Starting in May 2014, ArtCo China will feature selected essays that have been previously published in Yishu and will translate them into Chinese. ArtCo China is a Chinese periodical that focuses on Chinese and international contemporary art and culture. Distributed in China, it is published by Art and Collection Group with the generous support of JNBY Art Projects. We look forward to building insightful dialogues and exchanges with our readers in China!

《典藏/读天下-今艺术》自去年起由典藏艺术家庭在大陆公开发行，着重介绍国内外当代艺术，并从今年五月号起设“国际版（Yishu)专区”，定期选载从Yishu杂志翻译成中文的评论文章。這部分的编译工作由江南布衣慷慨赞助。我们期待与更多的中国读者展开精彩的交流与对话!

For more info, please visit: http://artouch.com/

Greetings from Art Basel! Please come visit us at the Media Section Z26. We would love to see you there!

Open to Public: June 19-22, 2014

Venue: Halls 1 and 2 of Messe Basel,

Messeplatz, 4005 Basel, Switzerland

http://www.artbasel.com

photo 1: Yishu’s managing editor Zheng Shengtian with our publisher Katy Hsiu-chih Chien

photo 2: Architect Donald Mak from Herzog & de Meuron came to visit our booth

photo 3: Yishu’s subscription manager Lara Broyde

Yishu is pleased to announce its continued participation in the 45th edition of Art Basel Switzerland, which opens from June 19-22, 2014. Please come visit us at the Media Section Z26. We would be delighted to see you there!

ABOUT ART BASEL

The world’s premier international art show for Modern and contemporary works, Art Basel features nearly 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The exhibition includes the highest-quality paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, video and editioned works.

Open to Public: June 19-22, 2014

Venue: Halls 1 and 2 of Messe Basel,

Messeplatz, 4005 Basel, Switzerland

http://www.artbasel.com

Photos of our publisher Katy Hsiu-chih Chien and director of the Vancouver Art Gallery Kathleen Bartels presenting the Fourth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art. Two jurors who have extensive experience in the field of contemporary Chinese art each were invited to make a recommendation: Martina Köppel-Yang, an independent scholar and curator with a Ph.D. in East Asian Art from the University of Heidelberg, selected Anthony Yung, and Li Xianting, an internationally renowned scholar, curator, and critic of contemporary Chinese art, selected Cui Cancan. Each award carries a value of $5,000 CAD. The award presentation was followed by a discussion titled “Mainstreaming the Alternative?”, hosted by Yishu’s Editor-in-Chief Keith Wallace. This discussion was part of Asia Art Archive’s Open Platform series that took place on May 15th at Art Basel Hong Kong.

Yishu will be participating in Asia Art Archive’s Open Platform at Art Basel Hong Kong on May 15, 12:00 to 1:30 pm. We will be presenting the Fourth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art followed by a discussion titled “Mainstreaming the Alternative?” Please come and join us at the AAA Booth just outside the main exhibition hall.

Date: May 15, 12:00-1:30pm

Venue: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, outside the main exhibition hall

__________________________

About the Fourth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art

Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art is pleased to announce the recipients of the Fourth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art. Two jurors who have extensive experience in the field of contemporary Chinese art each were invited to make a recommendation: Martina Köppel-Yang, an independent scholar and curator with a Ph.D. in East Asian Art from the University of Heidelberg, selected Anthony Yung, and Li Xianting, an internationally renowned scholar, curator, and critic of contemporary Chinese art, selected Cui Cancan. Each award carries a value of $5,000 CAD. Past award recipients include Maya Kovskaya and Sheng Wei, in 2010; Zhu Qi and Huang Zhuan, in 2011; and Lu Peng and Yu-Ling Chou, in 2012.

The Yishu Awards for Critical Writing are important to the mandate of Yishu and were established to encourage and recognize writers who are making an outstanding contribution to exploring the history of and current issues in contemporary Chinese art.

Martina Köppel-Yang notes that Anthony Yung is at an early stage in his career. He has been working since 2007 as a senior researcher at the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong where he has participated in and managed important archive projects such as Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980–1990 and the documentary film From Jean-Paul Sartre to Teresa Teng: Cantonese Contemporary Art in the 1980s, of which he was a co-director.

