Art, inevitably, is an integral part of all that. As part of the city’s urban planning, in the past few years art activities from all over the globe have been “diverted” to different specific areas of the city in a highly precise manner. Such “diversion” no longer appears as some kind of violent interference. Rather, under the guidance on the finance and policy levels, such activities in fact become an integral element of the cultural and economic planning under the global context, networking the seemingly connected but actually isolated individuals and institutes. Moreover, as David Harvey pointed out in his Rebel Cities: from the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution,“capital has ways to appropri­ate and extract surpluses from local differences, local cultural variations, and aesthetic meanings of no matter what origin.” The flexibility of capital is constantly digesting the locality and individuality of artistic practice, making them become more and more stable and controllable.

How can art workers, or in Antonio Negri’s words the “artists as precarious workers” or “precarious workers as artists” make cracks within the fog of invisible control and illusory diversities, criticize, practice and invent autonomous and genuine mobility and connection? As art space and public/labor space that cannot be deprived from social productive relations, what role should art museum play? The above two interconnected questions constitute a point of departure for curating this exhibition.

The exhibition will occupy both the internal and external space of the Ming Contemporary Art Museum, invite artists and the public to join, and turn it into a site brimming with a constant sense of presence, and precarious sense of production, conflicts, negotiation and interaction. The first part of the exhibition consists of three mobility-related projects and will occupy the outdoor space of the museum. Guerrilla Living Syndrome!initiated by Ma Yongfeng investigates the social actions and practices of “alternative living practice” and “guerrilla architecture”, and explores for the possibility of a kind of guerrilla-like, flexible and time-based living practice through the unique contribution by each participant. Uncut, a radio project launched by the artist, will be used as a promotion station for the project. Weed Party: Kindred (new commission) by Zheng Bo is a continuation of his “Weed Party” project. By transplanting the weeds around the museum to the elevator inside Shanghai Paper Machinery Factory (former site of the museum), the artist will write and read letters about the weed together with public, juxtaposing the ordinary and obscure plants in the same space with the people on the move. Said to Contain is a long-term and ongoing project collectively initiated by Bojan Djordjev, Laura Kalauz, Maja Leo, Christopher Kriese, Lisa Schröter and Miriam Walther Kohn in 2016, aiming to re-trace the global trading mechanism. Following the investigation and presentation in Hamburg and Buenos Aires, Said to Contain will conduct a two-month field research in Shanghai and present workshops, rehearsals and performance during the process.

The second part of the exhibition consists of the projects by Abraham Cruzvillegas, Haig Aivazian, Zhao Zhao, Marta Popivoda and Shi Qing. Abraham Cruzvillegas’The Water Trilogy 1: Ichárhuta: Autodefensión Approximante Vibrante Retroflexe pays attention to the significant decrease of the water level of Lake Pátzcuaro, one of the three major lakes in Mexico, as well as the that are on the verge of disappearance. Haig Aivazian’s film How Great You Are O Son of Desert!, links the figure of football star Zinedine Zidane to the collective figure of “inner city” youth from the France’s Sensitive Urban Zones (Z.U.S) by combining press archives, with drawings and infographics created by the artist. His Installation 1440 Sunsets per 24 Hours treats the lighting system as a double-edged sword to expose, highlight or conceal the subject, and probes into how it works to control the brightness of public space as well as the stadiums. Also, the artist will present an audio visual lecture entitled AntiWorld: On Seeing Double on site, which starts from the three explosions near France’s national sports stadium, the Stade de France, move onto the past and future of surveillance technology, and discuss about how we are constructed and de-constructed either collectively or individually by the intersecting gazes of law, capital and machines. Zhao Zhao’s Taklamakan Project, on the other hand, intends to probe into the issue of locality and social identity in a broader sense with a personal touch. A work Camel, inspired by his recent exhibition Desert, Camel will also be on view at the exhibition. Marta Popivoda’s project Mass Ornament ＃1-3 endeavors to ponder upon the relationship between ideologies, grand narration, democratic politics and individuals through a revisit from the national/mass activities of the former Yugoslavian countries to the protests, demonstrations, celebrations and other large-scale social and cultural activities all over the world nowadays. During the opening period, Popivoda’s film Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body will be premiered at the museum. Shi Qing’s Lu Xun Zoo (new commission) develops around the last ten years of Lu Xun in Shanghai. Borrowing the intricate relation between the left-wing literature and Lu Xun in the 1930s in Shanghai as a metaphor, the work intends to offer an alternative way to interpret, and to overturn, fold and integrate desires, radical politics and contemporary art landscape.

