Exhibition - Sin Jin Yuan: "Dolls"

Fu Zi Tang Gallery, North of Long March, 798 Art Zone

2007 August 25 - September 26

On Sunday, I attended the vernissage of an exhibition at the 798 Art Zone featuring works by Su Jin Yuan (his blog can be found here), a fresh graduate from China's Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Su Jin Yuan was born in Fujian; after graduating from the School for Arts and Crafts in his native city in 2002, he continued his studies at the Academy in Beijing. "Dolls" is his first single exhibition. The works displayed at this show are definetely more than appropriate for a debut exhibition at the beginning of a great career in art.

The exhibition is named after the different sized figurines he produces. The sculptures are very expressive, but difficult to describe. Although "Dolls" was advertised as a sculptural show, there were indeed some mixed technique paintings as well.
The works were very much after my fancy: traditional material mixed with today's influence. The tendency of Su Jin Yuan's works is more towards applied arts than toward fine arts, maybe this is a consequence of his former studies in Fujian. I think this is the right direction of contemporary art: focus on the technique, on the way of painting, on objective beauty.

It is sad that we don't know more of that kind of Chinese contemporary art in Europe.
Seeing Su Jun Yuan's works fills me with hope, because his paintings and sculptures show that Chinese contemporary art is not lost.

798 and Chinese contemporary art

I became attached to the 798 Art Zone. I don't want to exaggerate, but it is really nice and has a similar atmosphere as the former Tuzraktar in Budapest, an independent cultural center I was involved in.

There is much to see and 798 is pretty big, so I decided to focus on one part of the district and visit the other parts the following days.

The first surprise was the presence of graffiti. I was already used to the thought that there is no subculture in Beijing, but I was not absolutely right. It's true: there is almost no graffiti in the city, the only mural paintings are sayings of Mao. 798 seems to be an exterritorial place in the city full of tags and throw-ups.

The second surprise was how much the government supports the art district. Of course I don't know the details and I heard a rumour about the close-down of 798, but you can see a lot of construction there, the government is building streets in the district, obviously for visitors during the Olympics next year. The Tuzraktar was not supported by our government at all. The fact that 798 exists for several years means a lot.

Partly I have to revise my opinion on Chinese art life. Still, I stand by my opinion that there is no living subculture in Beijing. There is no artistic self-expression of the people threw the methods of urban art. Alternative contemporary art is in a ghetto situation, as the 798 art district shows.
But: This ghetto situation is definitely better than the average situation in Western countries. In my experience a “Forbidden City of Arts”, an island in the city without the aesthetic control of advertisers and politics, with galleries, restaurants, tea houses, cafés, book stores and alternative fashion boutiques on one place is great. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
Especially in such a big country as China it is important to have a center of art, where the different art scenes of the country are able to present their works.

In the meantime, I read some articles about the the art district in Western media. Often the authors criticize the fact that art life in China is so much supported by the government. Now that I have seen the place I can surely tell you that I admire this solution. If I would have to decide between the government and the private economy as a sponsor for my project, I would choose the government. If the government sponsors something, you can see where your tax money goes and you don't have to put ugly adverts anywhere.

In my last entry about Chinese art life I proclaimed quite radical statements about art life in China. Now that I have seen many galleries and spoke to many artists I have to admit: I was partly wrong. There are indeed great contemporary artists in China. I heard that there are several good academies and art schools stressing quality, technique, but also creativity.

Of course cultural exchange is missing, everybody wants to go abroad, but only a very few can, and so on... After all I took a look at the homepage of the Beijing Tokyo Art Projects, one of the most important galleries at 798. It says: "Having closely followed the development of Chinese contemporary art since the late 1980s, Yukihito Tabata set up the gallery with the intention of bringing artists from China, Japan and Korea together and introducing them to a wider audience."
I am happy to read this and I know how important this is, but I still think somebody could do more, and not only on the basis of private business.
My former radical statements are understandable when you look at all the crap we get to see in Europe. The Chinese contemporary art presented for example at this year's Art Basel was just... it is difficult to explain it without using four-letter words.