In addition to his work as a researcher, Anthony Yung has curated exhibitions with a younger generation of Chinese and Hong Kong artists. He also co-founded the independent exhibition space Observation Society, located in Guangzhou. His writing in the field of contemporary Chinese art reflects his practical experience as a researcher and curator. He pays particular attention to crafting detailed descriptions of artworks as well as to terminology. Anthony Yung takes into account the local background yet does not forget to position the artwork in relation to contemporary concepts and philosophy. By trying to develop a terminology appropriate for the respective contexts he questions, he avoids being formulaic in his writing. This is particularly important in the field of Chinese art criticism, or criticism of contemporary Chinese art, in which the limits of the Chinese language and the lack of an appropriate, sensitive, and meaningful indigenous terminologies and the consequent integration of foreign terminologies can pose problems. Anthony Yung’s experience as a curator further enables him to maintain a creative dialogue with artists and with local contexts. His writing is engaged, informed, and sensitive, and he will contribute even more significant and interesting writing in the future.

Li Xianting observes that in recent years Cui Cancan, based in Beijing, has explored the use of alternative spaces. Through a series of exhibitions including Heiqiao Night Away, A Dream, and Container Project, Cui Cancan has taken art out of the existing art system and placed it on the streets and in local communities. These exhibitions articulate his concerns about contemporary Chinese political issues, as well as about Internet communications investigating the most central and fundamental contradictions of the current era and the changes the new technologies have brought to art production and distribution.

For example, the exhibition Heiqiao Night Away lasted sixty days and included more than two hundred artists. This project was a rejection of mainstream systems. All artworks were placed in an abandoned space where there was no security, no fixed display mode, and no audience. The artworks quickly appeared and disappeared, confronted each other, were undisciplined in their relationships, and avoided any efficient, predesigned organizing format. This project also created a new means of communication, not only through word of mouth, but also through artists’ self-broadcasting on social media and by employing the networks Weibo and Wechat. The exhibition demonstrated that contemporary art is no longer a form itself but made up of its social attributes, taking into consideration how it is distributed and recognized in the society.

Cui Cancan places particular emphasis on individual action in order to confront the powerful systems, the absorption of individual cultural identity by arts institutions, the effect of totalitarian politics on individual rights and living environments, and consumer trends that are dominated by the cultural tastes and lifestyles of centralized capitalism.

Financial Support for the Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art is made possible by Stephanie Holmquist and Mark Allison, Li Lin, and the Canadian Foundation of Asian Art.

image: Anthony Yung (left), Cui Cancan (right)

Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art is pleased to announce our participation in the second edition of Art Basel Hong Kong , which opens from May 15-18, 2014. Our publisher Art & Collection will have a booth at M27. We look forward to seeing you there!

About Art Basel | Hong Kong

From emerging talents to the Modern masters of both Asia and the West, Art Basel in Hong Kong traces twelve decades of art history across its six sectors: Galleries, Insights, Discoveries, Encounters, Magazines and Film. On display will be the highest quality of paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, video and editioned works from the 20th and 21st centuries, by more than 2,000 artists from Asia and around the globe.

The show will also offer extensive opportunities for intellectual discovery, through discussions and presentations, creating a platform of cross-cultural exchanges for artists, gallerists, collectors, and visitors.

Open to Public: May 15-18, 2014

Venue: Booth M27, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

Editor’s Note

The previous issue of Yishu was devoted to the history of exhibitions of Asian art during the past two decades, both within and outside of Asia. The texts consisted of papers delivered at Asia Art Archive’s conference Sites of Construction: Exhibitions and the Making of Recent Art History in Asia, and were accompanied by introductions, keynote lectures, and polemical positions.

Yishu 62 continues this exploration into history and exhibitions. 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of an exhibition held in Paris in 1989. Hou Hanru offers a reflection on the significance of this exhibition, the era in which it was presented, and its lasting impact on the art world. Magiciens de la terre, among the first exhibitions to challenge the highly Eurocentric perspective of contemporary art and embrace relatively unknown artists from several other regions of the globe, generated considerable controversy and continues to be a subject of discussion.

This is followed by the final component of Asia Art Archive’s Sites of Construction conference. This time, we examine exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art that took place in 1993, a year that was symbolic in that many Chinese artists were introduced into the international arena. This extensive discussion reveals just how much has changed in the process of organizing exhibitions, the anxieties of working with unknown artistic expectations, and how recently the dissemination of contemporary Chinese art actually began. In 1993, limited knowledge existed even in Hong Kong about the artwork produced in mainland China. The conference speakers—Julia F. Andrews, Chang Tsong-zung, Francesca Dal Lago, Kong Chang’an, Andreas Schmid, Wang Youshen, and Anthony Yung—mix well-researched inquiries with first-hand personal accounts from individuals directly involved in putting these exhibitions together.

