Dunhuang Contemporary Art Museum believes that Dunhuang is not a static concept but is in a dynamic process of continuous growth and change. The museum uses Dunhuang as an image and Dunhuang culture and art as a cornerstone, hoping to create a visual field where art and contemporary life engage in dialogue while inheriting the oriental essence of Chinese culture. Relying on local resources and residency projects in Dunhuang, the museum also aims to become a portal connecting the Dunhuang site with urban art spaces, breaking down boundaries between regions, ancient and modern, and knowledge, and forming an art practice and research platform that links Shanghai, Dunhuang, and the global community. This dialogue invites artist Alice Chen to share her "Is 'Shanshui' Useful Today?" art project in Hangzhou, providing another example of how contemporary art responds to traditional culture and inspiring the public to think about the value of Chinese art and cultural heritage in contemporary society.
November 30th Dialogue | "Is 'Shanshui' Useful Today?" Questions and Answers
Shanshui (landscape) was once a core element of Chinese art and culture. However, in the cultural and social landscape of the 21st century, is it still relevant?
Initiating and planning art projects by posing questions - the act of questioning and answering can be employed in contemporary art forms and generated as "curatorial works."
Event Details
Time: November 30, 2024, 15:00-16:30
Location: Dunhuang Contemporary Art Museum Store
Upcoming Event Preview
Dialogue | Between Object and Self
Shi Zhiying says, "For me, no matter what I paint, it's all about resolving my understanding of painting itself."
Time: December 8, 2024, 15:00-16:30
Location: Dunhuang Contemporary Art Museum Store
Guests
Shi Zhiying, participating artists in "Jingxiang Dunhuang" exhibition
Xu Huanzhi, curator of "Jingxiang Dunhuang" exhibition
Zhu Lin, Executive Editor of artnow
Introduction
"Is 'Shanshui' Useful Today?"
To answer this question, it can be very easy and specific from a purely personal perspective, but it becomes less simple when thinking and exploring from a perspective beyond the individual: discussing "today" naturally leads to discussions of "yesterday" and "tomorrow." As for "why 'Shanshui'" and "what 'Shanshui' should be," the general understanding varies across different eras; even among contemporaries, each person's answer will differ. When it comes to "useful" or "useless," from the purpose of utility to whether it can be effective and how it can be effective, that is a matter of personal opinion.
— Alice Chen
In today's world of global coexistence between humans and non-humans, we hope to explore whether and how the "Shanshui" of the ancient Chinese civilization can reach "contemporary" and "world" through us contemporaries with a small, experimental contemporary art project like "Is 'Shanshui' Useful Today?"
Using contemporary art methods, artist Alice Chen initiates and plans art projects by posing questions, inviting and inspiring each issue's curator to create their authorial "curatorial works."
— Alice Chen
Event Introduction
"Is 'Shanshui' Useful Today?" is a three-year art project focusing on events, actions, behaviors, and performances outdoors in Hangzhou West Lake, supplemented by exhibitions and activities within its workspace "PARC Hangzhou." The project began in the spring of 2022 and has held eight sessions to date. The curatorial works, which vary in form and content, are implemented by curators from different backgrounds: ink artist Pan Wenxun, French scholar Ben Du, who invited curator Shi Han Tao, sound anthropologist, curator, and artist Wang Jing, 44-month report, which unfolds in a decentralized multi-person collaboration, artist and art space director Guo Xi, the Old Fairy Spirit drama group, wilderness curator Wang Che, and artist Qiu Anxiong, among others.
Dunhuang Contemporary Art Museum invites the project initiator and chief curator Alice Chen, the eighth session curator Qiu Anxiong, and Liu Lin, who has participated in the scene and written articles, to jointly introduce the art practices of "Is 'Shanshui' Useful Today?" and analyze its curatorial concepts. The lecture will also attempt to use "Shanshui" as an example to explore the possibilities of inheriting, transforming, and innovating traditional culture and historical resources through contemporary art.
Guests
Alice Chen
Alice Chen is an artist. All of Alice Chen's work within the art realm unfolds under the umbrella of the "Positive Art Research Association," whether in the form of individual artwork creation, project initiation, event planning, and organization, etc. From 2020 to 2022, she initiated and curated the "Terrace Project at No. 1431 Huaihai Middle Road," a specific site project. Her personal work "Decision!" and the complete set of documentation for this work from the "Terrace Project at No. 1431 Huaihai Middle Road" are collected by the Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum in China and the Centre Pompidou in France.
Liu Lin
Liu Lin is a writer and curator currently living and working in Shanghai, often traveling (in the fragmented time pieces cut by deadlines) and enjoying nature.
Qiu Anxiong
Qiu Anxiong is currently a professor at the School of Design at East China Normal University. He is a member of the Experimental Art Committee of the China Artists Association and a representative figure in contemporary ink animation. His works are collected by important international and domestic institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Centre Pompidou, the Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum, the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT), and the M+ Museum of Contemporary Art in Hong Kong. He has participated in international and domestic exhibitions such as "Ink Art" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the São Paulo Biennale, the Sydney Biennale, the Asia-Pacific Triennial, and the Busan Biennale.
Moderator
Liu Yingjiu
Executive Director of Dunhuang Contemporary Art Museum