Convergence at E116° /N40 ° , Beijing 2005 - International Contemporary Art Exhibition
20 Sep - 07 Oct 2005
CONVERGENCE at E116° /N40 ° , Beijing 2005.
International Contemporary Art Exhibition
Organizers: Platform China Contemporary Art Institute
Contemporary China
Initiators: C.S.Kiang Wang Shugang
Chief Curator: Feng Boyi
Curators: Marilyn Kiang Els Silvrants
Curatorial Assistants: Sun Ning , Luo Hong
Exhibition Dates: 20 th Sept. 2005 --- 7 th Oct. 2005
Venues:
798 / Dayaolu Workshop
East End Zone A / Platform China Contemporary Art Institute
East End Zone A / European Contemporary China
Opening :
Time : 20 th September, 2005 (Tuesday) 4:00pm
Venue: 798 / Dayaolu Workshop
Opening Party :
Time : 20 th September, 2005 (Tuesday) 6:30pm
Venue:
East End Zone A / Platform China Contemporary Art Institute European Contemporary China
(No.319-1 Caochangdi, Dashanzi, Chaoyang District, Beijing)
Artists:
Ai Ke ( China ), Ai Weiwei ( China ), Heike Baranowsky ( Germany ) , Chen Xiaowen (USA) , Christine De La Garenne ( Germany ) , Wim Delvoye ( Belgium ) , Ruth Dusseault (USA), Guan Shi ( China ) , Echo YinSin Ho ( Germany ) + Hannes Hoelzl (Italy), Hu Jieming ( China ) , Huang Rui ( Japan ) , Waseem Khan ( UK ) , Amy Landesberg (USA), Sze Tsung Leong (USA/UK) , Via Lewandowsky ( Germany ) , Liu Jianhua (China), Li Songsong ( China ) , Liu Wei ( China ) , Lu Shengzhong ( China ) + Yufei (China), David Maisel (USA), Antje Majewski ( Germany ) , Bradley McCallum (USA) + Jacqueline Tarry (USA), Mario Petrirena (USA), Qin Chong ( China ) , Danielle Roney (USA), Sui Jianguo ( China ) , Wang Luyan ( China ) , Wang Shugang ( China ) , Xing Danwen ( China ) , Xu Zhongmin ( China ) , Yuan Shun ( Germany ) , Yin Xiuzhen ( China ) , Zhu Jinshi ( Germany ) , Zhuang Hui ( China ) .
Theme illustration:
“The junction of East Longitude 116.65 and North Latitude 40.13" is the land mark of the three exhibition venues. “Community” is the place where humans reside, as well as the overall designation of cities and villages. This exhibition title means that the artists, coming from different countries and backgrounds, gather in a specific time and space for the exhibition. They're living in cities and communities full of different characters. Their difference in geographical position and cultural environment underlines the different expressions of the communities and cityscape. From those expressions reflected in their works, we can not only understand the sediment of the history and the time of those communities, but also experience the changes of the local life and culture. Meanwhile, as we're all in the tide of globalization, an international exhibition with artists from different countries and regions gathering for such an art activity, gives it a meaning of culture globalization with its own focus on exchange and communication.
Asian countries are meeting a lot of common problems while facing globalization, but also have common expectation and respect arising from the impact of western countries. On one hand, it is full of expectation towards western life styles. On the other, it needs one gentle and traditional way of softenning this impact. What are the new social form and consciousness? Is it a form of cultural tradition? Is it a mixed interweave of eastern and western culture? Or a kind of new strength? In fact, Asia is not merely the so-called simple connection between traditional culture and Confucianism, but is an intercommunity of a certain new and wealthy stratum emerging from the high-speed economic development. Chinese people for instance, imagine themselves as the young white-collars. There is a kind of self-confidence while facing the future being part of this middle class culture, especially when China is more and more becoming a locomotive engine of Asian economy. In the culture sector, a new Asian consciousness led by pop culture is taking shape. This consciousness is not about creating Asia in a western style, but in finding one new localized post-modern life. This kind of life tightly follows the trend of times, yet still has its own characteristics. It is neither the western, nor traditional, but a kind of mixed culture of many regions. This is probably the so-called "global localization," which may be the needs of localization in the structure of globalization. So the new image of a wealthy Asia facing the future is full of impulse leaning forward, full of respect for a new life. And it's not sentimentally attached to the glorious past. China is going through a modernizing process.
