[spectre] China China China!!! exhibition at CCCS

[Alessandro Ludovico]

CHINA CHINA CHINA!!!
from 21 march 2007 to 4 May 2008
CCCS, Strozzina Contemporary Culture Center, Florence (Italy)
http://www.strozzina.org/cinacinacina/e_index.htm

CHINA CHINA CHINA!!!, will present the work of 18 
contemporary Chinese artists from three different 
cities- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou  - who are 
all seeking to define a new cultural identity 
unfettered by the rules of the global market. A 
publication (published by Silvana Editoriale) and 
a series of lectures are planned with the 
exhibition.
This event ties in with the exhibition on the 
first floor of Palazzo Strozzi, devoted to the 
Tang dynasty, universally recognized as a high 
point in Chinese civilization and central to the 
Chinese Renaissance.

The aim of the CCCS, under the direction of 
Franziska Nori, is to approach the much discussed 
"China phenomenon" from a different point of 
view. That's why the project is entrusted to 
three young Chinese curators:
- Davide Quadrio, founder and director of BizArt 
in Shanghai, the first and only self-supported 
and non-profit cultural organization in China, 
also active in The In-Between, a network of 
alternative art spaces in Europe and Asia;
- Li Zhenhua founder of the independent Art Lab 
in Beijing, artist and promoter of the new media 
art in China;
- Zhang Wei director of Vitamin Creative Space Contemporary Art in Guangzhou.

They are all based and operate in different parts 
of China, sharing a commitment to consolidate an 
independent critical platform supporting artistic 
production in China. They want art going beyond 
official boundaries and not bounded by the art 
market rules. Art that represents the complex 
reality of a contemporary China in the complex 
process of an historical change and cultural 
transformation.
The exhibition presents a lively interchange 
between the curators' three sections, 
representing three distinct but complementary 
attitudes and perceptions.

Zhang Wei presents in "Throwing Dice" individual 
visions of human existence in a fragmented and 
constantly changing world. The videos of Kan 
Xuan, Pak Sheung Chuen and Yang Fudong (acclaimed 
in the most recent Venice Biennale), digital 
animations by Cao Fei (also present at the 
Biennale), technological installations by Chu 
Yun, and paintings by Duan Jianyu offer 
individual stories that engage the spectator in 
the exploration of a shared existential landscape 
and in the constant tension between the world of 
dreams and of reality.

"Art is not enough, not enough!," is a multimedia 
installation in the Davide Quadrio's section 
produced by the CCCS and presented as a world 
premiere. It draws on interviews made by the 
curator with forty different artists in Shanghai, 
asked about the role of the artist, their 
relationship with the external world, the social 
consequences of their work and the international 
market effects on traditional artistic production 
modes. It offers a dynamic anthropological 
insight into the urban panorama of modern 
Shanghai.

The focus of "Multi-Archeology", the section 
curated by Li Zhenhua is the geo-political 
identity and cultural relativism. Installations 
by the Mongolian artists Wu Ershan and Ren Qinga, 
highlight the often conflictual relations between 
the different cultural groups in China today and 
pose questions about the undermining of the 
individual concerning social upheaval.
Both installations, created especially for the 
exhibition in Florence, take as their theme the 
human condition in the face of an uncertain 
future.
The art video by Zhao Liang and Shen Shaomin 
documents the situation on the Chinese border 
with North Korea and Russia. An analysis of the 
consequences of the Mongolian invasion by Genghis 
Khan on Asiatic culture is compared to the impact 
of modern globalization, in the constant cultural 
interchange between East and West.


CHINA CHINA CHINA !!!
CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART
BEYOND THE GLOBAL MARKET
21 March - 4 May 2008
Daily: 11,00 - 20,30. Closed Monday
Tickets: ¤ 5,00 (valid for five admissions in 1 
month, including lectures), ¤ 4,00 schools
¤ 10,00 entrance Strozzina  + exhibition China: at the Court of the Emperors
Catalogue Silvana Editoriale

INFO
Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi
T. +39 055 2776461/ 06 - tel. 055 2645155
F. +39 055 2646560
l.rinaldi at fondazionepalazzostrozzi.it

PUBLIC RELATIONS
CLP Relazioni Pubbliche
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press at clponline.it
http://www.clponline.it
-- 


Alessandro Ludovico
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