History Lessons: Reflections on OCAT Publishing
Curators: Fang Lihua and Li Rongwei
Artists: Liu Ding, Qin Jin, Qiu Anxiong, Shu Qun, Wang Junyi, Xu Tan and Zhou Li
Alternatives to Ritual: A Case Study of Shenzhen OCT Contemporary Art Terminal
Curator: Biljana Ciric
Project Participants: Nikita Yingqian Cai, Ying Kwok, Hu Yun, Li Ran and Liu Shiyuan
Shenzhen OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT) is proud to present two exhibitions that were opened simultaneously on January 26 and are running until March 26, 2013. The exhibition in OCAT Hall A is History Lessons: Reflections on OCAT Publishing, which reappraises and presents the publications that OCAT has conceived, edited and published since 2005. The exhibition in OCAT Hall B is Alternatives to Ritual: A Case Study of Shenzhen OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, which treats OCAT as the typical art organization in the current Chinese context to engage in a discussion of the issues shared by organizations and artistic practices.
On the occasion of its eighth anniversary, OCAT has invited two young curators from its staff, Fang Lihua and Li Rongwei, to engage in research and presentation of the various publications OCAT has produced over the years, focusing on the long term practices and research of various artists in a project titled History Lessons: Reflections on OCAT Publishing. This is a case of an organization practicing self-evaluation and self-recognition. Meanwhile, we are honored to invite Shanghai-based independent curator Biljana Ciric to bring her touring project Alternatives to Ritual to Shenzhen OCAT. She has invited artists and curators to approach OCAT as a case study in the discussion and presentation of the creative practices of art organizations, and the possibilities for self-expression and self-definition.
As a project conceived to study and reflect on OCAT publications, History Lessons: Reflections on OCAT Publishing focuses not only on our publications but also on further exploration of the relationships between publication, exhibitions and research, including the relationships between contemporary artworks, research, writing, translation and historical material that are touched on in the publications themselves. This project will engage in a new discussion on knowledge production from the perspective of the overall art system, in hopes that this discussion can elicit further reflection and thinking among fellow art professionals about the practice of contemporary art publishing.
Alternatives to Ritual began in the open space at the Shanghai Goethe institute in the autumn of 2012. At OCAT, this exhibition project aims to establish a working method through a series of experiments, fostering closer cooperation among all levels of the organization’s team. This includes sharing every facet of the OCAT working environment, including components that are rarely opened to the public, such as collections, document archives and library, so that the exhibition can challenge the traditional subject-object relationships between organizations, curators and artists.
OCAT Publishes
Shenzhen OCAT launched the project of OCAT Library in the autumn of 2012, initiating and organizing a series of conversations, lectures, screenings and roundtable discussions in relation to OCAT’s exhibitions and projects, compiling transcriptions from some of these events into publications. Upcoming publications include Alexander Kojève as a Thinker (Boris Groys) and Rasheed Araeen in Shenzhen (Rasheed Araeen).
We will publish Individual Experiences: Dialogues and Narratives of Chinese Contemporary Art from 1989 to 2000 (Liu Ding, Carol Yinghua Lu and Su Wei, Eds.). The first part of this publication comprises texts of discussions that Liu Ding, Carol Yinghua Lu and Su Wei held with artists, curators and critics regarding their work from 1989 to 2000 in preparation for the Seventh Shenzhen Sculpture Biennial. The second part of this publication consists of lectures given during the Seventh Shenzhen Sculpture Biennial by seven contemporary artists on their creative practices since the 1990s.
