Zhang Huan reviews his latest works in an exhibition combining photography and video, inside X PhotoEspaña Festival at Madrid.

The controversial Chinese artist presents works from the Spanish collections belonging to the Fundación Telefónica and MACBA and from his own collection as well as an unreleased video about his creative process Zhang Huan's work achieves a creative balance between performance and photography.

Based on experiences with his own body, the artist conceives representations in which he confronts various political and social issues related to his native land, China. In the exhibition he presents in the Fundación Telefónica, Zhang Huan reviews his work over the last seven years with pieces from Spanish collections and his own, including an unreleased documentary on the artist's working process.

Zhang Huan's creations are based on body experiments that involve suffering and deal with the unpleasant. Installations with animal meat, performances on top of mountains of books, or series in which one sees how the artist's face is filled with tattoos, are the usual ingredients of his artistic discourse. And yet, in all of this cruelty, Zhang Huan does not look for pleasure but for redemption and the path toward spirituality.

Zhang Huan (Anyang, China, 1965) is one of the most sought-after artists of the moment. Now settled in New York, his fame has increased, in part due to the Chinese government's rejection of his works. His oeuvre has been shown in art centres and galleries throughout the world, such as the San Francisco and Florida Museums of Modern Art, the Artium, the Reina Sofía Museum and the Whitney Museum, and he has participated in the Venice and Lyon biennials.