PARIS.- The Centre Pompidou and the West Bund Museum are teaming up as part of a Sino French curatorship to present a collective exhibition focusing on the young contemporary Chinese art scene. This multidisciplinary exhibition features works by 21 artists and, for the first time in France, draws a subjective portrait of a new generation of artists.

The Chinese character 目 (mù), means “eye”, with reference to vision and the eye’s capacity to organise reality. It is an essential element in Chinese writing, used in many other sinograms.

Under the aegis of this sign, the exhibition features the works of artists born between the late 1970s and the early 1990s. This generation grew up during the era of China reform and opening-up, developed international trade and enjoyed strong economic growth. Major technological and social developments of the era propelled China to the rank of second largest economic power worldwide and profoundly modified its vision of itself and the world.

The selected works embrace a broad spectrum of practices — video, painting, sculpture, installations, photography and new medias — emphasising recent creations of the past few years. The post-pandemic global situation has prevented these works from enjoying visibility beyond Chinese borders, even though the Centre Pompidou reinforced its ties with this young art scene during this period, thanks to the partnership Centre Pompidou x West Bund Museum in Shanghai.

Amid this abundant diversity, the exhibition homes in on salient themes regarding the artists’ working practices. Core issues explored in the works of many of these artists include China’s interaction with the rest of the world, reflections on globalisation and challenges shared worldwide, especially environmental breakdown.

This generation of creators have also tapped into fertile themes such as major developments in Chinese society, especially the incessant transformation of lifestyles in increasingly sprawling conurbations and the shifting paradigm of the regulation of various flows and activities. A sense of China’s extraordinarily rich cultural and aesthetic heritage provides structure for the work of certain artists, who strive to place it in perspective and renew it in a contemporary context.

Lastly, the exhibition devotes a large section to new media, particularly dynamic in a country that has undergone rapid, massive and intense digitisation of both its economy and society.

Artists on show: aaajiao, Alice CHEN, CHEN Fei, CHEN Wei, CHU Yun, CUI Jie, HAO Liang, HU Xiaoyuan, LI Ming, LIU Chuang, LU Pingyuan, LU Yang, MIAO Ying, Nabuqi, QIU Xiaofei, SHEN Xin, SUN Xun, WAN Yang, YAO Qingmei, YU Ji, ZHANG Ding

The exhibition’s themes

Stories and History

Considering that creation is an intrinsic part of the global art scene for this generation of artists, their ties with their own historic, cultural and artistic heritage are especially rich and fertile. Whether they are deploying classic aesthetic concepts as in the time honoured Chinese painting tradition, or using materials which artists have employed over several eras, the cultural and artistic heritage of many contemporary artists permeates their works.

For example, Sun Xun’s works are highly typical of classic oriental art, in his use of ink on paper and silk, as well as porcelain decorated in blue and white. As an artist specialising in animation, he applies these ancient techniques in a contemporary context.

Hu Xiaoyuan’s sculptures explore new possibilities for traditional materials such as raw silk and wood: she uses them to develop an original language tending towards the abstract. In general, many artists have expressed their thinking via storytelling, personal accounts and fiction. Lu Pingyuan has adopted an original approach that is decidedly immaterial in nature: his ghost stories crop up throughout the exhibition.

Flow and changes in society

The artists on show are all from the first generation to have come of age in China after its conversion to the market economy, and ensuing transformations such as mass urbanisation on an unprecedented scale, increasingly rapid innovation and the mass adoption of technology in daily life. While society has enjoyed a certain degree of liberalisation, allowing especially for the assertion of individualism and greater social mobility in cities, the extraordinary volume of movement nationwide (circulation of people, goods, ideas, and digital data), alongside the development of surveillance technology and a hardening of government policy, has shaped a unique, complex and ever-changing paradigm in the relationship between citizens and the authorities.

Chen Wei’s photographs represent a melancholic meditation imbued with a sense of fun, examining the upheavals in public life wrought by hectic urbanisation. The issue of mass surveillance ushered in by new technology is addressed by Zhang Ding, in the form of monumental installations.

The environment and globalisation

China is gradually divesting itself of its image as the “factory of the world” derived from its export-based economy, as its role in global trade has developed greatly in the last decade, especially with the development of the “new silk roads” and the direct consequences of environmental and health crises. China’s shifting position within an ever-changing world has shaped the approaches adopted by many artists.

In Cui Jie’s paintings, the gardens of Shanghai feature a medley of Soviet-inspired sculptures and invasive plants from all over the world, akin to an intersection of several different worlds. By interconnecting the history of lithium mining and that of the exploitation of silver mines in Bolivia, Liu Chuang explores five centuries of intercontinental trade, and its impact on our civilisation. Lastly, Shen Xin examines recurring motifs in myths and tales told in various geographical and cultural eras, putting the spotlight on the particular ways of being of various indigenous groups as reflected in their languages, thus challenging the standardisation of States and markets.

Art and the transformations of a digital ecosystem

Renowned as the centre of the global electronics industry, China boasts a dense digital ecosystem of unparalleled power, both in how it has been integrated into daily life and for the “Great Firewall of China”, which regulates Internet access.

Many artists have tackled the issues and possibilities thrown up with the swift development of this technology in China, with aaajiao exploring themes of technological obsolescence, Miao Ying examining behaviour regulation by way of artificial intelligence and Lu Yang tapping into identity issues, blending popular culture and Buddhist philosophy with a focus on the figure of the avatar as core element.

The exhibition’s context

This exhibition forms part of the long tradition of cultural exchange between China and the Centre Pompidou. Many exhibitions have demonstrated a keen interest in the transformations of this country, including “Vu en Chine” (Seen in China - 1979), a photography project focusing on how the West sees contemporary China, “Environnement quotidien en Chine” (Everyday Environment in China - 1982) and “Macao ou jouer la différence” (Macao: Playing with Difference - 1983). The more specific question of the boom in contemporary Chinese art was addressed sporadically in the Centre Pompidou’s schedule throughout the 1980s. The institu- tion then wound the decade up with the striking exhibition “Les Magiciens de la terre” (Magicians of the Earth - 1989). Later on, for the Year of China in 2003, the multidisciplinary exhibition “Alors, la Chine ?” (“What About China?”) provided people in the West with a wide-ranging perspective embracing the full vitality of contemporary Chinese creation for the first time.

The first significant set of modern Chinese works joined the national collection following an exhibition on Chinese contemporary painting organised at the Jeu de Paume in 1933. It was jointly curated by André Dezarrois and the artist Xu Beihong, a former student of the Paris School of Fine Arts, who later became the first president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.

Following on from this exhibition, the Centre Pompidou continued to foster ties with contemporary artists in China, via a number of notable initiatives including the exhibition “Cosmopolis” in Chengdu in 2018, and by enhancing its collection. The opening of the Centre Pompidou x West Bund Project in Shanghai in 2019 was a significant milestone. The Centre Pompidou now has an established platform in China for a period of 10 years and can thus forge ahead with its conversation with Chinese artists.

Thanks to this setup, a programme to explore the art scene was launched, with two exhibitions by upcoming Chinese artists showcased each year in Gallery 0, a project space in the West Bund Museum, scheduled jointly by the Centre Pompidou and the West Bund Museum.