230 hong kong tatler. september 2017
LIFE | ART
beginning of its engagement with the wider
world. Art and China takes its cue from
that.” It does so by showcasing artists born
between the 1950s and ’70s—Guangzhou-
based multimedia performer Cao Fei,
born in 1978, is the youngest participating
artist—including major names such as Ai
Weiwei, Cai Guo-Qiang, Liu Xiaodong,
Zhang Peili, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, although
“its structure is much more work-based than
artist-based,” Tinari says. “We wanted the
story to grow from the artworks and not
from the artists. The show is about the most
significant trends, ideas and dynamics in each
period, and the objects that represent them.”
Divided into six chronological and
thematic sections—chapters, as Munroe
calls them—and accompanied by archival
material documenting and contextualising
key moments, the works in Art and China
are predominantly experimental, spanning
film and video, ink, installation, painting,
sculpture, photography, performance, and
socially engaged participatory art and
activism. “They spotlight less-known aspects
of contemporary practice in China,” says
Hou, “while aiming to highlight its constant
contact with the world, be it the exposure toCHRONICLING
CHANGES
The Guggenheim
show draws a
connection between
contemporary
Chinese art and
global issues,
framing the former
as an integral part
of the wider art
movement.
Clockwise from
bottom right: A still
from Yu Hong’s film
“The Days” (2001);
Deng Xiaoping’s
Tour in the South of
China, by Yu Hong,
published in China
Pictorial (1992);
Wang Xingwei’s
New Beijing (2001)
IMAGES: WANG XINGWEI, NEW BEIJING, 2001, COURTESY GUGGENHEIM ABU DHABI; YU HONG, DENG XIAOPING’S TOUR IN THE SOUTH OF CHINA “CHINA PICTORIAL,” P. 2, NO. 6, 1992,AND 1992, TWENTY-SIX YEARS OLD, A STILL OF THE FILM “THE DAYS,” 2001, FROM WITNESS TO GROWTH, 1999–PRESENT, COURTESY OF THE ARTISTArt and China after 1989: Theatre of the World
runs from October 6 to January 7 at the Solomon R
Guggenheim Museum in New York. guggenheim.orgWestern notions in the early 1990s or the utopian,
internet-influenced social projects that characterise
much of the 2000s.”
A glance at the oeuvre on display confirms the
show’s focus on experimentation. The piece the
show takes its title from, Huang Yong Ping’s Theatre
of the World (1993), is a large octagonal cage-like
installation that houses thousands of live scorpions,
beetles and other insects that devour each other
over the course of the show. A video by the artist
duo Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, Dogs That Cannot
Touch Each Other (2003), features eight pit bulls
on non-motorised treadmills arranged in pairs face
to face but half a metre apart so they can never
touch. Throughout the performance piece, the dogs
constantly try to leap at one another, as if trying to
attack or chase their opposite number.
“Contemporary Chinese art has gone from
marginalisation to legalisation, mainstreaming, and,
in recent years, marketisation,” says Sun Yuan. “The
Guggenheim show investigates each and every one of
these phases. We’re thrilled to be part of it.”
It’s perhaps fitting that such an avant-garde show
is to take place in a space as unique as the Frank
Lloyd Wright-designed museum. “The structure of
the Guggenheim has been a central aspect in the
planning of the show,” Munroe says. “I always say
that the building is a curator’s best editor. We’ve
worked around its spiral ramp, scrapped certain
pieces because they wouldn’t work in the unfolding
of the exhibition as we conceived it, or the general
spatial setting. But I think the challenge turned into
an advantage; it helped us really consider each object
or installation.”
Between frenzied dogs and vicious scorpions,
Art and China promises to leave quite a mark on
museum-goers and the art world at large, not only in
New York but also in Bilbao and San Francisco, where
it will travel next year. Ultimately, however, the three
curators’ main wish is that the show will offer a more
layered understanding of China and its art.
“Some people still think of China as a gulag, or
a superpower that is going to overtake America
militarily and economically, or as a backward
civilisation,” says Munroe. “These three ideas
sometimes coexist even in the mind of very highly
educated individuals. We want to introduce
the nuances, the complexity, and the genius of
contemporary art in China, as well its criticality
within the global context. If we manage to make
people smarter, more curious and more connected
to Chinese artists of this period, we’ll have created a
fundamental legacy with this show.”