ALL UNDER HEAVEN
A novel look on contemporary art in China, a discovery of classical Chinese art
As of today, there is art in China like there is art in the West and, departing from the individuality of
the positions which are adopted, one could look for common characteristics. Whereas, with regard to
old art, it is only in retrospect that the feeling exists that the two traditions might have been able to
find each other, it is possible to develop an interest in global terms regarding contemporary art
instantaneously. It could become a societal reality, just like it already is an economic one. The
dangerous lack of openness towards Chinese society, for Chinese reality over here is one of the
problems with which ‘All under heaven’ is dealing.
MuHKA
KMSKA
Museum Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen - Koninklijk Museum Schone Kunsten Antwerpen
From March 20th until May 30th, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Antwerp (MuHKA) presents a
selected survey of contemporary art in China. After the wave of avant-garde art of the mid-eighties, a
new group of artists emerged who rather think and work in the long run. This evolution is in keeping
with the rapid evolution of the societal and economic evolution of this country at present. Parallel to
this exhibition, the Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp (KMSKA) will show masterpieces of classical
Chinese art. ‘All under heaven’ attempts to renew the western perception of Chinese art and focuses
on its universal meaning.
The title ‘All under heaven’, tianxia in Chinese, could be considered as one of the conceptual pillars
which buttress the Chinese world view. The Chinese emperor demanded to recognition as a
government of ‘all under heaven’ and that is the way the world was conceived of in China, in inclusive
terms pertaining to all people, all plants, all of the land, all of the water. China, which was only forced
to profile itself as a nation-state as a result of European colonialism, had always been thinking in a
global manner, long before this term was coned in the West. A contribution by professor Zhao Xudong
about tianxia as the Chinese cosmology is attached to this press file.
The project is a co-production between the MuHKA and the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation in
collaboration with the KMSKA and it presents works from the collection of the Guy & Myriam Ullens
Foundation. Fei Dawei, the Chinese art critic and Director of the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, is
the curator of this exhibition at the MuHKA together with Bart De Baere, the Director of the
aforementioned museum. For the classical part of the exhibition, the advice of Mr. Jean-Marie
Simonet was called upon, honorary curator of the Chinese department at the Royal museums for Art
and History in Brussels.
The collection of the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation is one of the most comprehensive collections
of contemporary Chinese art in the world. An important part consists of works dating from the nineties
until the present day, yet the collection also contains Chinese painting and calligraphy from the 11th
century onwards.
The background of the selection of the exhibition is illustrated by a dialogue between Mr. De Baere, Mr. Fei and
Mr. Simonet. The transcription ‘A kind of conversation: On otherness and congruence’ has been added to this
press document.
Ren Yi – portret Jiang Shinong (1877)
In ‘All under heaven’ at the KMSKA, the state of art
is being called into question by confronting twenty
works by classical Chinese painters and
calligraphers with museum’s collection of classical
European art. It covers the spectrum from ‘Birds
painted from life’ by emperor Huizong, dating back
to the twelfth century, over the masterful fourteenth
century ‘Vast rivers and mountains’ landscape by
Wang Zhenpeng and the ‘Happiness in spring’ with its erotic undertones as it was painted by Xu Mei
in the seventeenth century to modern continuations of this tradition.
In ‘All under heaven’, the MuHKA emphasises artists who are representative of the nineties, and also
focuses on the most promising artists of the emerging generation. To a number of artists, this is the
very first time that their work will be shown in Belgium. The exhibition also presents pioneers of
contemporary art in China from the latter half of the eighties.
VIDEO ART:
Video art can be seen in the installation ‘Red doors’ by Wang Gongxin, diverse action videos by Lu
Chunsheng, Lin Yilin, Yang Zhenzhong, yet also in the meditative, slow self-portraits by Li Yongbin.
Video artist Liang Yue shows her exceptional videos which lure personages into a discursive
atmosphere without however telling the underlying story.
Artists: Li Yongbin, Liang Yue, Lin Yilin, Lu Chunsheng, Peng Yu, Wang Gongxin, Xu Zhen, Yang
Zhenzhong
Liang Yue – Will the weather be fine tomorrow (2002)
Wang Ningde : Série Somedays (2000-2003)
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Photography is present in manifold ways: amongst other
ones to suggest man in nature by Rong Rong & Inri. The
photographic oeuvres by Wang Ningde and A Niu stem
from the special economic zone of Shenzhen.
Artists: A Niu, Rong Rong & Inri, Wang Ningde
PAINTING:
Painting is represented by means of the hyperrealism of Chen Wenbo as well as by the two following
pictorial references: the conceptual questioning of the very medium by Wang Xingwei who originated
from Chinese Pop Art, and the painting of Xie Nanxing which centres around the representation of
circling light which tries to equilibrate definition and being undefined by means of a refined pictorial
surface, continuously questioning the representation of reality. There are two paintings by Zhou
Tiehai, the cynical-critical voice with regard to the commercialisation of Chinese art during the last
decade which, however, have been materialised by proxy.
Artists: Cai Guo-Qiang, Chen Wenbo, Wang Xingwei, Xie Nanxing, Yang Jiechang, Zhou Tiehai
Zhou Tiehai: Break (1991)
INSTALLATIONS / SCULPTURES
There is a crucial installation by the artist Shen Yuan, (re)presenting a Chinese roof. Chen Shaoxiong
and Shi Yong can be located in between sculpture and installation, whereas Zheng Guogu calls into
question classical sculpture by means of bottles.