The third part of the exhibition starts from Social Sensibility R&D Department, connecting Li Xiaofei’s Assembly Line Project, Payne Zhu’s 赖克/LIKE, Sam Hopkins’GZ Calling and Paper Tiger Studio’s 500 Meter. Social Sensibility R&D Department is an art department affiliated to Bernard Controls, a multinational industrial company. Founded by Alessandro Rolandi in 2012, the department is run by artists Zhao Tianji and Blandine De la Taille in Beijing and Paris respectively. The program will invite artists to stay at the factory as resident participant and work in collaboration with the workers. In producing artworks, the artists-workers intervened with the everyday relations of production of the factory on a deep level. Social Sensibility R&D will continue their production during the period of the exhibition inside the Ming Contemporary Art Museum, and foster interaction between Beijing, Shanghai and Paris. Assembly Line Project is an ongoing project initiated by Li Xiaofei in 2010. The artist has continuously taken pictures of more than 100 factories of all types and all over the world. The presentation of the photographs of the Assembly Line Project intends to investigate the assembly line that is beyond order and hence invisible – in other words, the standardization of capital factory, consumer society, social progress and values as well as the reality that human beings are faced with when they are situated in a highly systematic and institutionalized environment. Payne Zhu’s 赖克/LIKE manages to create a new brand by using a symbol very much alike Nike’s logo, which even gives rise to a series of advertisements and products. He endeavors to probe into issues behind so-called brand, such as identity, colonization, poverty, consumption and dream-making marketing strategy, through LIKE Football, LIKE Marathon, Competition of Spokesperson and LIKE Investment(new commission). Sam Hopkins and David Lalé’s GZ Calling casts light on the life of the Africans who have immigrated to Guangzhou, a strategic gateway of the South-South Trade, due to the influence of globalization. From an outsider’s perspective, GZ Calling leads audience to take a look at the African community in Guangzhou:“a world within world” that is mysterious and somewhat resistant to the outside world, as well as some unique customs formed by these diasporas.500 Meters-Kafka, Great Wall, Image from the Unreal World and Daily Heroism is a theatre performance co-produced by director Tian Gebing and dramaturgist Christoph Lepschy. Based on Kafka’s novel of The Great Wall of China, the play intends to explore the intricacies among individual, state will and collective construction. The performance was previously premiered at the Hamburg Theater der Welt 2017 and Ming Contemporary Art Museum respectively. As a continuation of the project, a space named 500 Meters- The Further Back They Are in Time, The More Terrible All Their Colours Glow(new commission) that will gradually be destructed during the exhibition will be constructed for the exhibition.

In the meantime, the exhibition intends to reflect upon the function of both the exhibition itself as well as the venue where it takes place, the art museum. Through Fong Fo’s Fong Fo Forever Advertisements (new commission), the curator and the artists review and reevaluate the dubious promotional information, images and institutionalized exhibition design developed from exhibition-related texts. During the exhibition, the museum will turn into a lieu for daily activities. On the opening day, Bojan Djordjev’s theatre performance The Discreet Charm of Marxism will invite audience to join a six-course dinner party consisting of contemporary Marxist theories. When the performance comes to an end, the theatre will be transformed into a self-service canteen. Circus: Thought Struggle 2017.11(new commission), a long-term project initiated by Zhao Chuan and Chen Jianhe, manages to place personal space into the public space of the exhibition. The artists will live and work here during the exhibition period, probing into the multilayer activities of “thought” and its performative nature, and searching for the energy for individuals to resist/overturn within public space.

To connect what is beyond connection, art museum = market, sports stadium, theatre, square and battlefield.

Venue: Taikang Space

Artistic director: Tang Xin

Curators: Su Wenxiang, Li Jia

Artists: Polit-Sheer-Form

【Exhibition Briefing】

Taikang Space is pleased to present the grand opening of “Polit-Sheer-Form Meeting: The 10th Anniversary of Polit-Sheer-Form” on December 12, 2015 in the Caochangdi art village. As an artist group, “Polit-Sheer-Form” presents its new project, “Polit-Sheer-Form Meeting” based at Taikang Space, during the period of the next 40 days, the group will provide various free business services in the form of “eat, drink and play” to people from all walks of life, and the services will terminate on January 23, 2016.

On this occasion, Taikang Space will transform into a temporary space of gathering, as it provides the activities of any “gathering” through “eat, drink and play” to everyone to “meet”. Taikang Space and Polit-Sheer-Form invite any group, organization, social committees and individuals to host their own meetings at “Polit-Sheer-Form Meeting”, offering services such as “hotpot meetings”, “cold meal meetings” and other food and drink services, as well as a scope of entertainments such as, ping-pong games, film screening, Karaoke, foot massages and etc. Polit-Sheer-form’s everyday objects, created pieces made in the last decade, as well as souvenir items for the 10th anniversary will be shown on the second floor of the space.

“Polit-sheer-form” (Polit-Sheer-Form Office), established in 2005, consists of artists Hong Hao, Xiao Yu, Song Dong, Liu Jianhua and curator, critic, Leng Lin. Over one decade of discussions, actions and production process as a collective, “Polit-Sheer-Form” has shaped and established a brand new world view and system of values, “we” extend the boundary of the individual to the surface and the infinite space of social imagination through integrating forms of being “together” as material contents such as “eat, drink and play” are engaged. “Polit-Sheer-Form” appropriates exhibition, project, collective activities, manifesto writing and other various specific approaches to achieve imposing and pure emotional provocations without the historical context and ideological drive, it is an empty shell within an aesthetic framework that is only relevant through the imagination of the pan-political era, moreover, it gathers subjects on the surface of everyday life of sheer formalized politics and formally imagined politics: I, you, you, in this process of gathering will become us.

