JUNE 2003 SUMMER ISSUE Chinese Participation in the 50th Venice Biennale The Spectre of Being Human The Contemporary Artistic Deconstruction—and Reconstruction—of Brush and Ink Painting Looking Ahead: Dialogues in Asian Contemporary Art US$10.00 NT$350.00 YISHU: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art Volume 2, Number 2, June 2003 Katy Hsiu-chih Chien Ken Lum Zheng Shengtian Julie Grundvig Paloma Campbell Larisa Broyde Joyce Lin Judy Andrews, Ohio State University John Clark, University of Sydney Lynne Cooke, Dia Art Foundation Okwui Enwezor, Curator, Art Institute of Chicago Britta Erickson, Independent Scholar & Curator Fan Di’an, Central Academy of Fine Arts Fei Dawei, Independent Curator Gao Minglu, New York State University Hou Hanru, Independent Curator & Critic Katie Hill, Independent Critic & Curator Martina Köppel-Yang, Independent Critic & Historian Sebastian Lopez, Gate Foundation and Leiden University Lu Jie, Independent Curator Charles Merewether, Getty Research Institute Ni Tsai Chin, Tunghai University Apinan Poshyananda, Chulalongkorn University Chia Chi Jason Wang, Art Critic & Curator Wu Hung, University of Chicago Art & Collection Group Ltd. Leap Creative Group Raymond Mah Gavin Chow Jeremy Lee Chong-yuan Image Ltd., Taipei - Yishu is published quarterly in Taipei, Taiwan, and edited in Vancouver, Canada. From 2003, the publishing date of Yishu will be March, June, September, and December. Editorial inquiries and manuscripts may be sent to the Editorial Office: Yishu 1008-808 Nelson Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6Z 2H2 Canada Phone: (1) 604-488-2563, Fax: (1) 604-591-6392 E-mail: [email protected] Subscription inquiries may be sent to: Journals Department University of Hawai’i Press 2840 Kolowalu Street, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA Phone: 1-808-956-8833; Fax: 1-808-988-6052 E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] The University of Hawai’i Press accepts payment by Visa or Mastercard, cheque or money order (in U.S. dollars). Advertising inquiries may be sent to either Vancouver address or Taiwan: Art & Collection Ltd. 6F, No. 85, Section 1, Chunshan North Road, Taipei, Taiwan. Phone: (886) 2-2560-2220, Fax: (886) 2-2542-0631 E-mail: [email protected] www.yishujournal.com No part of this journal may be published without the written permission from the publisher. Subscription rates: one year: US $48 two years: US $90 We thank Mr. Milton Wong, Mr. Daoping Bao, and Paystone Technologies Corp. for their generous support. Cover: Lin Yilin, Brick Wall (detail), 2002, installation. Courtesy of Yibo Gallery Contributors Editor’s Note Limbo Zone p. 6 Shu-min Lin Synthi-scapes Fan Di’an Navigating the Dot Para/Site Art Space Z.O.U.—Zone of Urgency Hou Hanru Big Tail Elephants in the 1990s Lin Yilin p. 28 The U-thèque Organization: An End or a Beginning? Ou Ning Interview with Hou Hanru Ken Lum The Spectre of Being Human Charles Merewether The Contemporary Artistic Deconstruction—and Reconstruction—of Brush and Ink Painting Britta Erickson Art, Hong Kong, and Hybridity: p. 37 A Task of Reconsideration Joan Kee Globalization and Chinese Contemporary Art Tsai-chin Ni Architectural Junctions: Where Contemporary Artists Play Up the Imagination of Architectural Space Zhang Qing : p. 65 Preface Melissa Chiu Transcription Transcribed by Julie Grundvig Too Much Flavor at Chambers Fine Art Xenia Tetmajer von Przerwa Miguel Trelles at Taller Boricua Jonathan Goodman Chinese Name Index p. 105 MELISSA CHIU is Curator of Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art at the Asia Society and Museum in New York. She has curated exhibitions over the last ten years that included artists from Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, China and Hawaii. Chiu has published widely on contemporary art in journals, magazines and exhibition catalogues such as Third Text, Art and Australia, Orientations, and The Journal of Australian Art and is a regular contributor for Art Asia Pacific Magazine, for which she was a guest editor in 2001 and 2003. FAN DI’AN was born in 1955 and graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. He is a professor and vice-president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts as well as an art critic and curator of contemporary Chinese art. BRITTA ERICKSON is an independent scholar and curator who focuses on contemporary Chinese art, publishes and lectures internationally. During the past year, she curated the exhibition Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, and was a Lecturer at Stanford University. JONATHAN GOODMAN is a writer specializing in the field of contemporary Asian art. He has written extensively on new Chinese art and has received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council to speak with artists in Mainland China. He lives and works