JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 VOLUME 13, N UMBER 1 INSI DE The Fourth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing of Contemporary Chinese Art: Cui Cancan, Anthony Yung Interview with Slavs and Tatars Features: Hu Xiangqian, Li Mu, Zhang Enli, Li Songsong, Xu Bing US$12.00 NT$350.00 PRINTED IN TAIWAN 14 VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 CONTENTS 2 Editor’s Note 22 4 Contributors 6 The Fourth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art 8 The Incident: Inciting a Revolution in Art Cui Cancan 14 Hu Xiangqian: Superfluous Knowledge 36 Anthony Yung 22 Village Collection: On Li Mu’s Qiuzhuang Project Jesse Birch 36 Syncretic Cartographies: A Conversation with Slavs and Tatars Stephanie Bailey 50 50 Zhang Enli’s Space Painting Victor Wang 60 Li Songsong: Conflicts of the In-Between Voon Pow Bartlett 76 Xu Bing’s Magical Mystery Tour Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky 93 Chinese Name Index 60 76 Cover: Hu Xiangqian, Xiangqian Museum, 2010, performance at Taikang Space, Beijing. Courtesy of the artist. We thank JNBY Art Projects, Canadian Foundation of Asian Art, Chen Ping, Mr. and Mrs. Eric Li, and Stephanie Holmquist and Mark Allison for their generous contribution to the publication and distribution of Yishu. Vol. 13 No. 1 1 Editor’s Note YISHU: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art PRESIDENT Katy Hsiu-chih Chien LEGAL COUNSEL Infoshare Tech Law Office, Mann C. C. Liu Yishu 60 opens with texts by recipients of the FOUNDING EDITOR Ken Lum Fourth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Keith Wallace Contemporary Chinese Art. This year Yishu MANAGING EDITOR Zheng Shengtian EDITORS Julie Grundvig invited Li Xianting and Martina Köppel-Yang, both Kate Steinmann established as scholars, critics, and curators Chunyee Li within the field of contemporary Chinese Art, EDITORS ⁽CHINESE VERSION⁾ Carol Yinghua Lu to each choose a writer they believe worthy of Su Dongyue this recognition. Li Xianting selected Beijing- Chunyee Li Chen Ping based Cui Cancan, and Martina Köppel-Yang Debra Zhou selected Hong Kong-based Anthony Yung. CIRCULATION MANAGER Larisa Broyde Each of this year’s recipients has contributed a ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Michelle Hsieh text to Yishu celebrating the idea of alternative WEB SITE EDITOR Chunyee Li artistic practices that challenge the mainstream ADVISORY BOARD art system. Cui Cancan calls for a revolution Judy Andrews, Ohio State University in art-making that resists submission to Melissa Chiu, Asia Society Museum John Clark, University of Sydney institutionalization, and Anthony Yung explores the Lynne Cooke, Museo Reina Sofia intuitive and idiosyncratic performance work of Okwui Enwezor, Critic and Curator Britta Erickson, Independent Scholar and Curator Hu Xiangqian. Following and complementing these Fan Di’an, National Art Museum of China two texts is an account by Jesse Birch of artist Fei Dawei, Independent Critic and Curator Li Mu, who has carried out an ambitious project Gao Minglu, University of Pittsburgh Hou Hanru, Critic and Curator of re-creating works in the collection of the Van Hu Fang, Vitamin Creative Space and the shop Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Katie Hill, University of Westminster Claire Hsu, Asia Art Archive and recontexualizing them in his home village of Martina Köppel-Yang, Independent Critic and Historian Qiuzhuang. Sebastian Lopez, Critic and Curator Lu Jie, Long March Space Charles Merewether, Director, ICA Singapore Stephanie Bailey interviews Slavs and Tatars after Ni Tsaichin, Tunghai University the collective's visit to Xinjiang, one of China’s Apinan Poshyananda, Ministry of Culture, Thailand Philip Tinari, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art most westernmost territories and the apparent Chia Chi Jason Wang, Independent Critic and Curator birthplace of the Turkish language. This history Wu Hung, University of Chicago is relatively unknown, even in Xinjiang itself, and Pauline J. Yao, M+, West Kowloon Cultural District the research by Slavs and Tatars emphasizes PUBLISHER Art & Collection Group Ltd. the historic fluidity of borders, language, and the 6F. No. 85, Section 1, Chungshan N. Road, relationship among cultures that line the trade Taipei, Taiwan 104 routes between Turkey and China, a reminder Phone: (886)2.2560.2220 Fax: (886)2.2542.0631 that cultural exchange and hybridity have been E-mail: [email protected] taking place for centuries and are not recent developments resulting from contemporary VICE GENERAL MANAGER Jenny Liu Alex Kao globalization. MARKETING MANAGER Joyce Lin CIRCULATION EXECUTIVE Perry Hsu Betty Hsieh Painting's expansive field is the focus of texts by Victor Wang and Voon Pow Bartlett, who PRINTING Chi Wei Colour Printing Ltd. discuss, respectively, the works of Zhang Enli WEB SITE http://yishu-online.com and Li Songsong, both of whom had their first WEB DESIGN Design Format UK exhibitions in 2013. The authors explore the ISSN 1683 - 3082 complex relationship