In the form of “meeting” every ten years, we invite you. Polit-Sheer Form says, a communist ghost once hovering in the sky of the world has flown away, it has left behind a lingering form eternally. Polit-Sheer-Form re-glorifies this form in a transformative time and space, and the momentous everyday scenarios.

* Notice

1. Free catering provided on the opening event (Dec 12th ) only. Should you have any inquiries on scheduling a meeting during the exhibition please contact us.

2. How to schedule your meeting: Please send an email including your name, contact, your demand and preferences to [email protected]at least 1 week before the scheduled meeting date.

3. Admission hours: Tue – Sat, 10:30 -17:30

4. The final interpretation to this activity belongs to Taikang Space.

【About the Art Group】

Polit-Sheer-Form is an abbreviation for “Politics Sheer Form Office”, is an artist group consists of Hong Hao, Xiao Yu, Song Dong, Liu Jianhua and Leng Lin. In 2005, the concept of “Polit-Sheer-Form” was created, and the group makes work collectively. Polit-Sheer-Form faces the world, focusing on the building of spiritual worlds, formalize political life, cultural life, economic life and everyday life, blurring boundaries, and transform thinking, discussions, footsteps, enjoyments and ideas into forms, that constitutes the concept of “Polit-Sheer-Form”. In 2005, “Polit-Sheer-Form” held its first solo exhibition in Beijing, “Only One Wall”. In 2006, Polit-Sheer-Form showed at ART SPACE in Sydney. In 2007, it participated in the media project Art world: exhibition on paper “Polit-Sheer-Form” as part of the 12th Documenta in Kassel, Germany. Its footsteps and discussions span from factories, rural areas, schools, revolutionary heritage sites, world heritage sites, studios, art galleries, art museums, sports centers, bus stations, ports, airports, hotels, restaurants, bars, teahouses, bathhouses, entertainment sites, commercial spaces and vending stalls on the st.

【About Taikang Space】

Taikang Space is a non-profit art organization founded in 2003 by Taikang Life Insurance Ltd, with the concept of “retrospection and encouragement”, it showcases thoughts and evaluations in the field of contemporary Chinese art, by which it aims to build a platform that provokes the artists’ potentials and in-depth research and exchange.

On this occasion, Taikang Space will transform into a temporary space of gathering, as it provides the activities of any “gathering” through “eat, drink and play” to everyone to “meet”. Taikang Space and Polit-Sheer-Form invite any group, organization, social committees and individuals to host their own meetings at “Polit-Sheer-Form Meeting”, offering services such as “hotpot meetings”, “cold meal meetings” and other food and drink services, as well as a scope of entertainments such as, ping-pong games, film screening, Karaoke, foot massages and etc. Polit-Sheer-form’s everyday objects, created pieces made in the last decade, as well as souvenir items for the 10th anniversary will be shown on the second floor of the space.

“Polit-sheer-form” (Polit-Sheer-Form Office), established in 2005, consists of artists Hong Hao, Xiao Yu, Song Dong, Liu Jianhua and curator, critic, Leng Lin. Over one decade of discussions, actions and production process as a collective, “Polit-Sheer-Form” has shaped and established a brand new world view and system of values, “we” extend the boundary of the individual to the surface and the infinite space of social imagination through integrating forms of being “together”as material contents such as “eat, drink and play” are engaged. “Polit-Sheer-Form” appropriates exhibition, project, collective activities, manifesto writing and other various specific approaches to achieve imposing and pure emotional provocations without the historical context and ideological drive, it is an empty shell within an aesthetic framework that is only relevant through the imagination of the pan-political era, moreover, it gathers subjects on the surface of everyday life of sheer formalized politics and formally imagined politics: I, you, you, in this process of gathering will become us.

In the form of “meeting” every ten years, we invite you. Polit-Sheer Form says, a communist ghost once hovering in the sky of the world has flown away, it has left behind a lingering form eternally. Polit-Sheer-Form re-glorifies this form in a transformative time and space, and the momentous everyday scenarios.

* Notice
1. Free catering provided on the opening event (Dec 12th ) only. Should you have any inquiries on scheduling a meeting during the exhibition please contact us.
2. How to schedule your meeting: Please send an email including your name, contact, your demand and preferences to media@taikangspace.com at least 1 week before the scheduled meeting date.
3. Admission hours: Tue – Sat, 10:30 -17:30
4. The final interpretation to this activity belongs to Taikang Space.

