Song Dong, Groninger Museum, Groningen - Life is Art, Art is Life

Song Dong, Life is Art, Art is Life

Groninger Museum, Groningen

13 June - 1 November 2015

A map of the world made of thousands of sweets, a wildflower-strewn hill made of waste and grass made of green whipped cream. These are examples of the work of SONG DONG (Beijing, 1966). His first major solo exhibition, including videos, installations and photographs, is presented at the Groninger Museum. Song Dong is one of the most important internationally operating Chinese artists of our times. His work has been exhibited by leading institutes worldwide.

His eye-catching work Waste Not occupies a prominent place in the exhibition. The installation consists of the household effects that are the result of his mother’s collector mania. This work was previously exhibited by the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Barbican Centre in London and at the Biennale of Sidney in 2013.

Song Dong was traditionally trained as a painter. However in 1989, after the Tiananmen Square protests, he abruptly stopped painting to manifest a few years later with – by Chinese standards – more experimental art forms such as performance, photography and video installation art. In his conceptual work, Song explores themes like impermanence, transience and loss. For his performance Breathing (1996), Song lay on his stomach on Tiananmen Square for 40 minutes on a freezing New Year’s Eve. His warm breath created a temporary layer of ice on the cold ground. He repeated this performance on the frozen Lake Houhai, an artificial lake north of the Forbidden City, this time to no avail. The next morning, all traces of his performance on the square had disappeared as well: all that remains are the photographs that register the performance.

In recent years, the Groninger Museum has regularly spotlighted contemporary Chinese art, in both group and solo exhibitions: ‘Ai Weiwei’ (2008), ‘New World Order’ (2008), ‘Me, Myself and I: Chi Peng’ (2011), ‘Yin Xiuzhen’ (2012), ‘Fuck Off 2. Curated by Ai Weiwei, Feng Boyi, Mark Wilson’ (2013). This major retrospective of the work of Song Dong adds depth to this practise.

After closing in Groningen, the exhibition will travel to the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.

GRONINGER MUSEUM

Museumeiland 1, 9711 ME Groningen, The Netherlands

www.groningermuseum.nl

Nacho Carbonell, Groninger Museum - Inspiration, evolution and transience

Nacho Carbonell

Inspiration, evolution and transience

Groninger Museum

22 November 2014 - 22 March 2015

The Groningen Museum presents the work of Nacho Carbonell (Valencia 1980), one of the most remarkable young designers of the present day. He graduated cum laude from the Design Academy Eindhoven, and at Design Miami Basel in 2009 he was proclaimed Designer of the Future. In that same year, the Design Museum in London nominated his Lover’s Chair as Design of the Year. The Groninger Museum has been following Nacho Carbonell for quite some time. This first large-scale solo exhibition, presenting much new work, forms the conclusion to this cooperation.

Objects that lie at the interface of design and art are a characteristic feature of Nacho Carbonell’s work. He has a recognizable form language and a striking choice of material. His work and work process are light-footed, but are simultaneously critical investigations into the relation between people and objects as well as their symbolic significance. In an ongoing experiment, he researches themes such as inspiration, evolution and transience. 

The interactive and behaviour-determining (or even coercive) elements are also of the utmost importance. For instance, Nacho Carbonell regards objects as a kind of organism that brings visitors to life when they use them. Creeping away, secluding oneself or hiding in cavernous forms is typical of his work, and evokes associations with scenes from the work of the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516). 

GRONINGER MUSEUM

Museumeiland 1 - 9711 ME Groningen, The Netherlands

www.groningermuseum.nl

Maartje Korstanje, Groninger Museum - Irregular sculptures with soul

Maartje Korstanje
Irregular sculptures with soul
Groninger Museum
22 November 2014 - 22 March 2015

Maartje Korstanje (Goes 1982) makes irregular sculptures, mainly out of cardboard supplemented by diverse other materials. These are often large, room-filling objects that, with their organic forms, induce ideas of tree roots, insects or carcasses. Ambiguity and animation are important concepts in her work, in which she explores the twilight zone where beauty acquires a sinister edge and where doubt raises its ugly head: ‘Has it just died, or is it now coming to life?’ Maartje Korstanje studied at the St. Joost Academie in Breda and the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. The Groninger Museum has been following her for quite some time and this exhibition is her most extensive one up to the present. Most of the work shown here has been made especially for the occasion.

