Su-Mei Tse
Encyclopedia
Su-Mei Tse is a Luxembourg
musician, artist and photographer. Her work combines photography, video, installations and music. In 2003, she received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale
for the best national participation.
. First training as a classical cellist at the Luxembourg Conservatory, she won the Cello First Prize in 1991 before continuing her studies at the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris
. In 1996, she also received a diploma in Textile & Printing from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués. Finally, in 2000, she graduated in plastic arts at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
in Paris.
Her breakthrough came in 2003 with Golden Lion she won for her exhibition "Air conditioned" in the Luxembourg pavilion at the Venice Biennial. Her video projection Les balayeurs du désert (The Desert Sweepers) shows street sweepers in their distinctive Paris uniforms pointlessly sweeping away at the desert sand to the soft sound of brooms against asphalt. The second major work "The Echo", also a video, depicts an Alpine scene in which a tiny figure plays the cello, the simple sounds of the instrument being reflected by the mountains. These and the other components of the exhibition were in fact a play on the "ɛ:r" sound in air conditionné denoting the concepts of ère (era), aire (area), air (air and tune).
Tse was selected for a solo exhibition at the Renaissance Society in 2005 titled, "The Ich-Manifestation". The exhibit contained five video works. Her recent exhibit "Floating Memories" (2009) at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
is an installation merging sound, sculpture, and a video projection in which a perpetually revolving gramophone record on an old rug brings back memories of childhood.
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
musician, artist and photographer. Her work combines photography, video, installations and music. In 2003, she received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
for the best national participation.
Early life
The daughter of a Chinese father, a violinist, and an English mother, a pianist, Tse was born on 29 January 1973 in Luxembourg CityLuxembourg (city)
The city of Luxembourg , also known as Luxembourg City , is a commune with city status, and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg...
. First training as a classical cellist at the Luxembourg Conservatory, she won the Cello First Prize in 1991 before continuing her studies at the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. In 1996, she also received a diploma in Textile & Printing from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués. Finally, in 2000, she graduated in plastic arts at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
in Paris.
Career
Tse's work is the result of a constantly shifting combination of photography, video, and objects in which sound, rhythm and music play an important part. Her early works include La Marionnette (1999) where her performance on the cello is continually interrupted by the puppet strings attached to her limbs, creating a new composition. In Das wohltemperierte Klavier (2001), the music is ruined by the splints bandaged to the player's fingers.Her breakthrough came in 2003 with Golden Lion she won for her exhibition "Air conditioned" in the Luxembourg pavilion at the Venice Biennial. Her video projection Les balayeurs du désert (The Desert Sweepers) shows street sweepers in their distinctive Paris uniforms pointlessly sweeping away at the desert sand to the soft sound of brooms against asphalt. The second major work "The Echo", also a video, depicts an Alpine scene in which a tiny figure plays the cello, the simple sounds of the instrument being reflected by the mountains. These and the other components of the exhibition were in fact a play on the "ɛ:r" sound in air conditionné denoting the concepts of ère (era), aire (area), air (air and tune).
Tse was selected for a solo exhibition at the Renaissance Society in 2005 titled, "The Ich-Manifestation". The exhibit contained five video works. Her recent exhibit "Floating Memories" (2009) at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court, as the museum was known during Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts and near the Back Bay Fens...
is an installation merging sound, sculpture, and a video projection in which a perpetually revolving gramophone record on an old rug brings back memories of childhood.
Awards
- 2009: Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco Prize for Contemporary Art
- 2006: SR-Medienkunstpreis, Saarlandischer Rundfunk, Saarbrücken.
- 2005: Edward Steichen Award, Luxembourg (scholarship and artist residency in New York in 2006).
- 2003: Golden Lion for best national participation, 50th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy.
- 2002: Prix d’Art Robert Schuman - Interrégional SaarLorLux Award