THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMES REVISITED SELECTED VIDEO WORKS FROM 1ST KIEV BIENNALE
Date: January 16th 2014-March 2nd 2014, 11:00-18:00 (Closed on National Holidays and Mondays) Venue: Chronus Art Center (Bldg.18, No.50 Moganshan Road, Shanghai, PRC) Organizer: Chronus Art Center
Planner: MOMENTUM Berlin
Curator:David Elliott
Artists: Gulsun Karamustafa, John Bock, Lutz Becker, Map Office, Miao Xiaochun, Tracey Moffatt, Yang Fudong
About the Exhibition
Chronus Art Center (hereafter referred to as CAC) is pleased to announce our special New Year Project collaborated with MOMENTUM Berlin, the showing of a special programme of video works originally screened at the 1st Kiev Biennale in 2012. Curated by the Artistic Director of the Biennale, David Elliott, the programme features new works by John Bock, Yang Fudong, Gulsun Karamustafa, Lutz Becker, Tracey Moffatt, Map Office, and Miao Xiaochun.
Echoing the first words of A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Charles Dickens’ famous novel set at the time of the French Revolution, this exhibition jumps forward to the present to consider how contemporary art and aesthetics use the past to express the future. The ideals of Human Rights developed during 18th Century European Enlightenment found their first political expression in the American and French Revolutions. Yet, in spite of fine intentions at the outset, Human Rights have been constricted as each revolution has contained at its core the worst as well as the best of human thought and action.
This exhibition reflects on utopian dreams of freedom, equality, and security that are very much at the heart of our lives today, as well as on their opposite: terror, inequity and war. It is the destructive forces of both man and nature that seem to make a more ideal life impossible.
In 2013, the exhibition was showed at MOMENTUM Berlin and SKY SCREEN initiative for video art in public space in Istanbul and Berlin.
About the Curator
David Elliott is an English born curator and writer. From 1976 to 1996 he was Director of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England, Director of Moderna Museet [The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art] in Stockholm, Sweden (1996-2001), founding Director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2001-2006), the first Director of the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art [Istanbul Modern] (2007), Artistic Director of the 17th Biennale of Sydney (2008-2010) and Artistic Director of the 1st Kiev International Biennale of Contemporary Art (2011-12), Rudolf Arnheim Guest Professor in Art History at the Humboldt University, Berlin (2008) and Visiting
Professor in Museum Studies at the Chinese University in Hong Kong (2008/11/13). From 1998 until 2004 he was President of CIMAM (the International Committee of ICOM for Museums of Modern Art). He is Hon President of the Board of Triangle Art Network/Gasworks in London and on the Asia Advisory Board of the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
About Chronus Art Center
www.chronusartcenter.org
Chronus Art Center, which officially opened in the fall of 2013, is the first major non-profit art organization in China focusing on the experiment, production, research, exhibition and education of new media art. By interweaving the residency projects, student grants, exhibitions, public programs, publication and new media art archive, CAC contributes the direct supports to the creation and education of new media art in China and overseas. As an innovative and compelling platform for the communication within the artists, curators and scholars from various fields, CAC provides public the chances of experiencing the works and ideas of the artists, understanding the social, cultural and political significance of new media technology, and ultimately inspiring the ideas of the contemporary life.
About MOMENTUM Berlin
www.momentumworldwide.org
MOMENTUM, founded by Rachel Rits-Volloch and Cassandra Bird, is a global platform for time-based art, with headquarters in Berlin. Through their program of Exhibitions, Kunst Salons, Public Video Art Initiatives, Residencies and Collections, they’re dedicated to providing a platform for exceptional artists working with time-based practices. The term “time-based” art means very different things today than when it was first coined over 40 years ago. MOMENTUM’s mission is to reassess the growing diversity and relevance of time-based practices, always seeking innovative answers to the question, “What is time-based art?”. MOMENTUM redefines conventional gallery practice by acting as a gallery of galleries, collections, and institutions, selectively inviting international artists through galleries and private collectors to show time-based art. Positioned as a global platform with a vast international network, MOMENTUM serves as a bridge joining professional art communities, irrespective of institutional and national borders. The key ideas are: Collaboration, Exchange, Education, Exploration, and Inspiration.
Special Thanks to:WTi, CP
About Curator’s Talk
David Elliott will be holding a talk on the topic of “Different Ways of Looking At Contemporary Art”, which is directly relevant to this exhibition on 3pm January 24th 2014. Please stay tuned for the coming detailed information!
Yang Fudong, “The Nightman Cometh/ Ye Jiang”, 2011
Map Office, “The Oven Of Straw”, 2012
Tracey Moffatt, “Doomed”, 2007
Gülsün Karamustafa, “INSOMNIAMBULE”, 2011
