Time Gravity - 2023 Chengdu Biennale
Date: July 16–November, 2023
Venue: Area A and B of Chengdu Art Museum in Tianfu Art Park, Chengdu (Chengdu Tianfu Art Museum, Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art)
In this Biennale, Fan Di'an, Chairman of China Artists Association, is the Academic Committee Director, Wang Shaoqiang, Director of Guangdong Museum of Art, is the Chief Curator, and Lu Peng, an art historian, serves as the Artistic Director. They lead Wu Hongliang, President of Beijing Fine Art Academy, Zhang Zikang, Director of CAFA Art Museum, Philip Dodd, former President of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, and other well-known curators at home and abroad to form a curatorial team, and plans nine exhibition sections: Instant Eternity, THE SIGHT OF THE STARS MAKES ME DREAM (Van Gogh), Sensing the Unknown, Spatial Perception, A Thought in A Gaze, Future Archaeology, Echoes of the Earth, Where the Heart Goes and Constellations.
Li Huasheng, Wang Dongling, Wang Tiande, Xu Bing, Zheng Chongbin participated in the exhibition section of Instant Eternity curated by the Chief Curator Wang Shaoqiang.
He Yunchang participated in the exhibition section of Echoes of the Earth curated by the curator Yu Ke.
Yang Jiechang participated in the exhibition section of Where the Heart Goes curated by the curator Xiang Liping.
Instant Eternity | Preface
The perception of time of the external world has long been a subject of discussion throughout human history. In addition to the explorations of physics, classical philosophy has also given paradigmatic answers. In the eyes of Heraclitus (around 544–483 BC), an ancient Greek philosopher, “everything flows and nothing is permanent”. The eternity, composed of countless instants, is endless in the infinite variety. The same idea can also be seen in the thought of Su Shi (a great ancient Chinese poet) on the water and moon in his poetry The First Ode on the Red Cliff. “The river flows endlessly, day and night, but it seems motionless. The moon waxes and wanes, yet it never grows bigger or smaller.” In the lines of Su Shi, things fade like water and wax and wane like the moon. The water and the moon in nature change in every instant but also for eternity. The dialectical thought on the instant and eternity is just like the indivisible time and the endlessly changing extensions: we stay temporarily in a time period and cannot turn back from the path of time. ...... [More information, please refer to the section of Instant Eternity in 2023 Chengdu Biennale. ]
Echoes of the Earth | Preface
The earth is the substantial material foundation and the starting point of civilization in this time-space dimension where we live. If we see the ground as a mirror, then the myriad landforms treasured in it not only fostered the initial appearance attributes of humans living in different places around the world, but also shaped their diverse characters and complex social structures in different civilizations. In the process of initially coexisting with nature, humans slowly began to use such media as knotting, painting, writing, dancing, and sacrifices to record their behaviors, celebrate harvests, forecast social crises, and construct the order in the mind. These behaviors are collectively referred to as “art” today. As symbols of human consciousness and emotional expression, they play the role as a bridge to link the people with the outside world, depicting the unceasing pulse of life on earth. ...... [More information, please refer to the section of Echoes of the Earth in 2023 Chengdu Biennale. ]
Where the Heart Goes | Preface
Gravity, invisible and intangible, yet always present in our life, anchoring humanity to the Earth. Following the logic of the 2023 Chengdu Biennale’s theme “Time Gravity,” we extend this concept to another invisible yet undeniable presence - “gravity” of the human heart, and designed the section “Where the Heart Goes”. Human thought, like gravity itself, possesses enormous strength. All individual actions are nothing but manifestations of their thoughts, and all of human history, society, and culture are nothing but the manifestation, realization, and embodiment of collective human thought. Unlike gravity that binds us to the Earth, the pursuit of our dreams and aspirations allows our minds and imaginations to soar, freeing us from the Earth’s constraints to explore the vast and distant universe. ...... [More information, please refer to the section of Where the Heart Goes in 2023 Chengdu Biennale. ]
