David Zink Yi produces videos that explore how national identity results from a hybrid history - one that arrives out of the juxtaposition and interweaving of indigenous traditions, colonialism, and international migration.Investigating how culture is written on the body, his works are peregrinations across autobiography, like intricate family trees with branches extending globally.



His research focuses on local knowledges and traditions, often using music and food as receptacles for legends, myths, collective narrations and private languages. In La Cumbia, the artist uses his own paint-covered body as a staging ground for a humorous dance that he performs with his fingers. La Cumbia also becomes an emblem of solitude and homesickness, while questioning the location of culture, which often remains simply hidden under our skin.


1998-03
Universität der Künste, Berlin

1997-99
Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich


SOLO EXHIBITION

2007
FRANCOSOFFIANTINO, Turin

2006
Johann König, Berlin
Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Frac Champagne-Ardennes

2005
Der Soziographische Blick 1, Kunstraum Innsbruck

2004
Alrededor des dosel Umgehen der Baumkronen, Künstlerhaus Bremen
Hauser und Wirth, Zürich
Johann König, Berlin

2003
De adentro y afuera, Johann König, Berlin


GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2007
Insignien des Alters, arge Kunst, Bozen, Italien
Made in Germany, Hannover
The Chatter of Culture, Artspeak, Vancouver

2006
Territory, Presentation House Gallery & Artspeak, Vancouver
Inaugural Exhibition, Johann König, Berlin

2005
Scrabble, CASM, Barcelona,
Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, CAAM Las Palmas
Deriva Mental, Museo Tamayo, Mexico Ctiy
MAK Schindler Artists in Residence Program, Los Angeles
Ars Viva, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Irreducible, Miami Art Central, Miami
Irreducible, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco
Böttcherpreis, Kunsthalle Bremen
Die Ordnung der Natur, OK-Zentrum, Linz
Ars Viva, Warsaw, Poland (May)
Erzähl mal was, Kunstverein Langenhagen

2004
Ars Viva, Kunsthalle Mannheim
With All Due Intent. Manifesta, San Sebastian

2003
Central Station - Falckenberg coll., La Maison Rouge, Paris
Nation, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main

2002
Kino der Kälte, Medienkunstarchiv Wien

2001
Dedicated to Yi Yen Wu, Kunsthaus Raskolnikow, Dresden
Eyes look into the wall - Current Trends in video art,
Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam

2000
Group exhibition, K2 gallery, Leipzig