Liu Bolin is a Chinese artist, sculptor and photographer. He got his Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts from the Arts School of Shandong University, and a Master Degree in Fine Arts from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2001.
He is also known as “the invisible artist” for his photographic series “Hiding in the city”, where he mimics himself into urban scenarios as a sort of rebellion to the system.
More than 10 years ago this Chinese artist decided to camouflage in different contexts. This way he founded a silent and shocking protest that reached a lot of people and settled the mark that positioned him among the great names in art.
His work serves as a social criticism. “I don’t fit into modern societies. When I graduated I couldn’t find a job and I felt there was no place for me in society; I saw myself exposed to its dark side and I felt unnecessary. Then I decided to stop being so dependent and began to rebel against the system”. This is what he said in an interview after he caught the world’s attention in 2011 with his work “Hiding in the city”. This series consisted on taking hours to paint his body and mimic himself into demolished buildings, streets, fences, murals, forests, supermarket shelves and of course Chinese culture icons such as the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City.
With the iconic scoop of invisibility, Liu has traveled to different countries to reinterpret his wok in common sceneries of Europe, Asia and America to expose other nations’ problems. In America he has taken his work to Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia.
Mimicking. Camouflaging. Hiding. The art of being invisible serves him to portrait that for some governments the individual doesn’t exist. But what you don’t see is precisely what gives sense to his work. And to life.
