Curator: Biljana Ciric
Artists: Gao Mingyan, Hu Yun, Li Ran, Lu Pingyuan, Hu Xiangqian, Song Ta
[Press Release]
Our Ancestors reflects not only the personal and the political but also their complex overlapping. Hu Yun’s point of departure is his interest in personal histories as well as the individual perspective. His new work explores larger concerns about the present society. Althoughthe people shown have either a close relationship to the artist or are important figures in the reforms of modern China. The artist chose to present them anonymously so that they can stand for many individual destinies as construct of time or displacement in time. This kind of close yet distant relationships, historical connections and disconnections trigger the artist to negotiate his own identity and to question cultural values, institutional infrastructure that promotes these values as well as the conflicts and displacement, in which Hu Yun finds himself in. In Our Ancestors Hu Yun arranges found objects, documents and photographs so that personal stories are not separated from historical events and the current moment. Thereby, past and present, private and universal affect each other.
