Lin Yilin, Triumph No.2

Lin Yilin, Triumph No.2
2009, performance, 90 minutes 

Lin Yilin artist website

   The origin of Lin Yilin's performance-based photographic project is in an event he witnessed in 2006 in a city in South China; an event which shocked him deeply: A young man walked down the street, his hand cuffed to his ankle. A plain clothes police officer walked behind him. The man was apparently caught, just a short time earlier, committing an offence, and the policeman was escorting him into custody. The cruelty of the scene shook Yilin, and he decided to reenact the walk. He did it twice: once in Beijing and again in Paris. In each of the cities the handcuffed walk stirred different responses: In Beijing people watched the hunched man in horror; in Paris, most of the spectators were indifferent to the scene, as if it was a routine event.   Born in China, 1964; lives and works in New York and Beijing 

- Erdan Sun