in New York. JOAN KEE is a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for the Study of Cultures and Globalization at the University of Hong Kong SHU-MIN LIN was born in Taipei in 1963 and lives and works in New York. His signature holograms have been exhibited in venues worldwide including the Taiwan Fine Arts Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. CHARLES MEREWETHER is an art historian and Curator at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Sydney and recently completed a book of essays entitled On the Trace. Other publications include: A Marginal Body (1987), Conditions of Uncertainty (2000), and Anxieties of Revelation (2001). He is currently preparing an exhibition on postwar experimental art in Japan. He is the Advisory Editor of and a contributor to the journal Grand Street, and he is on the editorial board of Art Asia Pacific and Yishu. TSAI-CHIN NI is an artist specializing in Chinese ink painting. He is also Chairman of the Fine Arts Program at Tunghai University. He was the director of the Taiwan Museum of Art between 1997 and 2000. OU NING was born in 1969 and graduated from Shenzhen University. He is a poet, music and film critic, and graphic artist who lives and works in Guangzhou, China. PARA/SITE ART SPACE is a charity organization founded in Hong Kong in 1996. This artist-run space is funded by private donation and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. The aim of this space is to promote contemporary visual art through education, research, publishing, exhibiting, curating, and overseas exchange. ZHANG QING is a Curator of Art at the Shanghai Art Museum. He was co-curator of the 2000 Shanghai Biennale. In 1996, he is published Chinese Art, 1990-1992. XENIA TETMAJER VON PRZERWA is a freelance writer in the field of Contemporary Chinese Art based in New York and Beijing. She completed an M.A. in Chinese Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and recently received her M.A. in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. LIN YILIN was born in Guangzhou, China, and lives and works in New York. He co-founded the Big-Tail-Elephant group in 1990 and has participated in Cities on the Move in 1997, the Second Johannesburg Biennale in 1997, the First Taipei Biennale in 1998, and the Fourth Kwangju Biennale in 2002. Nationalism and national identity have always figured large in terms of the Venice Biennale of Art. In 1932, Oskar Kokoschka’s work was vilified by Benito Mussolini. While Italian fascism did not have an official ideological policy in terms of art and culture, modernization and the dictum that art should follow life (as defined by fascism) underscored such manifestations as the Venice Biennale. In 1934, Adolf Hitler was a special guest of the exhibition. This historical marker was the subject of an important Hans Haacke work for the German pavilion of 1993. Today, it can be argued that the Venice Biennale has waned somewhat in terms of importance, especially in the context of growing numbers of Biennales that are staged throughout the world, many of which are more avant-garde than the Venice version and are not burdened to the same degree by the signifiers of nationalism and national identities. These latter two terms course through the Biennale not only philosophically but spatially as well, duplicating the geopolitical imbalances that exist in the world. The Giardini is where all the major nations of the West are located. Smaller and economically weaker nations are mostly found outside the area of the Giardini, often at some distance away. In recent years, the accompanying shows of the Biennale have been especially inclusive of many artists from outside of the West, and many diasporic artists based in the West. But nationalism and national identity remain abiding frames of reference for the Biennale and many of its participants. Scotland has participated to show off Scottish cultural identity. Hong Kong and Taiwan officially participate for the same reasons. This year’s Biennale will include the first ever official pavilion by the People’s Republic of China as well as a large exhibition in the Arsenale by the Chinese French curator Hou Hanru. So Chinese contemporary artists will be well represented in both official and accompanying capacities. What are the implications for the cultural situation in China of an official pavilion by China at this year’s Venice Biennale? In this issue, Yishu will survey the Chinese components to the Venice Biennale with the question of national identity always mise en cause. Ken Lum - Dreams and conflict. There is a gap, a zone between these two entities. This year’s Taiwan pavilion includes work from four artists who explore and reflect this area—one that can be called the Limbo Zone. It is part of the human experience to dream, to imagine. We strive to make our aspirations reality.