SEPTEMBER/OCTO B E R 2 0 1 3 V O LUME 12, NUMBER 5 INSI DE China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan at the 55th Venice Biennale Curatorial Inquiries 13: Who are the Connoisseurs? Interviews with Alexandra Munroe, Guggenheim Museum and Ted Lipman, Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation The Quest for a Regional Culture: Two Trips to Bali Reviews: ON I OFF, Feng Yan US$12.00 NT$350.00 P RINTED IN TAIWAN 6 VOLUME 12, NUMBER 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 CONTENTS Editor’s Note 29 Contributors 6 On Not Being Killed By Some Unfortunate Juxtaposition: The 2013 Venice Biennale Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker 29 On Chinese Art in Global Times: A Conversation with Wang Chunchen Alice Schmatzberger 38 38 To Be or Not to Be a National Pavilion: The Taiwan Pavilion and Hong Kong Pavilion at Venice Lu Pei-Yi 61 Curatorial Inquiries 13: Who are the Connoisseurs? Nikita Yingqian Cai and Carol Yinghua Lu 66 Interview with Alexandra Munroe, Samsung 77 Curator of Asian Art, Guggenheim Museum, New York Yu Hsiao Hwei 72 Interview with Ted Lipman, Chief Executive Officer of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Yu Hsiao Hwei 77 The Quest for a Regional Culture: The Artistic Adventure of Two Bali Trips, 1952 and 2001 88 Wang Ruobing 88 ON | OFF: China’s Young Artists in Concept and Practice Edward Sanderson 98 Feng Yan: Photography Objectified Jonathan Goodman 105 Chinese Name Index 98 Cover: Lee Kit, 'You (you).', installation, 2013 Venice Biennale. Courtesy of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. 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. 12 No. 5 1 Editor’s Note YISHU: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art Katy Hsiu-chih Chien Infoshare Tech Law Office, Mann C.C. Liu In its 55th edition, the Venice Biennale remains Ken Lum among the most important large-scale -- Keith Wallace exhibitions in the world, and its reputation Zheng Shengtian Julie Grundvig continues to grow as participating nations, Kate Steinmann coupled with collateral group exhibitions, Chunyee Li increase in number. Yishu 58 has three texts ⁽ ⁾ Carol Yinghua Lu pertaining to this prestigious event. Jo-Anne Chunyee Li Birnie Danzker offers an overview of several Chen Ping Debra Zhou of the exhibitions featuring Chinese artists—in 2013 there were more than ever before— Larisa Broyde Michelle Hsieh and Alice Schmatzberger interviews Wang Chunyee Li Chunchen, curator for the China Pavilion, who discusses the premise behind this year’s Judy Andrews, Ohio State University exhibition, as well as the role of Chinese Melissa Chiu, Asia Society Museum artists internationally. Lu Pei-Yi excavates John Clark, University of Sydney Lynne Cooke, Museo Reina Sofia the histories of both the Taiwan and Hong Okwui Enwezor, Critic and Curator Kong Pavilions and their struggle to establish Britta Erickson, Independent Scholar and Curator Fan Di’an, National Art Museum of China a “national” identity without having official Fei Dawei, Independent Critic and Curator national status within the Biennale. Gao Minglu, University of Pittsburgh Hou Hanru, Critic and Curator Hu Fang, Vitamin Creative Space and the shop Nikita Yingqian Cai and Carol Yinghua Lu Katie Hill, University of Westminster present another of their ongoing Curatorial Claire Hsu, Asia Art Archive Martina Köppel-Yang, Independent Critic and Historian Inquiries, with Carol proposing a text on Sebastian Lopez, Critic and Curator curatorial practice for Nikita to debate. Lu Jie, Long March Space Curatorial Inquiries 13 challenges traditional Charles Merewether, Director, ICA Singapore Ni Tsaichin, Tunghai University notions of connoisseurship and critical thinking Apinan Poshyananda, Ministry of Culture, Thailand by using intuition, independence, and instinct Philip Tinari, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Chia Chi Jason Wang, Independent Critic and Curator to understand contemporary art. Yu Hsiao Hwei Wu Hung, University of Chicago interviews Alexandra Munroe and Ted Lipman Pauline J. Yao, M+, West Kowloon Cultural District about the generous support of ten million Art & Collection Group Ltd. dollars provided by the Robert N. H. Ho Family 6F. No. 85, Section 1, Foundation towards an Asian art program at Chungshan N. Road, Taipei, Taiwan 104 the Guggenheim Museum. The arm's length Phone: (886)2.2560.2220 funding given by the Ho Family Foundation Fax: (886)2.2542.0631 sets a productive example that other museums E-mail: [email protected] around the world can learn from. Jenny Liu Alex Kao Joyce Lin Wang Ruobing has contributed an intriguing Perry Hsu text on two trips made to Bali, fifty years apart, Betty Hsieh by two different generations of Singaporean- Chi Wei Colour Printing Ltd. Chinese artists. These trips, the second clearly http://yishu-online.com referencing the first, are an exploration into Design Format Singaporean