes, Chen is a child of the internet. He associates freely between the browser tabs of his brain, making jumps that seemingly renounce any objective connection and thus creating hyper-realist Gesamtkunstwerks between kitsch, commerce, and apocalypse. Via immersive stage installations, Chen creates excessive worlds of folklore, queerness, politics, drugs, social media, spirituality, and above all, club-, night-, and pop- culture, all of which he also promotes in China through his fashion and party label Asian Dope Boys. For Torstraßen Festival and in cooperation with the curator collective Karma Ltd. Extended, Tianzhuo Chen will give a performance in the ACUD gallery. Expect an illustrious international entourage, plus local guests. Hot!

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