The meaning of the exhibition's subtitle “Unified expression duplicated by movement” is based on the following principle:
We are in a "great quantum leap" era, advancing triumphantly. The main themes of this era are development and change. Modernization is the most popular label and the change that it brings makes us intoxicated. But the modernization is making our society move towards simplification. The variety of the human ecological environment passes away day by day. Being replaced, the whole world is seeking for the same fashion and same life style, even the same singer. Certainly the more important thing is the same kind of value standards; our social development and change are duplicated and become " the unified expression." When one and only system of coordination is realized, the localization of every nationality in this system will naturally have the distinction between “advanced-developed” and under-developed. As the under-developed state brings vunerability and risk of being attacked, only constant development can establish us in an unassailable position. This is the standard that forced us to modernize. Since then, the competition of development becomes the only criterion of modernization. The multiple complementarities have become an unpractical hope. This is the self-exciting system of modernization. Since the beginning of modern science, it is mostly the natural world that we face: air, earth, river, sunshine, treasure, etc. However, the more development and change of modernization there is , the deeper natural concealment is. The influence of modernization involves each field of human life, especially reflecting the worship of the limitless ability of the subject on epistemology and the limitless development of natural resources. This is exactly the soil in which modernization can breed. When modernization wizzes by us with its moving enticement and extreme danger, what it holds up high is exactly this big flag of science. The scientific values assure us, science offers the truth of the world, it overtakes the culture, there are no classes, no national characteristic, even no nature. It is exactly this kind of concept that provides a philosophical foundation to the cultural unification. Under the impact of the tide of modernization, national and regional culture are just like grass under a mud flow, they have all gone. Mankind is losing the earth under his feet -- old and toughness tradition.
For this reason, the theme of this exhibition will focus on the conflicts of hope in contradiction to modernization. The exhibition will address different themes and different ways of setting. It will invite international famous artists to express the understanding, thinking, introspecting, and expressing the above question, by ways of different concepts, media, and language. Thus it will feature the aggregation and the communication of a temporary mixing.
The communication is not to hold fast in one's own domain, or to insist on one's own idea and exert one's influence. Conversely, it is an attitude of understanding and forgiving others. Others can not see us the way that we see ourselves, just as one can not see others the way that they see themselves. We can not be the same each other. It is impossible that you are me, or I am you. The best way is to use "communication" for describing and compensating this insufficient wording, but it is not attempting to break the border between ourselves. The happiness of communication is not about surmounting and overcoming mutual obstacle and estrangement. It is the satisfaction of the communication itself. This is an expectation from which we plan this exhibition.
International Contemporary Art Exhibition
Organizers: Platform China Contemporary Art Institute
Contemporary China
Initiators: C.S.Kiang Wang Shugang
Chief Curator: Feng Boyi
Curators: Marilyn Kiang Els Silvrants
Curatorial Assistants: Sun Ning , Luo Hong
Exhibition Dates: 20 th Sept. 2005 --- 7 th Oct. 2005
Venues:
798 / Dayaolu Workshop
East End Zone A / Platform China Contemporary Art Institute
East End Zone A / European Contemporary China
Opening :
Time : 20 th September, 2005 (Tuesday) 4:00pm
Venue: 798 / Dayaolu Workshop
Opening Party :
Time : 20 th September, 2005 (Tuesday) 6:30pm
Venue:
East End Zone A / Platform China Contemporary Art Institute European Contemporary China
(No.319-1 Caochangdi, Dashanzi, Chaoyang District, Beijing)
Artists:
Ai Ke ( China ), Ai Weiwei ( China ), Heike Baranowsky ( Germany ) , Chen Xiaowen (USA) , Christine De La Garenne ( Germany ) , Wim Delvoye ( Belgium ) , Ruth Dusseault (USA), Guan Shi ( China ) , Echo YinSin Ho ( Germany ) + Hannes Hoelzl (Italy), Hu Jieming ( China ) , Huang Rui ( Japan ) , Waseem Khan ( UK ) , Amy Landesberg (USA), Sze Tsung Leong (USA/UK) , Via Lewandowsky ( Germany ) , Liu Jianhua (China), Li Songsong ( China ) , Liu Wei ( China ) , Lu Shengzhong ( China ) + Yufei (China), David Maisel (USA), Antje Majewski ( Germany ) , Bradley McCallum (USA) + Jacqueline Tarry (USA), Mario Petrirena (USA), Qin Chong ( China ) , Danielle Roney (USA), Sui Jianguo ( China ) , Wang Luyan ( China ) , Wang Shugang ( China ) , Xing Danwen ( China ) , Xu Zhongmin ( China ) , Yuan Shun ( Germany ) , Yin Xiuzhen ( China ) , Zhu Jinshi ( Germany ) , Zhuang Hui ( China ) .
