The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie: Contemporary Visions on China

Opening media preview: November 9th, 2012
Exhibition: November 9th to 30th, 2012

Location: Yi and C, Lane 252, Section 1, Tun Hua S. Road, Taipei, Taiwan
Artrans, No. 61 Lane 106, Ankang Road Neihu District, Taipei, Taiwan

For full schedule please see below.

Contemporary Art has been developed in the last two decades as a matter of business, of economic assets, objects and tastes. Treated as a targeted status symbol, it has continued to flourish despite the economic crisis, engendering transactions and attracting aficionados and collectors worldwide. This is not an issue that necessarily implies a positive or a negative connotation, nor it is set apart from the traditional modalities by which artworks have been produced and sold in the past centuries.

However, the proportion and the inflation of the market in the last 20 years should indeed be considered as a new phenomenon. In the Asian bourgeois-fied society, Contemporary Art is still positioned in a grey zone, a certain bleary place located in between the decorative taste, the investment and a certain self-image building process. It is also a blending of layers, composed by a long collectivism tradition that is now clashing with the up-and-coming globalized internationalization.

Contemporary Art in Asia is strictly engaged with a superficial spectacle of the Western world, perceived in the East as the product of a baroque-like golden past, mixed with contemporary sophistication. This perception is then expressed by the aim of self-awareness and the aspiration of achieving a mature artistic taste, typical of nouveau riche societies.

The acceptance and absorption of modernization and its symbols has been mirrored over the last decades by the rapid development of venues featuring contemporary art, most of them highly influenced by the Western white box concept. Hence the artworks are presented in abstract architectural constructions that somehow alienate them, or, as some people would say, allow them to be displayed in a professional environment.

For several years now I have been flirting with the idea of exhibiting art in an alternative kind of space, not per se a gallery or a museum. The Chinese and the East Asian tradition in general, share a very particular way of showcasing artworks. It is a matter of private spaces, intimate places for the small community of friends and family members. It is conceptually thought of as a place where furniture, decoration, art, books, tea and music are all a part of the same empirical experience.

This consideration is of course general and quite superficial, but certainly describes an extant situation that is worth highlighting, especially in China where the cultural sphere is still touched by the legacies of a millenary culture. This exhibition curated by Rudy Tzeng in collaboration with Davide Quadrio (Arthub Asia) and with the curatorial assistance of Jenny Lee is an attempt to transport contemporary art from China within this context, sharing an “intimacy” and private space with the world, far away from the white box experience.

To further challenge this standardized platform of artistic showcasing, the exhibition is divided in two main sections/spaces. The first, Yi and C, is located in the heart of Taipei city and will present works by MadeIn, Yang Fudong, Charwei Tsai, Julika Rudelius, Yang Zhenzhong, Heman Chong, Liu Jianhua, Li Jun, Geng Jianyi, Qiu Zhijie, Jiang Pengyi, Chen Zhou and Zhou Xiaohu. These artworks are directly related with the home space, trying to challenge and powerfully engage with this place of decoration. The War Art Company, in charge of the installation, has been invited by the curatorial duo to collaborate in this process, as far as they can with the artists who are in some cases (Zhang Enli and Chen Zhou for instance) producing site-specific works.

The second venue, Artrans, a new stunning facility located in Neihu that will be used for Fine Art storage, is the place to comment on the previous section, via monumental works by Yang Zhenzhong and Zhang Peili and minimalist works by Li Ran, Jiang Pengyi, Heman Chong and Francesco Simeti. The works presented here deal with issues connected to private, social, transitional and psychological spaces that bring the exhibition to a much abstract and universal level of interpretation.

Some of the works will be presented in this venue as a continuation of the furniture shop experience, decontextualized from the previous existence in the shop and presented in the white box space here to defy their artistic value and existence even more. The exhibition will be later recorded in a complementary catalogue that will critically develop the questions above further, and hopefully bring art from within China into a more diversified context, more human and closer to the Asian sensitivity for art and its fruition.

This exhibition is an occasion to present three generations of artists from China, but also international artists who are connected to Chinese culture via broader multifaceted experiences. So, this show is not a Chinese show, it is a show on China and its diversified artists’ developments and directions. China becomes a platform of artistic experimentation, a place that is still under construction and, for this reason, open to new models, ideas and structures of the contemporary, perception and value.

We would like to take this occasion to thank all the artists and the galleries that have been supportive of this project and that took the challenge of presenting their works (some) for the very first time in Taiwan, together with Rudy Tseng, Jenny Lee, Lorries Chang, Angela Yi, Amber Hsieh, Mao, Guang Ming Lin and others, for their professionalism and continuous support.

Scheduled Events:

Opening Reception:
5:00 to 8:00 pm at Yi and C (Part One)
8:30 to 10:30 pm at Artrans (Part Two)
A shuttle bus will run between Yi and C, which is located downtown, and Artrans.

For more information please call or email:
Yi and C Telephone: (02) 2776-6628
Artrans Telephone: (02) 2794-0102
E-mail: info3@yi8c.com