This is the first time that the Jakarta Yuz Museum opens its doors to young artists. For this exhibition, the museum has invited three Chinese artists, Liu Xinyi, Wang Taocheng and Ye Funa. Each of them, having received their education at Chinese art academies, went to Europe for further formative studies, coming into direct contact with the context of world contemporary art development, lending more diversity to their artistic language and vision.

The inspiration for the theme Action...Cut! comes from the “performative” methods these artists all use to engage in experimentation and creation. These artistic experiments have discarded with the forms and perspectives of the “grand narrative”, setting out instead from the more microscopic participation and perception of the body to seek out the connections between reality and illusion, the self and creation. For this reason, Tian Jing, the curator plans to use “theatre” as the thread that runs through this exhibition. The Jakarta Yuz Museum consists of five floors, and these three artists have taken different areas of the museum under their own control. The first and second floors house Liu Xinyi’s cold political humor; the fourth and fifth floors are home to Ye Funa’s archaeology of the self; between them, the third floor is the stage for Wang Taocheng’s private monologue reminiscent of an open studio day. Together, these three artists are like the actors in a variety show, each playing their own roles in their own spaces. These three stories appear to be unconnected in terms of plot or space, but sometimes they converge within the stream of consciousness or the dimension of the abstract. The artists get into the act by “playing” roles, but in the end, they must step out of the play to find answers and solutions. In this way, it would appear that the transition between getting “in” and “out” of the act is more enchanting than the “performance” itself.

This exhibition originally set out to discuss the question of what roles young artists, curators and art professionals play in this world. How do we perceive and care about this world through the roles we are assigned? Through the research that followed, I had the idea that we could also provide the audience with food for thought about some more microscopic questions: 1. the application of the creative method of bodily intervention in contemporary art; 2. how the creative language of role-playing can be so alluring; 3. how emotions and concepts, subjects and objects are balanced and molded in the process of bodily intervention or role-playing.

Life is like theatre, and theatre is like life — this is an observation that the Chinese people, ever perceptive and thoughtful, like to make. The so-called players are crazy, and artistic creation requires a certain amount of wildness on the spiritual level. I believe that these three artists, here at the start of their careers, are merrily “in the act”, using their roles to doggedly explore. These explorations are fresh, direct and free, giving us a taste of hope for the future of art. Of course, while these artists are merrily getting “in the act”, they are also perhaps a bit hesitant about getting “out of the act”. We look forward with anticipation to their continued progress on the artistic path as they hone the ability to freely wander between “in” and “out”.

Perface by Tian Jing

About the exhibition

Date: Feb 28, 2013 - Apr 28, 2013

Opening: Feb 27, 2013, 18:00, Wednesday

Venue: Yuz Museum (Jakarta, Indonesia)

Curator: Tian Jing

Courtesy of the artists and the Jakarta Yuz Museum, for further information please visit www.yuzmuseum.com.