PSA 2017 Emerging Curators Project

Since its launch in May 2017, the 4th PSA Emerging Curators Project received 66 valid submissions during the two-month enlistment period. Among them, three were selected as winning proposals, after the 10 final candidates were interviewed and voted by a jury made up with members of the PSA Academic Committee including Chris Dercon, Ding Yi, Fei Dawei, Feng Yuan, Gong Yan, Hou Hanru and Mark Wigley, as well as invited judge Zhang Peili and guest judge René Lorenceau. After four months of actualization, the three tangible exhibitions will finally be able to greet art fans at both Power Station of Art and Swatch Art Peace Hotel from November 24, 2017.

The three winning proposals for the PSA 2017 Emerging Curators Project in particular highlight young curators’ deep concerns with the current social realities, acute observations of the present survival states, and unique reflections on the community operation mechanism. They’ve also skillfully brought into play effects of exhibitional designs to fully mobilize spatial relationships, hoping to present their self-consciousness and experimental spirits with a diversified exhibitional vocabulary.

Home, Sweet Home (by Mo Wanli, Deng Yuanye, and Lin Lin) takes advantage of a set of six parallel Disciplinary Walls and the irregular space scattered in-between to define a viewing path and sequence. Through readings of historical materials and peeping into artistic creations, it aims to deconstruct the historical construction of sweet home through a voyeuristic perspective. #HASHTAG (by Feng Lixing, Shi Ji, and Wu You) focuses on artworks created with digital technologies, philosophies and concepts, and transforms the exhibition hall into a real-time updating cloud storage. It is inspired by “#,” a sign used extensively in social media, to reconfigure the roles of art museums, artists, and visitors, by inviting all parties to step out of their long-established identities. LIGHT UP Therapy Resort (by Tiffany Fung and Lv Siqiao) is an immersive therapy program designed to model after the urbanites’ dream paradise. It seeks to examine alternative strategies and commercial mechanisms behind the increasingly popular psychological therapies, reflect on the rise of therapeutic culture, and deconstruct the collective desire to “feel better.”

In addition to providing support to help turn the winning proposals into tangible exhibitions, the PSA Emerging Curators Project is also devoted to expanding its academic depth and influence circle, in a bid to boost China’s young curatorial force. The 2017 project’s academic derivatives have included a national tour in the enlistment period, during which PSA took the brand name to a number of higher educational institutions and culture and art organizations in several cities; overseas research opportunities to visit France and Italy for three chosen curators, which are sponsored by the Consulate General of France in Shanghai and Swatch Ltd.; and a symposium titled “Critical Curatorship” jointly presented by PSA and Taiwan’s Spring Foundation during the exhibitions’ opening week.

As a special program for the PSA 2017 Emerging Curators Project, the “Critical Curatorship” symposium, set to take place on November 25 and 26, will invite a lineup of nearly a dozen senior curators and scholars, including Fei Dawei, Fei Jun, Gong Yan, Jiang Jun, Lai Hsiangling, Lu Mingjun, Pi Li, Chih-Yung Aaron Chiu, Roan Ching-yueh, Manray Hsu, Amy Cheng, Zuo Jing to discuss four curatorial themes including “Contemporary Culture and Urban Landscape,” “Contemporary Art and Writing History,” “Internet Society · Digital Media · Art Action,” “Social Practice and Art Production.” Fully open to the public, the symposium seeks to present a cross-disciplinary and multi-interface cultural debate that centers on thinkings about contemporary curatorial practices, and impacts the whole Chinese curatorial community.

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