Times Art Center Berlin is pleased to announce the opening of “Episode III: The Politics of the Self” of the inaugural three-part exhibition “The D-Tale: Video Art from the Pearl River Delta” co-curated by Hou Hanru and Xi Bei.

Participating Artists:
ALLORA & CALZADILLA, CAO Fei, CHEN Shaoxiong, CHOI Sai-Ho, FANG Lu, May FUNG, HO Sin Tung, KWAN Sheung-Chi, LI Xiaofei, Natalie LO Lai Lai, Anson MAK Hoi Shan, MAP OFFICE, QIN Jin, SHI Qing, Koki TANAKA, Jalal TOUFIC & Graziella Rizkallah TOUFIC, WONG Wai Yin, XU Tan, ZHU Jianlin

Video art in the region of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) emerged as early as the mid-1980s. Collectives such as “Videotage" in Hong Kong and “Southern Artists Salon” in Guangzhou were pioneers and galvanizing creative forces in the field. This movement was carried forward, in the 90s, by the rise of certain collectives and individuals, including the “Big Tail Elephants Working Group”, the “Borges Bookstore”, “U-theque”, JIANG Zhi and CAO Fei.

A highly specific part of China with its distinct cultural characteristics and traditions, the PRD has been closely related to international influences and interwoven with popular culture from the beginning. Frequent exchanges between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the impacts of Hong Kong’s popular culture, film, television and pop music concerning visual culture, coupled with a sensitivity for and references to international new media art, led to rapid experimentation in video art across the entire PRD. The art communities in the region have continuously developed their own aesthetics, merging individual independence, freedom, cultural hybridity, humour and irony with avant-garde experiments in open, diverse, fluid and natural manners.

At the same time, video art of the PRD has also been integrated into the process of high-speed urbanisation. It utilises strategies of witnessing and intervention to open up spaces for criticism and alternatives while paying close attention to the “supra-political”, bottom-up social expressions generated in the realms of everyday life. From the perspective of visual culture, video art of the PRD reflects the culture of this region and individuals’ singular involvements in the globalisation.

By adopting the medium of moving images, artists from the Pearl River Delta are looking for freedom and forms of resistance against dominant ideology and powers, turning ordinary gestures into artistic strategies to construct diverse personal utopias. Their video practices represent the most ground-breaking and powerful visions of experimental art and culture in the PRD. As a result, the PRD has become a creative hub for international exchange and art activities, as well as a deviating model which inspires artists from other regions.

The development of the Guangdong Times Museum was informed by these singular cultural explorations and artistic expressions. As a parallel institution and the first international branch of an Asian art institution, namely, the Guangdong Times Museum, Times Art Center Berlin is pleased to present its inaugural exhibition The D-Tale, Video Art from the Pearl River Delta which introduces the shifting cultural landscape and visions of the region in an era of globalisation. The exhibition is part of the Operation PRD curatorial framework following the exhibition Big Tail Elephants at the Guangdong Times Museum in 2016.

As a closing event of “Episode II: Towards Autonomy” of the inaugural three-part exhibition “The D-Tale: Video Art from the Pearl River Delta”, Times Art Center Berlin hosts a panel discussion between Li Zhenhua and Olaf Stüber, moderated by Marie-France Rafael. Throughout the discussion, the panelists will give an insight into their curatorial approaches and further investigate certain specifications of the time- and technology-based art form in terms of authenticity, curation, and distribution. 

Li Zhenhua is an independent curator. He works and lives in Zurich and Berlin. 

Marie-France Rafael is a researcher at the Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design, Kiel. In 2017, she published the monograph “Reisen ins Imaginativ. Künstlerische Displays und Situationen” at Walther König, Cologne. She was in charge of the concept and organisation of the VIDEOART AT MIDNIGHT Symposium in 2018.

