Contemporary Chinese Artists in Tbilisi

If you happen to be passing the Georgian National Gallery on Rustaveli Avenue, nip in to discover a marvelous exhibition of contemporary Chinese artists.

Ai Weiwei, Hu Xiaoyuan, Li Shurui, Liu Wei, Lu Pingyuan, Lu Shanchuan, Ma Qiusha, Wang Guangle, Wang Sishun, Wang Yuyang, Xie Molin, Xu Qu, Xu Zhen, Yan Xing, Zhang Ding, Zhang Zhenyu, Zhao Yao and Zhao Zhao are on display there until September and GEORGIA TODAY went along to the opening to see what it’s all about.

Ami Barak, the curator of the exhibition, calls his preface to the catalogue ‘Challenging Ideological Conventions’. An independent curator based in Paris, Barak travels and tours the world. “Contemporary art in China broke the stalemate 25 years ago thanks to the opening of the regime to the capitalist market system,” he says in his prologue to the respective album. He says the artworks shown in the current exhibition were created recently and are representatives of the emergent Chinese avant-garde artists who are influencing the art scene in China today. “It shows a vision of contemporary art in China as a cosmopolitan branch of international art and an understanding of Chinese art as a vital and outstanding way of dealing with political, social and aesthetic issues.” In his words, the art scene is constantly on the move, redefining itself. “Openness, movement and communication are the qualities this project wants to promote,” Barak writes.

The works come from private collections, yet they are not only significant on a personal level, but also on a larger scale. There is obviously a museum approach, which explains why there is a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, installation, collage, video and photography. To choose this kind of approach implies making the art accessible to the public.

The title ‘Constellation’ echoes Zhao Zhao’s series of paintings in which the artist reconstitutes the visual evidence of the after-effects of glass shattering, and successfully melds his passion for painting and his inclination to reject it in conceptually oriented objects and activities. Like all the others in this exhibition, Zhao Zhao contemplates the meaning of a significant moment in his life and invests it with a wide range of metaphorical associations.

This is a new generation of Chinese artists are those who did not grow up under the shadow of Mao Tse Tung. The Cultural Revolution is not their cultural touchstone, the Chinese government is not the source of their politics, and indeed, China is not necessarily their focus. These artists are global in their thinking and motivation. They are moved by humanity, technology, energy. They are concerned with the true wheels of the world’s economics – they travel, they run businesses, they are knowledgeable and creative. It means that they are earthly rather than dreamy.

The exhibition was made possible thanks to the commitment of the Georgia-based French collector John Dodelande, Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia and Georgian National Museum.

According to Barak, Georgia was chosen as a location because it is in the middle of the ancient Silk Road, even more so that there is a declared will to reenact it. “China has become a very powerful economy. We consider that it’s not enough to use products, but also to have cultural exchanges, because culture is also goods,” he told GEORGIA TODAY.

Ana Riaboshenko, Director of the Department of Popularization and Regional Programs of the Ministry of Culture, noted: “Such exhibitions should be held in Georgia more often. ”

“I hope that visitors will discover a lot of interesting things, regardless of their artistic preferences, because we are rarely indulged with such exhibitions,” said Mikheil Giorgadze, Minister of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia. “I’m very glad that an exposition which has evoked high public interest abroad, is here, in Georgia, now”.

The next stop will be Baku, Azerbaijan, in October. The third destination is Astana, Kazakhstan next year.

WHERE: D. Shevardnadze National Gallery, 11 Shota Rustaveli Ave. Tbilisi

WHEN: Until September 11

Maka Lomadze

29 June 2017 19:29