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Installation art goes retail in Shanghai AN EXHIBITION PROJECT
They describe it like this: "This exhibition is about the confrontation of art with it's contemporary environment. It is combining the showing of art and the act of shopping. In a large commercial center, the visitor will be attracted to enter into a supermarket within the supermarket - a transition space. Only after taking a second look will this familiar environment reveal its double nature: Shelves full with packaged, serial produced products, presenters, a cashier and shop-assistants make up a standard supermarket - yet every product on sale is the result of serious artistic research and transcends its commercial appearance. Passing through this supermarket the audience can continue and enter the installation space, which takes up the major part of this show. In this tailor-made environment various forms of artistic expression, such as video, installations, performance-art, painting and photography will be exhibited. Here the visitor will be confronted with the same subject - extended to a wider-scaled idea: "contemporary life". Upon leaving, the visitor can't help but again pass through the supermarket, and it is now that he will find that every artwork in the installation space has its complement in the supermarket compressed into a product. Sale is on! We aspire to meet with those inclined to support the development of chinese contemporary art and interested in making use of unconventional ways to promote the cooperate image of their company. WHO ARE WE? Who are we - a group of young artists with the ambition to bring new life into Shanghai's contemporary art-scene by making art-shows that are originated in the spirit of our time. In May '98, we opened the doors to a first group-show entitled "Jin Yuan Road 310". The name of an ordinary street and a contemporary art-show exhibited in a just as ordinary living spaces. Now - encouraged by its success - we continue this research: We are planning the confrontation of art and commerce: We are planning a "supermarket"! THE IDEA BEHIND ART FOR SALE Commerce has become the most followed religion in Shanghai since the "Opening". Shopping centers are now erected everywhere and in fact become the city's new temples. Everything is for sale. Consumption has become the key mechanism of life in this city. Everyone is relocated in this consumption society: "Feel free to choose whatever you want between being a sales person or a consumer!" How are art and artists going to function within this system? How is the making of art going to interact with this business minded era? Can a piece of art really be "owned" through a purchasing act? There is only one way to find out: To operate the way commerce operates. To look into the act of consumption and at where it happens. To meet the public in their consumer role. And to consider us artists as sales people. It is through the purchasing act that a piece of art becomes part of the real world. This principle now is pushed even further: "Art for Sale" is the aperture through which consumers and audience enter into the art space and become art consumers. We want this exhibition to be a critical reflection about how to live with the commercial nature of our city, a discussion about what makes a broader audience experience an exhibition, and to be an evaluation of what it means for art to adjust to a commercial mechanism. = = = = The Art for Sale people are looking for commercial sponsorship. Contact:
Yang Zhen Zhong (6380 6274-822) = = = PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Brandt Alexander |
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