Zheng Lianjie 郑连杰

Zheng Lianjie was born in 1962. He first gained international attention in 1993 for his performance "Binding the Lost Soul: Huge Explosion." He and a motley group of performers, including students, villagers, and other artists, salvaged bricks from a crumbling portion of the Great Wall and tied red ribbons around them. The process, and the resultant hill of beribboned bricks, was both a celebration of the Great Wall and an elegy to it. In recent years Zheng Lianjie has continued to explore historical memory, human endurance, and personal identity through his physically intense and visually stunning performances. He also continues to practice ink painting, to which he adds his own element of dramatic energy.