With the gradual enrichment of the archive’s documentation, the question of how to revitalize these materials and information to develop knowledge production at the professional level has become a matter of consideration. To this end, the archive has launched the EXPERIMENTALSTUDYBUREAU project in 2022. Through the organization of thematic discussions, thematic projects, self-publications, documentary exhibitions, etc., we will carry out work of academic depth and exploratory nature.
EXPERIMENTAL STUDYBUREAU
The Boundaries of Performance Art !? (1) – Radicalism in Time
Time: 2024/04/14 SUN-15:00
Lecture: Zhao Chuan
Interlocutor: Young Ran
In 2024, UP-ON up Performance Art Archives – Research Room opened the “Discussion” section, to conduct continuous inquiries and dialogues on the phenomena, events and methods of performance art by way of thematic discussion, so as to build an ecological platform for equal appreciation.
Seminar Topic: Boundaries of Performance Art!
In the twentieth century, performance art with its strong social awareness and action approach has advanced rapidly in post-World War II Europe, and has developed a diversity of artistic practices in the historical circuits of different regions. Since the development of performance art, there have been extensive controversies and discussions due to the cross-border of geographical, historical and linguistic approaches. The topic of this seminar is “The Boundaries of Behavioral Art”, which aims to explore the intricate dynamic forms and realistic methods of behavioral art, in order to promote another way of observing and imagining behavioral art in today’s society.
In this seminar, Zhao Chuan is invited to use the historical scene of his participation in Shanghai’s “M Group” in 1986 as an index, to observe in depth the linguistic methods of performance art in different historical environments, as well as the historical associations of his personal work paths, and to dialog about the different perspectives of behavioral art in theatre practice.
Dialogue:
● 1986 Shanghai M-Group (video, materials) background, behavioral scene, events
● Zhao Chuan – Causes and Methods of Cao Tai Ban Practice questions, methods, cases, texts
● Texts in particular: A Short History of Radical Art, Criticism and writing of “No Abandonment of Theatre”, Theatre Texts
● Questioning – Social Theatre
● Questioning and exchanges among the participants
Preface to the 1986 M Conceptual Art Performance Exhibition
M-Art Group
December 21, 1986
Conceptual art can effectively be a tool for altering consciousness and composing new perceptual patterns, and with the mission of promoting self-perception and self-thought manipulation, it engages in an essential contemplation of art through the depletion of art and artistic means. In the exhibition, we seek to generate an intensified and extraordinary feeling between the viewer and the creator and the individual thought by means of spiritual sensation; to convey the intention of an instantaneous birth of an idea; and to express the way in which the process of artistic creation essentially perceives the unity of the world. By intensifying the comprehension of ideas, art generates new ideas and, through its own interpretation of the world, indicates the creative essence of “being-in-the-world”. Any questioning of the forms and concepts that are fundamental to art comes first and foremost from habit, the “adversary of the mind”. However, the man who recognizes the importance of the occasional over the inevitable has a mission in life. The only way to make life is to fight for the life that grows within oneself, to liberate the individual from all the forces that bind and destroy the mind. This should not be the conviction of the artist alone, but it should become the conviction of all in society that nothing can extinguish that which ought to be extinguished except the new shoots of life that spring up and slowly break through the existing foundations.
Shanghai “M” Group, Shanghai, 1986
A History of Youth Stills, Beijing, 2023
A History of Youth Stills, Nanjing, 2023
‘Grasshopper 2019.6’ Grasshopper Class & Dinghai Bridge Mutual Aid Society, Shanghai, 2019
Cao Tai Ban “Glorious Mountain” Live, Chongqing, 2018
Grassroots Class, Factory of the World, Chengdu, 2016
Chuan Zhao
Born in the 1960s, he has worked across multiple creative fields, including theater, literature, contemporary art, and film, and is the co-founder and leader of the CaoTaiBan, a folkloric theater group that began in 2005 and emphasizes the connection between art and social life. Over the years, he and CaoTaiBan have utilized different types of spaces for theatrical rehearsals, generating discussion and imagination; he has published more than ten books at home and abroad, including A Short History of Radical Art and Don’t Abandon the Theater; he has been invited to participate in many international literature, art and theater festivals, as well as to do art residencies and study tours; and he has conducted workshops and guest lectures for many universities at home and abroad, such as New York University, the University of the Arts in Berlin, and the University of the Arts in Zurich. He has also given workshops or guest lectures for many institutions at home and abroad, such as New York University, Berlin University of the Arts, and Zurich University of the Arts.
Yang Ran
UP-ON Performance Art Archives-Research Room Head Artist, Writer, Associate Professor of Art Theory at Sichuan Conservatory of Music.
