In “Beyond Geography”, I imitated the BBC Discovery travel series, playing the role of host as I led the camera to discover and excavate the “exotic lands”. This “exotic lands”, however, are not real settings but are staged up in a 3D digital film studio with a blue screen. Similar to the familiar methods of Discovery program, I appropriated post-production technology to create intense broadcasting atmosphere, simulated the sound effect of a real jungle, and fabricated a primitive tribe in this fake exotic land. I plotted the encounter between the host and the aboriginals, and simulated a colonist type of cultural visit. Thus, I have built up a recognizable scenario that has repeatedly emerged in our surrounding art system.

“地理之外”，這件作品中，我模仿了英國BBC電視台的地理探險類節目，扮演成為一個主持人，牽引著鏡頭畫面，進行對“異域”的探尋與發掘，而這個“異域”並非真實，而是在一個藍屏的3D數字影棚進行拍攝。和常見探索發現類的節目一樣，我在影片中同樣利用了後期手段制造緊張的節目氛圍，模擬真實熱帶叢林的聲效，在這個虛假的異域中虛構一個原始部落，我在劇情中制造了主持人與原始的遭遇，模擬了一種殖民主義式的文化探訪，並建構了某種我們似曾相識的情境，這種情境一次次的重現在我們周遭的藝術系統中。

1986 Born in Hubei. He moved from Beijing to Shanghai in 2018. His work involves multiple media such as video, performance, painting, installation and writing, etc. In recent years, he embarked on a journey surveying the antagonist roles in theatre, stage art, make-up design, the production of imported films and espionage films since 1950s in China. The artist often writes images through collections of photo documents, character scenes, and dubbed monologues. Meanwhile, he also expands the more complex and personalized time and space of this writing in painting, sound, and installation.

Li Ran has exhibited at the Center Pompidou, Pairs; basis door actuele kunst (BAK), Utrecht; Huas der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), Houston; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal; The Museum of Moscow, Moscow; Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva; CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; NTU Center For Contemporary Art Singapore (CCA), Singapore; Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila; HOW Museum, Shanghai, Sifang Museum, Nanjing; OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT), Shenzhen, Shanghai and Xi’an; Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
(UCCA), Beijing; CAFA Museum (CAFAM), Beijing; and other venues, He has held solo exhibition at OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT), Xi’an (2015); His single-channel video work also screening in Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London; The Jewish Museum, New York and other venues; His works have also been featured in Montreal Biennale (2014), Biennale Of Moving Images 2014 (2014 In Geneva), 4th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (2014), 2nd CAFAM Biennial (2014), 4th “Former West” Project (2013, In Berlin), 9th Gwangju Biennial (2012), 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale (2012). He won the “Best Artist Award” at the 2014 Moscow International Youth Art Biennial and was nominated for the “Future Generation Award” by the Pinchuk Arts Center in 2017.