【About the Art Group】
Polit-Sheer-Form is an abbreviation for “Politics Sheer Form Office”, is an artist group consists of Hong Hao, Xiao Yu, Song Dong, Liu Jianhua and Leng Lin. In 2005, the concept of “Polit-Sheer-Form” was created, and the group makes work collectively. Polit-Sheer-Form faces the world, focusing on the building of spiritual worlds, formalize political life, cultural life, economic life and everyday life, blurring boundaries, and transform thinking, discussions, footsteps, enjoyments and ideas into forms, that constitutes the concept of “Polit-Sheer-Form”. In 2005, “Polit-Sheer-Form” held its first solo exhibition in Beijing, “Only One Wall”. In 2006, Polit-Sheer-Form showed at ART SPACE in Sydney. In 2007, it participated in the media project Art world: exhibition on paper “Polit-Sheer-Form” as part of the 12th Documenta in Kassel, Germany. Its footsteps and discussions span from factories, rural areas, schools, revolutionary heritage sites, world heritage sites, studios, art galleries, art museums, sports centers, bus stations, ports, airports, hotels, restaurants, bars, teahouses, bathhouses, entertainment sites, commercial spaces and vending stalls on the st.

【About Taikang Space】
Taikang Space is a non-profit art organization founded in 2003 by Taikang Life Insurance Ltd, with the concept of “retrospection and encouragement”, it showcases thoughts and evaluations in the field of contemporary Chinese art, by which it aims to build a platform that provokes the artists’ potentials and in-depth research and exchange.

In 2013, MadeIn Company launched the brand “Xu Zhen”.

About Xu Zhen

Born in 1977, living and working in Shanghai. Xu Zhen won the prize for ‘Best Artist’ at the China Contemporary Art Award in 2004. He participated to the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001, and has since exhibited his works widely. Recent exhibitions include Xu Zhen: Forbidden Castle (Montanelli Museum, Prague, Czech Republic, 2012) 12 Rooms, Ruhrtriennale (Museum Folkwang, Gelsenkirchen, 2012), Art of Change (Hayward Gallery, London, 2012), 11 Rooms (Manchester International Festival, Manchester City Galleries, 2011).

Aside from being an artist, Xu Zhen is also a curator and actively organizes various art activities. He co-curated together with other artists major exhibitions in Shanghai and was one of the initiators of the contemporary art forum on internet Art-Ba-Ba (www.art-ba-ba.com) in 2006. In 2009, Xu Zhen established ‘MadeIn Company’, a contemporary art creation corporate, focused on the production of creativity, and devoted to the research of contemporary culture’s infinite possibilities. MadeIn Company’s selected exhibitions include: The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (Gallery of Modern Art and Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, 2012); The Unseen – The 4th Guangzhou Triennial (Guangdong Museum of Art, Canton, 2012); Surplus Authors, (Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2012), The 1st Kiev Biennale (Arsenale, Kiev, 2012), Inside the White Cube (White Cube, London, U.K., 2012); Sleeping Life Away (Nathalie Obadia Gallery, Paris, France, 2012).

In 2013, MadeIn Company launched the brand “Xu Zhen”. Recent exhibitions comprise: China, China (Pinchuk Art Center, Kiev, Ukraine, 2013) and Movement Field – Xu Zhen Solo Exhibition, produced by MadeIn Company (Long March Space, Beijing, China, 2013).

I arrived in the Straits early in the week for Art Stage Singapore—hard to believe the art fair merry-go-round has started again. Although everyone was ready to self-immolate by the time of Miami only a month ago, it’s a new year and the art grasshoppers not skiing, are feeding in Singapore—yes indeed, skiing grasshoppers! So far things are going well. Here are some snapshots.

I went for a walk and came across the National Art Gallery construction site (the gallery reopens next year). The building behind it that looks like a spaceship is actually a spaceship from Planet North Korea. In front of the gallery is a cricket field. This is brilliant—Tate Modern, the Pompidou Centre and MoMA should also have sporting fields right out front. At least the National Gallery in London has Trafalgar, which is almost like a sports ground, at least during demos.

All the cranes in the picture are not actually for construction though but are symbolic. It is an installation by the government to show it is building a new-art-hub-for-South-East-Asia and it is very clear they intend to give Hong Kong a run for its money.*

Much love,

c

*”There is an error in Christopher Moore’s Art Stage Singapore – first postcard (to Ayi) article. It is stated that “All the cranes in the picture are not actually for construction though but are symbolic”. This is not true. The National Art Gallery, Singapore is indeed under construction and the cranes are functional. They are not part of an installation. Appreciate if you can rectify the error. Thank you.” -National Art Gallery representative. ( – Ed. )

I visited Singapore Art Museum to see the biennial show. And there was much to see, particularly the depth of Singaporean artists, which has definitely increased in recent years, and then also Filipino artists—the “new” emerging art scene in South East Asia.

Ng Joon Kiat “Lit Cities” 2013

Zulkifli Yusoff “Rukunegara 1: Belief in God” 2013

Kiri Dalena “Monument for a Present Future”, single-channel video and mixed-media installation, 2013—is one of the best works on show at the Singapore Biennial. Dalena (b.1975) lives and works in Quezon City, Philippines.

