With the participation of more than 60 artists, 50 works, and 5 projects, the exhibition takes the history of the development of performance art in China (including Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and mainland China) over the past 53 years (1970-2023) as a clue, and focuses its viewpoint on those artworks and projects created and implemented in public spaces, concentrating on the artists’ use of art as a method of reflecting and intervening in reality, and opening up the possibilities of imagining the world with their actions. The exhibition is constructed through a variety of methods, such as video, pictures, publications, props, etc., to create a documentary exhibition with a combing and research nature.
Time | 2024.01.18-2024.05.19
Venue | “Another Art Museum”, Hall 1, 1st Floor, 2nd Floor
Curatorial Foreword The foreword has been written several times and deleted several times. If I write it in a more academic way, I may feel that I can’t take on the works. If I write it in a more verbal way, I may feel that I don’t respect the works, so I just have a feeling about it. Yes, the exhibition is a serious and a little bit ambitious. Starting from the earliest Chinese performance works that appeared in 1970 in Hong Kong, the exhibition takes a look at the time span of 53 years to date, with 50 pieces of works and 5 projects, including some familiar ones and others unheard of ones. There are also unheard of works, all of which are masterpieces Unheard of is normal, marginal and niche is the destiny of experimental art, but it has always attracted a lot of thoughtful, brave and fearless artists to devote themselves to it There are many who have degenerated since then, but those who used to be should be respected After reading the works, it is hard to suppress the tidal wave of emotions, sighing and sighing What lingers in my mind are two words: naivety Artists are like children, innocent, honest, uninhibited, unafraid of danger The works are their gifts to the world with wisdom and sincerity, and these treasures expand the dimension of human cognition and spirituality. Based on the concepts and language of the works, the exhibition is divided into three sections:
1) Individual-Community, 2) Conceptual-Experience, 3) Playful-Provocative, which give the audience a chance to enter the works’ concepts and language. The clues are not precise enough, but will not be wrong This is the fascinating thing about art – the standard is no standard Selection of works for the exhibition, scratching their heads for several days, there are many masterpieces, lose sight of the other side, hesitation and hard to decide, the method of casting lots are used is not serious enough, but it is also considered fair For a number of reasons, the works are determined to be unavoidable to hang up one by one and a lot of regrets Chance of achievement The chance of this exhibition also depends on our will, as mentioned before, this is a somewhat ambitious exhibition to fill in some gaps, and finally, I would like to mention a few key words for watching the exhibition: tolerance, concentration, experience, and thinking, so that this trip will be worthwhile.
Representative of the curatorial organization: Zhou Bin January 8, 2024
“ Gum Bag Operation ” Performance Installation, 1970, Frog King (Guo Menghao)
《Loss of Functionality No. 3》, color sound, single-channel video, 10 minutes 19 seconds, 1983, Chen Jieren, (image source: video screenshot)
Project 94 Cleansing the Ruins, 1994, Prospects
Long-shelved Water Indicators, July 1995, Dai Guangyu
Slow Postal Mail – Sending Soil, 1997, Liu Chengying
《The Wheel》 in color with sound, 9‘14’‘, 2021, Wang Yanxin (Photo credit: video screenshot)
The Growing River – Walking the Nu River, curator: Wang Che; artists: Liu Chengrui, Li binyuan, Liang Shuo; December 7th – December 20th, 2022; Nujiang River, Yunnan, China