Much of Maartje Korstanje’s (earlier) work refers to animal shapes and other recognizable natural objects. That work expresses a deep fascination for animals and nature, something that is not surprising for someone who grew up on a farm in the Province of Zeeland. But in addition to these recognizable elements, her work also has a very outspoken formal side. It can be regarded as an ongoing investigation into form and material, in which classical sculptural principles such as composition, structure and texture are all equally important.

The result is not determined in advance but develops during the process of creation – kneading and pasting. Originally she mainly used papier-mâché, which she replaced with cardboard after a time. She gradually expanded her arsenal with silver leaf, synthetic materials, ceramics, bronze, textile and existing objects such as a cart. She introduces tension into her work by playing with contrasts: dry and (apparently) wet, brownish and unnaturally brightly coloured, round and spiky, hard and soft, figurative and abstract. Maartje Korstanje’s work has become more stratified in the course of time. It ranges from literal quotes or references to living creatures and current events (such as bee extinction) to existential and universal themes such as life and death, the boundary between organisms and objects, culture and nature.

GRONINGER MUSEUM
Museumeiland 1 - 9711 ME Groningen, The Netherlands
www.groningermuseum.nl

Fuck Off 2, Curated by Ai Weiwei, Feng Boyi & Mark Wilson at Groninger Museum, Groningen

Fuck Off 2

Curated by Ai Weiwei, Feng Boyi & Mark Wilson

Groninger Museum, Groningen

26 May - 17 November 2013

The Groninger Museum presents the exhibition FUCK OFF 2, curated by artist and activist Ai Weiwei, art critic Feng Boyi and chief curator of the Groninger Museum, Mark Wilson. This show, which includes 37 contemporary Chinese artists and artist groups, contemplates and questions the current sociological, environmental, legal, and political climate in China today.

The exhibition is a sequel to FUCK OFF, the ground-breaking show staged in Shanghai in 2000 by Ai Weiwei and Feng Boyi, which was quickly censored by the authorities as it was considered too sensitive with its radical content.

Thirteen years later, the lack of artistic freedom in China and the repressive attitude toward individual actions by the government make FUCK OFF 2 especially relevant today.

FUCK OFF 2 

A catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition, 

with contributions by the curators and the artists.
(c) Groninger Museum 

Participating artists: Ai Weiwei, Chen Yujin & Chen Yufan, Cheng Li, Deng Dafei & He Hai, Double Fly Art Center, He Chi & Xiong Huang Group, He Xiangyu, He Yunchang, Huang Lin, Ji Wenyu & Zhu Weibing, Jiang Bo, Jin Feng, Jing Kewen, Li Binyuan, Li Songsong, Liang Shuo, Lin Zhipeng, Luo Yang, Ma Qiusha, Ma Yi, Mao Tongqiang, Meng Huang, Qin Ga, Ren Hang, Wu Huaying & Liu Xiaoyuan, Wu Junyong, Xi Mei, Xia Xing, Ye Haiyan, Zhang Dali, Zhao Zhao, Zuoxiao Zuzhou.

Ai Weiwei & the Groninger Museum: The Groninger Museum hosted the second solo museum exhibition by Ai Weiwei in 2008. The museum has also acquired the works WATER MELONS, 2007 and GRAPES, 2009 directly from the artist for the Museum Collection.

GRONINGER MUSEUM

Museumeiland 1, 9711 ME Groningen, The Netherlands

www.groningermuseum.nl

Yin Xiuzhen, Groninger Museum, Groningen

Yin Xiuzhen

Groninger Museum, Groningen

17 June - 18 September 2012

The Groninger Museum presents the first large-scale solo exhibition of the work of Yin Xiuzhen. Yin Xiuzhen (1963) is one of the most prominent artists of her generation. Especially for this exhibition, Yin is currently working on the cityscape of Groningen, which is composed of clothes worn by citizens of Groningen.

In addition to recent work, the presentation also contains key works such as Collective Subconscious (2007), Thought (2009) and Waves (2009-2010). The Weapon installation (2003-2007) will also be on display. This consists of twenty horizontally suspended spear-shaped objects that seem to fly as darts toward their target. This installation was purchased in 2008 and was exhibited during the Biennial in Venice in 2007.

Yin Xiuzhen is most famous for her installations that are made of second-hand clothes. These installations can be regarded as a reflection on the mega-makeover that cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are currently undergoing. In her work, she combines individual experience with these enormous societal changes. ‘In this rapidly changing China it seems as if, of all items, memories are the things that are vanishing most quickly. Storing memories is a kind of voice of opposition’, according to Yin. About her favourite material, Yin comments: ‘Clothes say a lot about a person. At a single glance they recount how big a person is, his or her age, style, gender and income. But they also narrate invisible information such as the memory of a certain period when the piece was worn, and the reason why it was kept.’

