randian | 燃点

Introduction

The 2018 Exhibition of the Annual on Contemporary Chinese art is not organized thematically, but presents a summary outlook of contemporary Chinese art in 2018, relating artistic practices, theories, exhibitions and art phenomena, etc. It is a continuation of the archival work conducted by the Chinese Modern Art Archive (CMAA) since 1986.

Contemporary Chinese art is constantly changing. Then what are the changes? Being the spiritual documentation on politics, society and culture during China’s modernization course, contemporary Chinese art is the most proactive factor in all documentations. In the contemporary era, contemporary Chinese art sets out to document radical transformation and fierce conflicts that characterize social mentality in contemporary China — not comparable to other periods in history or other regions in the world. Art can address subtle mentality and intellectual trends, but more importantly, art is creative by nature. Artists serve as the nerve endings of human society, hence problems addressed in their works and hopes they expressed are far from being merely personal, but concern humanity as a whole.

In 2018, 3,761 exhibitions and 3,984 documents have been archived in the Annual on Contemporary Chinese Art under the auspices of the MCAA, more than 14,000 artists have been registered in the Annual as well. These artists have made great contribution in terms of critically reflecting on contemporary China, their creative drives and explorations are captured in the Annual. But the Exhibition can only provide an overview that unfolds in two regards. Firstly, it designs six units to present contemporary Chinese art in 2018. Secondly, it highlights certain artists documented in the Annual for case study, deploying signature works to showcase contemporary Chinese art in 2018. Due to limited exhibition spaces and other factors, the Exhibition only includes 28 works in original. But still, it allows us to get a glimpse of the overall outlook and grasp key details. Being shown as a holistic unity at the Exhibition, the true value of artistic activities and artworks becomes crystallized. We can thus understand the contemporary world we are living in today.

We may have overlooked many things, shallow opinions and bias may have dimmed our vision and led to one-sidedness. Other factors had foiled our attempt to show certain works and publicize certain events. Nevertheless, daily entries and data statistics/surveys conducted by the Annual still provide us a referential resource. When China is undergoing radical transition today, this kind of long-term academic undertakings, wide-ranging and institutionalized, is an asset not to be traded for any personal opinion or judgment of expertise.

LaoZhu
June 25, 2019

He An:Unit 00,iron, cardboard,280×258×23cm,2015
何岸：《零号机》，铁、纸箱，280×258×23厘米，2015年

Shi Jinsong:Speak up, Gray,video installation, performance dust, plaster and chalk etc.,dimensions variable,2012-2018
史金淞：《说吧，灰色》，影像装置、行为，尘埃、石膏、粉笔等，尺寸可变，2012—2018年

Zhang Ding:Safe House #3,audio-visual installation, aluminum plate, aluminum profile, birch board, speaker, power amplifier, frequency divider, LF electrodeless lamp, wire, screw, flash disk, 5-channel sound,200 (H) ×202.4 (W) ×49.2 (L) cm×5 pieces,2018
张鼎：《安全屋3#》，灯光声音装置，铝板、铝型材、桦木板、喇叭、功放、分频器、低频无极灯、线材、螺丝、U盘、五声道声音，200（高）×202.4（宽）×49.2（长）厘米×5件，2018年

Hu Jieming:Synchrony,video,black and white, silent,3 minutes,2016
胡介鸣：《共时》，视频，黑白、无声，3分钟，2016年

刘韡：《周期》，装置，综合材料，9.4×10.8×5（高）米，2018年
Liu Wei:Period,installation,mixed materials, 9.4×10.8×5（h）m,2018