Qiu Zhijie and Shanghai Biennale Curatorial Summit

View Qiu Zhijie at work: 26th to 28th of June 2012, from 12:00 to 6:00 pm
Exhibition Opening: Thursday, 28th of June 2012, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm
Shanghai Biennale Curatorial Summit: Thursday, June 28th 2012, 6:00 pm

Director Qiu Zhijie will present his works, Blueprints (2012) as part of the Prompts and Triggers project in Witte de With, Rotterdam.

Artist and cosmos-builder Qiu Zhijie (邱志杰; b. 1969, Fujian Province, China) draws from major political and historical narratives to produce large-scale ink-based maps and diagrams. From Confucianism to Enlightenment, Qiu Zhijie charts new paths, centers, nodes and relationships, scrutinizing the mutable boundaries that outline histories of world thought.

Qiu Zhijie developed these series of mappings of the contemporary world based on several concepts that are summarized in the following maps: Map of 21st century; Map of Utopia; Map of Total Art; Map of Chinese History; Map of Nanjing Yangzi River and Map of Spirit Renew.

Shanghai Biennale Curatorial Summit

Following a presentation (in the form of a guided tour) by artist and Artistic Director of the 9th Shanghai Biennale Qiu Zhijie, this event brings together Shanghai Biennale city pavilion curators to discuss and make transparent their thoughts behind the themes of the Biennale.

Participants include: Davide Quadrio (Director, Arthub Asia), Henk Slager (Head of the Utrecht Graduate School of Visual Art and Design), Jens Hoffmann (Director, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Fransisco), Laura Barreca (Curator), Defne Ayas (Director, Witte de With, Rotterdam) and Boris Groys (curator and Global Distinguished Professor at New York University and Senior Research Fellow at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design), with Charles Esche (Director, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven) as a respondent.