In 1995, Yin Xiuzhen created her most personal work, Dress Box, for which she collected her own childhood clothes in an old clothes chest. She then cast cement in the chest, forever petrifying her precious memories. This action was a new beginning for her. It also occurred at the time that Beijing started out on its huge and radical transformation. Traditional quarters of the city, the so-called ‘hutongs’, were demolished to make way for high-rise blocks. In a very short time, whole areas of the city were littered with ruins. Yin: ‘I had exhibitions abroad and was on the road much of the time. At airports I saw the luggage that all those people from all over the world were carrying, and I imagined that these suitcases represented their homes in a certain way.’ On the basis of these deliberations, Yin created the series Portable Cities (2002-2003), consisting of opened suitcases that reveal mini-cities made of textile. Shanghai (2002), New York (2005), Berlin (2006) and Melbourne (2009) are works that she made for this presentation. This year, the city of Groningen will be added to this series.

The work of Yin Xiuzhen was first shown in the Groninger Museum during the exhibition entitled New World Order in 2008. Her work has been displayed in countless exhibitions in and outside China.

The Yin Xiuzhen exhibition has been compiled by head curator Mark Wilson and the curator of present-day visual art, design and fashion Sue-an van der Zijpp.

A catalogue accompanies this exhibition. Curators Mark Wilson and Sue-an van der Zijpp have both written an essay for this book.

GRONINGER MUSEUM

Museumeiland 1, 9711 ME Groningen, The Netherlands

www.groningermuseum.nl

Chi Peng photoworks, Groninger Museum, Groningen - Me, Myself and I. Chi Peng, photoworks 2003 - 2010

Me, Myself and I. Chi Peng, photoworks 2003 - 2010

Groninger Museum, Groningen

27 March - 25 September 2011

The Groninger Museum presents an exhibition of photos by Chi Peng (1981). This exhibition, entitled Me, Myself and I, features both early and recent work. Chi Peng’s talent manifested itself during his study period at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, from which he graduated in 2005. Chi Peng regularly exhibits at home and abroad, and his work was previously on display in the Groninger Museum in the group exhibition New World Order. Modern Installation Art and Photography from China, in 2008. Me, Myself and I is Chi Peng’s first major solo exhibition outside China. On the basis of this exhibition, the Groninger Museum has managed to make a substantial acquisition.

As a consequence of China’s one-child policy, Chi Peng grew up without brothers or sisters. His multiple use of self-portraits, as in the series entitled I Fuck Me, in which he has sex with his alter ego, or the images of an escapist dream world, appear to reflect feelings of loneliness and isolation rather than of narcissism. Growing up and maturity form important themes in his work. The enormous dynamics, the irresistible progress of China, as well as themes concerning (sexual) identity and accompanying feelings of optimism, doubt, uncertainty and loneliness, are all expressed in images where reality and fiction meet one another.

One example of this is the series entitled Sprinting Forward. Several alter egos of Chi Peng are to be found at various locations in Beijing. They seem to be fleeing from red aeroplanes. ‘It is about the young generation and our, perhaps naive, expectations with regard to the present and the future. It has also to do with the tensions that are connected with the process of growing up, the increasing pressure to achieve, and the anxiety for failure,’ explains Chi Peng. Works such as Why Should I Love You and I Am Sorry, I Just Don’t Love You articulate what many Chinese people have experienced in the big cities in the recent past – radical urban renewal that has alienated many residents from their own surroundings.

The most recent series Mood is Never Better than Memory is clearly more reflective and tranquil. Feelings of loneliness and isolation also appear here in the foreground. There are scenes where Chi Peng has situated two alter egos near the sea or on an island with a flock of seagulls above, circling around them like a sinister cloud.

Curators: Mark Wilson and Sue-an van der Zijpp.

Guest curator: Feng Boyi.

Chi Peng – Me, Myself and I

A book accompanies the exhibition. Hardcover/full colour, 152 pages. Authors include: Richard Vine, Feng Boyi, Ai Weiwei. Publisher: Hatje Cantz. ISBN: 978-3-7757-3132-4.

