Lecture Series: Hidden Images—on the Situation of Art in China

Opening event: January 16th 2013, 7:00 pm
Hosted by: University of the Arts Berlin

Under the title Hidden Images—on the situation of Art in China the University of the Arts Berlin has invited artists, creatives and intellectuals from the People’s Republic of China to Berlin to participate in a series of events. The year-long series of talks will be in cooperation with Haus der Kulturen der Welt, which is Berlin, Germany’s, national center for the presentation and discussion of international contemporary arts, which specifically focuses on non-European cultures and societies.

Attendees will reflect on contemporary art in China, considering the many different aspects of the turbulent art scene in this huge country and place them in a social context. Together with international experts, protagonists of Chinese contemporary art will participate in a series of discussions, lectures and artists’ workshops, thus giving insight into the rapid developments in China’s most recent art history and enabling in depth engagement with Chinese art.

The discussions will take a political and poetic approach, addressing questions about the social role of the artists, as well as the artistic visions that currently move China. What forces drive art in China? What new horizons and modes of thought will our engagement with Chinese art open to us? By alternately looking at Chinese art from a European and Chinese perspective we gain views from both inside and outside, gradually revealing an unaccustomed picture that can assume many forms—the pictures behind the picture, the hidden images.

UdK Berlin has been committed to developing contacts with China for many years and in 2006 launched a joint Master’s program in Visual Arts and Design with the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. While the transfer of knowledge initially flowed in only one direction—from Germany to China—the road is now open for a two-way exchange; the appointment of Ai Weiwei as Einstein-Guest Professor at UdK Berlin being an exemplary step in that direction.

The series Hidden Images—on the situation of Art in China, instigated by Professor Martin Rennert, President of the Berlin University of the Arts, will add a new dimension to this exchange, bringing many different voices from China’s art scene to Berlin and thus allowing an open encounter and the emergence of new ideas.

The series is curated by the artists and China experts Andreas Schmid and Bignia Wehrli. The opening event will take the form of a discussion between the Chinese artist and Director of this year’s Shanghai Biennale Qiu Zhijie, the Director of Arthub Asia, Shanghai, Davide Quadrio and the author Tilman Spengler from Munich. The discussion will be led by Andreas Schmid and Bignia Wehrli.

Timeline of events:

Opening event
Hidden Images—on the Situation of Art in China?
Political and poetic panel discussion about the tension between contemporary art and society in China.
Time: January 16th 2013, 7:00 pm
Location: Einsteinufer 43-53, Berlin-Charlottenburg
Speakers:
Professor Martin Rennert, President of UdK Berlin
Qiu Zhijie, artist/chief curator for the 2012 Shanghai Biennal
Davide Quadrio, Arthub Asia, Shanghai
Tilman Spengler, author, Munich
Moderators:
Andreas Schmid and Bignia Wehrli, artists and project team, Berlin
Jazz-Institute Berlin
** English with simultaneous translation in German will be provided

Monuments and Memory
Topic: The artist Qiu Zhijie provides insights into his rich artistic work. The subsequent discussion with Davide Quadrio will be devoted to the concept of this year’s Shanghai Biennale 2012.
Time: 17 January 2013, 7:00 pm
Location: Theatersaal, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, Berlin
Speakers:
Qiu Zhijie, artist/chief curator for the 2012 Shanghai Biennale
Davide Quadrio, Arthub Asia, Shanghai
** Chinese with simultaneous translation in English will be provided

The Movement ‘85 and the Modern Consciousness—The Chinese Avant-garde? 1980 to 1990
Topic: Participant observers of the so called Movement ‘85 will give an insider view of the Chinese avant-garde art movement of the 1980’s. Both studied in the most vigorous centers of the new art movement in the mid-1980’s, in Bejing and Hangzhou. They will discuss the historical background as well as the political and social backdrop of the Chinese avant-garde from the perspective of an art historian and an artist enriched with their personal experience.
Time: January 30th 2013, 5:00 pm
Location: UdK Berlin, Hardenbergstrasse 33, Raum 110
Speakers:
Andreas Schmid, artist, Berlin
Martina Köppel-Yang, art historian, Paris

Acceleration and Upheaval in China—the Art of the 90’s
Topic: The nineties were a particularly exciting time for contemporary art in China. This was the era when “Cynical Realism” and “Political Pop” were born, but also when an “invisible” art was emerging in artists’ circles of which the public was scarcely aware. The two participant-observers look at this seam of “invisible” art, which is the backbone of conceptual practice in China today and at the first steps of Chinese contemporary art on the international art scene.
Time: February 13th 2013, 5:00 pm
Location: UdK Berlin, Hardenbergstrasse 33, Raum 110
Speakers:
Marianne Brouwer, curator, Netherlands
Karen Smith, curator, Beijing/Xian

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