If the title didn’t lay claim to a theme, none of the above would really matter. And maybe taking issue is merely being pedantic: it was a great selection of works after all. I can’t help feeling that comment is necessary, however: because the positioning of galleries like Pace and that of curator Leng Lin command huge respect, where they lead, others follow. So we can expect a spate of further presentations of performance art. Great or not: who will be in a position to decide?
Notes:
1. Gallery press release.
2. Rong Rong in conversation with the critic Gu Zheng, “World Photography Festival,” Bund 18, Shanghai, 16 October 2010.
3. This is in specific reference to the Performasection of the Biennale.
4. Mark Gisbourne “Zhang Huan: Palimpsest: Writing on the Body,” Zhang Huan, published by Gallery Volker Diehl, Germany, 2006.
5. In 2001, it was specifically outlawed by the Ministry of Culture in a “Notice on its Resolution to Cease All Performances and Bloody, Brutal Displays of Obscenity in the Name of ‘Art’.” The ban has yet to be formally lifted. See Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents, published by MoMA, 2010.
