On October 14, 2017, Tianjin Youth Art Week officially kicked off. This art week is centered on the city of Tianjin, in addition to a special young curator project which was held in Beijing in September, the art week covers Tianjin Art Museum, the art museum of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, and the Dongjiang International Art Center YAC and launches the “Young Artist Annual Exhibition”, “Young Curator Project”, “Walking Project”, “Special Project” and “Invited Exhibition” which feature a total of more than 400 artworks by 150 artists, which focuses on building an Tianjin Youth Art Week with an international perspective, professional standards, linking the current era and urban life.

Youth Art Week. Young Artist Annual Exhibition is a project permanently set by the Ivy Art since it started, and also it includes its major exhibition. The Young Artist Annual Exhibition continues to October 23, with the purpose of discovering, nurturing and promoting outstanding young artists, focusing on the growth and development of young artists groups under the art ecology of the youth. In 2017, it solicited the works by young artists at home and abroad. The Organizing Committee selected more than 200 pieces/groups by 58 young artists out of 1792 artists/groups at home and abroad, then presented them at the Tianjin Art Museum.

It is themed on the “Aggregation” of the year, referring to the era of agglomeration of the fragmentation of information, the young artists who are the creators break the inherent paradigm based on the contradiction between the fragmentized realities and virtual history, as well as the social context of the basic order and value judgment which is rapidly transformed and reorganized, through the art practices which are in line with the imagination of a contemporary position and future demands, to highlight the desire of young groups to create a new world. The exhibition is divided into five parts, including “Social Compounds”, “Spiritual Electronic Cloud”, “Historical Reaction Chain”, “Equation of Performance” and “Journey of Mr. Data”, which are the extension of the “Relief” that is the theme of the first Young Artist Annual Exhibition.

Young Curator Project. In September, Ivy Art 2017 Young Curator Special Project – “What Makes Our Lives So Different” opened in Beijing, which unveiled a series of events by Ivy Art 2017. In addition, the other two young curator projects of “Blank Script – Constructing the Meaningless Meaning”, and “Where is a Place without a Siege” opened in the art museum of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts at the same time in the Youth Art Week. Compared with the one held last year, it highlights more the experimental and interest of the show, and its curatorial concept contains the problem consciousness integrated with the times and independent thinking.

The exhibition of “Blank Script – Constructing the Meaningless Meaning” is divided into three parts: Submerging and Symbiosis, Distance and Reflection, Border and Defection. The curator Cui Fuli tries to create a theme of the exhibition from two dimensions: “Blank” and “Meaningless”. The exhibition of “Where is a Place without a Siege” is divided into four parts, including “Babel”, “The Flowers of Evil”, “Success” and “The Gate Has Been Opened”. The curator Zhang Yujin develops a theme around the contemporary semantics of “siege” then deconstructs it, organizing artists to choose and reconstruct the theme and works. It is more like a game of reading which is secretly planned by the curator and artists. It presents a total of more than 30 works by 13 young artists, supplemented by special presentations in the form of literary words, interviews and texts, conveying that the curator is attempting to extend the non-profitable aesthetics and experience of reading to a public discussion of contemporary social topics.

Walking Project. “Walking” project is a new project promoted by “Ivy Art 2017 · Tianjin Youth Art Week”, invited Kang Jianfei, associate professor of CAFA, and the curator, Hao Qingsong, a teacher of the School of Humanities of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, and an art critic, Yan Feng, associate professor of the China National Academy of Arts, and artist, together with young art students from CAFA and Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, all develop around the creative appeal of walking & voicing an opinion of contemporary art, which resulted in a semi-proposition planning, operating and implementation of the plan. It is through the collective discussion and a collision of inspirations that the direction of creation is determined, along with the “l(fā)iberated tool”, “urban archeology”, “l(fā)iving elsewhere” to respectively carry out parallel research practices, to create local works of art or art events in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Special Project. After “The Sea of Hope · Kang Jianfei Independent Art Project” ended, another special project of “The First Dongjiang International Print Invitational Exhibition & the First Binhai International Print Creative Camp Exhibition” opened at the Youth Art Community (YAC) in Tianjin. It presents more than 100 selected prints by 54 artists from 27 countries and regions, including China, the United States, Italy, Egypt and Australia, which remains on view till the end of October. It is hosted by the Publicity Department of CPC of Tianjin Binhai New Area, the Bureau of Culture, Broadcasting & Television of Tianjin Binhai New Area, the Committee of Dongjiang Bonded Port Area, and organized by YAC. At the opening ceremony of the exhibition, the honored guests had a discussion on “How Does Binhai Print Move towards the World”.

“The First China Tianjin Binhai International Print Creative Camp” series of activities began in August, 2017, inviting 15 Chinese and foreign printmaking artists to enter the camp for a residential, based on cultural history, art & culture, and public life of the Binhai New Area, to create outstanding prints with local characteristics, in order to enhance the regional influence and reputation. After two months, 15 Chinese and foreign artists at home and abroad created a total of 25 works.

Invited Exhibition. As a special invited only exhibition of the Youth Art Week, the “Peak Dialogue – Yue Minjun × Qu Jianxiong Group Exhibition” and the Young Artist Annual Exhibition were held in Tianjin Art Museum at the same time, going through to October 19. The organizer offers a platform for the young artist and the senior artist to present their works together, to have a dialogue under different cultural and growing backgrounds and it found the two generations were both rooted in the same experimental spirit and demands for change.

Since “Ivy Art 2017 Tianjin Youth Art Week” grandly opened, all sub-project activities will be presented one by one, continuing to the end of October.

Text by Yang Zhonghui, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo by the organizer