GRONINGER MUSEUM

Museumeiland 1, 9711 ME Groningen, The Netherlands

www.groningermuseum.nl

Chinese Contemporary Art at Groninger Museum, Groningen - New World Order. Contemporary Installation Art and Photography from China

New World Order. Contemporary Installation Art and Photography from China

Groninger Museum, Groningen

27 April - 23 November 2008

The Groninger Museum presents the exhibition entitled New World Order. Contemporary Installation Art and Photography from China. In this exhibition, emphasis is placed upon photography and installations created since 2000. At this moment, China is undergoing a process of rapid change and contemporary Chinese art has assumed an exceptional position in the art world, where attention for this particular art has grown exponentially in a very short period.

The issue of how Chinese artists are responding to the new reality in China, full of contrasts and constant changes, was the reason to launch this New World Order exhibition. How does their work reflect the explosive growth of the cities, the expanding consumer society, and the new freedom of choice?

In which way do they make use of renowned Chinese craftsmanship and which roles, if any, do cultural traditions and the former Communist propaganda and symbolism currently play? How has Western culture influenced these Chinese artists?

The tradition of modern art in China is scarcely thirty years old and, as a consequence, Chinese artists seemed to be less burdened by the yoke of a long history of autonomous art. In some of the artists’ work, various styles, choices of material, and themes succeed one another at a very rapid rate.

Artists in China seem to be able to switch between various disciplines more easily than here. For example, the artist Li Songsong creates paintings and installations, and examples of both these disciplines are on display in the exhibition. The same applies to Liu Jianhua, an artist who was educated in traditional porcelain techniques and who uses this material to create installations referring to the current consumer society, while his installation entitled Yiwu Survey shows that he can opt for completely different materials with equal ease.

The enormous urbanization and the astonishing speed at which this is being realized appear to be a direct source of inspiration to many. Various artists are explicitly attempting to gain a grasp of these developments via their work. The photographer Shi Guorui, for example, records the present time with the camera obscura, which seems to reduce reality to its essence, whereas the photographer Miao Xiaochun contrastingly displays a densification of reality in his hilarious work entitled Surplus.

Besides the fact that the Museum has deliberately opted for installations, the exhibition is also oriented toward work that is characterized by a certain degree of conceptualism – something that is not self-evident in Chinese art, which is largely dominated by naturalistic or even somewhat caricatural painting.

The Groninger Museum has invited 27 artists to participate in the exhibition. The selection of the works has been done in close consultation with the artists, and some works have even been specially produced for this exhibition. Effort has also been made to display as much recent work as possible. Each artist has been assigned his or her own room wherever possible, so that visitors are allowed the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world the artist generates. With the selected artists, the Groninger Museum wishes to give an impression of the great diversity of precontemporary Chinese visual art, which is a reflection of individual artistry as well as of social dynamics, and of the new international position that China currently occupies in the world of art.

Participants

The exhibition presents work by: Bai Yiluo, Chi Peng, Jin Jiangbo, Jin Shan, Leung Mee-Ping, Li Songsong, Liu Ding, Liu Jianhua, Liu Wei, Miao Xiaochun, Muchen & Shao Yinong, Peng Yu & Sun Yuan, Qiu Xiaofei, Shen Shaomin, Shi Guorui, Shi Jinsong, Stanley Wong, Sui Jianguo, Wang Gongxin, Weng Fen, Xiao Yu, Xing Danwen, Yin Xiuzhen, Zhan Wang, Zhuang Hui.

Catalogue: To accompany this exhibition, the book New World Order. Hedendaagse Installatiekunst en Fotografie uit China (New World Order. Contemporary Installation Art and Photography) will be published in conjunction with NAi Publishers. Authors: Carol Yinghua Lu, Sue-an van der Zijpp. Dutch edition, ISBN 978-90-5662-240-4. English edition, ISBN 978-90-5662-251-0 Format: 29 x 23 cm. 200 pp. €24.50.

GRONINGER MUSEUM

Museumeiland 1, 9711 ME Groningen, The Netherlands

www.groningermuseum.nl

Ai Weiwei, Groninger Museum, Groningen

Ai Weiwei

Groninger Museum, Groningen

2 March - 23 November 2008

The Groninger Museum presents a solo exhibition of the work of AI WEIWEI (1957), one of the most important Chinese artists of the present time. Recently, he was involved in the design of the Olympic Stadium in Beijing. This solo exhibition represents his debut in the Groninger Museum.

