chinesische kunst auf der 50. biennale venedig (lief bis 2.11.2003)

Schon seit langem beschäftigt sich der in Frankreich lebende chinesische Kurator Hou Hanru mit der explosionsartigen Expansion heutiger Megalopolen, vor allem in der Asien-Pazifik-Region. So kuratierte er zusammen mit Hans-Ulrich Obrist die Ausstellung "Cities on the Move" (Start 1997).

Jetzt geht es erneut um diesen Themenkomplex. Hou Hanru meint, die Städte seien "Zonen der Dringlichkeit", denn es müsse schleunigst etwas passieren. Künstler, Intellektuelle und andere Aktivisten versuchen gemeinsam mit Architekten und Stadtplanern durch entsprechende Projekte und Aktionen darauf zu reagieren. Dabei entsteht eine neue Art von Kunst, die zu einem wesentlichen Element der Neudefinition zeitgenössischer Kultur und Lebensweise wird.

Hou Hanru will Z.O.U. als ein Projekt verstanden wissen, in dem sich eine schnell agierende, interaktive Tendenz experimenteller Kunst artikuliert. Solche Kunstpraktiken, meist interventionistisch oder performativ, werden zu realen Kräften sozialer Transformation und entwickeln alternative Strategien des Widerstands.

Indem neben den mehrheitlich asiatischen Teilnehmern einige aus Europa und anderen Teilen der Welt eingeladen wurden, soll unterstrichen werden, dass die "Dringlichkeit" eine globale ist.

http://www.universes-in-universe.de/car/venezia/bien50/zou/index.htm

***********
pressetext von hou hanru:

Universes in Universe / Caravan / 50th Venice Biennial / Z.O.U.
URL: http://universes-in-universe.de/car/venezia/bien50/zou/e-press.htm

La Biennale di Venezia, 50th International Art Exhibition, 15th June - 2nd November 2003
- Press information -

Z.O.U. - Zone of Urgency
Curated by Hou Hanru
Arsenale

Driven by globalisation, urbanisation and explosive expansion of urban spaces are the most dynamic and challenging aspects in our mutating world today. In different parts of the world, especially in areas like Asia-Pacific region where modernisation and integration in the global economic and cultural systems are taking place in unprecedented speed, urban expansion, often going ahead of any long term planning, radically prompts social divisions and restructuring. Everyone living in the situation has to confront with urgent questions of development, competition and survival while established social and urban fabrics are being deconstructed and re-organised. Traditional urban planning has been surpassed by the “post-planning” reality: the city has become a collage of zones created out of urgent demands instead of regular planning. Certainly, this situation, along with the global migration movement and economic globalization, is increasingly influencing the Western world as well. Urgent solutions have to be invented and practiced in order to create conditions for sustainable development and life.

Today’s city becomes a zone of urgency. It’s against this background that artistic and cultural activities, closely related to the urban transformation, are brought to a new frontier. Artists, intellectuals, activists, in groups or as individuals, along with architects and urban planners, are struggling to create projects, actions and works to negotiate with this reality. It’s out of this process, new ideas and works are generated and become essential elements of redefinition of contemporary art, culture, knowledge and modes of life while spaces for imagination and innovation are opened.

In different parts of the world, especially in “non-western” regions like Asia-Pacific region, new understanding and models of modernity, or different modernities, are being experimented and provide the most active platform of creativity. Artistic practices, emphasizing the interventionist motivations and performative forms, are being developed into real force of social transformation while multidisciplinary collaborations are highly encouraged. On the other hand, to negotiate with the urgency of lack of traditional institutional infrastructures, the art world tend to experiment with more flexible, self-supporting and inventive solutions to create new communities by means of do-it-yourself kind of self-organisations. They reflect to the alternative strategies of resistance and developments initiated by “marginal” communities under the pressure of globalisation. Art and culture practices are brought out to the zone of urgency, and in turn, they are also opening up oppositional zones of urgency as responses to the reality.

The project Z.O.U. – Zone of Urgency, under the general theme of Dreams and Conflicts proposed by Francesco Bonami, intends to articulately present this urgency-response interactive tendency in today’s art experiments and works, notably by those acting in the Asia-Pacific regions. In the meantime, similar experiences from Europe and other regions will be also presented as manifests of the global necessity of such strategies. About 40 artists have hence been invited to participate in the project with multimedia works ranging from painting to installation, from video to performance, from internet website to architectural design... They are covering large domains from urban actions to personal imagination, from historic-geopolitical critiques to political protests, etc. Designed especially for the specific site of the Arsenale, the exhibition’s realisation is to become a process of opening up a unique Zone of Urgency for artistic adventures and dialogues with the public in the conditions of the urgent reality of social transformation.

Artists:

Yung Ho Chang und Atelier FCJZ (China)
Yung Ho Chang (1956, Beijing). Lives and works in Beijing.
Atelier FCJZ founded in 1993 in Beijing.

Adel Abdessemed (Algeria)
1971, Constantine (Algeria). Lives and works in Berlin.

