Zhao Bandi , "P.A.D.Y"
On May 18, 2019, on International Museum Day, the UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art hosted a unique party where artist Zhao Bandi donated his latest work "P.A.D.Y." to the contemporary art institution. When UCCA curators Tian Feiyu and Zhao Bandi unveiled the red cloth, what was revealed was that they hit the faces of all the men present... What the hell is going on?! Here's a live story from Phoenix Art.
Zhao Bandi extended his artistic tentacles into advertising, performance, fashion, charity, film and other fields, which made him famous at the same time, but also withstood the questioning that followed the public. "International Museum Day Artist Zhao Bandi will donate strange works to UCCA", Ullens sent an invitation to members at all levels, such a description has satisfied everyone's "appetite". On the evening of May 18, 2019, half an hour before the party began, the flow of people had begun to pour into the Ullens Exhibition Hall. It is worth mentioning that Zhao Bandi especially emphasized that men must wear a tie to enter, so that the party has not yet begun, it has a mysterious color.
On that day, on the wall of the sunken space, the work was covered by a red velvet package. CCTV host Liu Fangfei presided over the donation ceremony.
The scene of the UCCA donation ceremony, from left to right: Tian Feiyu, director of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Liu Fangfei, a famous host of CCTV, and Zhao Bandi, an artist
In the view of Tian Feiyu, director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, in Zhao Bandi's artistic creation, no matter what kind of media creation, they have a wonderful relationship with society and reality, this context is particularly interesting, in different historical moments of the long creative career, Zhao Bandi convincingly explores how art is related to social reality, stimulates new thinking, and leaves unique traces. On the other hand, when UCCA worked with Zhao Bandi last year, it was actually Ullens's most difficult time, and Ullens's future direction was vague, but Zhao Bandi still firmly cooperated with Tian Feiyu to complete the exhibition; and today, when Ullens considered whether to reopen the collection at a new stage, Zhao Bandi was the first artist to actively donate works.
The site of the UCCA donation ceremony
At 8:30, Tian Feiyu and Zhao Bandi pulled down the red curtain together, and "a donkey with a tie" came to the face! Hundreds of guests marveled. This "donkey with a tie" "echoed" with the men wearing ties in the audience, and the people in the crowd burst out a sudden and clear laughter - it turned out to be such a "punch in the face"!
"I'm sure it's a donkey." Zhao Bandi said on the spot. He did not explain the meaning of the title of the work, "P.A.D.Y.", and a closer look at the huge photography, the eyes of the donkey, and the panda pattern on the tie are all reminiscent. The audience's discussion of "P.A.D.Y." is endless, some people say that this is a 996 "social animal" young man, who seems to be decent and actually running at the bottom of society; others say that Zhao Bandi may be hinting that some of China's elite men are just a donkey with a well-dressed tie.
Zhao Bandi is a cunning artist who is good at using humor and irony to outline the fleeting face of the times, keenly capturing a certain sense of absurdity and reshaping the contemporary situation. He is cynical but serious in practicing his gesture of touching reality. In fact, after Zhao Bandi's brilliant "Panda Era", the cunning artist began to deal with donkeys in recent years, and more than once. During last year's Basel Fair, Sigg hosted a party for Collectors and Artists in Asia on his private island in Mauensee and invited Zhao Bandi as a guest to bring his work "The Ballet of the Donkey".
At the arched entrance of the manor, Chinese artist Zhao Bandi appears with a donkey in his hand, pushing the party to the high point.
The scene of the event
The melancholy melody played by the cello musician reflects the black figure of the "donkey" in the middle of the stage. Ballet dancers floated in, backed by the lake, the sun, and the shadows of trees and flowers, and danced beautifully around the "donkey dance partner", like a dream.
Later, at the "Night Museum" event of the Chao Art Center in Sanlitun, Beijing, Zhao Bandi once again led a donkey to the stage.
Chao "Zhao Bandi's Party" scene
At that party, Zhao Bandi borrowed a donkey and elegant music to stage an artistic performance with both absurd and classical meanings in the bridge space. Continuing the creative concept of "Zhao Bandi's Party", piano performance and ballet juxtaposed with donkeys, the eyes of the participants are also part of the "event", and between the switching of attention and excitement, the irony and metaphor of social reality continue to circulate.
"Donkey Ballet" originated in the spring of 2018, at the opening ceremony of the Uli Sigg Collection Exhibition (March 17-8, 2018) --- "Journey to China" by Het Noordbrabants Musuem in the Netherlands, as Zhao Bandi's portrait of Sigg in his early years became the visual identity of the exhibition, and he was the only Chinese artist invited to attend the opening ceremony.
