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11/5/2012

The 7th Shenzhen International Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition

OCAT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen

Curators Carol Yinghua Lu, Liu Ding, Su Wei

Curated by Liu Ding, Carol Yinghua Lu and Su Wei, the 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale is a research-based exhibition consisting of various components: Unexpected Encounters, an examination of individual practices in China from 1989 to 2000; What You See is What I See, a grouping of recent works made by Chinese artists and artists from all over the world; Public Projects, four special commissions for public venues. In the exhibition, artworks made from 1989 to 2000 in China in Unexpected Encounters and recent works by Chinese and international artists in What You See is What I See will intermingle with each other in the exhibition rather than being presented in two sections.

Participating Artists & Documentations:
(1994) Chinese Contemporary Artists' Agenda (*1994, a publication of artists’ proposals edited by Wang Luyan, Wang Youshen, Chen Shaoping and Wang Jianwei) and, 45 Degree as a Reason, Agree to the Date November 26th as a Reason (*1995, 1994, two postcard-based exhibitions curated by Geng Jianyi), Black Cover Book, White Cover Book, Grey Cover Book (*1994 – 1997, a publication initiated and edited by Ai Weiwei, Xu Bin and Zeng Xiaojun), Chen Shaoxiong (*1962, Shantou/China), Chen Zhou (*1987, Zhejiang/China), Josef Dabernig (*1956, Austria), Ding Yi (*1962, Shanghai/China), Fang Lu (*1981, Guangzhou/China), Laura Oldfield Ford (*1973, Halifax/UK), Simon Fujiwara (*1982, London/UK), Gu Dexin (*1962, Beijing/China), Guan Xiao (*1983, Chongqing/China), Hao Jingban(*1985, China), Hu Yun (*1986, Shanghai/China), Huang Ran (*1982, Xichang/China), Huang Yongping (*1954, Xiamen/China), Lee Mingwei (Taiwan/China), Li Yongbin (*1963, Beijing/China), Li Fuchun (*1983, Jilin/China), Li Ran (*1986, Hubei/China), Li Yu (*1973, Wuhan/China) + Liu Bo (*1977, Shishou/China), Lin Yilin (*1964, Guangzhou/China), Liu Shiyuan (*1985, Beijing/China), Lu Zhengyuan (*1982, Liaoning/China), Darius Mikšys (*1969, Kaunas/Lithuania), Haroon Mirza (*1977, London/UK), Nástio Mosquito (*1981, Angola), Qian Weikang (*1963, Shanghai/China), Kelly Schacht (*1983, Belgium), Shi Chong (*1963, Huangshi/China), Song Dong (*1966, Beijing/China), Sui Jianguo (*1956, Qingdao/China), Tsang Kinwah (*1976, Shantou/China), Katleen Vermeir(*1973, Belgium) & Ronny Heiremans (*1962, Belgium), Danh Vo (*1975, Vietnam), Wang Jianwei (*1958, Sichuan/China), Wang Gongxin (Beijing/China), Wang Guangyi (*1957, Harbin/China), Wang Luyan (*1956, Beijing/China), Wang Xingwei (*1969, Shenyang/China), Wang Youshen (Beijing/China), Wild (*1997, a publication of site-specific projects curated by Song Dong and Guo Shirui ), Wu Wenguang (*1956, Kunming/China), Xu Bing (*1955, Chongqing/China), Yan Xing (*1986, Chongqing/China), Yu Honglei (Inner Mongolia/China), Zhang Enli (*1965, Jilin/China), Zhang Peili (*1957, Hangzhou/China), Zhang Xiaogang (*1958, Kunming/China), Zhou Tiehai (*1966, Shanghai/China), Zhu Jia (Beijing/China).

Art Is Not A System, Not A World

The various mechanisms of the art system—for example the formation of the curator’s role, the patronage mechanism for supporting artists, the rise of art museums and art centers, and the development of the art market—were first produced out of the needs of art production. But with the increasing industrialization of art, the progressive division of labor and the incessant compartmentalization of artistic practices, we are now forced to face a pressing issue, which is the question of whether or not the experience we have accumulated, our established value judgments, and our working methods are increasingly obstructing and ignoring the organic, agile, mobile and serendipitous aspects of artistic creation and practice. As we enjoy certain conveniences and securities provided by the art system, we must remind ourselves that art has always been impossible to domesticate, beyond the reach of any person to control or rule, and exists entirely free of any laws. It does not exist to enter into a system or to gain any kind of affirmation or praise. Whether or not the art system exists, the work and ideas of artists will continue to exist, even if only in the artist’s brain, notebook, or even under his bed. Like uncontrollable emotions and impulses, it is a fire that can never be extinguished.

