Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News Reporter Zhang Mijia
Work No. 16 in the first floor exhibition hall has a label: "Bread" by Swedish artist Ghislaine Leung.
But where is the work? Looking around I didn't find it.
It wasn't until I saw the whole exhibition that I finally reacted: Oh! I've been immersed in this work, the answer to hunger – the smell of newly baked bread filling the entire exhibition space.
Then I saw a projector, it was "buzzing" and was working all the time. But what is the image? Where? This piece is Giovanni Anselmo's Invisible.
Until the person stands in front of the camera, a "visible " light and shadow quietly comes out, where you put the body to the camera, where is the "tangible".
This is a contemporary art exhibition that is difficult to complete on the mobile phone on an acre and three points of land, you need to rush to the scene, Hangzhou conditions are ripe, waiting for you to come -
After nine years of preparation, Hangzhou's first contemporary art museum, BY ART MATTERS Tianmuli Art Museum, was officially opened to the public today. The opening exhibition "A Show About Nothing" will run until May 8, 2022.
"From Scratch" explores how contemporary Chinese and foreign artists have approached the concept of "nothingness", and the exhibition brings together people including Francis Alys, Maurizio Cattelan, Geng Jianyi, Robert Grosvenor, Hans Haacke, Ghislaine Leung, Li Liao, Liu Guoqiang, Cady C. Lee, and others. The classic works of more than 30 well-known artists at home and abroad, such as Cady Noland, Yoko Ono, Tino Sehgal, Rudolf Stingel, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Wenmin Tong, and their commissioned works according to the space of the Tenmuri Art Museum.
A Show About Nothing
The exhibition runs from 2021.12.25–2022.05.08
Venue BY ART MATTERS Tenme-ri Art Museum
Address No. 398 Tianmushan Road, Xihu District, Hangzhou Building 1, Tianmuli [Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday (closed on Monday) 12:00-20:00]
BY ART MATTERS Tenmuri Art Museum
"We wanted to present an exhibition about 'nothing' in a wonderful empty space. In fact, we want visitors to understand and enjoy the difference between 'nothingness' and 'emptiness'. While experiencing the architectural space, we also experience the essential beauty of 'nothingness' – which is also an integral part of most of our lives. ”
Francesco Bonamami, director of the BY ART MATTERS Tenmes Museum, said that the exhibition is also an invitation to immerse people in seemingly meaningless things, and after experiencing the lack of time, matter and meaning, a new beginning will eventually be formed.
The design layout of this exhibition minimizes the by ART MATTERS Tianmuli Art Museum designed by the internationally renowned architect Renzo Piano Architectural Studio, which makes the entire museum clear from clear concrete, wooden floors, and high ceilings with skylights on the first floor. Photo: Wu Qingshan
Photo: Wu Qingshan
When the public enters the exhibition hall for the first time and roams through the exhibition, it is also the process of feeling the space to the greatest extent and intervening in the theme in different ways. The advent of art will fill in the gaps, creating meaning and content.
A Show About Nothing Exhibition Scene Photo: Wu Qingshan
In this exhibition, the works of many artists invite the audience to explore the rich meaning of nothing, and even collect meaningless things, prompting the viewer to ask themselves what is meaningful.
Artist Geng Jianyi
Geng Jianyi's works exhibition scene Photo: Wu Qingshan
As one of the main participants in the "1985 New Wave", Geng Jianyi (1962-2017) started with the sudden freedom after the opening up of Chinese culture, and established his pioneering position in The Avant-garde Art of China in the late 1980s with several paintings.
In this exhibition, a series of works "done" by Geng Jianyi in a childlike way are shown in the medium of books, showing that the artist consciously puts himself in a state of ignorance, inaction and uselessness in the creative process, and thus maintains fearless doubts about people's habitual cognition.
From "Until Moping" (1998-1999), the "Why is a Classic" series and 1999's "Bubble", "Ten Seconds Of Immersion", "How to Get a "Of" Words", and then to 2001's "Reading Style", Geng Jianyi has made these wordless, useless, and ignorant books a reminder of the implications of a certain ideology to people in different ways.
Geng Jianyi | Geng jianyi
The reason why it is a classic | For as much... Being the classical
1997/Book, Watercolor on Paper/26.5x20x2cm/72 pages (double-sided)
Artist Robert Grosvenor
The use of seemingly everyday forms to express uselessness is also hidden in Robert Grosvenor's (born 1937) work Untitled. In the huge space of the museum, the sculptures reminiscent of useless cars look like three recalled malfunctioning cars, and a closer look reveals their special features, which, despite their bright colors, lack key components such as doors, wheels, and headlights, and are obviously not designed for practical significance.
