Master’s Degree in Lingue, economie e istituzioni dell’Asia e dell’Africa Mediterranea Final Thesis Buddhist influences in Chinese art: Zhang Huan and the relationship with contemporary society Supervisor Ch. Prof. Francesca Tarocco Assistant supervisor Ch. Prof. Jacopo Scarin Graduand Alessia Daisy Lai Matricolation number 846459 Academic Year 2019 / 2020 Summary ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 4 佛教对中国艺术的影响：张洹与当代社会的关系 ............................................................................... 7 ZHANG HUAN: AN ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY THROUGH HIS WORKS .............................................. 10 1.1 Historical and artistic context .......................................................................................................... 10 1.2 Zhang Huan’s childhood and his “Country boy at heart” feeling ...................................................... 14 1.3 Zhang Huan’s studies and his first approach to art ........................................................................... 15 1.4 The performance approach: Angel (1993) ....................................................................................... 16 1.5 Beijing East Village: the development of an experimental artist community ..................................... 19 1.6 The second public performance: 12m2 (1994) ................................................................................. 21 1.7 The link between ‘art for art’s sake’ and performance ...................................................................... 25 1.8 Self-torture and the experiment of 65 Kilos (1994) ............................................................................ 26 1.9 To add one meter to an unknown mountain and To raise the water level in a fishpond: the last performance pieces in China ..................................................................................................................................... 28 1.10 New York and the ‘hard to acclimatize’ feeling ............................................................................. 32 1.11 My performance series: switching from ‘Local’ to ‘Glocal’ in the artist’s mind .............................. 39 1.12 The artist’s return to China and the establishment of the Shanghai atelier ....................................... 42 1.13 The use of ash as a new material: the expression of Buddhism in Zhang Huan’s works .................. 45 BUDDHISM AND ZHANG HUAN’S ARTWORKS ............................................................................... 48 2.1 Buddhism and contemporary China ................................................................................................. 48 2.2 Zhang Huan’s Buddhism................................................................................................................. 48 2.3 The importance of Tibet .................................................................................................................. 50 2.4 The use of materials: the importance of incense ash ......................................................................... 58 2.5 Work analysis: Pagoda ................................................................................................................... 66 2.6 Work analysis: Zhu Gangqiang ....................................................................................................... 69 2.7 Work analysis: the Poppy flowers series .......................................................................................... 72 2.8 Work analysis: Semele .................................................................................................................... 78 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................... 84 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................... 86 SITOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................ 88 1 ABSTRACT The purpose of this dissertation is to analyse the work of contemporary artist Zhang Huan, focusing on the close relationship between his artworks and Buddhism. The analysis will start from the first steps taken by the artist in the Beijing East Side Village and will highlight all the developments of his art until today, focusing, in particular, on his trips to Tibet and his life in the USA, and to the artist’s life in connection with the Chinese avant-garde movement and its Buddhist implications. Below is the list of the books that I used as a reference for the development of this dissertation: - Dziewior Y., Goldberg, R., Huan, Z., Storr, R., Zhang Huan, London, Phaidon, 2009. This is the artist’s leading monograph. The book describes the life of the artist since the very beginning until today, explaining the path he followed, starting with his body performance art until the most recent Buddhist implications and his future works. It includes the period the artist spent abroad, in the USA, and then his return to China. - Jacob, Mary Jane, In the Space of Art: in Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2004. This book helped to build a link between the Buddhist religion and its latest developments in Chinese society, also involving the art industry, and how Chinese society is influenced by the religion itself. - Genua, Elena, Reflections on Ash: A Collective Soul, in “Ashman”,n. 23, 2010. In Ashman, we can find an analysis of the material used by Zhang Huan for his works concerning Buddha figures. The use of ash is essential to analyze both the decline of statues, the meaning Zhang Huan gave it and also the artist’s collection. - Mariani, Amelia, Zhang Huan’s Big Buddha: Ten Years Later, in “Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art”, Volume 11, April 2012, p. 56–61. - Kwan Chan, Shing, Public Displays of Affliction: On Zhang Huan’s 12m2, in “Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art”, Volume 17, January 2018, p. 97–107. 2 - Barlett Voon, Pow, Zhang Huan: Zhu Gangqiang, in “Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art”, Volume 9, January 2010, p. 72–79. All the essays published on Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art during these years are a fundamental tool to examine the perception of the figure of the artist from an objective point of view. Moreover, they offer a detailed study of Zhang Huan’s works, from the first performance pieces to the changeling years after his return to China, where Zhang approached religion, as expressed with his art. 3 INTRODUCTION Due to changing geopolitical dynamics in recent years and to globalization, the contemporary Chinese art world is highly fragmented. In the final decade of the last century, Chinese artists began to experiment, as well as revive, traditional art practices. At the same time, Buddhism also experienced a revival. This was the context in which Zhang Huan, one of the most representative artists of the contemporary Chinese art world, developed his art. The first section describes the art scene in today's Chinese society. For both art and China, the year 1989 closed an era and opened a new one. The Tiananmen massacre marked the end of a decade of relatively open political, intellectual, and artistic exploration. At the same time, the implementation of the reforms led to a new era of development, globalization, and personal power. Artists used all the forms they could to express their understanding of conceptual art, with performance pieces, paintings, photography, installations and, video art. This was aimed at getting a reaction from the audience, engaging directly with society. Avant-garde artists saw themselves as modern cultural pioneers, developing their works to fight for social reform, and rebelling, in a visual way, against the past. Avant-garde artists felt just as pioneers while approaching to new art techniques. Their works were the perfect representation of the social reforms fights, rebellion and contrast with the previous ideology. They criticized ideology, which was based on a state-dominant theory, striving to express their concerns. A milestone event in the development of experimental avant-garde was the formation of Beijing East Village (北京东村). The Village, in the early 1990s, was the essential expression of an avant-garde artistic community. It was located in the eastern part of the Capital, far from the historical and cultural center in the city. It was formed by a group of people, especially artists who decided to move together in a village in the outskirts of Beijing. The name was chosen to take as inspiration the East Village in Manhattan, which was, since the 1950s, a popular destination for migrant workers and a class of emergent artists, attracted by the cheap rent prices. During the following years, the Manhattan East Village began to attract a class of artists for the same reason. Zhang Huan was an active member of the Beijing East Village community. The artist had earned a B.A., in 1988, at Henan University, and then an M.A., in 1993, at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Zhang was attracted to the avant-garde, and, thanks to it, he became closer to the East Village, where he started his career