Yishu 62 concludes with a conversation between Zheng Shengtian and Chang Tsong-zung, founder and director of Hanart TZ Gallery, one of Hong Kong’s earliest contemporary art galleries, which, in 2013, celebrated thirty years of exhibiting Chinese art. Chang Tsong-zung relates his own story as a curator as well as that of the contemporary art market in Hong Kong, which shifted from one that was relatively modest and evolving into one of its major players internationally.

Yishu will be participating in Asia Art Archive’s Open Platform at Art Basel Hong Kong on May 15, 12:00 to 1:30 pm. We will be presenting the Fourth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art followed by a discussion titled Mainstreaming the Alternative? Please come and join us at the AAA Booth just outside the main exhibition hall.

Keith Wallace

image (top): Huang Yongping, Reptiles, 1989, installation at Magiciens de la terre. Courtesy of the artist.

Editor’s Note

Yishu 61 is dedicated to the Asia Art Archive symposium Sites of Construction: Exhibitions and the Making of Recent Art History in Asia, which took place in Hong Kong from October 21 to 23, 2013. Asia Art Archive is one of the most important organizations for researching, preserving, archiving, and raising awareness about the history of contemporary art in Asia, and this particular symposium is of interest to Yishu for two reasons.

One, while “contemporary” is a central word within this journal’s title, we believe the historical can inform the contemporary, and, in reverse, the contemporary moment that we live in can inform how we understand the historical. Although a number of the exhibitions discussed in the symposium happened some years ago and now exist as documents, the writers who participated in this symposium are keeping those histories alive through revisiting and reevaluating them.

Two, Yishu encourages the consideration of contemporary Chinese art in relation to broader contexts; in this case, the vast ground that is Asia. Other examples of this include Yishu 52, which focused on artist initiatives across Asia, and Yishu 56, which accounted for the wide array of Asian biennials that have become established or are recently emerging. We believe that placing China within these contexts, and in all its iterations, serves to expand the idea of nation relative to that country’s neighbours, with which, historically, it has witnessed shifting relationships.

One component of the Sites of Construction symposium that is not represented in Yishu 61 is its exploration of important exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art that took place in 1993 in Hong Kong, Berlin, and Venice. In essence, those exhibitions symbolized the entry, with all its complexities, of contemporary Chinese art into the international art world. This discussion will be followed upon in Yishu 62.

I would like to thank Asia Art Archive for inviting Yishu to collaborate on providing a document of this important event, especially Claire Hsu, Hammad Nasar, Vivian Poon, and all the support staff. Many thanks also to the writers who participated in this symposium and who agreed to have Yishu publish their texts. It makes a significant contribution to the health of contemporary Asian art.

Keith Wallace

image (top): Florian Germann, Wendigo River/The Crystal Source/Kowloon, 2013, real-time activity (circa 4 hours) during From Dusk Till Dawn, former Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Photo: © Alain Kantarjian. Courtesy of the artist and Burger Collection, Hong Kong.

Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art is pleased to announce the recipients of the Fourth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art. Two jurors who have extensive experience in the field of contemporary Chinese art each were invited to make a recommendation: Martina Köppel-Yang, an independent scholar and curator with a Ph.D. in East Asian Art from the University of Heidelberg, selected Anthony Yung, and Li Xianting, an internationally renowned scholar, curator, and critic of contemporary Chinese art, selected Cui Cancan. Each award carries a value of $5,000 CAD. Past award recipients include Maya Kovskaya and Sheng Wei, in 2010; Zhu Qi and Huang Zhuan, in 2011; and Lu Peng and Yu-Ling Chou, in 2012.

The Yishu Awards for Critical Writing are important to the mandate of Yishu and were established to encourage and recognize writers who are making an outstanding contribution to exploring the history of and current issues in contemporary Chinese art.

Martina Köppel-Yang notes that Anthony Yung is at an early stage in his career. He has been working since 2007 as a senior researcher at the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong where he has participated in and managed important archive projects such as Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980–1990 and the documentary film From Jean-Paul Sartre to Teresa Teng: Cantonese Contemporary Art in the 1980s, of which he was a co-director.