Anyway, here you have some more pictures from 798 – just to give you an impression:

Show in Beijing

Yesterday it turned out that I am going to curate the "Beijing Abandoned" show in the Dongcheng district of Beijing. It will be the first exhibition within the scope of the "Da Chen Gallery", a Chinese-Hungarian cultural exchange project of the Youth for Europe Association.

Chinese contemporary art and calligraphy

Dear fellows!

Since three days I am looking for something like subculture. It is sad, but most of the people in Beijing have not even found their way in mainstream. China has a global problem: It is a country to vegetate in, but nothing more.

I spoke to some calligraphers again. It is quite interesting that the art schools have small galleries all over the city where young students can sell their own (and their teachers') works to finance their schools and and their studies.

A Chinese girl from one of the autonomous regions told me that she had come to Beijing for the summer¨to volunteer and sell paintings. She is just finishing art academy, so I asked her about further plans. Because of the bad job prospects for artists she wants to work “something” in Beijing.
Other students told me about their short trips abroad. They were not talking about study trips...
I mention this, because Chinese art schools seem to lack real innovation.

In my opinion Chinese visual artists should visit other countries as well (I know that singers do it), to get some new influences. Reproducing your art since eight generations is not very healthy. You may say that calligraphy is about reproducing the same letters again and again like a buddhist mantra. That's just not true. The technique stays the same, also some of the motifs, but for example the content may change. Japanese artists – I'd like to mention my favourite contemporary artist Tenmyouya Hisashi – synthesize the traditional line with the modern one. I would not advise Chinese artists to imitate the Japanese, the Korean or overseas Asian artists, but studying the contemporary art of those countries could help China to find its own, genuine way. It is important to understand that China had troubles for the last 200 years, 8 generations! During times of political problems art life suffers, and yet we didn't speak about the Cultural Revolution. Of course every other Asian country had similar problems, but they did not have those significant breaks in their culture.

Ai Weiwei, an artist whom I respect but not admire, tries to express those breaks in his art. The problem with him is his anarchic art definition. He says, “Everybody is an artist”. Chinese art is craft. Craft is about technique, technique is about practise.
By the way: Ai Weiwei is pretty unknown in China - compared to his popularity in Western countries.

On Sunday I am going to visit the 798 Art Zone, the Disneyland of Chinese contemporary art. I hope to find at least one remarkable artist.

Backjumps Live Issue #3

Backjumps – The Live Issue #3

Kunstraum Kreuzberg-Bethanien, Berlin

2007 June 23 – August 19

This exhibition was disappointing. It is the second Backjumps Exhibition I have seen (after #1) and I feel regression.

The Backjumps – founded by Adrian Nabi – used to be an urban art magazine for about ten years. It started as a pure graffiti fanzine, later it became the leading magazine for urban visual arts. Since 2003 Adrian converted the conception of the magazine into a series of exhibitions mainly in Berlin.

The first “Live Issue” in 2003 was fantastic, but now, four years later the fire is missing. I think I understand the situation – very probably it is boring to create an urban art exhibition at the same place for the fourth time.

Of course the exhibition is interesting. A lot of interesting artists came to Berlin to exhibit their photos and pieces, but you have to be on a certain level to enjoy the works. If you present a big exhibition on urban art to the public you should try to show works which convince foreign people of the importance of this art form. The actual exhibits are just not very well chosen and ugly presented.

I respect Mr. Adrian Nabi for the work he did in Berlin. I respect him for the Backjumps magazine and the great exhibitions he organized in the past. I respect him, because he is doing his thing for quite a long time and I think that young organizers of urban art events could learn a lot of him. Still I think that he should reconsider his conception about the Backjumps exhibitions. 70 % of the pictures and installations exhibited in

the “Live Issue” have the same look and the same purpose as the works of other modern artists you can see in “normal” museums – only that those “expansive” exhibits are much better. Some of the works were just provocative in a stupid way... I think our whole visual surrounding is so sexed up that it is just uninteresting and unamusing to see copulating couples on wallpapers. Sex doesn't sell automatically nowadays.

