中文
 

VOID: there’s nothing more left, but a little trace from human beings

Apr 25 - May 27, 2015


Ginkgo space aims to explore the unique aesthetic values and cultural identity in contemporary Chinese art, to examine the Chinese artists’ diverse creativities in depth, actively participate in the developmental progress of Asian contemporary art and share the experiences of collecting contemporary art based on cultural traditions with collectors. Through two years of planning and preparation, Ginkgo Space will present its inaugural exhibition, “VOID: there’s nothing more left, but a little trace from human beings”.

 

Ginkgo Space is honored to invite Mr. Li Zhenhua to be the academic director, Liu Tian and Marc Glöde as the curators. Through new methods of research and learning, the three of them assign artistic practice to those works without specific objects or iconography. The artists come from nine different countries, and the research reaches those overlooked new trends among the broad artistic movements. This exhibition will present the relationship between international and Chinese contemporary art, while provide a renewal of interests and experiences.

 

The form is the content. From Anish Kapoor to Olafur Eliasson, artists have sought out specific, eloquent or strange form of beauty that evokes concrete feelings and experiences. The artistic evolution starting from Dada, Land art, Conceptual art, to the emergence of many other types of visual expression and experiences are creations of human civilization that responds to natural phenomenon. Empty form is the content, is a Zen idea of the orient, and an enlightenment of the inner world that has risen over the past century. Since John Cage’s 4’33”, to experience the void became the most important goal of returning to nature in one’s urban living. The void is associated with an inner peace and quietude against the fragmented contemporary culture, only a few artists and artworks pursued this direction. Thoughts and practices around the notions of minimal and maximal, indeed, play an important role in both the art market and artists’ self cultivation.

 

There are 25 artists and composite creations and concepts that respond to the ultimate resolution of today’s urban living and material world. The exhibition presents contemporary artists’ diverse practices through colors to movements, moving images to text, physicality to the displacements of the objects, the viewers’ contacts with time to the overlap of time of images, from manuscripts to specific implications and premonitions. The contemporary art that is expected in this exhibition aims to transcend the impact of objects on human civilization, to transcend the objects and relationships in relational aesthetics, and to translate the abstractions of rational thinking to the communication of experiences and emotions between people.

 

The exhibited artists come from (in no particular order) the U.K, U.S.A, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, Switzerland, Pakistan and China:

aaajiao, Fiona Banner, Catherine Biocca, David Blamey, Chen Ruobing, Chen Xiao, Peter Downsbrough, FM3, Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller, He Xiangyu, Ryoji Ikeda, Ju Anqi, Iris Long & Cedar Zhou, Lisa Chang Lee, Liao Fei, Bruce Nauman, Karin Sander, Roman Signer, Shu, Tan Tian, Ehsan Ul Haq, Wang Yuyang, Wang Zhenfei & Wang Luming, Yan Lei, Yang Junling