Nasirun “Between Worlds” 2013

After SAM, I ducked next door to Yavuz Fine Art to see the Pinaree Sanpitak’s exhibition pre-opening.

Pinaree Sanpitak solo exhibition “Cold Cuts” at Yavuz Fine Art opens this week—here’s a sneak preview.

And then Chan Hampe Galleries at Raffles Arcade to see Dawn Ng’s show of collections—more about this show later.

Dawn Ng “Windowshop” solo-show at Chan Hampe Galleries

Finally, I went to the Singapore Tyler Print Institute for the opening of Singapore-veteran artist Han Sai Por’s solo-show “Moving Forest”.

Han Sai Por at the opening of her “Moving Forest” show at STPI.

The most stylish people at Han Sai Por’s opening were the choreographers Hock & Wong.

Choreographers Hock & Wong at Han Sai Por “Moving Forest” exhibition, STPI

Sifang Art Museum (No.9 Zhenqi Road, Pukou District, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China) Nov 2–Mar 2, 2014

Someone seeking a backdrop for a present-day science fiction fable might find one in the Pearl Spring park outside Nanjing. Buses carrying guests invited to the official opening of Sifang Art Museum on Saturday ascended an already pock-marked road up a hill lined with autumnal trees and past a barracks of hefty—but empty—Baroque-style villas, their waiting pleasure domes conspicuous against a white sky. Over the brow of the hill, the atmosphere, heavy with pollution and coming rain, settled around the enclave of buildings with the museum at its apex. The lights from the gallery space glowed yellow from inside the structure, looking strange and spectacular on a grassy slope backed by thick trees.

Sifang Art Museum and the buildings surrounding it on this large scenic site are the pet project of real estate developer Lu Jun and his son Lu Xun, who have personally initiated and funded it to the tune of some USD$164 million. The circa 20,000-square-foot museum was designed by Steven Holl Architects; their statement calls it “the Gateway to the Contemporary International Practical Exhibition of Architecture,” by which is meant the other buildings conceived by prominent names in the field, including David Adjaye and Alberto Kalach. In total, there are 20 structures—finished and unfinished—including the museum and a conference center by Arata Isozaki.

The design for the museum is based on the concepts of traditional Chinese painting—for example, alternating space. Its pale, square tubular structure is supported seemingly by a single stem from which a G-shaped plan flattens out and unfurls at right angles in a clockwise direction, culminating in a wide window opening overlooking the park. The high cantilevered form of the building delivers itself like an extra level in the landscape above the tree-line—a sculptural “figure” appearing both fixed and ephemeral. A fire escape stair ascends at a vertiginous angle to its underside as if into a fictional craft. In short, it is a structure which is difficult take one’s eyes away from, but that is also somehow difficult to recall precisely. Such a sensation pervades Steven Holl’s designs, which have at once impact and lightness (the New York-based company is behind the Linked Hybrid residential complex in Beijing, and has just won a further project to design four art museums in Qingdao).

A view of Sifang Art Museum on opening night (photo: Edwin Lam)
四方美术馆开幕夜景（摄影：Edwin Lam）

Following the road round the site, one discovered commissioned buildings, which act as satellites to the museum, in varying degrees of completion and decay. Finished and furnished, for example, are the “Boat House” by Sanaksenaho Architects (Finland), the traditionally inflected “San-He Residence” by Wang Shu and the block-like “Six Room” (a customary Brutalist remark) by Ai Weiwei. The official tour was happy to show guests David Adjaye’s stylish “Light Box,” but brushed past the “Shadows of Bamboo” structure by Sean Godsell, whose abandoned metal skeleton is gradually falling prey to vine-like weeds nearby, lending irony to the architect’s proposal that the skin of the building become “organic.” Further along, the “Folded House” design by Liu Heng stands in a bizarre state of incompletion, with metal staircases over sheer drops between platforms without walls—a great redundant body of brick and girders gradually going back to the earth. Next to it, the shards of concrete that might have been the “Flying Horse” by Odile Decq look more than apocalyptic, the acute angles of random built shapes pointing into the vegetation—a conceptual vessel run aground. The “Circle of Interaction” dreamed up by Sejima and Nishizawa from Japan got only as far as a grey platform in the lake.

Liu Heng, “A Folded House” (unfinished)
刘珩,《折房子》（在建中）

To return to the art exhibition, “The Garden of Diversion,” curated by Philippe Pirotte. Under this spellbound title, their effects already dwarfed slightly by one’s first impression of the building, various works by Chinese and foreign artists are placed in an exhibition space made unusual by the directions of flow through it and elements such as translucent walls. Successful in the first area is an arrangement of sculptures by Danh Vo, “We The People” (2010-13), copper replicas of sections of the Statue of Liberty, split up and leant around the walls as large fragments. One of Xu Zhen’s bondage Play figures (2013) is suspended from the center of the room, hanging simultaneously as a focal point and in strange tension with Vo’s ideological jetsam. A spare charcoal drawing on paper, “End Art Museum” (2011) by Jia Aili, depicts a bare white box with the work’s title as a sign over the door; it cannot but plant a seed of doubt in the mind of the guest to a new museum opening. Descending from this layer into the basement of the building, one passed hard by a space filled in with concrete slabs stacked to neck height to create a platform with pools of an oily, viscous liquid on the surface—part of a commission that extends the existing work “Wind Light as a Thief” (2013) by He An, and arguably the most successful piece in the show for its dark, weighty synthesis with the space.

