Assembling the leading edge
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Eight Chinese contemporary artists have gathered at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) for a group exhibition titled A History of the Future with Breaking Forecast: 8 Key Figures of China's New Generation Artists.
The eight artists - Cao Fei, Chu Yun, Liu Wei, Madein, Qiu Zhijie, Sun Yuan, Yang Fudong and Zheng Guogu - offer works in various media, such as painting, performance, installation, photography and film to offer their vision of the country's new generation.
Sun Yuan and Cao Yuan's sculpture Tomorrow features four lifelike sculptures of elderly men leaning against red walls. The work was shown during the Liverpool Biennale in 2006, but the artists threw the figures into the Albert Dock so it appeared there were four cadavers floating face down. This created a lot of attention and even resulted in a disagreement between the Biennale and police.
"We want people to think about who on Earth 'they' are, and then realize that cooperation doesn't always breed coexistence, but intervention or contradiction may sometimes play a key role," Sun says.
Yang Fudong's installation Dawn Mist, Separation Faith, consists of nine scenes from a film. Scenes are repeated constantly, but some light changes are noticeable.
According to Jerome Sans, director of UCCA, the artistic approach of the participants represents a crucial factor in China's aesthetic productivity this century.
"The artists have interpreted the most important events in the history of modern Chinese art using their individual voices," he says.
10 am-5 pm, until Feb 28. 798 Art Zone, 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang district, 8459-9269
