The “Looking back” series is the first thematic activity after the establishment of UP-ON Upward Performance Art Archive, and it will be a long-term project that will continue to be promoted.
Through organizing dialogues and discussions among experts and scholars, “Looking back” reviews the history of performance art in different regions of the world, with the intention of looking back at the history in order to have a more macroscopic conception of the future.
The first three sessions of Warming Up were devoted to a review of the performance art that took place in Chengdu. From the fourth session onwards, we moved our sights away from Chengdu and towards Xinjiang. The plan to focus on regions other than Chengdu was definite, but the choice of Xinjiang was somewhat accidental. The reason for this was that due to the epidemic, most of the guests from abroad were unable to travel, and Zeng Qunkai happened to have moved to Chengdu. He had done a thorough compilation and research on contemporary art in Xinjiang, so it was a natural choice.
In the course of combing through the information before the sharing session, we not only lamented the spectacular quantity and quality of Xinjiang’s performance art, but were also surprised to find that performance art had already sprouted in Xinjiang as early as 1988. Although artist Ma Yongliang’s actions at the opening of his own solo exhibition were not claimed to be performance art, and there is no documentation to show that he ever created anything of the sort again, the action itself was strongly characterized as performance art, and was enough to influence those who wanted to engage in performance art. In the 1990s, Yang Keqin, a female artist from Xinjiang, created performance art, but only a few words and descriptions of her work have been found, and it is difficult to find pictures of her work. The artist herself moved to the U.S. around 2000, and although it is still possible to find some interviews with her, it is not easy to find her in person, so I hope to have the opportunity to meet her in person, learn about her performance art in the 1990s, and be able to add graphic information to the archives.
After 2000, although the number of people creating performance art in Xinjiang was limited, it was a continuous process that has continued to take place until today. Compared to the state of performance art in Chengdu, the creation of performance art in Xinjiang mainly took place within the art circle and did not interact well with the ecology of the city as a whole; however, its unique style of work, as well as the influence of the artists’ creations outside of Xinjiang, has determined that performance art in Xinjiang is an important section of China’s performance art history that cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, it has been neglected for a long time.
Mr. Zeng Qunkai‘s sharing session lasted for more than two hours and was very informative, providing a comprehensive analysis of the regional context in which Xinjiang’s performance art took place, in terms of history, culture, politics and religion. This helped us to interpret the value and significance of the artworks and exhibition activities more fluently. The logic of his narration is thorough and rigorous, and the information is abundant and detailed, so it is obvious that he has done some homework in advance. His rigor is admirable.
The focus of the series of sharing sessions is to reflect on the history of performance art development in different regions of the world, and to take a comprehensive and holistic view of the development of performance art in the region, rather than analyzing and interpreting specific artists and works. The aim is to systematically collect as much rich and detailed performance art information as possible through the sharing sessions. These materials will then be categorized and filed, properly stored, and become public assets for readers and researchers to use. Here, we would like to thank Mr. Zeng Qunkai once again for donating a large amount of collected literature on Xinjiang performance art to the archive!
Mr. Zhou Bin presented a collection certificate to Mr. Zeng Qunkai.
Since its inception in February 2022, the Archives has been planning and organizing events while refurbishing. Warming Up Sharing Sessions As the first project of the Archives, four installments have been done so far. It is generally satisfactory but there are some problems, which will be constantly corrected as we work. Thank you for your attention, correction and support. There is a long way to come, so let’s work together!
