[curatorial.net] from zhang wei

[Zhang Wei]

Hi Everybody,



This is zheng wei from Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou, China, and I am
undertaking a curatorial residency with Arnolfini and Relational, Bristol as
part of the curatorial network program. Vitamin creative space was
co-founded by an artist, art critic and myself 6 years ago. It is a
privately funded organization. The structure of the space includes an art
projects programme and commercial gallery. In terms of our structure and
activities, I would like you to visit our website:
www.vitamincreativespace.com so I won't introduce too much here. But I would
like to share with you some more concepts about the space.

Basically 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 fing interesting is that it brings a
different energy into the international art scene. We are expecially
interested to make research about the abstract and spiritual sensation based
in the artists art practice, and we are also working on the philosophical
roots of these art practices through the artists Vitamin Creative Space is
working with and also Vitamin programs.

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. Based on this idea, we have a second apartment space in
Beijingfor thoughts, conversations and also for presenting artists'
ideas, because
that is what the contemporary art scene in Beijing needs right now. We also
work with Het Domein Musuem from Sittard in Holland on the idea of exploring
the institution. We have set up a three-year project which is called Made in
Mirror. The project involves a Vitamin program for Het Domein Musuem and
also Het Domein Musuem makes programs for Vitamin. But these programs do not
need to happen in the museum, it is more likely they happen in the city or
area where these two institutions are located. We also curate shows for
other institutions. The most important is that we are also participating in
art fairs, Basel art fair, Frieze art Fair and Basel Miami art fair.
Commercial art activity is a very important practice for Vitamin to examine
our ideas. For us, the most important question is how the commercial art
gallery can be transformed into an art institution, which can make the
institution more independent.

Above is a very abstract introduction and if anybody is interested in the
ideas, we can continue the discussions. My contact is
zhangwei at vitamincreativespace.com.

Best

Zhang Wei
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.curatorial.net/pipermail/curatorial/attachments/20071024/a83642fa/attachment.html