The work of Ai Weiwei consists of performances, installations and architecture. From 1978 onward, Ai Weiwei manifested himself in the Beijing art world as a member of the artists association called Xingxing (the Stars). When they disbanded in 1983, he settled in New York. In 1993 he returned to Beijing, and from that moment onward he made use traditional Chinese elements in his work, exploring the mechanisms of political and national symbolism in a provoking manner. For one of his works he allowed an urn from the Han dynasty to fall to the ground and break. Other objects of national pride also tumbled from his hands. He painted ancient vases with the Coca Cola logo, or coated them in bright colours. He subsequently presented them as cheap counterfeits. In 1997 he founded the China Arts Archives and Warehouse, which offers a platform to young and experimental artists.

His fascination for ceramics is the central theme on this occasion. Ceramic art is a medium that permeates his whole oeuvre and is strongly connected to Chinese cultural identity. One of his most recent works, Pillars, is on display in the Coop Himmelb(l)au Pavilion. This work consists of a forest of man-sized vases amongst which visitors can stroll.

A catalogue accompanies the exhibition at the Groninger Museum:

AI WEIWEI

(c) Ai Weiwei / Groninger Museum

GRONINGER MUSEUM

Museumeiland 1, 9711 ME Groningen, The Netherlands

www.groningermuseum.nl

Hussein Chalayan, Groninger Museum - 10 years’ work

Hussein Chalayan, 10 years’ work
Groninger Museum
17 April - 4 September 2005

The Groningen Museum will display the first large-scale solo exhibition of the work of the British based Turkish Cypriot fashion designer Hussein Chalayan (Nicosia, 1970). In the past ten years Hussein Chalayan has created more than twenty collections of which the most important will be shown in the form of outfits, installations, photographic work, and video work. In conjunction with NAi Publishers, the first monograph on the work of Hussein Chalayan will be issued to accompany the exhibition, celebrating his tenth anniversary as a professional designer.

Hussein Chalayan belongs to the most innovative, experimental and conceptual fashion designers of the present day. With inspiration coming from various and assorted disciplines such as architecture, philosophy and anthropology, his oeuvre can be located at the interface between fashion and art. His themes often have a socio-cultural streak relating back to Hussein Chalayan’s personal history as someone who owes his identity to different cultures.

In 1993, Hussein Chalayan graduated from Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London with an eye-catching presentation for which he had first buried the garments. His use of innovative, unusual materials and unorthodox techniques, in combination with the conceptual wealth of his presentations, won him the title of Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards of 1999 and 2000. From 2001 onward, he has held his shows during the Prêt à Porter fashion weeks in Paris. He launched his first menswear collection in 2002, and since then he has participated in countless exhibitions worldwide, including Radical Fashion in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Fashion in the Kyoto Costume Institute in Japan, Airmail Clothing in Musée de la Mode Palais du Louvre in Paris, and the Biennale in Istanbul. In 2001/2002 he was Artist in Residence at the Wexner Center (State University of Ohio). In April 2004 Hussein Chalayan opened his first flagship store in Tokyo, which submerges customers in the Mediterranean atmosphere of Northern Cyprus.

In the exhibition, which will be held on two floors of the Museum, the much-discussed collection Afterwords (AW 2000-2001) will be shown. This collection refers to the reality of the refugee. In this, the upholstery is transformed into dresses, the chairs into suitcases, and the coffee table unfolds to become a skirt. Ambimorphous (AW 2002-2003), a project that covers cultural change, can be seen in the (fashion) show as a kind of journey from one culture to another, both geographically and temporally. The presentation begins with a model dressed in a completely ‘ethnic’ costume, and this is followed by models who gradually change clothes, piece by piece, ending with a modernist black outfit. A collection of photos has been made of these different outfits by Marcus Tomlinson, a video artist with whom Hussein Chalayan has often worked. Recent creations – the video work Place to Passage (2004), whose theme covers a(n) (internal) journey from London to Istanbul, and his latest work Anaesthetics (2004) – will also be on show in this first large-scale solo exhibition.

A monograph on the work of Hussein Chalayan has been published in conjunction with NAi Publishers Rotterdam. Authors: Caroline Evans, Suzy Menkes, Bradley Quinn, and Ted Polhemus. 176 pages, paperback, edited by Barbera van Kooij and Sue-an van der Zijpp, price Euro 29.50

Curator of the exhibition: Sue-an van der Zijpp 

GRONINGER MUSEUM
Museumeiland 1 - 9711 ME Groningen, The Netherlands
www.groningermuseum.nl