Chongyan Liu

Film

Watch the teaser

During my 2021 exchange program at the Berlin School of Fine Arts, I befriended Maiy C. Hô. Despite the pandemic's challenges, Maiy often worked in the studio, and we shared intimate conversations about our backgrounds and socio-political situations. On June 24th, I tragically found her body hanging from the ceiling.

In memory of Maiy, I have created a short film project entitled After All. The film takes an external perspective on her sudden death through the eyes of a "witness".

It features a discussion between a therapist and the student who discovered Maiy's body. Through this film, I hope to contextualize Maiy's passing by shattering the fallacy that somehow suicide can ever occur in a vacuum. We need to recognise our failures.

Chongyan Liu

Watch the portrait

Born in Guizhou, China, Chongyan Liu currently lives and works between China and France. After studying oil painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing from 2013 to 2017, she went on to study at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, where she obtained the diplôme national supérieur d’arts plastiques (DNSAP) in 2022, in the ateliers of Clément Cogitore and Petrit Halilaj and Alvaro Urbano. She is currently pursuing her artistic career at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains. 

Her work spans a diverse range of media, from documentary and fiction films to the moving image, and also includes installation, painting and sculpture. 

Chongyan Liu’s vision questions current global tensions, influenced by contemporary collective ideologies. Her aim is to create a common ground that transcends the often polarising discourses that divide social classes. In her practice, she weaves an emotional web which highlights socio-political issues rooted in interpersonal narratives. 

Chongyan’s work has been honoured at various international film festivals and exhibitions, including the Berlinale Talents, the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival in Indonesia, IDFA in the Netherlands, the Beijing International Short Film Festival, the Seoul International Pride Film Festival, Videoex in Switzerland and VISIO in Italy. Her forthcoming feature-length documentary, *Niche of the Dragon,*wasselected by the Doc Station lab at the 74th Berlinale Talents.

Production

Partners

---

Credits