Linzi's Party is a photobook published by the Shanghai performance collective _ao_ao_ing ensemble. The photographs come from a party supply shop of the same name, taken by its owner, Linzi, together with her family over the course of more than a decade. Initially made to sell products, these images recorded a kaleidoscopic world around her shop, while tracing the hidden movements between a person and a city, between a life and a business.
The shop sits inside a wholesale market in the center of Shanghai, selling party supplies, performance props, and festive decorations. In the photos, the models are Linzi's children, her friends, her customers, the vendor at the next stall, passing foreign visitors, and Linzi herself. In these pictures, the shop works like an opening in the concrete. People come out of it wearing the merchandise, heading toward their own "party moments."
These product photos are answers to changing times. As the political climate shifted, the pandemic hit and the economy swayed, the shop's main products moved along with them, from Halloween costumes, to general party supplies and dance fans, to a wall of plastic slippers. By the summer of 2026, the main line had become fans, something both functional and decorative amid the summer heat waves. It is from this present that the book looks back, returning to where it began: the colourful world we first found on Linzi's Taobao page in 2018.
This photobook comes out of _ao_ao_ing ensemble's ongoing performance project Linzi's Party (2022 to present). Growing from the collective's longstanding personal relationship with Linzi, the project takes buying and selling as performance. As her products move across different settings and enable new “party moments,” the vulnerability and vitality of these collective encounters become visible within the wider economy.
(This publication is supported by de Appel (NL) and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.)
2026
First edition of 50
80 × 108 mm
78 pages
Exposed spine butterfly binding
Cover: Pearlescent paper
Printing: Digital printing
Language: Bilingual, Chinese and English
Images: Wu Fenglin
Text & Design: _ao_ao_ing ensemble
Supported by de Appel, Amsterdam and AFK, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts
《林子舞会》是一本由表演团体老妖精 ensemble 编辑出版的图集。书中的照片来自上海一家同名小店多年来的淘宝商品图，由店主林子和她的家人、邻居、顾客拍摄。这些本来为了销售商品而被拍下的图片，不经意间却记录下了围绕这家小店展开的个人与城市、生活与生意之间的细节。
“林子舞会”位于上海城隍庙批发市场，是一家专卖派对、演出和节日用品的批发零售店。林子的照片中有她的孩子、朋友、顾客、隔壁的摊主、路过的外国友人，也有她自己。照片之中，这个不足十平米的派对用品店像一个洞口，人们从这里穿戴着花花绿绿的道具走出去，抵达各自的“舞会时刻”。在时代更迭的间隙里，随着政治环境变化、疫情冲击和经济摇摆，店里卖的东西从最初的万圣节服装和绚烂的舞会道具，一度变成满墙的塑料拖鞋；而在本书编辑当下的2026年夏天，店里的主营商品是兼具功能性与装饰性的各类扇子。而这本图集则带领我们返回整个项目的起点：2018年第一次在淘宝上找到“林子舞会”时所看到的那个彩色世界。
这本图集的出版来自老妖精 ensemble 的同名表演项目《林子舞会》（2022至今）。项目以买卖作为表演，从老妖精与林子舞会多年的买卖关系中生长出来，也通过真实发生的交易，感受那些跨越不同场景的“舞会时刻”在更广泛的经济环境中的脆弱性与生命力。
（《林子舞会》项目和出版获得荷兰 de Appel 与阿姆斯特丹艺术基金会 的支持 ）