In the field of art, they are given a strong connotation, creating unexpected connections that need to be explored through the collision of materials and accessories.
Robert Grosvenor | Robert Grosvenor
Untitled
Artist Hans Haacke
Hans Haacke (born 1936) 'White Sails' at a glance consists of a piece of white fabric floating in the air under the influence of a fan.
The oscillating air current gently pushes the fabric, shaping the shape of the work in a constantly changing and unpredictable way. Four heavy objects and thin threads connect the fabric to the walls.
The work reacts to the movements of the visitors in the room and their number of people, thus connecting the exhibition conditions, the museum building, and the audience who is experiencing it all through simple movements.
Hans Hack | Hans Haacke
White sails
Artist Liu Guoqiang
Through the exploration of the concept of time, how time becomes the main promoter of nothingness after the erosion and consumption of all things, it tells us the value of transformation, disappearance, and the transformation and function of things that have meaning and function in the past, which is also the work of many artists in this exhibition.
Liu Guoqiang's (born 1988) 2021 book "Untitled" uses digital technology to abstract time to record the unstoppable changes in things.
This is also a measure of time after several clock-related works. In an image frame, a complete pointer can never be formed. However, despite seeing close enough, the numbers and scales have disappeared, and even the second hand itself has been shredded... But time remains coherent, maintaining absolute domination over the image.
Liu Guoqiang | Liu Guoqiang
Artist Francis Alys
Also video, Francis Alys (b. 1959), in this exhibition, When Faith Moves Mountains (2004), documents the most meaningless things the artist has done with the largest effort.
After visiting Lima, Peru, he decided to respond to the desperate situation caused by social unrest in the area with an epic operation, so he gathered 500 volunteers to gather in the local suburbs and move a huge sand dune a few inches in one day with a shovel.
The whole process does not involve production or construction, and apart from some photographic and video recordings, there is no evidence to prove the truth of the facts. This is also where the artist is interested – in ancient times, the fool finally needed to move the heavens to help him achieve his long-cherished wish, and today, perhaps through images and rumors, it can be achieved.
Francis Ellis | Francis Alys
When faith moves mountains
Artist Li Liao
A kind of inaction with consequences, a moment of "doing nothing", is actually a moment to let the mind wander freely and create unexpected connections. The two works presented by Li Liao (born in 1982) in this exhibition, "Surplus Value 2018-2019" and "Surplus Value 2020-2021", are both commissioned by the artist to use the fragmented time of her spare time to perform, which seems to be a "desertion" of the work, and finally produces a work of art with market value, the latter is the authorized creation of the art museum for this exhibition, and thus allows the artist, the artist's wife and the art museum to "labor service" Relationships become more complex.
Li Liao | Li Liao
Remaining value 2018-2019
Artist Rudolf Stingel
In the field of the "from scratch" exhibition, in addition to the audiovisual senses, the audience will also open the door of perception through the participation of their own body (touch, smell, taste) with the help of the "being" of the work of art, and then open the door of perception and feel the subtleties in the space that are difficult to perceive. Rudolf Stingel (born 1956), for example, continued his signature carpet collection, covering the entire 172,55×6-metre clear-water concrete wall with lavender-colored carpets depending on the specific location of the space on site (Untitled, 2021). The large lilacs will bring healing and relaxation to the entire exhibition, inviting the audience to participate in a collective painting experience from scratch from the first day of the exhibition.
Rudolf Stingle | Rudolf Stingel
Artist Ghislaine Leung
In Ghislaine Leung's (b. 1980) "Bread," the artist uses a ventilation system to release a smell that smells like bread in the exhibition hall space. She fills in the gaps in space with works of art, questioning the practice of viewing rather than other perceptuality as the only measure, and seeing certain types of labor or body parts as more important than others.
Artist Tino Sehgal
Tino Sehgal (born 1976) 'This Is Too Contemporary' 2004 work consists of a group of age-diverse interpreters selected from a large number of amateurs who like to sing and dance. They danced and sang and sang "This is so contemporary" over and over again.
After the title of the work is announced, the group returns to a static state. As a work that leaves no photographic/video records, the context of "nothing else" reminds us of the fleeting nature of contemporary, and even a minute of time will become a thing of the past.
As for where does this somewhat mysterious work appear? Leave a surprise for you to explore for yourself.
Exhibition From Scratch (A Show About Nothing)
Address No. 398 Tianmushan Road, Xihu District, Hangzhou, Tianmuli Building 1【Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday (closed on Monday) 12:00-20:00】
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