Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art will celebrate the grand opening of Unknown Games at 3:00PM, on August 15th, 2021. Organized by Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, and curated by Zeng Yulan and Gu Jiajun, the exhibition invites Chen Chenchen, Hu Wei, Li Tingwei, Wang Tuo, Xin Wei, aaajiao, ReUnion Network, Liquid Dependency Theory (Aiwen YIN, Zoe ZHAO, Yiren ZHAO), and Yannan PAN as participating artists. The exhibition includes a special project Collecting the Fragments of Dinghaiqiao, initiated by Shuyun CAO, and coordinated by Yi HUANG and Yiren ZHAO.Dinghaiqiao Mutual-aid Society, Bureau of Guerrilla Urbanism, Woodcut Wavement, Group 2522, and ReUnion Troupe also contribute to this project as co-curators and collective artists.
aaajiao, Deep Simulator, Game, 2020, Courtesy the artist and Aike-Dellarco 
Chen Chenchen, The Mercy of Not Killing 2.0, Multimedia Device, 2017, Provided by the artist
Unknown Games extends the discussion on the theme of games in the exhibition project Conscious Game in 2019 at Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art. In the imagination game which children are good at, it is both gameful, that is non-utilitarian, purposeless, and feigned, that is well-designed and premeditated. When playing imagination games, children tend to follow a set of established rules, and they can tell fiction from reality. The curatorial concept of Conscious Game is not only to present artists’ attitude, but also their strategy and courage. Under the shelter built with the attitude of gamification, artists are constantly testing and challenging established rules and limits besides being proficient in them, to reconstruct new values and systems. Using a gamification strategy in the state of drifting, artists' exploration and challenges are faced with not only the established rules of art language itself and the benchmark in art history, but also the countless inherent frames and systems of real life and daily thinking.
Hu Wei, Father: “Tomorrow, Don’t Act Smart with the Boss, Find Out What He Wants First.”, Video, Installation, 25'22'' , 2018, Provided by the artist
Li Tingwei, Moby-Dick, Waves, Video，4'57'' , 2018, Provided by the artist
This exhibition will furtherly present how artists observe and reflect on the real world, involving contemporary discussions about the mechanics of power production, virtual games/reality, economics/ethics, and consumerism/desire. In ways of expression and presentation, the artists adopt a strategy or attitude of gamification. Whether it's fiction and metaphor, character setting and playing, rearrangement of real situations, or complex coding of history and the present moment, the artists carry out successive construction and acquisition in the name of games. While trying to expand the boundaries of art, their work is also closely related to every specific narrative about human being at present. They take the plight and confusion of contemporary mankind as the subject of their research, some even propose their own solutions. However, no matter which way they take, artists cannot foresee the research result in advance. This exhibition is thus named Unknown Games, in expectation of a more experimental and possible unknown that all these seemingly gamified explorations may bring us.
Wang Tuo, Addicted, Video, Single Channel 4K Video (Color, Sound), 16'33'', 2017, Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE BEIJING
Xin Wei, Archaeological Site of Guangzhou Children's Park：Fairyland Yet to Dream, Installation, Variable Size, 2018, Provided by the artist
? Special Project: Collecting the Fragments of Dinghaiqiao
Taking "writting a glossary of Dinghaiqiao" as an entry point for common action and mutual connection, the project seeks to salvage the clues and consciousness that emerged from the experiences of Dinghaiqiao Mutual-aid Society(DMaS) over the past few years. Furthermore, the glossary will be extended to wood prints, theater games, video, installation and other media forms, and thus to create a vivid and entangled narrative about Dinghaiqiao and the wider picture of "alternative practice". Co-created by Dinghaiqiao Mutual Society and its partner network, this special project is also conceived as a farewell to the Dinghaiqiao Neighbourhood, which are faced with the impeding demolishment and will soon become a memory.
On Dinghaiqiao, 2019, Photography: Shuyun CAO
Subproject Ⅱ of Special Project: Collecting the Fragments of Dinghaiqiao: Living on Dinghai Road, Photography: Yannan PAN
Subproject Ⅲ of Special Project: Collecting the Fragments of Dinghaiqiao: Liquid Dependency Game, Photography: Yannan PAN
About the exhibition
Curators: Zeng Yulan, Gu Jiajun
Artists: Chen Chenchen, Hu Wei, Li Tingwei, Wang Tuo, Xin Wei, aaajiao, ReUnion Network, Liquid Dependency Theory (Aiwen YIN, Zoe ZHAO, Yiren ZHAO), Yannan PAN
Special Project: Collecting the Fragments of Dinghaiqiao
Initiator: Shuyun CAO
Coordinators: Yi HUANG , Yiren ZHAO
Co-curators and collective artists: Dinghaiqiao Mutual-aid Society, Bureau of Guerrilla Urbanism, Woodcut Wavement, Group 2522, ReUnion Troupe
Organizer: Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art
Facility Support: Shanghai Lanying Exhibition Service Co., Ltd
Opening Ceremony: 3pm, 15th, August, 2021
Duration: 15th, August-17th, October, 2021
Location: Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art (No. 27 Duolun Road, Hongkou District, Shanghai)
Courtesy of Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art.
