[-empyre-] localized scenes, digital arts & education

Fri Nov 12 07:59:43 EST 2010

hi Li

Can you give me a sense of what you think of the remaining hyper realists in the system? I am currently writing about Xu Weixin's wen ge intervention in his historical figures series, and am trying to locate it as a work of personal justice and pedagogy rather than a work of art per se. I have become aware that there is significant disdain for his efforts amongst quite a few in the artistic community and especially in the Stateside diaspora, but nevertheless I find Xu to be genuine in his search for making a worthwhile statement about history and equivalence. 

You may not know him at all, in which case ignore my request for your thoughts, but it would be helpful to get a more impartial view?

Thanks so much
Stephi Donald

Www.stephaniedonald.info  

Sent from my iPad

On 11/11/2010, at 7:11 PM, lab <bjartlab at gmail.com> wrote:

> http://www.chinaawards.net/index-1.htm#
> http://ad.tsinghua.edu.cn/qhmy/viewcontent.jsp?contentID=1080&columnID=127&pid=123
> http://art.china.cn/tongzhi/2010-10/28/content_3797784.htm
> 
> there's a quite bit of media oriented trend in the art schools since after 2000, and many shows related to the issue of media/technology/design.....
> 
> http://bjartlab.com/read.php?247
> this is something from the eARTS festival 2007-2009
> 
> MAAP 2000: http://maap.org.au/festivals/maap-2000-presence-and-place
> MAAP 2002: http://maap.org.au/festivals/maap-2000-presence-and-place
> 
> 2008: http://www.mediartchina.org/
> 
> and many more for your preference...
> 
> best
> 
> Li zhenhua | 李振华
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> 在 2010-11-10，下午3:22， Johannes Birringer 写道：
> 
>> dear all
>> 
>> thanks to all for an inspiring discussion, 
>> there is much to learn, and i am still thinking of the initial question that was raised at the beginning:
>> 
>> //...looking at look at how (or how not)  
>> exhibitions, symposia or publications decode across cultural, gender  
>> and political bounds to both Chinese and Non-Chinese audiences...
>> .... explore, amongst other topics, how digital practices operate  
>> in a regulated exhibition system; and the emergences, frictions and  
>> dialogues between artists and curators within contemporary Chinese  
>> distributed and digital practices.//
>> 
>> what is meant when you mention regulated exhibition systems?
>> how does this connect to the presence of international-run galleries
>> which, i gathered, have opened up in Beijing and Shanghai (and other cities),
>> and the market, and also the festival circuit  (China's increasingly strong
>> presence at the Venice Biennale, or documenta for example);
>> but then again, how do you discuss "new media arts" on 
>> a very small local level, say, a particular gallery or performance space
>> in the 798 factory district. 
>> 
>> can one in fact understand a larger picture by looking at a tiny fragment (Jian Wei Shi Shu)?
>> 
>> and what happened to small independent/alternative art galleries or performance spaces?
>> 
>> I remember visiting "Hart Cafe" , located on a small side street inside the 798 Dashanzi district,
>> for an evening of french underground films and chinese electronic music, there was also a dance improvisation
>> (duet between dancer and musician), we exchanged CDs,  drank wine, and there were many languages spoken
>> in the cafe, just as if one were in london or new york.  this was in 2004. there were some video artists
>> exhibiting, in some of the other galleries, there was a multimedia heavy metal performance one night,  
>> there was body art, but i am not sure one could think yet of a digital art scene
>> or come across networks organizing "digital practices" or building production infrastructures and facilities,
>> but it had to happen, surely.  The Beijing Dance Academy had just built a TV / sound stage to begin to
>> look at video dance & choreography for the camera. choreographers in Hong Kong had worked with media
>> already in the early years of the new century, but there were probably no interdisciplinary time arts courses
>> in the universities yet, and working with software composition in performance was not a tradition; but
>> international work of this kind was shown in China, and the Olympic Games probably affected everything.
>> it also probably is easy now to get hold of any and all softwares (for interactive design). Li Yifan from
>> the School of Art Design (Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication) gave me several DVDs of student
>> works that were quite interesting, so I guess we probably would like to know more about how graduate
>> schools took on the "digital."  
>> 
>> I tried to look up the Hart Cafe online, now in 2010, and am impressed/surprised to see how it defines its range of practices now;
>> 
>> http://www.hart.com.cn/
>> 
>> ::Hart Production is a full-service production support company for international productions in Beijing.
>>>> 
>> We provide our clients with everything needed to shoot successfully in China, including: 
>> 1. Government Permits 
>> 2. Location Scouting 
>> 3. Hiring Talented Local Crews 
>> 4. Casting 
>> 5. Renting Camera, Lighting, and Grip Equipment 
>> 6. Purchasing Film/Tape Stock 
>> 7. Processing Post Production 
>> 8. All China Logistics (travel, hotels, catering, etc.) 
>> 9. Transportation (trucks, vans, cars, picture vehicles, camera veh
>>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> what are the frictions and  
>> dialogues between artists and curators within contemporary Chinese  
>> distributed and digital practices (how to localize these?), and how are they owed (or not) to the international
>> market interests (collectors interests, Biennial interests) on the one hand,
>> and how are younger Chinese artists (working with a range of media and performance)
>> perceiving/absorbing the dynamism that Melinda mentions, on the other, with artists from elsewhere flocking to Beijing and
>> Shanghai "as they were moving to Berlin a decade or so ago"?  The market values of saleable art dropped in 2008, i thought,
>> but our subject - new media arts - is not so sale-able, yes?   Is the maneuver that Cindy Zeng/ Lao Dan  and Hart Cafe undertook a logical one?
>> 
>> 
>> regards
>> Johannes Birringer
>> London
>> http://www.brunel.ac.uk/dap
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