In order to broaden the scope, some artists have been invited to realise new installations: Gu Dexin,
Xu Zhen and the artist couple Peng Yu & Sun Yuan.
Gu Dexin, one of the most renowned artists living in China, has been exhibited in the West on the
occasion of the mind-broadening exhibition ‘Magiciens de la Terre’ (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris,
1989). By means of an installation, he encloses both art and the museum within themselves, using a
diving board in an installation to represent the dream, from which one can dive into a red painted
surface evoking the red colour of flesh.
Xu Zhen makes an installation which merely broadcasts a merely audible suicide on the outside of the
museum walls.
Peng Yu & Su Yuan probably realised what will turn out to be the most haunting and anti-spectacular
work of the entire exhibition. They are being catalogued as ‘post-sensationalists’, being the latest
direction in the overheated censorship-flirtatious artistic climate of Beijing of the past few years, at
times even introducing human corpses in works with a harshness which is unimaginable in Europe.
The present work can be situated in this direction, yet also turns it round about: a sign is being drawn
by a pencil made out of human ashes, ashes of people who passed away and whose bodies were not
claimed or remembered by anybody, which otherwise would have been disseminated without any
further consideration.
The exhibition is a combination of divergent mediums. It does not attempt to be an exhaustive
encyclopaedic survey of recent Chinese art. Yet, on the other hand, a number of key figures from the
generation from after the Cultural Revolution, who often live in the West at present, have been
introduced into the artistic landscape of this exhibition. They are not being represented by the most
spectacular of their works.
There are no fireworks by Cai Guo-Qiang, but a work which, according to his intentions, elaborates
upon the tradition of calligraphy.
There is a work on display by the artist who passed away only two years ago, Chen Zhen: a towering
accumulation of candles.
There is a spatial display of paintings which Yang Jiechang realised for the exhibition ‘Magiciens de
la Terre’, in addition to an installation which is connecting another idea of painting, connected to
spatiality and experience.
The replica on scale 1/1 by Huang Yongping of a part of an espionage airplane which the Americans
let the Chinese dismantled - which is also in the collection of the Ullens Foundation - will not be
exhibited at MuHKA, but in stead thereof, there will be a synthetic work which is exhibited in a
showcase, originally designed for the last Venice Biennial.
Artists:
Chen Shaoxiong, Chen Zhen, Gu Dexin, Huang Yongping, Peng Yu, Shen Yuan, Shi Yong, Sun
Yuan, Xu Zhen, Yang Jiechang, Zheng Guogu
Shen Yuan – Un matin du monde (2000)
The Collection of the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation
The love of Guy Ullens for China, a country to which he often travels for business purposes and his
love of art – he has been fascinated for years by artists like Mark Rothko, Gerhard Richter and Jeff
Wall – inspired him to bring together an imposing collection, which at present is indubitably one of
the most important ones with regard to this topic.
Guy & Myriam Ullens
Over the past fifteen years, Guy & Myriam Ullens
have developed a collection of Chinese art. They
started buying art in 1987, at the very first beginning
of the avant-garde movement – Guy Ullens was
impressed by the energy and the vitality of this art –
and since 1992, they have regularly acquired works
of art belonging to this current in art. By supporting
contemporary art in its early stages – both the artists
and the galleries –, Guy Ullens played an important
role as a Maecenas of contemporary Chinese art.
The fascination of Guy Ullens for Chinese culture is rooted in his childhood; his father was a diplomat
in China and his uncle was the ambassador of Belgium to China. Guy Ullens extended the collection
of mainly classical Chinese art which was begun by his father on the occasion of his manifold travels
to China, first with classical works, but the longer the more with works of modern art. The collection
is extensive and comprises several generations of artists who work in divergent mediums. In 2002,
part of his collection was accessible to the public on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Paris-Pékin’ at the
‘Espace Cardin’ in Paris. The same year, a number of paintings and calligraphies was exhibited at the
Palace Museum of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
The Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation was initiated in 2003. It is directed by Fei Dawei, one of the
main Chinese art critics who, after introducing Chinese contemporary art in the West during the
eighties, devoted himself to numerous Chinese contemporary art exhibitions in various countries
during the nineties. Under his guidance, the foundation aims at developing a living and open
collection, as well as at building dynamic relationships with artists and institutions - in 2003, the
foundation sponsored the Venice Biennial and various exhibitions by Chinese artists in China and
abroad.
The twofold project ‘All under heaven’ at the MuHKA and the KMSKA in Antwerp is a first step for
the foundation to further promote Chinese art in Europe. Its wishes to support novel forms of
creativity and emerging artists and this will soon be materialised by another exhibition project in June
2004 in the form of the exhibition ‘Le moine et le démon’ (‘The monk and the demon’) at the
Museum of Contemporary art of Lyon, which takes place during the ‘Chinese year’ in France. This
exhibition, supported by the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, will be mainly devoted to new
creations by Chinese artists.
Press contacts
NewsEnginePR
Jo De Brabandere, T: 03/260 96 49, E: johan.debrabandere@newsenginepr.com
KMSKA
Anneleen Decraene, E: Anneleen.Decraene@kmska.be
MuHKA
Rita Compère en Olivier Brems, E: pers@muhka.be