China Contemporary
Architecture, Art and Visual Culture
A joint initiative of the Netherlands Architecture Institute, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the Nederlands fotomuseum in Rotterdam. This first interdisciplinary overview of Chinas contemporary art, architecture and visual culture including television, photography, newspapers, magazines and blogs also provides a platform for a new critical voice from the Peoples Republic.
Dates: Saturday 10 June 2006 through Sunday 3 September (Except for Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen: Saturday10 June through Sunday 13 August 2006).
More information
The Peoples Republic of China is undergoing a phenomenal transformation. In just a few years, the country has developed into the mecca of the market economy, a place where existing and new cities are mushrooming into modern metropolises at breakneck speed. But is this all just a glossy image? Three Rotterdam arts institutions have teamed up to show the work of contemporary artists, photographers, architects and designers from China from 10 June 2006 onward to have them answer this question with provocative, critical, ironic and beautiful work.
China Contemporary is a joint initiative of the Netherlands Architecture Institute, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the Nederlands fotomuseum in Rotterdam. This first interdisciplinary overview of Chinas contemporary art, architecture and visual culture including television, photography, newspapers, magazines and blogs also provides a platform for a new critical voice from the Peoples Republic.
China Contemporary- Architecture, Art and Visual Culture
Architecture
The exhibition presents in five different themes (Chineseness, Critical Urban Renewal, Urbanscape, Public Domain en Informal China) more than forty remarkable projects by eighteen talented young Chinese architects. They cherish the cultural tradition and attempt to improve the changeable urban landscape by using new concepts. The installations, models, computers animations, documentaries, photographs and films that are being exhibited here for the first time offer the public a penetrating insight.
Participating architects
Ai Weiwei (FAKE Design), Yung Ho Chang (Atelier Feichang Jianzhu), Chen Xudong (DAtrans), DeSHaus, Jingyu Liang (Approach Architecture Studio), Li Juchuan, Li Xiaodong Design Studio, Liu Jiakun (Jiakun Architect & Associates), Ma Qingyun (MADA s.p.a.m.), Zhu Xiaofeng (Scenic Architecture), Standardarchitecture, Tong Ming (TM Studio), Urbanus, Wang Hui and Yang Yang (NENO 2529 Design Group), Wang Lu, Wang Shu (Amateur Architecture Studio), Zhang Lei (Atelier Zhanglei) and Zhu Pei (Studio Peizhu). A stream of images created by the Crystal Image rendering bureau and work by artists, designers and researchers such as Jiang Jun ( Underline Office), MAP Office, Ou Ning, Wang Jun, Wang Yiyang and Xu Tan provide a fitting context for the work of these architects.
Art
In two presentations the New Urban Realities group exhibition and the Xu Zhen solo exhibition Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen shows how the latest generation of Chinese artists is reacting to these spectacular changes.
New Urban Realities: Concrete reality
Artists such as Yang Zhenzong, Wang Jiangwei, Yang Fudong and Xing Danwen scrutinize the idealized images of prosperity, status, love and power that are propagated via the mass media and give them a personal twist. The works of art by seventeen artists brought together in New Urban Realities provide a fascinating impression of the many faces of the Chinese Dream: series of photos of skyscrapers, snapshots of urban life, video installations that portray the individual searching for meaning in the concrete reality of the metropolis.
Solo exhibition: Xu Zhen
Xu Zhen (b. Shanghai, 1977) is one of the most controversial artists of his generation. He was instrumental in establishing the independent art centre Bizart in Shanghai and was an inspiring force for many young artists.
The exhibition shows the room-filling installation, 8848 1.86 which documents the artists brave venture to literally saw off the top of Mount Everest.
Visual Culture
The mass media in China have grown as quick as lightning in recent years, and a thriving digital culture has evolved thanks to the Internet. The staggering economic growth has caused an explosion in information in which the visual image carried by media including television, photography, fashion, advertising, magazines, newspapers and blogs plays a lead role. How are the younger generations of Chinese people responding to the turbulent developments? And how do they relate to the Chinese visual tradition and to censorship?
The Nederlands fotomuseum presents a fascinating and sparkling snapshot of contemporary Chinese visual culture for the first time in the Netherlands and carries a new voice from the Peoples Republic.
The exhibition includes magazines such as Vision, City Pictorial and Urban China, publications and cultural project by Modern Media, work of the designers Ou Ning, JiJi, Wang Yiyang, Zhang Da, MEWE, Peng&Chen, websites, critical blogs, billboards and slogans.
Symposium: The New New Human Being
On Sunday, June 11, there is a symposium in the NAI at which nine architects, artists and designers from China will talk about and debate current developments in architecture, the visual arts and visual culture. The participants include Pi Li, Ou Ning and Zhou Rong. In association with the International Institute for Asian Studies.
Location & time: NAI auditorium, 11:00 18:00. Reservations: www.nai.nl/register
Locations
Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI)M
Museumpark 25, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Museumpark 18-20, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Nederlands fotomuseum
Witte de Withstraat 63, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Websites
Multi-day pass
You can purchase a multi-day pass for the three venues.
