"Tracing Beuys"
In cooperation with Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany Guangzhou
Date：2021.12.12-2022.03.15
Artists Joseph Beuys NI Weihua
Curators: Prof.Klaus Siebenhaar InterCulture Curatorial Team
Organizers: InterCulture Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany Guangzhou
Artists：
Joseph Beuys（约瑟夫·博伊斯）：
Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) is one of the most important artists of the 20th century. He is also an art theorist and educator. His works and artistic concepts have influenced countless people in later generations. His creation covers a wide range of fields, such as performance art, installation art, and conceptual art, completely breaking the barrier between art and life. Beuys emphasized the intervention of society and culture and encouraged everyone to participate in daily social action. He proposed the concept that "everyone is an artist", and it is considered that if people listen to their intuition and discover their talents, they can become artists. Beuys also introduced the concept of "Social Sculpture", believing that artworks can intervene and even transform the society, which reinstalled the contemporary art system to some extent. "7000 Oaks" is one of the symbols that he successfully practiced his concept. He used practical actions to improve the living environment of the region. These oaks have remained in Kassel forever, and gradually shaped the city in the passage of time.
倪卫华 （NI Weihua）：
NI Weihua, born in 1962. He is an artist with an experimental spirit and concern for society. Since the creation of the large-scale action art series "Continuously Spreading Event -Red Boxes, Posters" in the early 1990s, he has attracted attention from the art and cultural circles. The intertextuality with the social life context of his early works，makes one kind of heckle and irony to the modern industrialized society tactfully.
In the mid-1990s, he used a series of installations discussing art boundary issues such as "Art: A Legal Exist of the Word and Its Object " and his subsequent conceptual work "Linear City" in collaboration with Wang Jiahao, injecting innovative elements into the development of contemporary Chinese art. He has become one of the most representative artists in the 1990s.
Since 1998, he has focused on "keywords" and "Landscape Walls" in the public domain from a unique perspective through photography and video creation, in order to realize the creative transformation of his "cross-cultural" art experiment. Since 2018, he has been focusing on and explored the social landscape and the pain points of the times with the series artworks "Tracing", which have become another eye-catching case of "art intervening in society". His works have found their way to dozens of domestic and international exhibitions, including the China Contemporary Art Document Exhibition, the Lianzhou International Photography Annual Exhibition, the Marrakech Biennale, the Chinese Art in Brazil, the Danish National Biennale, the Venice Biennale, and the AVIFF Cannes Art Film Festival. He also had solo exhibitions in Shanghai, Beijing, Los Angeles, and other places.
Curator
克劳斯·西本哈尔 Klaus Siebenhaar
Dr.phil., Professor em. for Culture and Media Management and Prof. for German Literature at Freie Universität Berlin; Distinguished Professor for Arts Management at Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) Beijing.
After his PhD and beside his academic career as Assistant he worked as Dramaturg, Curator, Editor and Journalist for cultural institutions and publishing houses like Academy of Fine Arts Berlin, State Theatre of Kassel, Ullstein. In 1991 he became Professor and founder of the Institute of Culture and Media Management. From 1990 till 2001 Siebenhaar was member of the Directory of the Deutsches Theater and from 2001-2006 Director of Marketing and Development of the Jewish Museum Berlin.
In cooperation with Prof. Fan Di’an (NAMOC) and Prof.Yu Ding (CAFA), Prof. Siebenhaar established 2009 the Cultural Management Program KUMA for young leaders. Several big exhibitions like Chinese Public Art after the Documenta 13 in 2012 (together with Fan Di’an and Yu Ding), Käthe Kollwitz at the NAMOC 2015 or The Myth of Documenta at the CAFA Art Museum 2017 underline the deep connection to China.
Prof. Siebenhaar published several books and essays on Arts Management, Cultural Studies, Theatre, Literature and Media.
Preface：
Few artists have succeeded to make theory and practice, biography and oeuvre, aesthetics and commitment, philosophical-artistic practice and social engagement as radically, consistently and credibly a part of real life as much as Joseph Beuys (1921 – 1986). Thus, to fully understand Beuys and his multi-facetted, mysterious and provocative works, art-historical studies alone will not work, instead an interdisciplinary approach is needed. The core and the basis of Beuys’ works is his “extended art concept”, which goes beyond mere artistic action and extends to an anthropologic and societal dimension, mobilizing a productivity and creativity which – as Beuys claimed – is inherent in every person. Or, in Beuys’ words “Every human is an artist”.
Ni Weihua is such an artist full of productivity and creativity, with experimental spirit and social concern. since 2018, the “tracing”action art by NI Weihua has started from a painting experiment, went on with one-man outdoor behaviour, then with group performances directed by the artist, and finally free action without the artist on site. Till now, 255 activities of “tracing” have been completed, and over 1000 people have participated in these activities.
The "Tracing" in Guangzhou is to happen on the ancient brick wall of Hu's Ancestral Hall with a 400-year-old history. The water dries quickly on the ancient brick because of its high absorption. The water stains look like faint ink traces, recording the passage of time and the beginning of memory. They contain not only a Zen-like oriental artistic conception but also a western narrative of nothingness in which just images remain.
"Global Flash Mob of Tracing" is jointly planned by InterCulture and the artist NI Weihua, and it will take place simultaneously in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Toronto, Los Angeles, London, Milano, Tasmania, Rotterdam, Kiev, La Plata and other places.
It's the 100th anniversary of Joseph Beuys' birth this year. “Joseph Beuys and Kassel DOKUMENTA Exhibition”and "Tracing Beuys" are not only a tribute to this great artist but an inheritance of his tradition of challenging the art establishment, breaking with thinking stereotypes, and paying attention to the environment and society. The“tracing” series make the“wall” no longer an obstacle or a blockade, but a link and a medium of communication, becoming a prime example of “art intervention in society”.
Related activities:
Global Flash Mob of Tracing
Global Flash Mob of Tracing was an action jointly planned by InterCulture and NI Weihua at the opening of the exhibition Tracing Beuys in which water was used as a medium to trace instead of ink. This year witnesses the 100th anniversary of Joseph Beuys' birth, it is not only a tribute to this outstanding artist, but also an inheritance of his tradition of challenging the art establishment, breaking with thinking stereotypes and paying attention to the environment and society. This action has taken place simultaneously in 20 cities among 13 countries on 6 continents.
