The relationship between buying and selling is one of the most direct relationships between people today. Through buying and selling, _ao_ao_ing ensemble formed their bond with Linzi, the owner of the small commodity shop “Linzi’s Party”. Where we started to discover the person behind the cellphone screen, the untold connection between us, and our shared experience, LINZI’s Party began.





LINZI’s Party is a long-term mixed media project by _ao_ao_ing ensemble. In the name of an “artwork”, it actually relies on a real relationship in our life: between us and our steady prop supplier Linzi, and her shop “Linzi’s Party” in Shanghai Chenghuangmiao Small Commodities Market. In the series of happenings, performances and trading activities of this project, our role - both we and Linzi - as the producer of “the non-essential” is observed and scrutinised. We have brought our wonderful relationship between “Linzi’s Party” into these small commodities and their circulation of buying and selling. In the meantime, our own place in the city has become clearer and more acutely visible.

Photos that Linzi took over the years she ran the shop for the purpose of online sales, mostly featuring her family, her business neighbors, and her customers.

I.  618 Livestream Supersale

A group of performing artists, left Shanghai during the 2022 Shanghai lockdown, assembled digitally in this 618 Livestream Supersale

On June 18, 2022, initiated by LIN Cuixi, who had experienced the lockdown in Shanghai, we organised a “618 Taobao Livestream Supersale for the Specially Difficult Industry” (618 Livestream Supersale). We invited several performing artists who had left Shanghai due to the pandemic to carry out an online live commerce sales for “Linzi’s Party”. This was our first performance “platter” after the lockdown was lifted, and also an opportunity for us to regain confidence from the blow.

II. ￥ 2.5

￥2.50 - Self-service shop at RAM Highlights 2022 “OO Zone”

From September to October 2022, in an atmosphere that pandemic exasperation kept recurring and Shanghai would experience yet another shutdown at any time, we joined “OO ZONE” at RAM Highlights 2022, triggering once again a series of happenings based on the buying-selling relationship under the project name of ￥ 2.5. At different points during the exhibition period, it was a self-service shop in the art museum, an auction disguised as an “artistic performance”, and durational street vending actions within The Good Life (tgl) exhibition of RAM Highlights 2022. The audience experienced and participated in all these scenes as buyers as well. Linzi herself, as the supplier of this commissioned work, took part in the production-consumption cycle of the “non-essential” as well.





CREDITS

2022.06.18 LINZI's Party - 618 Livestream Supersale

Concept/Organisation: _ao_ao_ing ensemble

Performers participating the sales: DT Fang, Selena LU, Eva LOU, LIN Cuixi, July Yang, XIAO Meiyue, TANG Chen, XU Yiming, YU Guojun, GUAN Jingjing and her mother

Exclusive Supplier and Livestreaming Support: WU Fenglin, "Linzi's Dance"



2022.09.28-10.16
LINZI’s Party - ￥2.5

Concept/Organisation/Performance: _ao_ao_ing ensemble (DT Fang, Selena LU, Eva LOU, LIN Cuixi, July Yang)

Interview Support: ZHANG Yuan, CAO Xuefei, ZHOU Zhiyi, Julie Chun, CHEN Tianqi

Photography: Wei Ding

Exclusive Supplier: WU Fenglin, "Linzi's Dance"

TIMELINE

Part I

2022.06.18
618 Livestream Supersale
@ taobao.com Livestream

Part II

2022.09.28-10.16
￥2.5 Self-service Shop (interactive installation)

2022.10.15 
￥2.5 Non-essential Items’ Auction (performance)

2022.10.16
￥2.5 Street Vendors
(durational performance)

@ RockBund Art Museum Highlights 2022 "OO ZONE"