Ban Lei was born in Shanghai in 1990. He is a musician and visual artist.
After training as a classical musician and a career in new technologies, Ban Lei has moved away from pre-existing musical rules, equipment for expected use, and electronic sound effects in order to obtain an “objective” or “neutral” creative context. He makes his own musical instruments, mainly out of wood—inspired by nature (trees, plants, wind, rhythm)— which he plays alone or in groups. For him, the instrument is part of the musician’s body. This practice has enabled him to master every aspect of the work process: inspiration, concept, technique, manufacture, adjustment, performance, and public sharing.
Educational Background
2012, BA, Music Composition in Digital Art Institute, Shanghai University.
2013, Independent Artist Program, Musician Institute in Hollywood.
2022, MFA, Contemporary Art Practice, HEAD-Genève.
Teaching Experience
2023-2024, Visiting Assistant Arts Professor at Interactive Media Arts, New York University Shanghai.
Biography
From 2008 to 2015, his band performed at numerous music festivals and venues. In 2012, they performed at Summer Sonic, which was the biggest music festival in Asia.
Since 2015, he started to collaborate with some visual artists to do audio-visual. He organized a new media art group "Project Default”, and did a couple of performances.
In 2016, the collective project "Immaterial Perception” with visual artist Xu Cong was exhibited in the exhibition "Shanshui within” in MoCA Shanghai, and the piece was collected permanently afterward.
His sound ready-made installation “Pendulum" was exhibited and performed in Modern Art Museum Shanghai in 2017. Then he started to work with the PCI Lab at the Interactive Media Arts in NYU Shanghai. The lab's research focuses on VR and body capture systems. He was involved in projects at the Shanghai International Festival of Technology and Art and the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), etc.
In 2018, he received support from the Swiss Cultural Foundation “Pro Helvetia” for a three-month artist residency in Geneva. During the residency, he created " Resonance ", a musical instrument based on real-time capture technology. It was his first success.
With the time of the epidemic in 2020. he started to use wood as the main material, combined with self-made CNC technology, and created a rain sound wooden machine. Before he went back to study in Geneva, with the audience, the concert “222nd Day of Rain” created a nice farewell vibe.
During his two years at HEAD, he completed a set of acoustic instruments and wooden machines and got away from electricity. With no choreographed improvisations, he decided to give all the instruments to the dozens of fellow students, teachers, and friends during the performance “1,2,3, we together, and hush” in the Finale. It was the first time he felt the immense power that comes from people being together in a performance of his own.
He participated in several important sound art exhibitions in 2023. The experience of exhibiting alongside reference artists made him almost forget who he is. He participated in the Sound art festival “Schlossmediale” at the Werdenberg Castle in Switzerland as Artist in Focus 2023. The same prize was given to Roman Signer and Zimoun in 2022 and 2024 respectively.
From Aug 2023 to May 2024, he was a Visiting Assistant Art Professor and Artist in Residence at IMA in NYU Shanghai. “Nature Acoustics” is a course he designed about listening and sound. In addition to guiding the students towards an awareness of sound as a medium, he wanted to explore and retrace a performance that appeared and disappeared like fireworks for him, by having so many people experience it together over time.
Performances and Exhibitions
2024
“About the past 6000 hours”, IMA Gallery at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
“About the past 6000 hours”, MoCA Shanghai, Shanghai, China
“Tingboomdong”, Institute of Contemporary Arts at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
2023
“153 returning birds”, KorSonor, Geneva, Switzerland
“The wind that goes, the birds that come”, Mos Espa, Geneva, Switzerland
“Üēn & Lín”, Werdenberg Castle, Werdenberg, Switzerland
“Tinkling”, Villa Arson, Nice, France
“The wind that goes, the birds that come”, Eye’s walk Festival, Syros, Greece
“Üēn & Lín”, Dear 2050, Zurich, Switzerland
2022
“Tinkling”, live in your Head, Geneva, Switzerland
“Üēn & Lín”, Grand Tour in HEAD-Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
2021
“YOU”, AMARUS | Concert, Bern, Switzerland
“Resonance”, The Embassy Of Foreign Artists, Geneva, Switzerland
2020
“222nd Day of Rain”, Yongfoo Elite, Shanghai, China
2019
“Resonance”, Eye’s walk digital art festival, Syros, Greece
“Resonance”, IN VIRTO Sound art exhibition, Matera, Italy
“Resonance”, 2019 China Tour, 12 cities Shanghai ,Beijing, Guangzhou, Xiamen, etc, China
2018
“Pendulum”, EXTRART Base, Shanghai, China.
“Frames”, Shanghai Art 24 hours Festival, Shanghai, China.
“Resonance”, Embassy of Foreign artists, Geneva, Switzerland
“Resonance”, Urgence Disk, Geneva, Switzerland
“Resonance”, Ondulor, Geneva, Switzerland
“Resonance”, ZHiwu, Shanghai, China
“Resonance”, Swissnex, Shanghai, China
2017
“Pendulum”, Morden Art of Museum, Shanghai, China.
“MR”, Shanghai Science and Technology festival, Shanghai, China.
“Neuron”, International Computer Music Conference, Shanghai, China.
“Hyperspace”, Tian’an Digital and Art Center, Shenzhen, China.
2016
"Immaterial Perception" ,“Shanshui within”, MoCA Shanghai, Shanghai, China.
“Project Default”, MoCA Shanghai, Shanghai, China
“Nongfu Spring”, MoCA Shanghai, Shanghai, China
“Project Default”, basement6, Shanghai, China
“Project Default”, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China