Fiber Art @ MoCa Shanghai

Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai

For more information www.mocashanghai.org

From Felt Tent to Cloud City: A Time Space Journey ofTextiles & Architecture

Speaker: REN Jie

Time:April 9th, 2016 (Saturday) 14:00-16:00

To most of us, fiber art is a fairly new conception. However, this art form, which is rooted in

tradition but subverts the tradition, has already penetrated everywhere of the modern life in

various ways and has merged with different subjects.

In architecture, fiber art has played distinguished roles throughout its development. From ancient yurts to inner-room decorative tapestries, from unconventional soft sculptures to self-contained

fiber constructions, fiber art and architecture have had the indissoluble bond. The close

relationship between the two has inspired constant research and breakthroughs of artists and architects generation after generation, which meanwhile has blurred the boundaries of contemporary art and architecture.

Focus Beijing

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, June 14 - Sept. 21, 2014

Rotterdam's Fine Arts Museum Boijmans van Beuningen shows contemporary Chinese art from the art collectors Henk and Victoria de Heus-Zomer, The Netherlands.

The exhibition ‘Focus Beijing’ features the work of two generations of prominent artists from Beijing. The first generation grew up in the 1950s and 1960s. They include Zhang Dali (Harbin, 1963), Zhang Xiaogang (Kunming, 1958), Hai Bo (Changchun, 1962) and Ai Weiwei (Beijing, 1957). Their work shows a strong sense of political engagement, referring to China’s traumatic history and the social and cultural revolutions of recent decades.

The second generation grew up in the 1970s and 1980s: the period of China’s Open Door Policy. Artists such as Qiu Xiaofei (Hoerbin, 1977), Wang Guangle (Fujian, 1976) and Liang Yuanwei (Xi’an, 1977) were born in a period in which Chinese society became more oriented towards the West, a period of massive economic growth and new markets. Individuality and intuition are key to their artistic practice. They are informed better about international art developments than their Western counterparts are about current developments in Chinese art. The exhibition highlights the different standpoints of each artist, presenting a broad view of contemporary art developments in Beijing, with Shanghai, as the capital of Chinese Art.

The names Zhang Dali, Wang Guangle and Hai Bo might sound unfamiliar to the Western public, but these artists have star status in Beijing’s cultural circuit. Several of these artists have been invited to make works specially for the exhibition.