The northward migration of wild elephants in Yunnan, which began in 2020, has aroused long-term public concern and discussion, revealing the irreversible impact of humans on the environment in the process of natural changes.
On January 15th, Macalline Art Center opened its exhibition "Elephant Departure" officially opened to the public. The exhibition was curated by Fu Yuan, Artistic Director of Macalline Arts Centre, assisted by Assistant Curators Chen Yujian and Huang Gemian, and designed by Ballistic Architecture Machine.
Regarding the exhibition, FuYuan said: "The exhibition is titled 'Elephants Leaving', which attempts to respond to contemporary society and life forms in the post-epidemic era. Through the newly commissioned creations of five young Chinese artists Fang Di, Li Ming, Peng Zuqiang, Shen Xin and Tao Hui, the exhibition presents a dialogue between independence and entanglement. The Macalline Art Center team has been in a long-standing dialogue with the artists, working together to continue to discuss – 'How do I become plural?' This is not only a constant questioning of the ever-changing relationship between the individual and the collective, but also an expectation of the re-acquisition of polyphony in artistic creation. ”
The fleeing elephant reminds us of problems that have been overlooked
Elephants have allusions, and in ancient Chinese culture, the story of the "blind man touching the elephant" describes the shape of the elephant that is difficult to discern and the silhouette that is difficult to capture. In George Orwell's novel The Elephant Hunt, elephants that often destroy crops constantly intensify the complex relationship between colonists and colonies. The northward migration of wild elephants in Yunnan, which began in March 2020, revealed the irreversible impact of humans on the environment during the long-term changes in the natural world. Elephants continue to give us imagination and warnings about changes in power.
Here, the exodus of the elephant, or the absence of the behemoth, provides us with a state of to be determined: how do we fallow when the inherent order is stranded and the corresponding temporal structure fails, when the individual story no longer unfolds in a neat arc of progress?
Tao Hui, "Unrestrained" (still frame), single-frequency color sound HD image, 12 minutes and 03 seconds, 2021. Macalline Arts Centre commissioned the creation. Image courtesy of the artist and The Macalline Arts Centre
Xin Shen, "New Light" (still frame), Digital HD Imaging, 12 minutes, 2021. Macalline Arts Centre commissioned the creation. Image courtesy of the artist and The Macalline Arts Centre
Lu Nei's novel "The Mist Walker," published in January 2020, traces the fate of the individual era while composing a polyphonic narrative from the 1998 flood to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The musical concept of polyphony, originally referred to as a piece with more than two main themes, was later used by literary critics to discuss the poetic characteristics of the novel's style. Through a non-linear storyline, Mistwalker portrays many of the characters of the changing times, each with their own world, values, and sense of independence. Through the material world composed of many personalities and destinies, we can glimpse the key role played by large-scale population mobility in shaping Chinese society, and the driving force behind globalization and marketization is still worth reflecting on. Thinking about the present, the contemporary history of this decade also provides us with a channel for memory retrospection and the support of psychological construction.
Compared with the mobility and rapid development of Chinese society at the beginning of this century, the rhythm of today's society has shifted from a rapid board to a gradual slowdown, and individuals are trapped by various obstacles to the communication of thoughts and bodies. The fleeing elephants are a startling reminder to confront the obvious but always overlooked problems and restore depleted nutrients to the soil. To be determined is not inevitable, what is important is to learn to embrace the beginningless and endless present.
Peng Zuqiang, "Glimpse of Leakage" (still frame), single frequency 16mm and ultra-8 film transcription of digital HD images, 12 minutes and 07 seconds, 2022. Macalline Arts Centre commissioned the creation. Image courtesy of the artist and The Macalline Arts Centre
Fang Di, Zayton Nugget (Still Frame), Single Frequency Color Audio HD Image, 21 min 52 sec, 2022. Macalline Arts Centre commissioned the creation. Image courtesy of the artist and The Macalline Arts Centre
The exhibition "Elephants Run Away" continues the question that Macalline Arts Centre has been exploring since its inception: "How do I become plural?" This is not only a constant inquiry into the changing relationship between the individual and the collective, between artists and institutions, but also the expectation of the re-acquisition of polyphony in artistic creation.
New forms of cultural coordinates on the map of contemporary art
The non-profit art institution Macalline Arts Centre is supported by Red Star Macalline Holdings and founded by arts patron Che Xuanqiao. Based on a two-storey building with a total area of 900 square meters, Macalline Art Center will unite artists, curators and pan-cultural and artistic workers from all over the world to build a practice field focusing on visual invention with multiple forms of continuous joint work, and become a new form of cultural coordinates on the map of contemporary art.
The scene of the "Elephant Run Away" exhibition hall
Founder Che Xuanqiao said: "Macalline Art Center is a medium-sized art institution with distinct subjectivity that is different from standardized art museums. Our subjectivity is also an open work that is constantly shaped, extended, tested and updated by all participants in their discussions and practices. Based on Macalline Art Center's mission of 'reuniting artist groups', we hope to have closer and in-depth interaction with the outstanding artists, artists and art institutions gathered here. ”
It is reported that while preparing for the physical space in Beijing, Macalline Art Center has launched three art projects and a special project space: "Black Teeth" magazine, digital image commission project "Red Screen", sound podcast project "Jam Shell", and Shanghai special project space "Flower Hall Project". With text, video, sound and space as diverse carriers, these projects cut into the fabric of contemporary art creation, deeply participate in the ideological construction of the current society, and actively shape the new role played by art institutions in the rapidly changing contemporary context.
Launched in May 2020, Black Tooth magazine, a bilingual digital publishing platform in China and English, has published nearly 100 original bilingual articles to re-position art in understanding social reality, spiritual structure and technological renewal. Since December 2020, the digital image commission project "Chiping" has continued to publish works from artists such as Tao Hui, Chen Tianzhuo, Liu Qinmin, Zheng Ke and Tan Jing, Zhang Wenxin, Tang Chao, Hu Wei, PennEn, Liu Wa and Bao Yang, and has held nine different forms of public events and an offline exhibition "Meditation on the Screen", using the media environment of online social platforms to produce, display and disseminate contemporary art. Since March 2021, the Sound Podcast Project "Stuck Shell" has invited artists, scholars, and researchers as guests in each issue, and has shared their interdisciplinary creations, texts and reflections through more than ten podcasts and an artist commission project.
The Flower Hall Project is a special project space of The Macalline Art Center in Shanghai, located on the second floor of the Convent Apartment at 62 Fuxing West Road in Shanghai, which is a place that can be used for non-profit exhibitions, public education, and cultural exchanges. Embracing artistic intuition and novelty, the Flower Hall Project has held eleven exhibitions, public education and screenings since November 2020, and will continue to launch planned projects.
Macalline Art Center also pays attention to the occurrence of art events and the development of art research, and plans to hold four physical space exhibition projects every year to carry out various forms of online and offline public activities for the public. At the same time, Macalline Art Center continues to explore the possibilities of art institutions, through multiple projects such as art projects, education, community building and public welfare, linking global cultural and artistic workers and institutions, and working together in multiple forms to build a practice field focusing on visual invention, a physical and network community, and a continuous self-renewal perception and cognitive system. The Macalline Art Center's collection program also strives to combine research and curatorialism to create a collection system based on the local art ecology.
The opening exhibition will last until April 16, 2022.
(Image courtesy of Macalline Arts Centre)
Nandu reporter Huang Qian