Sight Leak

“The moon, the sometimes dark street, trees, it’s warm […] at last, a certain eroticism possible (that of the warm night).” When Roland Barthes visited China in 1973, he jotted down some notes that would become part of his Travels in China (Carnets du voyage en Chine), an underplot of desire in his imagination of the country. Barthes did not publish these writings during his lifetime, and his unsettling judgments about China are refracted in Peng Zuqiang’s work Sight Leak, as fragments of dialogues on class and looking, responding to the reflections on the same matter“The moon, the sometimes dark street, trees, it’s warm […] at last, a certain eroticism possible (that of the warm night).” When Roland Barthes visited China in 1973, he jotted down some notes that would become part of his Travels in China (Carnets du voyage en Chine), an underplot of desire in his imagination of the country. Barthes did not publish these writings during his lifetime, and his unsettling judgments about China are refracted in Peng Zuqiang’s work Sight Leak, as fragments of dialogues on class and looking, responding to the reflections on the same matters elicited alongside Barthes’ sense of eroticism. The local tourist in the film travels through different spaces and gatherings, seemingly never looking at anyone, yet silently looking at someone, turning towards a certain collectivity in spite of a foreign homoerotic gaze.

This screening is part of Happy Together, the third chapter of the film program Queer Strategies and Tentacles, curated by Rosa Barotsi and Zairong Xiang, and unfolding in eight chapters between November 25th, 2024 and March 2, 2025, with the films of each chapter streaming for two weeks.

For more information, contact program@e-flux.com.