In addition to his work as a researcher, Anthony Yung has curated exhibitions with a younger generation of Chinese and Hong Kong artists. He also co-founded the independent exhibition space Observation Society, located in Guangzhou. His writing in the field of contemporary Chinese art reflects his practical experience as a researcher and curator. He pays particular attention to crafting detailed descriptions of artworks as well as to terminology. Anthony Yung takes into account the local background yet does not forget to position the artwork in relation to contemporary concepts and philosophy. By trying to develop a terminology appropriate for the respective contexts he questions, he avoids being formulaic in his writing. This is particularly important in the field of Chinese art criticism, or criticism of contemporary Chinese art, in which the limits of the Chinese language and the lack of an appropriate, sensitive, and meaningful indigenous terminologies and the consequent integration of foreign terminologies can pose problems. Anthony Yung’s experience as a curator further enables him to maintain a creative dialogue with artists and with local contexts. His writing is engaged, informed, and sensitive, and he will contribute even more significant and interesting writing in the future.

Li Xianting observes that in recent years Cui Cancan, based in Beijing, has explored the use of alternative spaces. Through a series of exhibitions including Heiqiao Night Away, A Dream, and Container Project, Cui Cancan has taken art out of the existing art system and placed it on the streets and in local communities. These exhibitions articulate his concerns about contemporary Chinese political issues, as well as about Internet communications investigating the most central and fundamental contradictions of the current era and the changes the new technologies have brought to art production and distribution.

For example, the exhibition Heiqiao Night Away lasted sixty days and included more than two hundred artists. This project was a rejection of mainstream systems. All artworks were placed in an abandoned space where there was no security, no fixed display mode, and no audience. The artworks quickly appeared and disappeared, confronted each other, were undisciplined in their relationships, and avoided any efficient, predesigned organizing format. This project also created a new means of communication, not only through word of mouth, but also through artists’ self-broadcasting on social media and by employing the networks Weibo and Wechat. The exhibition demonstrated that contemporary art is no longer a form itself but made up of its social attributes, taking into consideration how it is distributed and recognized in the society.

Cui Cancan places particular emphasis on individual action in order to confront the powerful systems, the absorption of individual cultural identity by arts institutions, the effect of totalitarian politics on individual rights and living environments, and consumer trends that are dominated by the cultural tastes and lifestyles of centralized capitalism.

Financial Support for the Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art Financial is made possible by Stephanie Holmquist and Mark Allison, Li Lin, and the Canadian Foundation of Asian Art.

image: Anthony Yung (left), Cui Cancan (right)

Editor’s Note

Yishu 60 opens with texts by recipients of the Fourth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art. This year Yishu invited Li Xianting and Martina Köppel-Yang, both established as scholars, critics, and curators within the field of contemporary Chinese Art, to each choose a writer they believe worthy of this recognition. Li Xianting selected Beijingbased Cui Cancan, and Martina Köppel-Yang selected Hong Kong-based Anthony Yung. Each of this year’s recipients has contributed a text to Yishu celebrating the idea of alternative artistic practices that challenge the mainstream art system. Cui Cancan calls for a revolution in art-making that resists submission to institutionalization, and Anthony Yung explores the intuitive and idiosyncratic performance work of Hu Xiangqian. Following and complementing these two texts is an account by Jesse Birch of artist Li Mu, who has carried out an ambitious project of re-creating works in the collection of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and recontexualizing them in his home village of Qiuzhuang.

Stephanie Bailey interviews Slavs and Tatars after the collective’s visit to Xinjiang, one of China’s most westernmost territories and the apparent birthplace of the Turkish language. This history is relatively unknown, even in Xinjiang itself, and the research by Slavs and Tatars emphasizes the historic fluidity of borders, language, and the relationship among cultures that line the trade routes between Turkey and China, a reminder that cultural exchange and hybridity have been taking place for centuries and are not recent developments resulting from contemporary globalization.

Painting’s expansive field is the focus of texts by Victor Wang and Voon Pow Bartlett, who discuss, respectively, the works of Zhang Enli and Li Songsong, both of whom had their first UK exhibitions in 2013. The authors explore the complex relationship between the physical process of painting and the ways meaning arises from it. Xu Bing’s recent outdoor installation, also installed in the UK, at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, is the subject of Patricia Eichnbaum Karetzky’s essay in which she examines how this work is consistent with the artist’s interest in translation, this time conveying the traditions of Chinese folkloric myths to western Europe.

Finally, the staff at Yishu thanks you, our readers, writers, subscribers, and donors, for your ongoing support, and we wish you the very best for the New Year, whichever one you may celebrate.

Keith Wallace

Image (top): Hu Xiangqian, Xiangqian Museum, 2010, performance at Taikang Space, Beijing. Courtesy of the artist.