Prada's new exhibition "Paraventi: Screen" will open on November 3, 2023 and run until January 21, 2024. Rongzhai is a historic residence in Shanghai built in 1918, restored by Prada and reopened in 2017. Curated by Nicholas Cullinan, this group exhibition will also feature the comprehensive exhibition "Paraventi Screens: Screens from the 17th to the 21st Century", which runs from October 26, 2023 to February 22, 2024
Stone interstitial, late Ming and early Qing dynasties, 16th and 17th centuries, Xiaogushan Collection, Beijing.
The Shanghai exhibition will present two 17th- and 18th-century Chinese screens, a small vertical screen on a desk and a 12-fold royal screen, and will feature five new works commissioned by artists from Tony Cokes, John Stezaker, Li Shuang, Zeng Wu and Cao Fei in a series of subsequent spaces.
Whether literal or metaphorical, the screen embodies the concept of threshold and tipping point in two states. It crosses barriers between different disciplines, cultures, and worlds. The exhibition focuses on how screens are influenced by digital experiences such as cascading and screen-in-screen that are now ubiquitous.
Before the advent of mechanical image processing technology in the 19th century, the inside of the screen was invisible, it was mainly a protective element. This dialectical relationship between display and hiding is particularly evident today in the screens of our various electronic devices, which are both opaque and transparent windows. Screen graphics give us virtual deep access to archives and databases, obscuring the workings of the hardware, perpetuating the blurred relationship between the surface and the depths.
12 royal rosewood screens, 18th century, Xiaogushan Museum, Beijing.
Tony Cokes' Sol Lewitt (1967/1968/1989) was inspired by American minimalist artist Sol Lewitt's Folding Screen. Cokes inserted concentric circles in color on one side and black and white on the other into the complex, sculptural structures. Adding emotional layers, stylistic style or more possibilities to the textual and visual elements of his installation. Text and visual elements presented by the installation include an LED video wall and music by Irish-British rock band My Bloody Valentine.
John Stezaker, Screen – Screen, 2023, courtesy of the artist.
John Stezaker's Screen-screen is reminiscent of scenes from movies, introducing an idealized Hollywood home scene into a real space that retains elements of a private home. In this new work, Stezaker switches back and forth between the tangible dimensions of the screen and the imaginative space on the big screen.
Li Shuang, "This Mirror Can't Hold Two People", 2023, provided by the artist.
Li Shuang's "This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us" explores the concept of privacy by casting dynamic shadows on the screen. She associates these traces of fleeting tangible things with everyday objects such as benches, revealing a deep desire for safety and familiarity. The work aims to reaffirm that tangible value is more important than the virtuality of the screen: the artist believes that this relationship has been reversed in contemporary times.
Zeng Wu, Carmen Sketch (Infatuation), 2023, courtesy of the artist.
Zeng Wu's Carmen Sketch (Infatuation) explores the performative nature of screens and the concept of screens as symbolic boundaries or emotional boundaries. Footage of London-based producer, DJ and singer-songwriter Ms. Carrie Stacks performing is projected onto a curtain-like installation. In the video, the performer wears a gorgeous gold dress and plays the piano while singing two songs from her 2017 mini-album Five Sad Songs, "I Have to Cheer Up" and "Take the Moment."
Cao Fei, Screen Autobiography (Shanghai), 2023, courtesy of Artist, Vitamin Art Space and Schbudt Marg Gallery.
Cao Fei's Screen Autobiography (Shanghai) is an installation composed of green screen backgrounds of different sizes. A series of short videos shot using a green screen were looped on LED monitors, creating a temporary live studio. Here, the boundaries between real and virtual, exaggerated and distorted, familiar and unfamiliar become blurred, making it difficult for visitors to trust the reality of the image.
Paraventi: screen
Session: 3 November 2023 to 21 January 2024
Location: Prada Rong House, No. 186 North Shanxi Road, Jing'an District, Shanghai