Kunstforum International
2022

Heinz-Norbert Jocks: Can you describe your two-part “BOLOHOPE” project as much as possible?

BOLOHO: We have created a sitcom and anime series that refers to BOLOHOPE’s daily environment, our body experience, our plight, our dilemmas and visions. In addition to the main actors, played by the members of our collective, we also invited friends to play various roles in the play. The scripts are based on our everyday experiences and become part of our daily lives. The sitcoms are a mixture of live action, animation and games, interspersed with commercials created in collaboration with The Reading Room (moderated by Li Xiaotian, Liu Gene and Swallow). These capture sentences from different friends and create a commercial logo for the sentences, which are also used on the walls and tables of the showroom. With the help of collectively created sewing, painting, design, text and other elements, we have transformed Hubner’s restaurant into an installation and a space where the audience can read our Boloho story.

We believe that food can connect people more than art, and look forward to talking to visitors while eating.

The place of our exhibition is a real restaurant in which we have embedded our works, tablecloths, glass tables, tapestries, wallpaper, restaurant screens. Hoping to boost business. We believe that food can connect people more than art, and look forward to talking to visitors while eating.

How did you come up with the idea?

Our group includes cantons, chaosans and hakkas, but we have in common that we have been influenced by the culture of Hong Kong and Taiwan since our youth. The choice of sitcoms as a framework for our work is also related to our experiences of Hong Kong and Taiwanese television, which served as a window to the world. Our show shows some classic scenes from television dramas, including the impressive “Welcome Pine” scene. The intro to our theme song are the music from the “6:30 news” of Hong Kong TVB and the background music of the Hong Kong Lottery. Through this small TV window, we were exposed to the “future” at the end of the last century, and its gradual collapse makes us think about the relationship between the idea at the time and today’s reality. The comedy “BOLOHOPE” combines our reality and our imagination. Sometimes we joke that documenta 15 is “just another job we accept” and “accepting a job means earning the necessary living”. Perhaps the humor that the little TV box taught us is the best way to express our joy, worries and grief.

When we talk about art, we should focus on the underestimated arts of life, such as housework and childcare.

What is your intention?

We are now based in Guangzhou, and most artists there are not aimed at the art system or art institutions. The artists are more pragmatic and diverse in terms of the political and artistic atmosphere. The creative direction of BOLOHO is also not geared towards the exhibition mechanism. Whether we write columns for our own magazine, organize an interesting event or cook a delicious dinner – all this could be our creative ideal. In today’s situation, we think that there are many things we can do that do not necessarily have anything to do with “exhibitions” or are “artistic”. When we talk about art, we should focus on the underestimated arts of life, such as housework and childcare.

Why did you develop exactly this project for documenta?

In the year we designed it, the entire environment has changed drastically, in our lives and in the world. The feeling of discomfort and uncertainty has grown.

Perhaps the term “HOPE” was abused by the hypocritical and hollow propaganda of the government or institutions. For us, “HOPE” is a collective creation to meet the catastrophic sides of daily life, where we try to guess the possibilities and break out of the “cap” of the different systems and institutions to describe the desires, dilemmas and visions. The documenta visitors witness the mass exodus of the BOLOHO family in the restaurant in the 1. Floor of the Hübner area. It is also very likely that it will be another “failed” action. Who knows?