A sardonic feel surfaced on the upper level, where a stuffed dead horse with a signpost stuck into it (reading “INRI”: Iesu Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum—“Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”) by Maurizio Cattelan (apparently a last-minute inclusion) lay at the end of a corridor; guests sipped their drinks and gave smiling interviews in front of it, hooves protruding near their shins. Also on this floor, a series of four small paintings by portrait titan Mao Yan (untitled, 2010) are of limp, bulbous skulls in grey, and a printed book in a glass case by Zhang Peili (“Artist Project No. 2,” 1987—again, an unusually small-scale work by an artist of stature), we are told, delivers instructions for a dialogue, whilst a gang of others fight for positions at peepholes to watch it (according to the caption “the brute violence of this circumscribed approach to interpersonal exchange is jarring”). There is a painting of a recumbent alien by Marlene Dumas called “Cultural Exchange (Mummie wants to go home)” (2008-9). A little nameless fun was had with Gabriel Lester’s installation “Big Bang Bang” (2013), a series of eight walls of varying heights made from the same material as the museum’s skin that one walked through to the next space, and someone brave acted on the invitation affixed to a William Kentridge contraption to push a foot pedal, setting metal cones in futile motion on a bicycle wheel (this is “Kinetic Sculpture Bicycle Wheel with Two Megaphones,” 2012). Kan Xuan’s fleeting video “A Happy Girl” (2002) played out, incongruous and isolated, from a TV on a plinth. Lastly, before reaching the balcony in the upper space, one saw an uncanny marble sculpture by Yutaka Sone—“Movie Theatre” (2013)—which visualizes the projection of light in a cinema and renders it as solid form.

Guests of “The Garden of Diversion” by Maurizio Cattelan’s horse (photo: Edwin Lam)
客人们站在Maurizio Cattelan的马标本旁（摄影：Edwin Lam）

The relationship of the exhibited works to the museum space and one’s physical progress through it was not entirely smooth—this due not only to an unusual interior layout, but also to the combination of works, their sizes and media. Some of the paintings might have lost a degree of impact, for example, when seen at close range on the inside of a corridor. The encounter with Cattelan’s dead horse, however, was likely heightened by its position at the end of a slight ramp on the corner where the space turns to the right. One had to ascend close to it to see the whole body. In the final sum, however, these un-smooth effects could come to serve a purpose. The Anselm Kiefer work slated for inclusion in the show was censored. “Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom” (2000) depicts a classic full figure of Mao with right arm raised, partially obscured by a mess of metal stems and roses. Though it will not be shown, the work is likely to be included in the final exhibition catalogue. This omission, it transpires, could be seen as a success.

Anselm Kiefer, “Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom”, oil paint, shellac resin, wood, metal string and screws on canvas, 380 x 280 cm, 2000 (censored from “The Garden of Diversion” exhibition).
Anselm Kiefer,《千花齐放》,油漆、紫胶树脂、金属丝、螺丝钉、画布,380 x 280 cm, 2000(因故未能在展览中展出）

For, as the combined image of the exhibition, the surreal sight of the museum and uninhabited or ruinous architectures ferments in one’s mind, one wonders in hindsight at the curatorial thought behind “The Garden of Diversion”. The original press release proposed “re-considering the utopian tradition of philosophical gardens in China.” But in retrospect, a darker sense of mystery and intrigue grows around the title, infusing it with an altogether different mood. Some sort of utopia is indeed considered here, but in a broader, more urgent and present context than that of “traditional gardens.” Rather, the garden reveals itself as the terrain of contemporary art in China and its presentation—on which the arrangement and inclusions of the exhibition together reflect quite aggressively. The tone of the works in the show, one realizes, is arbitrary or even dystopian—punctuated with death, fragmentation and futility. Reconsidering the “garden” of the title in this light, one is perhaps reminded of Borges’ enigmatic story “The Garden of Forking Paths,” and of “possible worlds” in philosophy—as alternatives to the situation we presently have. Next to the gate of the museum enclave is a version of “Movement Field” by Xu Zhen—a garden-path installation of turf criss-crossed by white pebbled paths, based in fact on the routes of protest marches. The sort of sarcasm underlying this work—and its status as an artificial garden—are in tune with the curatorial thinking that selected it, and the other pieces for this inaugural exhibition.

