At the beginning of 2025, A4 Art Museum Documentation Center and UP-ON Upward Performance Art Archive jointly launch the annual performance art project: A4 UPON Engaging in Performance!
Why do it?
It has been more than a century since performance art appeared in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, and more than 50 years since it appeared in China in 1970. As one of the most important mediums of contemporary art, performance art, while upholding the deconstructive genes of Futurism and Dadaism and opposing definition, has also continued to incorporate the strengths of others to maintain its own vitality and live up to its reputation as “the pioneer of pioneers”.
In recent years, performance art has become active again in the international arena, and in China, there are a large number of young artists, both local and overseas, who are active in the field of performance art, and whose works are more diversified in terms of media, language, and conceptual references, and have more possibilities, which are continuously broadening the boundaries of performance art.
A4 Art Museum, as a professional art organization, has been helping the voice of experimental art and the growth of young artists since its establishment in 2008. This time, A4 Art Museum’s Documentation Center, together with UP-ON Performance Art Archive, which has been dedicated to the field of performance art for many years, will launch the annual performance art creation project “A4 UPON! Do performance ” The purpose of this project is to build an annual performance art platform to help young artists create and display their works.
How?
1、 The 2025 “ A4 & UPON Do Performance! ” will run from April 1st to December 31st, and is scheduled to present four on-site creative activities and an annual retrospective documentary exhibition plus a discussion panel.
2、 The project is open for proposals from young artists (under 40 years old) from home and abroad. The project team will invite appropriate professionals to form a review team according to the types of proposals submitted, and vote to determine the selected proposals.
3、 The specific implementation time of the works will be confirmed by the project team in communication with the artists.
4、 The implementation site of the works includes the interior of A4 Art Museum and the outdoor surrounding area.
Program Support
1、Provide 4 days’ accommodation (for foreign artists)
2、Provide 4 days’ food allowance of RMB 60 per day (for foreign artists)
3、Provide RMB 400 for materials
4、Purchase 4 days’ insurance (for foreign artists)
5、Provide necessary manpower to assist artists in completing their works
6、Organize art exchange activities
7、Unfortunately, due to financial constraints, out-of-town artists are responsible for their own travel expenses to and from Chengdu. Losses beyond the insurance purchased by the program are the responsibility of the artists.
Enrollment Requirements
1、Age below 40 years old
2、More than three years of experience in creating performance art
Application materials
1、Personal resume, including but not limited to: date of birth, current residence, academic background, work experience.
2、Programs of works involved in this project (for new programs that have not been implemented, please describe in as much detail as possible the specific implementation of the work and the creative concept)
3、Personal work portfolio
Enrollment method
1、Send information to both emails:
[email protected]
Please specify in the subject of the email, “A4 UPON Do performance!” Sign up + name + phone contact info
2、Application period: rolling recruitment from the date of the tweet until December 30, 2025; applications will be accepted on a permanent basis.
(The deadline for the first round of recruitment is April 30th, and the first phase of selected results will be released in early May. Programs that are not selected will automatically move on to the next round of selection.)
Project Manager: Li Zhiyang, Yang Yuting
About A4 Documentation Center
A4 Documentation Center is a non-profit documentation institution initiated by A4 Art Museum in Chengdu in 2021. It is dedicated to researching and promoting cultural and artistic practices with participatory elements, organizing and disseminating the museum’s related documents and archives, as well as providing academic support for the exhibitions and activities of A4 Art Museum.
We work together with art and cultural practitioners from different fields to explore the pluralistic generation of knowledge through shared imagination and action. Through research programs, art events, lectures, seminars, workshops and other public projects, we build alternative platforms for knowledge production and experimentation in museum exhibitions. We emphasize dialogue, research and practice, so that the dissemination and creation of knowledge can grow in a broader cultural ecology.A4 Documentation Center physical space is located on the fourth floor of A4 Art Museum, with a collection of more than 2,000 art books and archives, open to the public.
About A4 Art Museum
A4 Art Museum is a cluster of non-profit art museums dedicated to “connecting people through art and activating creativity”. A4 Art Museum promotes the development of a creative and diversified art ecosystem, allows more people to participate in art creation, and brings to the public a wealth of high-quality contemporary art exhibitions, public projects and research programs.
A4 Art Museum was founded and established in 2008 by Chengdu Wanhua Investment Group, and in 2023 the main museum of A4 Art Museum was relocated from Luhu to Luthen. Under the leadership of founding director Sun Li, A4 Art Museum has continued to build the Southwest art ecosystem, expanding international and local community connections and promoting community art; focusing on social justice, public participation, and socialized education; and creating annual programs focusing on the public nature of children and education.
The A4 Art Museum Cluster currently consists of four brands: A4 Art Museum located in the Peak Plaza of Lujin, A4 Kids located in the Luhu Art Exhibition Center, A4 Residency Art Center and A4 X Art Center. In the future, A4 Art Museum will continue to focus on human beings, and through art exhibitions and public programs, art will be truly integrated into daily life, so that more people will be more closely connected by the power of art, and become partners in creating a mutual art museum community.
