2002 Zunyi 'International Symposium - Curating and the Chinese Context'

Brief Introduction

The town of Zunyi was an important historical turning point on the route of the Long March, where the Red Army's march turned from defeat towards victory. The Zunyi Meeting held there in 1935 put an end to the dominance of a Leftist line within the Communist Party and the Red Army that rigidly and indiscriminately applied Communist International doctrines. A group of Communist Party members who were adept at combining the basic principles of Marxism with the native context of the Chinese revolution put their ideas to the test and achieved a new understanding and interpretation of Marxism. What significance does this have for the practice of contemporary Chinese art today?

At Zunyi our Long March exhibition will, through a series of artistic activities, debate the importance of native context in art practice, and the influence of the Chinese Revolution on international contemporary art and contemporary Chinese art. We chose Zunyi because its unique historical context can be used to advantage in determining the significance of native experience and native forms.

The 'International Symposium -Curating in Chinese Context' to be held at Zunyi Guesthouse will be attended for the most part by curators - both independent and those who are based at an institution, gallery owners, members of the art press, artists and critics, and the following topics will be discussed:

1. Curating in Chinese context:

Contemporary Chinese art currently finds itself amid complicated power relations: the existing national art exhibition culture itself is quietly undergoing a displacement and adjustment. For example since the 1990s there has been a shift from the concept of art and literature being in the service of politics towards 'high art'. Traditional art still has a relatively broad foundation among the people and because of this has become a market presence that cannot be ignored. The new market and mass media created by economic development are having an increasingly marked influence on artistic activities, in particular because global contact is becoming more and more common, and political and economic forces from beyond national borders are having an unprecedented influence on Chinese art. The contemporary Chinese art that appears in international exhibition spaces is likewise caught up in complicated power relations, and this has had a strong effect on the self-orientation of Chinese society towards Chinese art. All of this has created a rich and complex arena of power. During this symposium we hope to analyse the key elements of this kind of power, and the positive and negative effects it has on Chinese art, using past examples as a starting point for our analysis. Our intention is to seek out more possibilities within the mutual effect of these various forces.

2. Curating exhibitions: the power and interpretation of visual space:

Within a special kind of power structure, the breakthrough of Chinese art should not only be manifested through making processes and results of art production, but also through a unique exhibition culture. In the interpretation of visual space, what power does the curator have and what are the limits of this power? What power does the media have and where are its boundaries? Amid such power relationships, what role does the exposition of art-making play through curation, narration and media circulation? What is the result produced by market forces such as sponsors, galleries and collectors, and what power and responsibility do they have? These are some of the concrete issues we want to discuss at this meeting.

3. Alternative spaces, independent curating and the development of resources:

Alternative spaces and independent curating are without a doubt the most dynamic phenomena in Chinese art at the turn of the century. And in an international context China's alternative spaces and independent curating possess a rather distinctive nature, which is particularly noticeable in their relationship with institutions and the system. What are the material and psychological bases for the existence of artist-run spaces, and where is the space for their development? In what sense does media interaction - whether it be with the traditional media or the internet - constitute another kind of alternative space? How does the new force of independent curating achieve a re-distribution and development of resources? In what sense can it stimulate the latent energy of the conventional system, and in turn, to what extent is it controlled by the conventional system? How should the available resources be shared among the work of independent curators? At this meeting we hope to bring together people who have personal experience of this kind of work, to summarise what they have experienced and learnt during recent years, and explore more possibilities.

We hope that in the small town of Zunyi, located in China's vast hinterland far away from any centre, Chinese and international colleagues will be able to communicate their experiences of China to each other, to discuss their actual limitations and genuinely beneficial resources, and to reinterpret the significance of space, power, and curating exhibitions in a local and international context.

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