arthub | 40+4, Art is not enough! Not Enough! or the Making of the Arts in Shanghai (‘80’s-2008). Artists interviews

3/1/08

The multimedia installation draws on interviews made by the curator with forty artists in Shanghai, who consider questions about the role of the artist, their relationship with the external world, the social consequences of their work and the international market’s effect on traditional modes of artistic production.. This presentation offers a dynamic anthropological insight into the urban panorama of modern Shanghai.

Introduction

What the situation of Shanghai artistic development, what are the positions of artists in all that? How do artists perceive themselves in this fast changing context and art economy? We put together a series of questions, personal, public, irreverent and naïve, to understand what is going on in the mind of the artists, who are the pillar stones of the contemporary art scene in Shanghai, especially in the wake of an alienating globalization and commercialization? After 10 years in the Shanghai art scene, Davide Quadrio embarked on an interview project, with artists from all streams of art-making, not only the avant-garde, but also the traditional, official or academic scene, presenting a cross section of the art scene in Shanghai. A number of the select artists are museum directors, and others are teachers.

This project adopted a sort of sociological approach and undertook a research to discover whether this uneasiness was deep-rooted in or shared by Shanghai artists.

And so, together with Lothar Spree, Zhu Xiaowen, and Xu Jie – the last of whom in the role of professional interviewer – 40+4 probed the relationship between the artists, their work, and the evolution of contemporary art in Shanghai over the last two decades. : Forty artists and the four people got involved in the research project, for a total of forty-four, the number which, in Chinese, sounds like the translation of “double death, “ which recalls a quite common tongue twister in the language (13). Indeed, all the connotations of the number forty-four seemed to us to be ironically appropriate for defining the heart and soul of our project.

All the 40 artists interviewed were asked the same questions, each of which was printed on a flashcard, and there were twenty-seven cards in all, divided into four colors, along with a set bearing famous quotations about art made by historical figures. The interview got underway with four general and autobiographical questions about the artist (grey cards), and moved on to questions that were philosophical or psychological (blue cards), followed by questions that were of a political or sociological nature (green cards), and winding up with questions about art as a product (red cards). The conversation ended with the artist choosing one last card from the pack containing dozens of quotations (light green cards) by various personalities, concerning the meaning of art. The artist was asked to comment on the card he or she had drawn out loud, and propose a personalized version of the quote if he or she so desired. The interview/conversation lasted an average of 30 to 45 minutes, and occasionally a whole hour.

A painstaking editing process resulted in a composition in which the image flicker at a hypnotic pace that perfectly reflects the view of the contemporary art and culture scene in Shanghai: its fragmentation and continuous becoming. By way of this “forced” conversation, the artists’ narratives attempt an analysis of the history of contemporary art from the nineteen-eighties to the present, as they reflect on the condition of the urban artist, the ties existing between contemporary Chinese art and its past, as well as in relations to the world history of art; and the art market and the state of art criticism in China. By means of a presentation designed to unfold on four screens, the film’s narrative presents not only the individual artists, but also the collective point of view of the forty subjects interviewed: a vision of artistic Shanghai that isn’t “me, myself, and I.”

The presentation of this project for eArt represents an open dialogue of the artistic community to the city- a vis a vis discourse that will bring reflections, happiness and frustration, critical analyses of the cultural development of the city in the last 15 years or so.
For this occasion, 40+4 is shown in two different format: the 4 screens format are displayed on 4 screens in the Xujiahui Park while a new edited version created ad hoc for the festival is presented on the LED screens on the commercial buildings that surround Xujiahui Square.

Artists Interviewed include: Shen Fan, Zhang Enli, Shi Yong, Yu Youhan, Zhou Tiehai, Huang Yuanqing, Xu Zhen, Huang Kui, Yang Fudong, Lu Chunsheng, Liang Yue, Liu Jianhua, Li Shan, Zhang Ding, Tang Maohong, Wang Xingwei, Song Tao, Lao Jin Feng, Hu Jieming, Xiang Liqing, Yang Zhenzhong, Ding Yi, Luo Yongjin, Qiu Anxiong, Xu Longbao, Wang Tiande, Zhu Julan , Song Haidong , Gu Wenda, Li Xiangyang, Gong Yan , Li Lei, Liu Dahong, Wang Nanming , Yu Xiaofu , Zhang Peicheng , Xia Haicun , Qiu Dexiu , Yang Hui