Guangzhou
dal 9/3/2006 al 6/5/2006
Segnalato da
9/3/2006
Guangzhou
Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern
Cantones Artists in the Sigg Collection. As of this year, Uli and Rita Sigg are making further works from their collection available for an annual Window on China in the museum. The series commences with the presentation of works by Cantonese artists that have never previously been seen outside China.
Cantones Artists in the Sigg Collection
The very successful exhibition Mahjong. Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg
Collection (2005) presented by the Kunstmuseum Bern offered a panoramic view
of contemporary Chinese art. As of this year, Uli and Rita Sigg are making further
works from their collection available for an annual Window on China in
the museum. The series commences with the presentation of works by Cantonese artists
that have never previously been seen outside China.
Guangzhou, capital of the Guangdong province, is situated in the Pearl River Delta
and is one of the most important cities in Southern China. Canton, bordering on Hong
Kong, has long been a testing station for economic reform and more open policies.
This resulted in frenetic urban development during the 1990s. Rem Koolhaas studied
the metropolitan area of the Pearl River Delta and introduced his findings to the
public at the Documenta in 1998. Guangzhou possesses an extremely lively art scene,
the major characters of which are represented in the Sigg Collection with their main
works and modern media, appropriate to Canton, of photography, video and
installation art - the painter Duan Jianyu is therefore something of an exception.
Alternative art production locations with national significance in China are also
represented here, such as Vitamin Creative Space or Libreri'a Borges. Within
the framework of the Biennale in Venice, the exhibition Canton Expr
ess curated by Hou Hanru in 2003, offered a first, vivid insight into the art
scene of Guangzhou.
The art scene of Canton was greatly influenced by the Big Tail Elephant Group,
founded in 1991. Until 1996, the members Lin Yilin, Chen Shaoxiong, Liang Juhui and
Xu Tan - all contributing with older as well as new works to our exhibition -
organized a yearly exhibition in a public place (bar, underground parking lot,
hairdressing salon etc.) or on the street and regarded themselves as witnesses to
the explosive social development in Chinese society. Cao Fei is one of the most
important video artists in China. Together with Ou Ning she has documented the
urbanization process using the former village San Yuan Li, which is now integrated
into the metropolis Guangzhou, as an example and creating a cinematic masterpiece in
black and white. Zheng Guogu combines tradition with the crazy present in his work.
In the exhibition he shows a walk-in landscaped garden with trees, paths and a pond,
the “water" of which is made of moving paper with crumpled works of calligraphy.
From O Zhan
g, who studied art in London, we are showing the new 21-piece photograph
installation “Horizons": Rural children gaze distrustfully, innocently defiant at
the camera - do they embody China’s future? The Bernese exhibition also combines one
of the most famous paintings from the Cultural Revolution: “Mao inspecting rural
Guangdong" by Chen Yanning (1972) with photographs by Zeng Han, Xu Peiwu and Yan
Changjiang who bear witness to the absurd burgeoning of urbanization.
Opening: 10 March, 2006 18 - 20 hrs
Kunstmuseum Bern
Hodlerstrasse 8-12 - Bern
Hours: Wednesday-Sunday 10 - 17 hrs, Tuesday 10 - 21 hrs