Alfredo Juan Aquilizan and Maria Isabel Aquilizan (Philippines)
Alfredo Juan Aquilizan (1962, Cagayan Valley, Philippines).
Maria Isabel Aquilizan (1965, Manila).
Both live and work in Los Baños, Laguna (Philippines).

Atelier Bow-Wow and Momoya Kaijima (Japan)
Atelier Bow-Wow founded in 1992, Tokyo,
by Toshihiro Tsukamoto (1965, Kanagawa, Japan).
Momoya Kaijima (1969, Tokio). Lives and works in Tokyo

Campement Urbain (France)
Founded in 1999 in Paris by Aline Caillet, Sylvie Blocher,
François Daune, Josette Faidit

Canton Express (China)
(a special project created by artists from the Cantonese region – Guangzhou, Yangjiang, Shenzhen, etc., China):
Big Tail Elephants: Lin Yilin (1964, Guangzhou, China; lives and works in New York and Guangzhou), Chen Shaoxiong (1962, Shantou, Guangdong, China; lives and works in Guangzhou), Xu Tan (1957, Wuhan, Cina; lives and works in Guangzhou and Shanghai; collaboration with Jin Jiangbo), Liang Juhui (1959, Guangzhou; lives and works in Guangzhou);
Vitamin Creative Space (founded in 2002 in Guangzhou) and Yangjiang Group: Zheng Guogu (1970, Yangjiang, China; lives and works in Yangjiang), Hu Fang (1970, Zhejiang, China; lives and works in Guangzhou), Sha Yeya (Yangjiang; lives and works in Yangjiang), Feng Qianyu (Yangjiang; lives and works in Yangjiang);
Borges Libreria (Guangzhou) and World Bookstore (Yangjiang): Chen Tong (Hunan, China; lives and works in Guangzhou), Lu Yi (Yangjiang; lives and works in Yangjiang);
Utèque (Guangzhou): Ou Ning (1969, Zhanjiang, China; lives and works in Guangzhou), Cao Fei (1978, Guangzhou; lives and works in Guangzhou);
Yang Jiechang (1956, Foshan, China; lives and works in Paris);
Yang Yong (1975, Sichuan; lives and works in Shenzhen, China);
Jiang Zhi (1971, Yuanjiang, Hunan; lives and works in Shenzhen, China);
Liu Heng (Guangzhou; lives and works in Guangzhou and USA);
Duan Jianyu (lives and works in Guangzhou).

Jota Castro (Peru)
Peru. Lives and works in Bruxelles.

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Korea)
Young-Hae Chang Seoul). Lives and works in Seoul.
Marc Voge (USA). Lives and works in Seoul.

Shu Lea Cheang (Taiwan, China)
Taiwan. Lives and works in USA and other places.

Heri Dono (Indonesia)
1960 Jakarta. Lives and works in Yogyakarta (Indonesia).

Gu Dexin (China)
1962, Beijing. Lives and works in Beijing.

Huang Yong Ping (China)
1954, Xiamen (China). Lives and works in Paris.

Joo Jae-Hwan (Korea)
1941, Seoul. Lives and works in Seoul.

Sora Kim and Gimhongsoh (Korea)
Sora Kim (1965, Seoul). Lives and works in Seoul.
Gimhongsoh (1964, Seoul). Lives and works in Seoul.

Surasi Kusolwong (Thailand)
1965, Thailand. Lives and works in Bangkok.

Kyupi-Kyupi (Japan)
Founded in 1996 in Kyoto by Yoshimasa Ishibashi,
Mazuka Kimura, Mami Wakeshima and Koichi Emura.
All members live and work in Kyoto.

Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba (Vietnam)
1968, Vietnam. Lives and works in Vietnam.

Tsuyoshi Ozawa (Japan)
1965, Tokyo. Lives and works in Tokyo.

Tadaso Takamine (Japan)
1968, Japan. Lives and works in Gifu (Japan).

Tsang Tsou-choi (China)
1920, Huaxian, Guangdong, China. Lives and works in Hong Kong.

Wong Hoy Cheong (Malaysia)
1960, Penang (Malaysia). Lives and works in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).

Yan Lei and Fu Jie (China)
Yan Lei (1965, Hebei, China). Lives and works in Hong Kong.
Fu Jie (1971, China). Lives and works in Hong Kong.

Yan Pei-Ming (China)
Shanghai. Lives and works in Dijon (France).

Yang Zhengzhou (China)
1968, Zhejiang (China). Lives and works in Shanghai.

Zhang Peili (China)
1957, Hangzhou (China). Lives and works in Hangzhou.

Zhu Jia (China)
1963, Beijing. Lives and works in Beijing.

http://www.universes-in-universe.de/car/venezia/bien50/zou/e-press.htm

******************

offizielle biennale-homepage:
http://www.labiennale.org/en/visualarts/exhibition/index.html

____________________

Matthias Arnold M.A.
Digital Resources
Institute of Chinese Studies
University of Heidelberg
Akademiestr. 4-8
69117 Heidelberg
Germany

Phone: ++ 49 - (0) 62 21 - 54 76 75
Fax: ++ 49 - (0) 62 21 - 54 76 39

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de

www.fluktor.de
www.zhaomo.de.vu