Faced with a succession of crises, the problems exposed in various methods of social organization lead people to rethink the various forces of systemization that we once believed in as universal experience and perfect knowledge – for instance our faith in liberal economics. We must reappraise the social order on which we rely and the foundations of our existence. When one doctrine, order and organizational method becomes powerful to the point of singularity, it inevitably conceals many crises. When art and economic life simultaneously march towards a model of standardized production and allocation, we must return to individual stories, individual situations, individual needs and individual order. Factors from outside of the universal order are often defined as serendipitous factors. However serendipitous factors can sometimes become definitive factors – because they cannot be classified, recognized and digested by the universal system. But they cannot be avoided either. It is not always the universal order that impacts the state of affairs; differences and coexistence among individual affairs cannot be ignored by the rationalized existence of any organizational form.

“Accidental Message: Art is not a System, not a World” is an exhibition that hopes to raise once again the idea of individual systems. The exhibition is split into two segments that comprise our narrative: “Unexpected Encounters” and “What You See is What I See.”

“Unexpected Encounters” is an observation of our local history, focusing on the 1990s and researching the creative trajectories of individual artists as the creative foundation for an era. Art as an individual phenomenon is our embarkation point, research method and content for researching and narrating this era. Interviews with artists, critics and curators who experienced the 1990s and are still active today present a concrete and unprecedented view of the experiences, ideas, dilemmas, hesitations, anxieties and sources of self-confidence in art during that period. In this way we learn about the contexts, circumstances, interactions, encounters and clashes that they experienced. This is not a retrospective that tries to summarize the entire scene but an attempt to restore the art of that time to its individual spirit and personal thinking.

“What You See is What I See” presents the things we have discovered in our global travels and work over the past few years. This segment attempts to share a kind of connectedness that consists of individual spirit—the artists’ creations—that transcends regions, systems, mechanisms, norms and art historical narratives, proposing not the magnification of the effectiveness of any existing system, universal order or experience of others but the emphasis on the serendipitous, organic, stochastic, internal, perceptive and instinctual growth and reproduction of art within itself.

We hope to provide a viewing method with an internal field of vision, observing artistic creation itself while also observing the trajectories of our spiritual development and the formation of our ways of thinking. We are attempting to employ a self-reflexive perspective to describe and organize this internal “history.” It is difficult to standardize using the measurements of historiography and pragmatic theory, but it is taking place at every moment in contemporary art history, stimulating in various ways the artistic systems and cultural contexts in which we work. It is a kind of serendipitous internal truth that cannot be functionalized and utilized – but that does not mean it does not possess its own shape and mass. It requires us to attend to it with a seeking, rational eye.

We often ignore the potential for establishing self-sufficiency and self-recognition within our own specific context. For instance, we have underestimated the socialist characteristics and unique properties within our own modernist progression. This shaping and evaluation of the self is established upon imaginings of established models and systems. We often misinterpret the experiences and established methods of others as inevitabilities, treating them as presuppositions for our own actions, and therefore hoping to follow the same methods to reach our goals. We have magnified inevitability while ignoring serendipity. We have magnified the systematic while ignoring internality and the mechanisms of internal self-growth and reproduction. We have magnified universal order while ignoring the existence of individual uniqueness. In the process of seeking references and examples, we have magnified the effectiveness of others. In this project, we hope to recognize and present the internal movements in art, the internal movements of artistic creations, and the clashes and parallel existences between artists’ differing understandings of art.

“Accidental Message: Art is not a System, not a World” uses a scattered perspectival method to engage in the observation of the self and the world we live in, incorporating the limitations of direct observation, experience and fields of vision. Nearly twenty years since the establishment of the Shenzhen Sculpture Biennial, we are honored to carry on in its original intent: to focus on artistic experimentation and to boldly expand the exploration of sculpture into an exploration of various artistic forms including sculpture as well as creation itself.

Text by Liu Ding, Carol Yinghua Lu, Su Wei

Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale (formerly known as Shenzhen International Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition) has been supported by Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Town Corporation Ltd. since its first edition in 1998. Previously, the main organizer of the Biennale was He Xiangning Art Museum. This year, the exhibition will be organized by OCT Contemporary Art Terminal and is officially named Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale.

Since its inception, the exhibition has employed a rather loose definition of sculpture and form for its exhibition framework, engaging in exploration and experimentation in the public nature of contemporary art as it pertains to the issues revolving around Chinese contemporary art and its connection to society and culture, striving to create a relationship of dialogue between contemporary art, the public environment of Overseas Chinese Town and civil society. Each exhibition presents its own unique characteristics and issues in a new form. Through the concepts proposed by the curators of each exhibition, one can see an increasing depth in understanding. Viewing contemporary art as the best option for crafting the cultural character and tastes of China’s new cities, the Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale draws attention to the public nature of contemporary art while raising the various issues of contemporary art in the progression of urbanization. It strives to create a channel for dialogue and discussion between the artworks and the people of Shenzhen.

OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT) is a division of the He Xiangning Art Museum. Officially established on January 28, 2005, OCAT is China’s only non-profit contemporary art organization connected to a national art museum; it also has exhibition spaces in Shanghai.

Press contact:
Wang Jing Tel: 86-755-26917199 Email: ocat2005@yahoo.cn

OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT)
OCAT Hall A/B & B10 - OCT-LOFT, Enping Road Overseas Chinese Town Shenzhen, China
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 10–5:30pm
Admission free

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