Florence (Italy), Palazzo Strozzi. China China China !!! From 21 march 2007 to 4 May 2008

This event ties in with the exhibition on the first floor of Palazzo Strozzi, devoted to the Tang dynasty, universally recognised as a high point in Chinese civilisation and central to the Chinese Renaissance.
The aim of the CCCS, under the direction of Franziska Nori, is to approach the much discussed "China phenomenon" from a different point of view. That's why the project is entrusted to three young Chinese curators:
- Davide Quadrio, founder and director of BizArt in Shanghai, the first and only self-supported and non-profit cultural organisation in China, also active in The In-Between, a network of alternative art spaces in Europe and Asia;
- Li Zhenhua founder of the independent Art Lab in Beijing, artist and promoter of the new media art in China;
- Zhang Wei director of Vitamin Creative Space Contemporary Art in Guangzhou.
They are all based and operate in different parts of China, sharing a commitment to consolidate an independent critical platform supporting artistic production in China. They want art going beyond official boundaries and not bounded by the art market rules. Art that represents the complex reality of a contemporary China in the process of an historical change and cultural transformation.
The exhibition presents a lively interchange between the curators' three sections, representing three distinct but complementary attitudes and perceptions.
Zhang Wei presents in "Throwing Dice" individual visions of human existence in a fragmented and constantly changing world. The videos of Kan Xuan, Pak Sheung Chuen and Yang Fudong (acclaimed in the most recent Venice Biennale), digital animations by Cao Fei (also present at the Biennale), technological installations by Chu Yun, and paintings by Duan Jianyu offer individual stories that engage the spectator in the exploration of a shared existential landscape and in the constant tension between the world of dreams and of reality.
"Art is not enough, not enough!," is a multimedia installation in the Davide Quadrio's section produced by the CCCS and presented as a world premiere. It draws on interviews made by the curator with forty different artists in Shanghai, asked about the role of the artist, their relationship with the external world, the social consequences of their work and the international market effects on traditional artistic production modes. It offers a dynamic anthropological insight into the urban panorama of modern Shanghai.
The focus of "Multi-Archeology", the section curated by Li Zhenhua is the geo-political identity and cultural relativism. Installations by the Mongolian artists Wu Ershan and Ren Qinga, highlight the often conflictual relations between the different cultural groups in China today and pose questions about the undermining of the individual concerning social upheaval.
Both installations, created especially for the exhibition in Florence, take as their theme the human condition in the face of an uncertain future.
The art video by Zhao Liang and Shen Shaomin documents the situation on the Chinese border with North Korea and Russia. An analysis of the consequences of the Mongolian invasion by Genghis Khan on Asiatic culture is compared to the impact of modern globalisation, in the constant cultural interchange between East and West.

CHINA CHINA CHINA !!!
CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART
BEYOND THE GLOBAL MARKET
21 March - 4 May 2008
Daily: 11,00 - 20,30. Closed Monday
Tickets: € 5,00 (valid for five admissions in 1 month, including lectures), € 4,00 schools
€ 10,00 entrance Strozzina  + exhibition China: at the Court of the Emperors
Catalogue Silvana Editoriale

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