The inspiration for the show came largely from a book by Hu Fang, The Garden of Mirrored Flowers. In conversation with this writer following the opening, Pirotte explains how the criticism implied through the exhibition relates to the story of a young, idealistic architect commissioned to build a theme park for venture capitalists, and made to think in terms of the “experience economy” (meaning that experience and memory become products to be created and consumed). For Pirotte, “The ruin character is already present from the moment things are just built.” In this light, the commissioned work by He An and the art works relating to entertainment by Gabriel Lester, William Kentridge and Yutaka Sone (a theatrical setting, an inviting contraption, and a cinema, respectively), for example, fit together to compose a critical comment. Feeling the melancholy of abandoned structures and the unclear future of the project, one is led possibly to consider “diversion” in terms of desire, and the “garden” as a metaphorical ground—a place of concealment and wandering both physical and internal, and perhaps in darkness. Building materials (such as the concrete used for He An’s installation) and ruins (of the architectural kind seen round the park, as well as Danh Vo’s disembodied fragments of a monument) can resonate also with the current situation of real estate development in China, a symptom of which is tracts of deserted apartment blocks, often abandoned before completion and left waiting for no-one. Overall, the curious ambience infusing one’s experience of the show is not remote from the recent atmosphere of private museum building in China, which has been frustrated by vanity and criticized for unrealized projections; the Lu family Xanadu is not yet exempt from this state of things. Pirotte remarks: “The situation I found looks sometimes as a contemporary ruin”.

He An, “Wind Light as a Thief”, installation view (photo: Edwin Lam)
何岸,《风轻似小偷》,装置现场（摄影：Edwin Lam）

The project began with the aim of promoting contemporary architecture and art in Nanjing (earlier this year, Pirotte emphasized continuity, international curiosity and historical reflection as ways forward for exhibition culture in China)—a worthy marriage, though, as is true for every private initiative of this kind, one difficult to make worthwhile, and harder to sustain beyond the short term. The questions soon come of who or what will run, maintain, promote, visit and occupy this ambitious structure and the villas, not least as Pirotte, who many were delighted to see appointed for the inaugural exhibition, will most likely curtail his involvement with the museum due to a new appointment at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. It is difficult to imagine an exhibition program that will consistently balance the impact of its architectural host, which takes such advantage of the opportunity it was given here; perhaps commissioning art works offers a solution. The other buildings around the park, too, inspire varying degrees of confidence (when thoughtful and complete) and concern (when left unfinished and decaying, or never even begun). Signs of wear already showing on the Sifang Museum itself—which apparently was a mere two months in the conception and has been standing empty for 6 years—are disappointing (its translucent skin is a cheaper polycarbonate stand-in for the channel glass Holl usually favors, although the same material used for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, U.S.). As Pirotte remarked, “The history of the Sifang Museum is already longer that it seems.”

Thus, there are reasons to see this much-anticipated event at Sifang in terms of a fable—not quite real and perhaps with a moral playing out in an other-worldly atmosphere; time oscillates between the gaze of ambition and the averted eye of premature decline—continuity feels out of reach. “The Garden of Diversion” is in a number of ways a skilful and subtle exhibition, not least in its subversion of the conditions which at once permit it, and may compromise subsequent programming at Sifang. The open criticism delivered through the show comes through quietly, through reveals itself finally as unusual and contentious: Xu Zhen’s provocative footpaths have been laid literally onto the Sifang site like an insurgent skin. To have delivered such a show as both a first and parting shot before exiting the scene could be taken, in fact, as audacious, aloof—even arrogant. For Pirotte, ultimately, “There is maybe a lot of magic in the show, but no optimism.” Within the remit of “The Garden of Diversion” the context has been put to creative, challenging use. But beyond the run of the exhibition, what will be its impact? How might its critical spirit live on constructively, contributing more to a frustrated art scene than an outspoken remark of an inaugural show? Indeed, has and will its intention be grasped by many of its visitors? And what of the ruins? One wonders, indeed, what the future will be.

Xu Zhen, “Movement Field”, installation view
徐震,《运动场》,装置现场

Long March Space (4 Jiuxianqiao Road Chaoyang District, Beijing) 27 April – 23 June, 2013

As soon as one enters the gallery, one is confronted by a “garden” composed of an undulating artificial wilderness where footpaths made of white stones wend their way through grassy knolls. Small clusters of vegetation dot the landscape. The set-up looks random, but is actually based on the intersection of various protests and parades happening around the world. The most intrusive objects in the room are the various graphical depictions interspersed in the grass — two-dimensional images are printed on rigid boards, cut out, and placed upright on the lawn. Images include serrated kitchen knives, two pieces of ginseng in an “embrace,” a cluster of raging flames, a bizarre statue of Buddha sitting cross-legged on a gas stove instead of a lotus, a boulder covered in playing cards sticking haphazardly out of it (this piece originates from his other work “If Truth Hurts, It’s the Truth’s Fault”). These cartoonish two-dimensional “sculptures” form a sharp contrast with the relatively naturalistic landscape surrounding them, clearly intending to emphasize the sense of landscape throughout the entirety of the piece while also extending the sense of the ridiculous which is synonymous with the works of “Xu Zhen – MadeIn Company.” Although these images do not seem related to each other, they subtly hint at the themes of violence, religion, tradition, and deconstruction, while the pop atmosphere and artificiality of the show bring to mind a quote from a certain well-known movie: “artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up.”

