The affirmation of the value of individual life, and the constant affirmation of other rights on this basis, allows the boundary of “freedom” to expand, and creativity thus continuously flows, actively refreshing the cognition, and the world of experience grows accordingly. For many people in this fluid scene, new possibilities wrapped up in huge amounts of unfamiliar information feed back old imaginations with overwhelming surprises.
On the other hand, the long-held kernel of human nature does not seem to open up in a corrective way, but is instead more sticky and solid, conceitedly playing with facts, hoping to validate its own preconceptions in an open field of vision… The tension between these two states is driven by a variety of interesting subtleties, each of us coping with our own and inseparable.
The material abundance, cultural pluralism and technological advances brought about by globalization have led to an endless increase in the number of options, an increasing fragmentation of the community, and a fission in lifestyles to enlarge differences. But the dramatic shocks of recent years have also led to a greater union between people, no matter active or passive.
The “contemporary” is always temporary, and in the “contemporary”, where uncertainty is steeply increasing, so is people’s desire for certainty. In the narrative that many people agree with, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and so on synthesize a new environment, Homo sapiens is becoming a “demigod-like” life form, from “maker” to “creator”, focusing on constructing a more pleasant living space creatively. Human being is a creature full of limitations. The more this narrative becomes mainstream, the more one has to be wary of the “rational conceit” that it renders people. But the outlook it describes, in both expected and unexpected ways, is currently becoming partly true, integrating into the everyday lives of ordinary people.
“Art” is also temporary; it is always infused with different connotations in a variety of needs. With the global circulation of capital, flourishing consumerist culture, and kaleidoscope of spectacles, art at this time is lonely within the warm embrace, easily lost and deformed at any time but difficult to retain. Both “contemporary” and “art” are rapidly changing their faces, and before long, there is a new scene of “contemporary art” – and the charm of “contemporary art” also lies in here.
Intuitive experience, reserves of knowledge, presuppositions, and the resulting perceptions, interests, methods, skills, etc., incubate a wealth of difference at all times. Many seemingly absolute differences, after switching perspectives, you will find that they are compatible in the same dimension, validating each other in the known and unknown, the knowable and the unknowable. “Contemporary art” has no boundaries in the first place, and the complex interaction with the situation is its driving force and result. The individual is at once unique and relevant to other individuals. Walking independently and sharing resources have never been in contradiction with each other. In a time of geopolitical hardness, sharing and association are especially important: premises, information, knowledge, skills, creativity, community, etc., grow freely and flexibly in an open consciousness, and consciously and unconsciously construct new composite scenes…
The artists invited to this exhibition have, over the years of their practice, developed a close relationship with the “contemporary”: curious about new possibilities, constantly refreshing their reserves of knowledge in a global vision, experimenting with new materials, forms and aesthetics in the unknown, and incubating refreshing works in an improvised way, with creativity flowing all the time in the process. Although they differ markedly from each other, and even from their individual works, there are quite a few overlaps in their presuppositions perceiving from their works, that continue to advance their work in an active imagining of a brand new future.
Under the current new context, compared to the globally popular “co-working” model, these artists, like creators with vision as an important medium, are constantly opening up unique and different horizons and overlapping each other, consciously and unconsciously co-constructing new spectacles, thus gradually changing the stereotypical parts of daily life. This capacity and state of co-constructing highlights multiple meanings in an atmosphere of less consensus, more barriers and more calls for sharing and union. Moreover, “co-constructing” as a driving force is inherent in contemporary art, driving contemporary artists to construct more dynamic discourses while deconstructing preconceived ideas, and to freely unite into multi-dimensionally growing constructs.