Nevertheless there was one thing I was happy to recognize.

In my opinion as an organizer, an artist and a consumer I dislike the tendency within urban art towards computer-based graphic design.

Adrian Nabi seems to share this opinion: I think there was nothing on the exhibition which is not hand-made.

I am curious about the next projects of Adrian Nabi and his fellows. On the occasion of the cultural program “Germany in Japan” they organized an exhibition in Tokyo in 2005. I hope there are new projects budding outside Germany.

PS: In 2004 the Goethe Institute made a film about Adrian Nabi and the Backjumps. It also features one of my favourite urban artists, Akim One Nguyen.

Japanese poster art

“Japanische Plakate - Heute”

Kunstbibliothek, Berlin

2007 June 15 – September 2

Once again Japanese graphic design rules.

I got to the exhibition by a fortunate coincidence. I was on my way to the Scythian exhibition when I saw a poster in the subway station. The poster already had a great artwork, so I thought: why not? My limit for one day is 5 exhibitions or 2 big museums.

“Japanische Plakate - Heute” shows 158 posters from 24 artists. They are all master pieces.

After Munich, Zurich, Prague and Berlin the exhibition moves to Warsaw, there is the last chance to take a look at the exhibits.

My favourite poster – I guess it is very famous, but I did not know it before – is the following:

It is simple, but perfect.

Scythian exhibition in Berlin

“Im Zeichen des goldenen Greifen. Königsgräber der Skythen”

Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin

2007 July 6 - October 1

I have to admit: I laughed when I read the title of the exhibition. First, there is no griffin in Central Asia. Second, there where no kings in Central Asia.

In this mainstream exhibition our dear Csodaszarvas becomes a profane “deer figure”, our beloved Turul becomes a griffin and – I think that's the most ridiculous – the Dragon becomes a “rolled animal”.

But let's forget about the details: the showed material is really great and we have to be thankful that somebody deals with the great cultures of the steppe. The beautiful gold works – all have been presents to the dead – embarrasses every admirer of ancient Greek culture.

To contain the embarrassment they presented the treasure of Mezôkeresztes-Zöldhalompuszta, where they found a Greek necklace. Wearing gold chains made by the big, beautiful and mighty Greeks! Those Scythian guys must have been very sophisticated...

The photo material was also very good. They had a nice wall with steppe pictures from Hungary to Kazakhstan – they used similar motifs and perspectives, so every region looked the same.

The exhibition was also a punch in the face to some people in Eastern Europe. If you mention the Scythians in Hungary the people call you a fascist. The different Scythian influenced cultures and peoples where presented as one cultural conglomerate; the organizers stressed the importance of the steppe warriors and traders for the connection between East and West.

A sentence in the exhibition guide illustrates a problem I had: “Kimmerer, Skythen, Sarmaten, Hunnen und Awaren, im Mittelalter Turkvölker, Tartaren und Mongolen, stellten eine permanente Bedrohung der zivilisierten Welt dar. Je nach politischer Konstellation kontrollierten die Steppenkrieger die Handelswege zwischen Ost und West, errichteten kurzlebige Grossreiche und verschwanden wieder aus der Geschichte”.

1. There is one people missing: the Magyar. Do they think we belong to the Huns, Avars or Turks? I would be happy! But when we tell it, they say Turanism is the worst kind of chauvinism.

2. “Permanent danger to the civilised world” Excuse me... what? That's the worst kind of Western chauvinism I ever read. They had exhibits from the ninth century B.C. What civilised world do they mean?

3. “Short-lived empires”? Dynasties from steppe origin ruled China. Hungary's empire lasted 1000 years.

The conclusion: You should visit the exhibition when you're in Berlin. I don't want to know how a real admirer of ancient Egyptian culture feels when he visits a mainstream exhibition on that topic – but I enjoy looking at all those beautiful things human hands (I hope so) have done. It is the same with this exhibition. “Im Zeichen des goldenen Greifen” is the first really big exhibition on Scythian art with exhibits from Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Germany ever.