Theme illustration:
“The junction of East Longitude 116.65 and North Latitude 40.13" is the land mark of the three exhibition venues. “Community” is the place where humans reside, as well as the overall designation of cities and villages. This exhibition title means that the artists, coming from different countries and backgrounds, gather in a specific time and space for the exhibition. They're living in cities and communities full of different characters. Their difference in geographical position and cultural environment underlines the different expressions of the communities and cityscape. From those expressions reflected in their works, we can not only understand the sediment of the history and the time of those communities, but also experience the changes of the local life and culture. Meanwhile, as we're all in the tide of globalization, an international exhibition with artists from different countries and regions gathering for such an art activity, gives it a meaning of culture globalization with its own focus on exchange and communication.
Asian countries are meeting a lot of common problems while facing globalization, but also have common expectation and respect arising from the impact of western countries. On one hand, it is full of expectation towards western life styles. On the other, it needs one gentle and traditional way of softenning this impact. What are the new social form and consciousness? Is it a form of cultural tradition? Is it a mixed interweave of eastern and western culture? Or a kind of new strength? In fact, Asia is not merely the so-called simple connection between traditional culture and Confucianism, but is an intercommunity of a certain new and wealthy stratum emerging from the high-speed economic development. Chinese people for instance, imagine themselves as the young white-collars. There is a kind of self-confidence while facing the future being part of this middle class culture, especially when China is more and more becoming a locomotive engine of Asian economy. In the culture sector, a new Asian consciousness led by pop culture is taking shape. This consciousness is not about creating Asia in a western style, but in finding one new localized post-modern life. This kind of life tightly follows the trend of times, yet still has its own characteristics. It is neither the western, nor traditional, but a kind of mixed culture of many regions. This is probably the so-called "global localization," which may be the needs of localization in the structure of globalization. So the new image of a wealthy Asia facing the future is full of impulse leaning forward, full of respect for a new life. And it's not sentimentally attached to the glorious past. China is going through a modernizing process.
The meaning of the exhibition's subtitle “Unified expression duplicated by movement” is based on the following principle:
We are in a "great quantum leap" era, advancing triumphantly. The main themes of this era are development and change. Modernization is the most popular label and the change that it brings makes us intoxicated. But the modernization is making our society move towards simplification. The variety of the human ecological environment passes away day by day. Being replaced, the whole world is seeking for the same fashion and same life style, even the same singer. Certainly the more important thing is the same kind of value standards; our social development and change are duplicated and become " the unified expression." When one and only system of coordination is realized, the localization of every nationality in this system will naturally have the distinction between “advanced-developed” and under-developed. As the under-developed state brings vunerability and risk of being attacked, only constant development can establish us in an unassailable position. This is the standard that forced us to modernize. Since then, the competition of development becomes the only criterion of modernization. The multiple complementarities have become an unpractical hope. This is the self-exciting system of modernization. Since the beginning of modern science, it is mostly the natural world that we face: air, earth, river, sunshine, treasure, etc. However, the more development and change of modernization there is , the deeper natural concealment is. The influence of modernization involves each field of human life, especially reflecting the worship of the limitless ability of the subject on epistemology and the limitless development of natural resources. This is exactly the soil in which modernization can breed. When modernization wizzes by us with its moving enticement and extreme danger, what it holds up high is exactly this big flag of science. The scientific values assure us, science offers the truth of the world, it overtakes the culture, there are no classes, no national characteristic, even no nature. It is exactly this kind of concept that provides a philosophical foundation to the cultural unification. Under the impact of the tide of modernization, national and regional culture are just like grass under a mud flow, they have all gone. Mankind is losing the earth under his feet -- old and toughness tradition.
For this reason, the theme of this exhibition will focus on the conflicts of hope in contradiction to modernization. The exhibition will address different themes and different ways of setting. It will invite international famous artists to express the understanding, thinking, introspecting, and expressing the above question, by ways of different concepts, media, and language. Thus it will feature the aggregation and the communication of a temporary mixing.
The communication is not to hold fast in one's own domain, or to insist on one's own idea and exert one's influence. Conversely, it is an attitude of understanding and forgiving others. Others can not see us the way that we see ourselves, just as one can not see others the way that they see themselves. We can not be the same each other. It is impossible that you are me, or I am you. The best way is to use "communication" for describing and compensating this insufficient wording, but it is not attempting to break the border between ourselves. The happiness of communication is not about surmounting and overcoming mutual obstacle and estrangement. It is the satisfaction of the communication itself. This is an expectation from which we plan this exhibition.