In the Netherlands, the reunion of collectors and artists led to the birth of a new work. Zhao Bandi said that the shadow of a donkey always lingered in his heart.
Why a donkey? And why the party? Someone had asked Zhao Bandi questions so curiously, but the artist seemed to have been reluctant to answer, but only repeated that "the development of society is a process of constant mixing, and in this strange party of sour, sweet and bitter, it is a donkey."
Zhao Bandi and donkeys and parties. There is always an inextricable link between these three. On October 20, 2018, Zhao Bandi held a contemporary night party that spanned thousands of years in a unique Su-style courtyard at the foot of the Forbidden City.
Night Party live
It is this kind of Su-style courtyard that evokes Zhao Bandi's memories of the famous PARTY a thousand years ago, Han Xizai's night feast. The beautiful scenery, wine and mercure in the famous painting "Han Xizai's Night Feast" are not only displayed in this Su-style courtyard in turn, but also present the costume performers in the "Night Banquet" one by one on the canvas through Zhao Bandi's live sketches.
Night party party scene
Party scene, costumed women, zhensheng immersed in the water, its feeling is indescribable, only in it can really appreciate, every participant and viewer on the scene unconsciously became a part of Zhao Bandi's work, became the protagonist of the PARTY. The party was Zhao Bandi's sixth party in 2018, and the artist once joked: "I hope I can become a 'party master'".
He is also.
If we turn the clock forward, on August 4, 2017, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art held its large-scale solo exhibition "Zhao Bandi's China", which in addition to exhibiting more than ten components of the artist's works since 1987, also brought a new painting "China Party".
Zhao Bandi, "China Party", 2017
The content of the "China Party" screen comes from a cultural party called "Chinese Party - Chopin" in Chengdu in September 2016. When painting this painting, Zhao Bandi said that there were many friends, friends who had been to that Chengdu party, said, how come there is only one little girl playing the piano in the water? Why not a single audience, Zhao Bandi thinks:
I said no, this one won't draw the shore. The friend asked, what about the man? I said there would be no reflection either. Why? Because in my mind no one is on the shore, we are all in the water, the whole Chinese society, we are all in the water, we are all sinking and floating, no one can escape from this water at least until now.
Zhao Bandi, Underwater Chopin, Chengdu Scene
After the completion of "China Party", Zhao Bandi was not satisfied with this - he even took the party to the guggenheim museum. On January 4, 2018, as new York city was covered in snow and winds, and most of New York City's businesses and schools were closed by a snowstorm, Zhao Bandi's 1992 oil painting "Xiao Zhang" was exhibited in the Group Exhibition of Chinese Artists at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, "World Theater". At this time, in the middle of the Ronald O. Perelman Roundhouse at the Guggenheim Museum, a cozy, romantic picnic was very warm.
Alexandra Munroe, curator of the "Theater of the World" exhibition, co-curator Philip Tinari (philip Tinari is also curator of UCCA), and curatorial assistant Xiaorui Zhu-Nowell also joined Zhao's picnic.
The Performance Art of "The Guggenheim Picnic" takes place on the Guggenheim Museum's closing day, photo by Yuan Images
The Guggenheim Picnic performance art takes place on the Guggenheim Museum's closing day, photo by Ken Lee
In fact, this is already Zhao Bandi's second picnic performance. His first picnic performance began on October 22, 2017, in the main hall of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art on the day of the closing of his solo exhibition "Zhao Bandi: A Chinese Party."
Picnic at the Ullens Museum By Isaac Wang
Through parties and picnics, Zhao Bandi said: "I want to create a blurred space between art and reality". The artist named this ambiguous space "The Third Zone." Today, Zhao Bandi continues his famous brand "China Party" and the new image of "Donkey", after that, what kind of whimsy will he bring to this world?
About the artist
Zhao Bandi
Born in Beijing in 1966, he now lives and works in Beijing, and is a leading figure in the Chinese avant-garde art movement, whose creations involve performance, video, fashion, film, and social intervention. From 1999 to 2004, Zhao Bandi's panda-related public welfare works were presented in the subway, airport and street of many cities in China and overseas, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Milan, London, Manchester, Birmingham, Oslo, And Beijing. His exhibitions and solo projects include: "Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2017, UCCA Zhao Bandi's China Party exhibition in 2017, and Uli Schick's private island "Donkey Ballet" in 2018. Recent group exhibitions include: 2017 Artron (Shenzhen) Art Center Art Museum "Why it is a Classic", ShanghART 20th Anniversary Special Exhibition art center group exhibition.
Some of the graphics come from the Internet
(Phoenix Art Beijing ReportIng Editor/dbk)
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