[curatorial.net] Chinese art scene

[Joasia]

The forwarded posting from Brian Holmes links well with what earlier Zhang
Wei raised on this List ­ in particularly in relation to the issue of
specificity of Chinese art scene and globalisation, and how art institutions
operate more generally:

ŒBasically through Vitamin Creative Space, we are asking two questions: 1,
what kind of contribution can contemporary art in the Chinese context make
to the global context? 2, as an institution or agency, how can Vitamin
create an alternative model in the global context? I would like to say, our
concepts and actions related to the space are from these two questions.  For
the first question, it is about how we approach art. The word contemporary
art in China is the result of globalization, but as China has its own
cultural context, what we find interesting is that it brings a different
energy into the international art scene. (...). Regarding the second
question, what we are pushing is the idea of how an institution could be
mobile and independent? For us, the institution is not a physical space, it
is a conceptual space which can respond to different situations.¹

Perhaps a presentation delivered by Zoe Butt (Long March project, Bejing)
for the Far West seminar might help to unpack some of this ­ especially the
issue of independence of art institutions and curators within the specific
cultural and political context. Her presentation ŒEmbracing Contradiction¹
is now available as PDF text from the CN website (resources/critical texts
section).

joasia

on 28/11/07 09:45, Geoff Cox at gcox at plymouth.ac.uk wrote:

> I thought I would forward this as it relates to the recent seminar at
> Arnolfini and trip by regional curators. It is worth being reminded of the
> particular character and contradictions of the buoyant Chinese art scene and
> how art is tolerated for instrumental ends. Geoff
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
>> From: Brian Holmes <brian.holmes at wanadoo.fr>
>> Date: 28 November 2007 04:42:16 GMT
>> To: "nettime-l at kein.org" <nettime-l at kein.org>
>> Subject: Re: <nettime> Lin Yilin
>> 
>>  
>> It's excellent to read more about Lin Yilin, whose Documenta piece,
>> "Safely Maneuvering Across Lin He Road" (1995) was a great discovery for
>> me, one of the best pieces in the show. I'm just returning from Southern
>> China, and I visited the Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou where Lin
>> recently did an exhibition, more or less hidden away amidst a vegetable
>> market in an outlying district not far from the "Love-In Mall" (just
>> another typical shopping center overflowing with consumerism). I'm
>> extremely curious about the Chinese art scene and I don't quite know
>> what to make of it. 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.curatorial.net/pipermail/curatorial/attachments/20071129/8394c429/attachment-0001.html