between the physical Yishu is published bi-monthly in Taipei, Taiwan, and edited process of painting and the ways meaning arises in Vancouver, Canada. The publishing dates are January, March, May, July, September, and November. All subscription, from it. Xu Bing’s recent outdoor installation, also advertising, and submission inquiries may be sent to: installed in the UK, at London's Victoria and Albert Yishu Editorial Office Museum, is the subject of Patricia Eichnbaum 200–1311 Howe Street Karetzky’s, essay in which she examines how Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 2P3 this work is consistent with the artist’s interest in Phone: 1.604.649.8187 translation, this time conveying the traditions of Fax: 1.604.591.6392 Chinese folkloric myths to western Europe. E-mail: offi[email protected] SUBSCRIPTION RATES Finally, the staff at Yishu thanks you, our readers, 1 year (6 issues): $84 USD (includes airmail postage) 2 years (12 issues): $158 USD (includes airmail postage) writers, subscribers, and donors, for your ongoing 1 Year PDF Download (6 issues): $49.95 USD (http://yishu-online.com) support, and we wish you the very best for the DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Leap Creative Group New Year, whichever one you may celebrate. CREATIVE DIRECTOR Raymond Mah ART DIRECTOR Gavin Chow DESIGNER Philip Wong Keith Wallace No part of this journal may be reprinted without the written permission from the publisher. The views expressed in Yishu are not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 2 4 6 8 (Larisa Broyde) 14 (Chunyee Li) (Philip Tinari) (Judy Andrews) 22 (Britta Erickson) (Melissa Chiu) (Sebastian Lopez) 36 (Claire Hsu) (John Clark) (Pauline J. Yao) 50 (Martina Köppel-Yang) Lynne Cooke Okwui Enwezor 60 Katie Hill Charles Merewether Apinan Poshyananda 76 93 856 : (886) 2.2560.2220 (886) 2.2542.0631 [email protected] Yishu Office 200-1311 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2P3, Canada : (1) 604.649.8187 (1) 604.591.6392 : offi[email protected] Leap Creative Group, Vancouver 6 http://yishu-online.com Design Format Contributors Stephanie Bailey has an M.A. in Jesse Birch is a Vancouver-based curator, contemporary art theory from Goldsmiths writer, and educator. Birch holds a B.A. in College, University of London, and a B.A. in Fine Arts (Photography) from Emily Carr classical civilization with English literature University of Art and Design, and an M.A. in from King’s College, London. Between 2006 Art History (Critical and Curatorial Studies) and 2012, she lived in Athens, Greece, where from the University of British Columbia. In she played a formative role in designing and 2007, Birch was a curatorial fellow at De managing the BTEC-accredited Foundation Appel Arts Centre in Amsterdam. Birch has Diploma in Art and Design at Doukas written for numerous art publications, Education while writing on contemporary and is Vancouver Editorial Advisor for C art production and its discourses around Magazine. He was Co-Director/Curator the world as Art and Culture Editor of of Access Gallery from 2008 to 2010, and Insider Publications and as a freelance critic he is currently Exhibitions Curator at The and essayist. She is currently Managing Western Front. Birch has been teaching in Editor of Ibraaz. Her writing has appeared the Critical and Cultural Studies Faculty at in publications including ART PAPERS, Emily Carr University since 2009. In 2013 Aesthetica, ARTnews, Artforum, Frieze, Birch won the Ontario Association of Art LEAP, Modern Painters, Notes on Galleries Art Writing Award for his essay Metamodernism, and Yishu: Journal of Common Gravity: Kika Thorne’s Tension Contemporary Chinese Art. Sculptures. Voon Pow Bar tlett, Ph.D., is an artist, curator, Cui Cancan was born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu, lecturer, and writer, as well as an associate China. He graduated in 2008 from the Art member of the Institute of Chartered Institute in Nanjing, China. He currently Accountants in England and Wales. She was works as an independent curator and critic born in Beijing and educated internationally. and is mainly engaged in research and Her focus is on exploring an expanded field writing on art history, art criticism, and in the study of the complex causal framework exhibition practices. In the past four years, he influencing global discourses on fine art. She has curated numerous exhibitions including currently works at Tate Research Centre: Asia The Move Ink Documenta at Nanjing Pacific, in London. Contemporary Art Centre (2009), Freedom 4 Vol. 13 No. 1 of the Term at Chengdu A4 Gallery (2010), catalogues as well as art publications such Uncooked Rice at Suzhou Amemura Art as Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Museum (2011), Public Body–Performance Art, Leap, and artforum.com.cn. Yung is also Art in China, FEIZI Gallery, Brussels (2012), co-founder and curator for the independent Total Shock: New Art from China, Italy art space Observation Society, which was Grand Palais, Milan (2012), You are the founded in 2009 in Guangzhou.