Inaugural exhibitions
August 8–December 6, 2015
Opening: August 8
Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan
No.12 ,HeLe Road
Xingqing District
Yinchuan City
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
750101
The Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan, located within a large organic plantation, is the first contemporary art museum in northwest China. Striving to promote diversity in the development of contemporary art, MOCA Yinchuan is the first to be dedicated to Chinese and Islamic contemporary art.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan, encompassing 15,000 square meters, is situated along the western banks of the Yellow River and surrounded by natural wetlands. Throughout its long history, this important stop on the Silk Road has always served as a cultural crossroad. Here, East meets West, as a diverse array of cultural influences, from Islam to Xixia, Hetao to Dangxiang, have continually fused together to create a uniquely open and diverse melting pot.
MOCA Yinchuan will strive to promote contemporary art exchange, exhibition, collection and public education between China and Islamic countries with the support of Ningxia Minsheng Culture and the Arts Foundation, covering all forms of visual art, architecture, design and fashion.
The MOCA Yinchuan Collection includes several hundred works of Chinese oil paintings in late Qing dynasty, antique maps detailing early Sino-Western exchange, and Chinese contemporary artworks. These collections form a foundation for the research of Chinese art history, exchanges between the East and the West, and contemporary art in China and Islamic countries.
Every two years in September, the China-Arab States EXPO will bring leaders from some 60 Islamic countries to take part in a wide range of cultural exchange activities. To coincide with this event, MOCA Yinchuan will present an exhibition focusing on the special guest nation for that year, presenting works of Islamic culture and contemporary art.
The inaugural exhibition of MOCA Yinchuan
The grand opening and inaugural exhibition of MOCA Yinchuan on August 8 will present six segments:
Accommodation of Vision—Early Chinese Western-style Paintings
Venue: Gallery 3
Curator: Lu Peng
This exhibition will present classic works from the collection of MOCA Yinchuan, depicting the progression of techniques, subjects and languages in early Chinese oil paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries, revealing a historical tableau of cultural clashes, borrowing and fusion.
The Outline of Territory—Historical Map Collections
Venue: Gallery 4
Curator: Guo Liang
Through the pathways of Chinese and Western exchange found in the old maps of the collection of MOCA Yinchuan, this exhibition will outline a shifting geographic context of internationalization. Meanwhile, research into the art of ancient mapmaking will illuminate the exchanges, learning, imitation and improvements on Eastern and Western mapmaking, as well as the underlying social and cultural changes.
Between East and West—Chinese and Islamic Contemporary Art
Venue: Gallery 1 & 2
Curator: Lu Peng
This exhibition presents artworks of artists from west China and the Middle East. By presenting the artworks of these artists, this exhibition portrays the existential experiences of artists as individual practitioners, as well as the state of contemporary art in west China and the countries more to the west. In doing so, it explores the linguistic traits and mutual influences of art in the contemporary, globalized context, as well as the influence of Islamic culture on the thoughts and creative approaches of contemporary artists. On the foundation of a dialogue with the two preceding exhibition segments, this exhibition will also present the contemporary evolution of civilization exchanges, while embodying the two focal points of the Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan: Chinese contemporary art and Islamic culture.
Very Contemporary Jordan—the Contemporary Art of Jordan
Venue: Hall 5 of the third floor
Curator: Suchen Hsieh
The guests of honor for the China-Arab States EXPO will be the main scope of our invitation to this exhibition, which aims to interpret the aesthetics of Islam through the oriental aesthetic perspective.
Re-folk—Transformed Traditional Elements in Contemporary Art
Venue: Gallery 6
Curator: Suchen Hsieh
This exhibition invites international contemporary artists to demonstrate the ways they transform traditional folk elements into new creations in the form of on-canvas, sculpture and installation works,expanding on the meaning and value of traditional culture by developing them further into a confluence of diverse cultures.
Tale of Dolls—Magic Hall of Mirrors
Venue: Public Education Space
Curator: Suchen Hsieh
Following the principle that everyone is an artist, this exhibition hopes to attract broad participation from local families in Yinchuan to create works realizing the theory of social sculpture, thereby shortening the distance between the art museum and the public. We have invited 1000 families to participate this parent-child creation by making cloth dolls; the finished works will be exhibited in a hall of mirrors of 120 square meters.
