SHANGHAI.- The K11 Art Foundation and MoMA PS1 co-present .com/.cn, the first project jointly presented by the two institutions as part of an ongoing research partnership. Originally presented during Art Basel Hong Kong in March 2017, the new iteration of .com/.cn in Shanghai is co-curated by Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1 and Chief Curator at Large at The Museum of Modern Art, and Peter Eleey, Chief Curator of MoMA PS1. Featuring work by Darren Bader, Trisha Baga, Cao Fei, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Aleksandra Domanović, Gregory Edwards, Li Ming, Liang Wei, Lin Ke, Mak Ying Tung, Miao Ying, Jon Rafman, Martine Syms and Wang Xin, the exhibition further investigates regional differences within the digital ecosystem and their effects on contemporary art. The exhibition takes place at the chi K11 art museum, one of the leading art centers in Greater China.

.com/.cn showcases artistic practices in China and the West that respond to, or are affected by, our digital ecosystem. Frequently described as a “network” or a “cloud,” this system is often assumed to be universal, unencumbered by territory, language, law, or national culture. However, distinct regional internets have developed, each conditioning different social behaviors, economies, and modes of thought. These variations are particularly evident in comparing artistic responses to the available internets of China and the West, and their respective political and economic systems.

Some of the works selected for .com/.cn examine the Chinese digital ecosystem, its permeability to Western content, and the cultural aspirations it both encourages and limits. Others reflect artists’ use of regional platforms for research and communication – for example Google, Facebook, Weibo, and WeChat – and their influence.

Paintings in the exhibition propose new abstract spaces that combine historical Chinese and Western vocabularies with contemporary pictorial schematic devices. Technologies of surveillance mingle with apps and devices that invite participation. Real geographies are set against technological representations and imaginary terrains, evoking the challenges facing the liberal ideals of globalization in an age of nationalist retrenchment.

Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1 and co-curator of .com/.cn said: “Technology has provided new tools for the production, distribution, and reception of art while also enabling rapid advancements in global trade and information exchange, showing that the world wide web is actually ‘webs’ as the .com and the .cn of the title suggests—just to name two of them. With this expanded exhibition, we hope to create new dialogue around ways in which art is changing in the digital era, both in China and the West. We are pleased to continue our collaboration with the K11 Art Foundation to showcase the results of our ongoing research partnership.”

Adrian Cheng, Founder and Honorary Chairman of the K11 Art Foundation said: “It is with great pleasure that we are presenting .com/.cn again following its successful debut in Hong Kong during Art Basel 2017 as part of our continued research partnership with MoMA PS1. We are excited to be working with dynamic and adventurous artists who have contributed a host of new works building on those from the original show.”