Venue: Guangdong Museum of Art, Halls 1-4
Time: From 02/20 to 03/22/2009
To date there have been two unique exhibitions in China of artworks from 'The UBS Art Collection'. The first exhibition "Memories for Tomorrow - Works from the UBS Art Collection" took place in Shanghai in June 2008, the second one "Moving Horizons The UBS Art Collection: 1960s to the present days" in September and October at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing. Each exhibition showed different artworks from the collection and two different catalogues were published.
"Factory 2003" by Chen Chieh-jen
Both exhibitions were co-organized by UBS and the museums and the showings represent an important first for a corporate collection in China. The artworks shown at the both museums were a selection from the more 1,000 top-quality contemporary artworks that form 'The UBS Art Collection'. The works represent various artistic mediums such as paintings, drawings, photography and video. Works from Chinese artists were also on display.
The exhibitions have been a great success with viewing public attracting an estimated in excess of 80,000 visitors. Most were from the general public, which demonstrates UBS's social commitment apart from its business development. As good corporate citizen UBS has a desire to provide a chance for more art fans to enjoy the world-class art collections and experience the cultural convergence of different times and regions.
As part of its social and community program volunteers from UBS in conjunction with the museum also organised, the Special Olympics International (SOI) and the China Welfare Fund for the Handicapped a number of special visitors' events for students from special needs schools.
The third new exhibition will open on February 21, 2009 in Guangzhou at the Guangdong Museum of Art. It is called "Fact and Fiction" and will show some more recent works from The UBS Art Collection. It will be another unique opportunity to see art works from this outstanding collection for the first time in China. This exhibition will focus on mainly photography and videos. The participating artists come from different parts of the world such as Qiu Anxiong (China); Chen Chieh-jen (Taiwan); Qin Ga (China); Regina José Galindo(Guatemala); Daniel Guzmán (Mexico); Susan Hiller (US); óscar Mu.oz (Colombia); Tsuyoshi Ozawa (Japan); Hiraki Sawa (Japan); Yang Zhenzhong (China).
The exhibition will also include a special display of the history of the UBS Art Collection and the Collection Shows that taken place around the world. The exhibition will be on for 6 weeks and closure date will be March 22nd 2009.
Chen Chieh-jen
Born in 1960 Taoyuan, Taiwan, lives and works in Taipei
Factory | 2003 | DVD | 30 min,50 sec
2009 Chen Chieh-jen
Susan Hiller
Born in 1940, Florida, USA, lives and works in London
J Street Project | 2002-2005303 archival colour inkjets mounted on Kapeline,
oak frames,index and map in adhesive vinyl Eachframe 28.7 x 20cm Installation on two walls approx.
197 x 1000cm each
2009 Susan Hiller. Courtesy of Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
Regina Jose Galindo
Born in 1974 Guatemala,. lives and works GuatemalaCity
Peso | 2006 | DVD and still photograph
2009 Courtesy prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, Milan
Plomo: Revolver, Pistola, Escopeta | 2006 | 3 Channel DVD and still photograph
2009 Courtesy prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, Milan
Daniel Guzmán
Born in 1964, Mexico City, lives and works in Mexico City
Soldado[Soldier], from the series Búsqueda del ombligo[Search for the nave] | 2005-2007 | Ink on paper on woodpanel | 210 x 180 x 3.5 cm
2009. Image Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City /Photographs . Michel Zabé and Enrique Macías
New York Groove | 2004 | Single channel video with sound transferred to DVD | 3 min
2009 Courtesy of the Artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico city
óscar Munoz
Born in 1945, Popayán, Colombia, lives and works inCali, Colombia
Aliento | 1995 | Photo serigraphs and silicone solution on12 metallic disks 20cm diameter each
2009 óscar Mu.oz. Courtesy of Galería Alcuadrado, Bogota
Proyecto para un Memorial | 2005 | 5 channel videoprojection | 7 min 40 sec | looped, dimensions variableSequence of stills from one channel
2009 óscar Mu.oz. Courtesy of Galería Alcuadrado, Bogota
Tsuyoshi Ozawa
Born in 1965, Tokyo, lives and works in Tokyo
Vegetable Weapon: Tomato hot pot/Taipei | 2005 | C-print | 113 x 156 cm
2009 Tsuyoshi Ozawa. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo
Qin Ga
Born in 1971, Inner Mongolia, China, lives and worksin Beijing
Miniature Long March Site | 2002-2005 | C-print | 167.3x 122.7 x 5 cm
2009 Courtesy of Long March Space, Beijing
Navin Rawanchaikul
Born in 1971, Bangkok, Thailand, lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Fukuoko, Japan
Navins of Bollywood | 2006 | Single channel video withsound | 16 min, 5 sec
