Spring exhibitions
DUCHAMP and/or/in CHINA
MAP Office: The Oven of Straw
Multitude Art Prize and Discourse Series
27 April–June 16, 2013
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu
Beijing, China
T +86 10 5780 0200
visitor [at] ucca.org.cn
The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art is proud to present three new exhibitions opening on April 27, 2013. The exhibitions deal with a wide range of themes, but share a common concern with the ways in which ideas travel across cultural boundaries. DUCHAMP and/or/in CHINA sets 31 works by Marcel Duchamp alongside pieces by Chinese artists influenced by his work in the Long Gallery. Recent Sovereign Asian Art Prize-winners, MAP Office meanwhile show their installation, The Oven of Straw in the Nave. Finally, the inaugural Multitude Art Prize exhibition showcases work from five artists and artist-groups from across Asia in the Central Gallery and Lobby.
DUCHAMP and/or/in CHINA is the most comprehensive exhibition in China of Duchamp’s works to date, as well as an investigation into his impact on the development of contemporary art in China. Presented in partnership with the Institut Français de Chine as part of the 2013 Croisements festival, Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise, a “portable museum” consisting of miniature reproductions of his key works, serves as a centerpiece to the exhibition. Related works by Duchamp as well as a special selection of works by Chinese artists who have been influenced by him provide an opportunity to observe the ways in which Duchampian themes and questions have played out in the particular context of contemporary art in China. The exhibition is curated by Francis Naumann and John Tancock, with featured Chinese artists including Ai Weiwei, Cai Yuan + Xi Jianjun, Huang Yong Ping, Lee Kit, Polit-Sheer-Form, Song Dong + Yin Xiuzhen, Taca Sui, Wang Jun-jieh, Wang Xingwei, Wu Shanzhuan, Xu Zhen, Zhao Zhao, and Zheng Guogu.
For more information: www.faguowenhua.com/croisements, croisements [at] institutfrancais-chine.com
Support for this exhibition also comes from EDF and Groupama.
MAP Office: The Oven of Straw draws a sharp parallel between the productive systems of agriculture and the sterile accumulation of capital. With a straw exterior resembling both an oven and a bank, and an interior that functions like a cinema, Hong Kong-based artist/architect duo MAP Office present an installation first conceived for the Kiev Biennial in 2012, now updated for a second showing in China. In the video installation at the center of the piece, films from various historical moments that touch upon the production of grain run side by side in a melancholic loop. Documentary footage and clips from both propaganda films and feature films rub together in a two-channel video that pits the labor of the farm worker against the speculative activity of the trader or banker. Featured directors include Sergei Eisenstein, Michelangelo Antonioni, and China’s own Ping He, while a new Part III to the film has been added, titled When Banks Reaped Losses. The whole installation examines the relationship between films, farms, and financial institutions, and takes a serious look at wheat as the original Marxian commodity. MAP Office is a multidisciplinary platform devised by Laurent Gutierrez and Valérie Portefaix.
For more information: www.map-office.com
The inaugural Multitude Art Prize exhibition features five artists or artist groups representing the most creative, critical minds in a rising Asian contemporary art scene. Presented by the Multitude Foundation, a Hong Kong-based charitable trust, and the Wuhan Art Terminus (WH.A.T.), a new contemporary art institution in Wuhan, the Multitude Art Prize examines the role of art and its relevance in different regions of Asia. Accompanying the exhibition will be a conference placing the situation of contemporary Asian art within a global context, with invited speakers including leading Asian curators and scholars, as well as Western museum directors involved in the institutional collaborative “L’Internationale.” Grounded in the concept of the “multitude,” or collective subject, this year prize-winners are as follows: Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Philippines; Ha Za Vu Zu, Turkey; Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho, Korea; Raqs Media Collective, India; and Yao Jui-chung, Taiwan.
For more information: www.multitudefoundation.org, info [at] multitudefoundation.org, info [at] what-center.cn
Editorial contacts:
Amanda Halliday, UCCA: amanda.halliday [at] ucca.org.cn
Jade Ouk, Sutton PR Asia: jade [at] suttonprasia.com
