Serge Spitzer and Ai WeiWei
20 May - 27 Aug 2006
Serge Spitzer and Ai WeiWei
Conquest
May 13 until August 27, 2006
Our image of China is defined by a mixture of fascination and skepticism – an experimental set up comprising authority, Taoism and modernity.
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (born 1957, lives and works in Beijing) stands for a generation marked by upheaval. As does US artist Serge Spitzer (born 1951, lives and works in New York), whose pieces are characterized not only by a reflection on art and the reference to social reality, but also primarily by their sculptural feel and their physical presence. For the first time, the two artists have worked together in the context of the »Humanism in China« show to create an expansive installation: »Ghost Valley Coming Down the Mountain« (2005-2006).
96 vases stand on the floor, spread across two rooms. They all only show complementary sections of one of the most significant vases from the Yuan period (1269–1368). They were made at the same workshop in China as was the original, using the same materials and techniques, creating a variety of historical, social and economic references to Chinese culture in the context of contemporary discourses on art such as those on copy/original, figuration/abstraction, unique item/mass production. Fragile and sensitive, they force viewers to be cautious, and yet at the same time, given their positioning on a grid layout, bring to mind a kind of territorial, military occupation.
This joint project is juxtaposed to Serge Spitzer’s »Quiver, Rustle, Tremble, Stir« (2003-2006) – the installation creates a constant backdrop of rustles and whirring on the borderline between exhibition room and a zone otherwise unknown to the viewer, thus occupying a (small) territory of its own, demarcating borders, defining the spatial coordinates as well as the significance and search for orientation. The »in-between« space, the gray area, the no man’s land – this is the central theme in the oeuvre of Serge Spitzer.
www.mmk-frankfurt.de
© Serge Spitzer (*1951) / Ai Wei Wei (*1951)
Ghost Valley Coming Down the Mountain, 2005 – 2006
Conquest
May 13 until August 27, 2006
Our image of China is defined by a mixture of fascination and skepticism – an experimental set up comprising authority, Taoism and modernity.
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (born 1957, lives and works in Beijing) stands for a generation marked by upheaval. As does US artist Serge Spitzer (born 1951, lives and works in New York), whose pieces are characterized not only by a reflection on art and the reference to social reality, but also primarily by their sculptural feel and their physical presence. For the first time, the two artists have worked together in the context of the »Humanism in China« show to create an expansive installation: »Ghost Valley Coming Down the Mountain« (2005-2006).
96 vases stand on the floor, spread across two rooms. They all only show complementary sections of one of the most significant vases from the Yuan period (1269–1368). They were made at the same workshop in China as was the original, using the same materials and techniques, creating a variety of historical, social and economic references to Chinese culture in the context of contemporary discourses on art such as those on copy/original, figuration/abstraction, unique item/mass production. Fragile and sensitive, they force viewers to be cautious, and yet at the same time, given their positioning on a grid layout, bring to mind a kind of territorial, military occupation.
This joint project is juxtaposed to Serge Spitzer’s »Quiver, Rustle, Tremble, Stir« (2003-2006) – the installation creates a constant backdrop of rustles and whirring on the borderline between exhibition room and a zone otherwise unknown to the viewer, thus occupying a (small) territory of its own, demarcating borders, defining the spatial coordinates as well as the significance and search for orientation. The »in-between« space, the gray area, the no man’s land – this is the central theme in the oeuvre of Serge Spitzer.
www.mmk-frankfurt.de
© Serge Spitzer (*1951) / Ai Wei Wei (*1951)
Ghost Valley Coming Down the Mountain, 2005 – 2006