Best of 2008: Davide Quadrio

2009.01.07

1. Takeshi Murata (Shanghai e-Arts Festival)
Using an eight-story, round LED screen for an original production is the experience of a lifetime for an artist. Takeshi Murata was able to create an amazing piece for this huge screen. His abstract animation looked perfect once installed, lighting up Xujiahui with an unexpected and ultimately unavoidable piece of art.

2. "Eastern Standard: Western Artists in China" (Mass MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts)
There is a huge debate in the Chinese intellectual and art worlds about the legitimacy of commenting on matters Chinese, be it from an academic or political point of view. There is a nagging suspicion that excessive reliance on "Chinese" symbols, signifiers, or questions amounts to pandering. Artist Wang Jianwei recently wrote a text on this matter, asking, “Why do we need to talk about China, now? Why do we always need to think about this country as special?" His answer is of course that it is not special, but the very terms of the debate play into the hands of the national and international media. Yet despite the reservations of many intellectuals, artists and curators, China remains fertile ground for artistic research. And why shouldn't it? This exhibition at Mass MoCA gives a very welcome answer to this tedious matter alongside an introduction of how China can be legitimately at the center of artistic research no matter where the artists come from. The exhibition, curated by Susan Cross, was a refreshing and legitimate curatorial choice.

3. Xu Zhen, "Impossible is Nothing" (Long March Space, Beijing)
Xu Zhen's work once again leaves a trace. This solo exhibition is complex and somehow reveals the grandeur of an artist who is surely one of the most interesting in China. The cynical attitude and distance that Xu Zhen is always able to bring into his creations put this exhibition just on the verge of being one of the most daring he has made.

4. Qiu Zhijie, "Ataraxic of Zhuang Zi: A Suicidology of the Nanjing Yangzi River" (Zendai MoMA, Shanghai)
I love Qiu Zhijie's profound artistic and philosophical commitment, as well as his commitment to creating an artistic discourse that goes beyond banalities. All of these show themselves in this excellent solo show. The first part of the show involved an installation comprising black/ink machines/butterflies/crows, which in its gloom reminded me of underground exhibitions likePost-Sense Sensibility (1999). If the exhibition had its highs and lows, in the end the work was strong and the subject remains relevant, historically and sociologically.

5. Yang Fudong, East of Que Village (ShanghART Gallery)
East of Que Village is finally a complex video installation by Yang Fudong that brings back the energy and the unconventional storytelling the artist was known for in his early years. I enjoyed the piece very much, still built with an incredibly natural skill to capture beauty even in such a disturbing and disrupting environment.

6. Meng Huang, "And What Do You Think? Landscapes" (Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing)
Meng Huang is at once a painter of amazing skill, a philosopher, and a storyteller. He is a true artist, building a body of work from his journey through life. This exhibition was perfectly installed, and featured an amazing eight-panel composition Dam, 3.5 meters high and nearly 18 meters long. His work is a counter-statement to the tendency of many Chinese artists toward going big to impress in a superficial way. The size of this piece is indeed overwhelming, and gives back the original drama that the dam has hidden for decades.

7. Kan Xuan, "Kanxuan! Ai!" (Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy)
Kan Xuan’s work is always a natural surprise. This solo exhibition was like a mini-retrospective, full of the pieces I know from a decade ago when we were both beginning our involvements in the Chinese art scene. The title of the exhibition is actually the title of the video installation she presented in the iconic group exhibition Art for Sale (1999), which was her debut in China. Her work never fails to convey a feeling of psychological “transfer” between artist and viewer. Looking at it, time and again, I feel pulled into her mission as an artist, which in turn responds to my attitude as a curator and art activist. The iconoclastic power of her work (subtle, never shouted) is well described by what she once said to me: “I want to go back to what is important to me, making good artwork, despite any pressures from galleries, dealers, producers, etc. It is only me that counts, and my art. That is what I value the most.”

8. Isidro Blasco, "When I Look at It" (Contrasts Gallery, Shanghai)
This exhibition on Shanghai done in Contrasts Gallery is perhaps the best the gallery has yet mounted. Blasco's work is truly refreshing with a formal maturity and a decorative hint that is never disturbing. Never exoticizing, it manages still to offer a kaleidoscopic image of Shanghai's lanes and alleys

9. "House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective" (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing)
The exhibition is refreshing in its condensed presentation of the body of work by an artist as accomplished as Huang Yong Ping. If the presentation was sometimes a bit too crowded and some pieces suffered a bit because of it, the documentary section at the end of the show—especially the documentation of some Xiamen Dada performances—was outstanding. It is truly refreshing to see in China pieces of such intensity. In this particular situation in China art world, nothing is more correct that what the late artist Chen Zhen wrote in the 1990s in his fake interview “Transexperiences, A conversation between Chen Zhen and Zhu Xian”:
“My "identity genes" are yellow. But owing to various limitations, I could not carry out in China the type of work I am doing. Therefore, we formed a group of "cultural tramps." Seized by wanderlust, we want to be on the move all the time. Although I participated in some "Chinese exhibitions," I never embraced the sense of "representing" China. Once, a Western curator responsible for organizing a Chinese exhibition asked me, "What are you thinking about now?" I replied, "I am thinking about what I should do as an individual once the 'China fever' in the western world dies down." You know, every time I go to Venice Biennale, I always feel pitiful for never seeing a Chinese Pavilion there so far. However, after mulling it over, the question seems to have turned around: how could an artist represent only one nation and exhibit his works in only one national pavilion?"
Huang Yong Ping's work as presented in this exhibition is truly a “world” art, not confined by national boundaries.

10. "Intrude: Art and Life 366" (Zendai MoMA, Shanghai)
This series of daily accidents was supposed to be-and in theory has been-a year-long event. Unfortunately even though some events were truly interesting, most of the original idea got lost in a range of unprepared and “occasional” events, not really connected to the city and not really changing the perception of public art in China. This is yet another example of how great ideas can be reduced to a presence online or in a catalogue but really do not have the strength to be truly “consistent.” This happens still too often.

Davide Quadrio is a curator and co-founder of BizArt Art Centre in Shanghai and Arthub. He is currently based in Bangkok.