2009, Navin Rawanchaikul. Courtesy of Navin Production and Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing
Sawa Hiraki
Born in 1977, Ishikawa, Japan, lives and works inLonndon
airliner | 2003 | DVD | 3 mins
2009 Hiraki Sawa Courtest of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo
Qiu Anxiong
Born in 1972 Chengdu, Sichuan; lives and works inShanghai
The New Book of Mountain and Sea | 2006 | 3 channelanimation video with sound | 30 min, 17 sec
2009 Qiu Anxiong. Courtesy of Hanart T Z Gallery, Hong Kong
Xu Zhen
Born in 1977 Shanghai, lives and works in Shanghai
8848-1.86 | 2005 | Twenty-two C-prints
2009 Xu Zhen. Courtesy of Long March Space, Beijing
Yang Zhengzhong
Born in 1969, Xiaoshan, lives and works in Shanghai
Light and Easy | 2001 | Single channel video with sound| 6 min 39 sec
2009 Yang Zhengzhong. Courtesy of Shangartgallery, Beijing
Curator's word
As events recede into the past and experiences are subtly transformed by memory and reinterpretation, the divide between fact and fiction can become slippery. Many artists are interested in halting this process by rescuing disappearing histories and reminding us of reality. Others are interested in exposing the slippage between fact and fiction by introducing a healthy dose of imagination and fantasy.
Susan Hiller commemorates the devastation of the widespread Jewish communities in Germany in World War II, whilst Óscar Muñoz refuses to allow the faces of the thousands of "disappeared" and murdered Colombians be effaced from history.
Regina José Galindo uses her own body in performances that are powerful metaphors for oppression and violence, past and present, both in her country, Guatemala, and beyond.
Qin Ga participated in the Long March Project of 2002 in which a group of curators and artists retraced the monumental route of Mao Zedong's Long March, organizing exhibitions and events along the way to introduce contemporary art to remote areas of China. Qin Ga plotted their journey on a map tattooed upon his back. After the group ended their journey, Qin Ga continued it, this time tattooing his own route and resuscitating the memories of the public witnessing his progress.
Chen Chieh-jen presents a dignified portrait of women in a derelict clothes factory in a moving tribute to the contribution they made to Taiwan's economic miracle of the '60s, and to the predicament of redundancy and old age.
Recalling Mexican murals of the 1930s and '40s, the large-scale satirical drawings by Daniel Guzmán demonstrate the twisting – or fictionalizing - of the truth for political ends. He mixes comic-strip superheroes with ancient gods and contemporary political caricature.
Like Guzmán, Qui Anxiong attempts to understand the present by linking it with mythologies of the past. Also working in ink, his video animation The New Book of Mountains and Seas references The Classic of Mountains and Seas, the 3rd Century BC-2nd Century AD Chinese narrative of mythical figures, traditional rituals, medicine, natural history and ethnic peoples. Qui's fantastical video shows an often violent world that is threatened by ecological degradation, beginning in ancestral times and ending with a solitary figure staring into an unknown future.
With a humorous touch, Yang Zhenzhong also comments on the risks of unhindered urban expansion. He precariously balances a model of the Shanghai Telecom Tower on the tip of his middle finger as a metaphor for the misguided fantasy of a future that is light and easy and free of consequences.
Xu Zhen willfully plays with the verisimilitude of photography, creating a fantasy that appears to be fixed in reality, questioning our faith in the medium's documentary role. Did he really remove 1.86 metres off the top of Mount Everest?
Navin Rawanchaikul and Daniel Guzmán both delight in the fantasies of popular culture. Rawanchaikul writes and stars in his own Bollywood movie in which he seeks out a community of Navins to combat his solitude while pursuing love. Guzmán creates his own ironic music video, escaping the streets of Mexico City to the tune of an American rock song, New York Groove.
Tsuyoshi Ozawa invites women all over the world to host festive meals, bringing people together around food, breaking down barriers whilst celebrating difference. The cooks are photographed holding their ingredients assembled into the shape of a gun to humorously emphasize the futility of war.
And finally Hiraki Sawa immerses himself into the vivid yet disconcerting world of childhood fantasy, in which living-rooms and bathrooms are populated by fleets of silent airplanes or migrating herds of animals. Airliner is a deceptively simple video showing a flick book of airplane images. Do the images conjure up visions of travel and freedom, or more ominous thoughts of disaster? Once the innocence of our childhood imagination has left us, can it ever return?
Joanne Bernstein
Curator, The UBS Art Collection, December 2008
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