The 4th para-curatorial seminar: “Between Knowing and Unknowing: Research in-and-through Art”
September 24–26, 2015
Thursday–Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 10am–2pm
Hinterland Project by Shi Qing
September 27, 2015–November 15, 2015
Times Museum
Times Rose Garden III
Huangbianbei Road
Baiyun Avenue
Guangzhou
China
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am–6pm
T +8620 26272363
Times Museum is proud to present the 4th para-curatorial seminar “Between Knowing and Unknowing: Research in-and-through Art” alongside the Hinterland Project by Shi Qing. These two parallel events are both research-based projects which provide platforms for creative and critical thinking that goes beyond the temporal-spatial restrictions of exhibition.
The 4th para-curatorial seminar: “Between Knowing and Unknowing: Research in-and-through Art”
Artists may have been doing research since the Renaissance, but the current visibility and discourse of artistic research has only recently been consolidated within higher educational settings in North American and European universities, as well as by the global leverage of large-scale exhibitions such as the biennials. In June 2015, the first few researchers of contemporary art practice received their PhD degrees from the Chinese Academy of Art in Huangzhou, signaling official recognition by the art academy system in China of research-based practice as a form of knowledge production. However, discussions of “artistic research” and “research-based practice” are still rare, and there is a lack of research on artists’ practices within the Chinese context. In this sense, “research in and through art” might simply mean “to learn about something and to search for some kind of artistic framing of the real.” The duration of such research-based projects is unclear, and not in conformity with the predominant visual consumerism, while their outcomes similarly resist easy objectification or commodification. Self-initiated research is usually laid aside by the commercial and institutional systems. Within current mechanisms for the display of art, such projects are either under-represented or are poorly mediated in presentation.
The seminar “Between Knowing and Unknowing: Research in-and-through Art” will consider the urgency and necessity of research in and through art. How have artists, curators and researchers integrated social and scientific motives with the aesthetics? How have they developed inquiries to create forms that address the critical and creative processes? Since most research-based projects are responsive to their respective social situations or contexts, the seminar also sets its premise in relation to the critical perspectives of the curatorial by probing into how the curatorial can better facilitate and accommodate the creative and critical thinking manifested in research-based projects, and make these projects more clearly addressed and accessed.
In association with the seminar, interviews with artists, curators and researchers, with a special focus on those living and working in China, have helped to identify three topics for the on-site discussion: “Art Practice as Research: Why Research? Research What?”, “Interdisciplinary: And What About the Objects?”, and “Affect Vs Effect: How is Knowledge Embodied?” From September 24–26, contributors from different areas and disciplines are invited to the Times Museum to share, enact, perform and reflect on their specific inquiries within a three-day discursive platform. At the end of 2016, a selection from the interviews, seminar transcripts and newly commissioned writings will be published as a book, to be followed by an exhibition which will further present the related topics of the seminar.
With presentations, talks, conversations, screenings and responses by: Antariksa, Mélanie Bouteloup, Chen Xiaoyang, Chen Yiming, Cheng Ran, Elaine W. Ho, Hu Yun, Li Xiaofei, Li Yafeng, Mao Chenyu, Edward Sanderson, Graeme Sullivan, Wu Chao, Xia Weilun, Xu Tan, Yu Ronghao, Zhao An’an and Zheng Bo
Curated by: Nikita Yingqian Cai
Guest Researcher: Sipei Stephanie Lu
Hinterland Project by Shi Qing
The Hinterland Project takes the different stages of art production as subject of observation and practice. On one hand, the process of globalization of the Chinese contemporary art system has eroded the commonality that once existed between individuals; this erosion can be perceived from the conceptual dissent between work and action, as well as in internal ideological struggles. On the other hand, the symptoms of globalized production revealed that the art system is a transferrable globalization experience through which the fragmented world can be mediated into a kind of common experience.
The Hinterland Project differs from most museum solo exhibitions. It is a collection of nearly ten projects emerged from the artist Shi Qing’s curatorial practice and his collaboration with other artists. “Hinterland” draws from a geographic term, which implies the interlocutory relationship between globalization and localness. In the Hinterland Project, projects such as Bus Line and Interior River Courier Service will be carried out in seven hub cities across China, together with the other projects that are presented within the exhibition space, to form a logical structure representing the existing mechanism of art: from exhibitions to residences, from the commercial galleries to the public art institution, which are all mixing together in practice. The Hinterland Project sets itself within a complex, polygonal and interweaving geographic network and aims at reenact the possibility of contemporary art production in China. British Pavilion is an unfinished rehearsal of global menus; Night of the Courier focuses on the everyday space of the world factory; Tea Factory attempts to establish dialogue in work. Space as deviation, as connecting point, as production relationship: each can serve as the live scene of social production and reproduction, and act as agency for subjectification. Therefore, the Hinterland Project is not a proposal of social intervention, but rather an act of inducting society into art. It is an attempt to create the moments of commonality within a temporary public field.
Curated by: Sun Dongdong, Liang Jianhua
All events and schedule are subject to change, for updates and further information, please check our official website. All events happen within Times Museum except for special notice.
Guided tour: Saturdays & Sundays 2–2:30pm
