MICHAEL LIN
The colour is bright the beauty is generous
17 October 2010 – 13 February 2011
curated by Marco Bazzini and Felix Schöber
in collaboration with Atelier Bow Wow (Japan)
Viale della Repubblica 277, Prato
Italy
Michael Lin’s interventions form a crucial element in a new approach to contemporary art and the museum: the museum space as a platform of public discourse, and a space of human interaction. Michael Lin therefore goes beyond the idea of art as an object, and rather proposes spaces that allow the experience of art, at the centre of which he collocates the viewer.
The title of the show alludes to this different approach: Michael Lin designates art as a generous gift that he shares with the viewer. The gesture of hospitality embraces the visitor not as a spectator, but rather as a guest. This gesture allows the artist to stage a complex game between the private and the public, between modernity and tradition. The appropriation everyday objects and patterns, all derived from his personal environment, allows him also to go beyond the classic opposition of modern aesthetic philosophy between the beautiful and the sublime: enlarging those anonymous patterns of industrial production multifold, and transposing them into the public arena, he creates a truly sublime experience.
The exhibition has been designed in a prestigious collaboration with the Japanese architects of Atelier Bow-Wow, who are renown for their exploration of urban micro-architecture. The exhibitions evokes a passage through a private home, including a living room, a bar, a games room, several salons, a library, a video room, even a garden and tea rooms.
Michael Lin (Born in 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Lives and works in Shanghai and Paris) is internationally known for his painted walls and floors with reproduced and amplified traditional floral motifs inspired by traditional textiles from various cultures. Exaggeration and visual exuberance characterize his practice, and the sheer size of his site-specific works creates transformations within the locations in which he works. Amongst his most important exhibitions are in 2009: I Am the Sun, Eslite Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan, The Spectacle of the Everyday, Biennale de Lyon, France, 2008: Super Fengshui, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, 2007: Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia, 2006: Notre Histoire, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France, 2005: Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria (solo), 2004: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, CA, USA (solo), 2003: Spring 2003, Palais de Tokyo, Site de Creation Contemporaine, Bibliotherapy (with Remy Markowitsch), Kuntsmuseum, Lucerne, Switzerland, 2002: International, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK, The Gravity of the Immaterial, Total Museum, Seoul, Korea, 7th Istanbul Biennal, Istanbul, Turkey 2001: The Gravity of the Immaterial, Institute of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan, 49th Biennial of Venice, Taiwan Pavilion, Venice, Italy, 2000: The Sky is the Limit, Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
MICHAEL LIN The colour is bright the beauty is generous
Curated by Marco Bazzini and Felix Schöber
In collaboration with Atelier Bow Wow (Japan)
17 October 2010 – 13 february 2011
Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci
Viale della Repubblica 277, Prato
Opening hours: 10 am – 7 pm; 1 January 3 pm-7 pm, closed: on Tuesday, 24,25,31 december
Guided tours saturday and sunday at 5 pm
Press/Communication
Silvia Bacci/Ivan Aiazzi
ph. +39 0574 531828 – fax +39 0574 531901
s.bacci@centropecci.it i.aiazzi@centropecci.it
National press office:
Studio Pesci di Federico Palazzoli
ph. +39 051 269267 – fax +39 051 2960748
www.studiopesci.it
*Image above:
Photo by Walter Bettens for Damn magazine No. 25.