identity relative to the Chinese 1683 - 3082 descent of many of its citizens as well as Yishu is published bi-monthly in Taipei, Taiwan, and edited Singapore's cultural positioning within the in Vancouver, Canada. The publishing dates are January, region. We close Yishu 58 with two reviews March, May, July, September, and November. All subscription, advertising, and submission inquiries may be sent to: from Beijing. One, by Edward Sanderson, examines the ambitious exhibition ON I OFF, Yishu Editorial Office 200–1311 Howe Street which showcased younger artists in an attempt Vancouver, BC, Canada to keep abreast of China’s burgeoning art V6Z 2P3 Phone: 1.604.649.8187 scene. Sanderson points out how difficult it Fax: 1.604.591.6392 is to articulate the diverse art production that E-mail: offi[email protected] the show represents. The other, by Jonathan Goodman, looks at an exhibition of work by 1 year (6 issues): $84 USD (includes airmail postage) Feng Yan, an artist whose spare photographs 2 years (12 issues): $158 USD (includes airmail postage) 1 Year PDF Download (6 issues): $49.95 USD (http://yishu-online.com) eschew spectacle, are cloaked in the mystery of the everyday, and immersed in their own Leap Creative Group Raymond Mah quiet beauty. Gavin Chow Philip Wong No part of this journal may be reprinted without the written Keith Wallace permission from the publisher. The views expressed in Yishu are not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 200251 2 4 6 Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker 29 (Larisa Broyde) Alice Schmatzberger (Chunyee Li) 38 (Philip Tinari) (Judy Andrews) (Britta Erickson) (Melissa Chiu) (Sebastian Lopez) 61 (Claire Hsu) (John Clark) (Pauline J. Yao) 66 (Martina Köppel-Yang) Lynne Cooke Okwui Enwezor 72 Katie Hill Charles Merewether Apinan Poshyananda 77 856 : (886) 2.2560.2220 (886) 2.2542.0631 88 [email protected] Yishu Office 200-1311 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2P3, Canada : (1) 604.649.8187 98 (1) 604.591.6392 : offi[email protected] 105 Leap Creative Group, Vancouver 6 http://yishu-online.com Design Format Contributors Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker is Director of founders of Ping Pong Space (2008–10), in the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, and former Guangzhou, which functioned as a platform director of the Museum Villa Stück, of activities and artistic production for Munich, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. local artists. She is also a critic and writes She has curated numerous exhibitions frequently for various catalogues and on both contemporary and historical art, publications. Her major focuses are context- with a special emphasis on the history responsive curating, educational curating, of the modern. From 2001–02 she was exhibition studies, and institutional critique. Exhibition Director of The Short Century She graduated from the Journalism School (curated by Okwui Enwezor). She was of Fudan University and was a participant curator of Shanghai Modern (with Ken in the de Appel Curatorial Programme, Lum and Zheng Shengtian) in 2004–05 and Amsterdam, 2009–10. of Art of Tomorrow: Hilla von Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim (with Karole Vail Carol Yinghua Lu lives and works in Beijing. and Brigitte Salmen) in 2005–06. In 2012 She is a contributing editor for Frieze. She she participated in the Museum Directors has written frequently for international art Dialogue of the US–China Forum on the journals and magazines including e-flux Arts And Culture in Beijing. journal, The Exhibitionist, Yishu, Tate Etc., and Contemporary. She was on the jury Jonathan Goodman studied literature at for the Golden Lion Award at the 2011 Columbia University and the University of Venice Biennale and was one of the co- Pennsylvania before becoming an art writer curators for the 9th Gwangju Biennale, in specializing in contemporary Chinese art. 2012. Together with Liu Ding, Lu co-curated He teaches at Pratt Institute and the Parsons the 7th Shenzhen Biennale 2012, and they School of Design, both in New York, focusing were also the guest curators for Museion, on art criticism and contemporary culture. Bolzano, in 2013. Nikita Yingqian Cai currently lives Lu Pei-Yi is a researcher, curator, and art in Guangzhou and is Curator at the critic based in Taipei. She received her Ph.D. Guangdong Times Museum. She has curated in 2010 in Humanities and Cultural Studies and edited publications for A Museum That (London Consortium) from the University is Not (2011) and Jiang Zhi: If This Is a of London. Her thesis, Off-Site Art Curating: Man (2012, co-curated with Bao Dong) and Cases studies in Taiwan (1987–2007),was organized No Ground Underneath: Curating published in the summer of 2011 by VDM, on the Nexus of Changes (2012, co-curated Germany. As guest editor of Yishu: Journal of with Carol Yinghua Lu). She was one of the 4 Vol.