Xu Zhen, produced by MadeIn company, “Movement Field,” installation view, 2013
徐震, 没顶公司出品, “运动场”, 展览现场, 2013

Xu Zhen, produced by MadeIn company, “Movement Field,” installation view, 2013
徐震, 没顶公司出品, “运动场”, 展览现场, 2013

Xu Zhen, produced by MadeIn company, “Movement Field,” installation view, 2013
徐震, 没顶公司出品, “运动场”, 展览现场, 2013

Xu Zhen, produced by MadeIn company, “Memory is not passive; it can be a political tool. No.10,” installation, burning flag, 140 x 140 x 6 cm， 2013
徐震 – 没顶公司出品，”记忆不是被动的；它可以成为政治的工具.10号”，装置，从新闻照片中截取的焚, 的火焰， 140 x 140 x 6 cm， 2013

MOVEMENT FIELD
XU ZHEN produced by MadeIn Company
LONG MARCH SPACE

Each of us has a certain desire of accomplishing a movement – Xu Zhen

Provocation has always been a main aspect in Xu Zhen’s creation, touching upon taboos, definitions and rules. His early work8848-1.86, fully reflects doubts about power and truth – this installation is a ‘troublemaker’, ironizing humankind’s illusory and blind pursuit for a certain ‘apogee’- it encompasses the current chaotic situation in politics, economy, culture and history generated by ambitions of hegemony, selfish desires. With provocation as a stimulus, Xu Zhen builds a systematized ‘destruction/reconstruction’ cycle. This logic reached its climax when in 2009 he announced that ‘Xu Zhen’ was over, and began ‘MadeIn Company’. Under his direction, MadeIn creative team acted in a more radical way, at the edge of art creation, power and business. Operating under a public ‘undercover’ identity, ‘MadeIn’undertook all kind of experiences within this mechanism.

As Xu Zhen elaborated this art system, ‘Movement’ became a new keyword, it pointed out and aroused a reflection on the complexity of human collective consciousness and attitude. The series Movementism,created in 2012, was conceived by Xu Zhen as he subtly caught the fact that “people all have a certain desire of accomplishing a movement”.The newly created Movement Fieldthat will be presented this time, is an utopian space composed of multiplereal movement-relateditineraries. This Movement Field is a memorial, which questionspast and future commemorations; it constitutes a place for infinite spiritual quests. Thus, works from the series True Image exhibited within this Movement Fieldrepresents a form of media creation based on media diffusion. Among them, pictorial installations inspired by ‘faith’ and ‘symbols’, such as a lotus composed of gas stoves and huge rainbows Buddha,embodyXu Zhen’s comprehensionof faith and self-belief. ‘Ginseng’ images collected from the internet, probe Eastern and Western different cultural backgrounds and knowledge about a similar material, this work alludes to a certain upright tolerance within disorder and confusion.

These works by XuZhen, will all be displayed in MadeIn Company Spring 2013 New Works Exhibitionorganized by Long March Space. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience Xu Zhen’s Movementism. Xu Zhen considers that Human actions (and thoughts) that are stimulated by goalsconstitutea movement, heraises requestsonitsscale, adheres to this attitude, and determines a particular way of understanding. Through his signature provocation and doubt, 
Xu Zhen audaciously reveals his attitude towards the world.

Produced by MadeIn Company

About ‘Xu Zhen’

MadeIn Company Spring 2013 New Works Exhibition will be held at Long March Space. On this occasion, MadeIn Company is proud to announce the launch of the brand ‘Xu Zhen’. Simultaneously,MadeIn will become a company that represents and creates art brands. In 2009, as MadeIn Company was established, Xu Zhen declared he won’t use his individual identity anymore. This return isn’t an individual artist’s comeback, but the creation of a new brand. MadeIn Company will dedicate its work in terms of art creation, production, promotion, and collectionto the brand ‘Xu Zhen’. Hence, Xu Zhen is experiencing a third identity phase: from an individual entity to MadeIn Company’s entrepreneur, to a brand introduced by MadeIn Company. The emergence of ‘Xu Zhen’ brand is a breakthrough in the openness and possibilities in contemporary art; ‘Xu Zhen’ brand development will become a new model in contemporary art.

Since 2002, Long March Space has collaborated with artist Xu Zhen, and since 2009, MadeIn Company. Long March Space is proud to continue the journey and represent the “Xu Zhen” brand.

Long March Space works with leading artists to produce exhibitions and projects that breakthrough conventional understanding of art and culture, the individual and society. The gallery acts as both an alternative and complement to the mainstream social and economic conditions and the art market in China.