Olaf Stüber is an art dealer, curator, publisher and lecturer. In 2008, together with Ivo Wessel, he founded an international platform for artists’ films and videos in Berlin: VIDEOART AT MIDNIGHT. He is an active member of IKT International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art.

Free admission.

The D-Tale, Video Art from the Pearl River Delta

Curated by HOU Hanru, co-curated by XI Bei

EPISODE II: TOWARDS AUTONOMY

18.01.2019 - 23.02.2019

Participating artists:

CHEN Shaoxiong, CHEN Tong, CHENG Chi Lai Howard, Isaac CHONG Wai, Simon DENNY, HUANG Xiaopeng, KWAN Sheung-Chi, Linda LAI, Warren LEUNG Chi-Wo, LI Liao, LIN Yilin, LIU Chuang, Phoebe Ching Ying MAN, PAK Sheung-Chuen, Eric SIU, SONG Ta, TSANG Kin-Wah, YANG Yong, Samson YOUNG, Ming WONG, WONG Ping, ZHOU Tao

In its three-part inaugural exhibition, Times Art Center Berlin (TACB) will introduce a part of the Chinese art world which is critically important but remains lesser known in the West and underrepresented in the global art scene, namely, the contemporary art production from the Pearl River Delta. In recent years, art created in China, by artists both from China and abroad, has become a major part of the global art scene. Now, the time has come to reflect this progression in Berlin. As an associated organisation of the renowned Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou in southern China, TACB has been established with that mission in mind. It is the first time an independent Asia-based art museum has founded a parallel institution abroad.

Times Art Center Berlin, a new experimental space for contemporary art from China in Berlin, has opened to the public in November 2018. It is initiated by the Guangdong Times Museum in Guangzhou.

The D-Tale, Videokunst aus dem Perlflussdelta

Kuratiert von HOU Hanru, co-kuratiert von XI Bei

EPISODE II: Towards Autonomy

Laufzeit der Ausstellung: 18. Januar – 23. Februar 2019

Teilnehmende Künstler*innen

CHEN Shaoxiong, CHEN Tong, CHENG Chi Lai Howard, Isaac CHONG Wai, Simon DENNY, HUANG Xiaopeng, KWAN Sheung-Chi, Linda LAI, Warren LEUNG Chi-Wo, LI Liao, LIN Yilin, LIU Chuang, Phoebe Ching Ying MAN, PAK Sheung-Chuen, Eric SIU, SONG Ta, TSANG Kin-Wah, YANG Yong, Samson YOUNG, Ming WONG, WONG Ping, ZHOU Tao

In einer dreiteiligen Eröffnungsausstellung stellt das Times Art Center Berlin (TACB) einen bedeutenden Teil der chinesischen Kunstwelt vor, der im Westen wenig bekannt und in der globalen Kunstszene unterrepräsentiert ist – die zeitgenössische Kunstproduktion aus dem Perlflussdelta. In den vergangenen Jahren ist in China geschaffene Kunst – ob von Künstler*innen aus China oder dem Ausland – zu einem wichtigen Teil der globalen Kunstszene geworden. Nun ist es an der Zeit, diese Entwicklung in Berlin stärker sichtbar zu machen. Dazu möchte das TACB, eine dem renommierten Guangdong Times Museum im südchinesischen Guangzhou zugeordnete Organisation, einen Beitrag leisten. Erstmals hat damit ein unabhängiges asiatisches Kunstmuseum eine parallel institution im Ausland gegründet. 

Das Times Art Center Berlin hat im November 2018 in Berlin als neuer experimenteller Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst aus China eröffnet. Es ist eine Initiative des Guangdong Times Museum in Guangzhou.  

Times Art Center Berlin (TACB), a new experimental space for contemporary art from China in Berlin, will open to the public on 30 November 2018.

