TORINO, ITALY.- On the occasion of the Contemporary Art Night, Francosoffiantino Artecontemporanea Gallery presents the debut of Flotsam Jetsam, a project by Patty Chang and David Kelley. The exhibition occupies both floors of the gallery: The first floor galleries contain the video installation Flotsam Jetsam, and eight related photographs.

The exhibition continues downstairs with Embankment, a video installation, and Submarine, Head and Tail, a new sculpture. Embankment is comprised of two water beds and two flat screen monitors. The video is an experimental documentary created during a research trip to the Three Gorges area of China .

Flotsam Jetsam, is journey video that was produced in the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze River in China . The work is concerned with the notion of landscape's relationship to identity, in the midst of the extensive infrastructural changes at the Three Gorges site. The video details the process of fabricating a submarine, launching it below the Three Gorges Dam, following the submarine’s progress along the river and through the dam’s boat locks to the reservoir. Along this journey various performances are enacted: dreams are recounted during psycho-therapy sessions in a swimming pool, a theatrical play is performed in a ship factory, and the actors’ concerns about the process and purpose of making the video are voiced. These fragmented, vernacular narratives weave around the submarine’s journey, composing a third narrative regarding landscapes link to imagination. Inspired from a broad collection of sources including: Chairman Mao’s many swims in the Yangtze, Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” and contemporary news’ exposés on economic development and imaginaries of the Asia ’s modernization. Flotsam Jetsam is a collaboration of two American artists Patty Chang and David Kelley.