On April 19th, the exhibition of Wang Jianwei’s new work “Hostage”, a “maverick” in China’s contemporary art world, was grandly opened in Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition attracted a great deal of attention from the art world and academia. On the opening day, the Zendai Museum of Modern Art was crowded, with many well-known curators, art critics, theorists, and even philosophers and historians gathering at the exhibition site, and many young viewers clustered around the artist, Wang Jianwei, asking questions one after another.
Shen Qibin, director of the Zendai Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai, said that Wang Jianwei is not an artist who can be easily categorized. He has a unique way of thinking about and expressing his experiences, relationships, and systems of knowledge and cognition, and it is for this reason that he always pays attention to and presents uncertainty and existential uncertainty in his creations and thoughts, which constitutes a kind of methodology for his creations. This is also the reason why “Zendai” was inspired to come to him, to see him and to cooperate with him.
At present, the speed of development in China is phenomenal, like a speeding train. There is no denying the impact that China’s dramatic changes have had on the world over the past 20 years. In this new era, it is necessary to take a few steps back and examine the current reality of China, to look at its myths from both an internal and an external point of view. 2008 is a year in which China’s reality is situated in the midst of a complex set of relationships, which are characterized by facts, but also by prejudices, misunderstandings, myths and denials. The influence of the arts is based on the international context, on political, economic and cross-social conditions and material foundations. On the one hand, China has produced a large number of extraordinary artists over the past two decades; on the other hand, research and organization have lagged behind, with little discussion of the progress of Chinese culture and art in the context of China’s re-emergence, and little exploration of what might or will come out of it.
Wang Jianwei’s creative thinking raises a number of thought-provoking questions about the relationship between art and culture. According to curator Ms. Huangfu Binghui, Wang Jianwei is a sober and critical artist. As a result, the exhibition organizer, Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art, organized a grand academic forum on the second day of the exhibition, titled “What is Possible? –The Current Status of China’s Cultural Development and the Possibility of Future Development”. Ullens Center for the Arts director Jerome Sans, Chinese cultural and intellectual historian (member of the Australian Academy of Humanities and director of the Chinese Cultural Heritage Project) Jieming Bai, Dutch independent curator Marianna Brauva, director of the OCT Center for Contemporary Art at the Hexiangning Museum of Art Huang Zhuan, curatorial director of the Beijing Yishi Culture Communication Company Shi Jian, and philosopher and art critic Wang Minan were among the dozens of participants from the cultural, academic and art circles at home and abroad. The forum was attended by more than ten experts, scholars and artists from the cultural, academic and art circles at home and abroad.
The forum addressed the role of contemporary art in culture and the relationship between art and other disciplines and practices. By revisiting theories of art and culture through a series of broader philosophical propositions, and by addressing a variety of cultural and social issues that need to be explored, it was possible to look at the ways in which art constructs relationships between different domains (cultures, communities, disciplines). According to the organizers, this forum will be the beginning of a dialogue for all those who want to know more about all aspects of China, so that the world can understand this awakening dragon of the East.
Wang Jianwei has been active in the Chinese art world since the late 1970s, and is currently the only Chinese artist to have participated in the most important international exhibitions, including Documenta in Kassel (Germany), the Venice Biennale (Italy), and the São Paulo Biennale (Brazil). He is currently the only artist in China who has participated in the three most important international exhibitions, “Documenta” in Kassel, Germany, “Venice Biennale” in Italy and “Sao Paulo Biennale” in Brazil. Wang Jianwei’s works are cross-media and interdisciplinary. Installation, video and other forms of artistic expression are almost always present in the same work. The visual effect of his works transcends aesthetics and is shocking. He specializes in using real-life figurative materials to explore abstract ideas. Therefore, some people call him “installation artist” and “video artist”, while others call him “director artist” and “space artist”. Others call him “director artist” and “space artist”.
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