Panel Discussion 
Video in the Pearl River Delta: An Eye Opener
with HOU Hanru, David ELLIOTT, and Anselm FRANKE
6:00 – 7:00 pm

Performance 
Rehearsal of the Futures: Police Training Exercises (Part 1)
by Isaac CHONG Wai
Performers: Katherine Leung, Manuel Lindner, Imola Nagy, Nobutaka Shomura
7:30 – 9:00 pm

In its inaugural three-part exhibition, Times Art Center Berlin will present a vital component of the Chinese art world which remains lesser known to international audiences and is under-represented on the global art scene, namely the contemporary art production from the Pearl River Delta (PRD). A highly specific region of China with its distinct cultural characteristics and traditions, the PRD has been closely related to international influences and interwoven with popular culture from the beginning. Frequent exchanges between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the impacts of Hong Kong’s popular culture, film, television and pop music concerning visual culture, coupled with a sensitivity for and references to international new media art, led to rapid experimentation in video art across the entire PRD.

By adopting the medium of moving images, artists from the PRD are looking for freedom and forms of resistance against dominant ideology and powers, turning ordinary gestures into artistic strategies to construct diverse “personal utopias”. Their video practices represent the most ground-breaking and powerful visions of contemporary art and culture in the PRD. As a result, the PRD has become a creative hub for international exchange and art activities, as well as a deviating model which inspires artists from other region.

In recent years, contemporary art created in China, by artists both from China and abroad, has become a major part of the global art scene. Now, the time has come to reflect this progression in Berlin. As an associated organisation of the renowned Guangdong Times Museum, in Guangzhou in southern China, Times Art Center Berlin (TACB) was established with that mission in mind. It is the first time an independent Asia-based art museum has founded a parallel institution abroad. As a non-profit art institution, TACB aims at facilitating cultural conversations between Asia and Europe through collaborations with artists, curators, intellectuals and institutions based in Berlin. TACB operates as an independent and autonomous organisation and will produce a series of exhibitions, research projects, commissions, screenings, discursive events, artist residencies and publications. As an experimental space and research-oriented platform, it hopes to add a voice from the Global Souths to Berlin’s vibrant artistic scenes. Its inaugural exhibition is part of the Operation PRD curatorial framework following the exhibition Big Tale Elephants. The exhibition presents 58 artists and features more than 80 artworks.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

EPISODE I: Urban Explosion
01.12.2018 - 12.01.2019

ART JONES, CAO Fei, CHAN Chui Hing Nose, CHEN Shaoxiong, CHEN Tong, CHOW Chun Fai, HO Tzu Nyen, HUANG Weikai, JIANG Zhi, LIANG Juhui, LIN Yilin, LIU Chuang, OU Ning, João Vasco PAIVA, Ellen PAU, SONG Ta, TANG Kwok Hin, TSANG Kin-Wah, Morgan WONG, WONG Ping, WONG Wing Sang
 

EPISODE II: Towards Autonomy
18.01.2019 - 23.02.2019

CHEN Shaoxiong, CHEN Tong, CHENG Chi Lai Howard, Isaac CHONG Wai, Simon DENNY, HUANG Xiaopeng, KWAN Sheung-Chi, Linda LAI, Warren LEUNG Chi-Wo, LI Liao, LIN Yilin, LIU Chuang, Phoebe Ching Ying MAN, PAK Sheung-Chuen, Eric SIU, SONG Ta, TSANG Kin-Wah, YANG Yong, Samson YOUNG, Ming WONG, WONG Ping, ZHOU Tao

EPISODE III: The Politics of the Self
01.03.2019 - 13.04.2019

ALLORA & CALZADILLA, CAO Fei, CHEN Shaoxiong, CHOI Sai-Ho, FANG Lu, May FUNG, HO Sin Tung, KWAN Sheung-Chi, LI Xiaofei, Natalie LO Lai Lai, Anson MAK Hoi Shan, MAP OFFICE, QIN Jin, SHI Qing, Koki TANAKA, Jalal TOUFIC & Graziella Rizkallah TOUFIC, WONG Wai Yin, XU Tan, ZHU Jianlin