On the afternoon of November 8, 2014, after “The 3rd International Forum of New Media Art ? Chronology of New Media Art” was successfully closed, then new media art exhibition of the same name “Chronology of New Media Art” opened at the New Media Art Center of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute at Huxi campus, the exhibition is curated by Zhang Xiaotao, Director of the Department of New Media Art, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, bringing together nearly 30 works by new media artists at home and abroad, such as Duan Tianran, Chen Chu-Yin,Liu Wenyang, Zhang Xiaotao, Lv Houjian, Xu Wenkai, Yan Feng, Gong Wenbo, Yu Chunna, Catherine Melin, and so on, covering video, animation, performance, installation, internet art, etc., the exhibition also echoes the “International Forum for New Media” from theoretical research to creative practice, comprehensively showcasing the many possibilities of new media art in current artistic environments.

Pang Maokun, Vice President of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, new media art curator Li Zhenhua, Italian sound artist Chiara Luzzana, Nanjing Independent Film Festival curator Cao Kai, Chen Chu-Yin, Director of the Department of Science and Technology, Université de Paris VIII, France, Dutch photographic artist Tudor Bratu, Italian artist Freschini Cecilia, Lan Qingwei, Deputy Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chengdu, Kim Kyujung, Director of the Department of New Media, Soonsil University, as well as the artists attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition. Pang Maokun, Vice President of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute addressed the opening ceremony, although the Department for New Media Art, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute was established not long ago, it aims at actively exploring, and is full of vitality, it has also made a lot of contribution to create an academic atmosphere across the school. Artist Yan Feng said it was an international exhibition in terms of display, content and forum, and also joked that a ladder left in the scene during arranging the exhibition was eventually used as a part of the exhibition, which was a very interesting installation and participation.

The exhibition is entitled “Chronology of New Media Art”, exhibition curator Zhang Xiaotao thought current new media art experiments were very difficult, and he had no idea what it would be like in the future, so all the practices were unknown, and this exhibition was also an open lab, trying to analyze, comb through and research using chronology and genealogy, in the context of globalization, to link new media art in different regions in a practice field to create a new structure and relationship aesthetics. The forum and exhibition are the process of “knowledge” and “practice”, and also the beginning of practice and community involvement, the exhibition focuses on the discussions on the “Globalized Market and Digitalized Information”, “Experimental Field ofNew Media and Knowledge Production”, “New Media and Object”, “Investigation of Production Mechanism and the Status of Independent Film”, “Media Teaching and Practice of Contemporary Art”, “How Does Media Art Intervene Contemporary Social Practice” and other pioneering topics.

At the exhibition, young students from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute brought several performance works themed on“Eyes and Heart”, such as Wang Dandan’s work of performance “24 Hours Case Life”, through an agreement between the artist and another person recruited on-site, the artist played the role of a man living in a luggage case, carried by another person, the artist will live in the case for 24 hours. Zhang Xiaotao said the performance art was not a part of the “Chronology of New Media Art”, but he believed that current new media art was too pure and fragile, so it needed some exterior things to “destroy” it. As a teacher of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Zhang Xiaotao is tolerant of the performance art by the students, meanwhile also appropriately limiting the students from the perspective of teaching. After all, the freedom of artistic expression and the freedom of teaching are two different concepts.

The exhibition is a major part ofthe 3rd International Forum of New Media Art, the exhibition will continue to January 9, 2015. “International Forum of New Media Art” is an international academic forum that was initiated and organized by the Department of New Media Art, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, which has previously been successfully held three times, dedicated to building an international platform for dialogue and exchange, to research and exploration of the core spirit of the experimental, the pioneer, the innovative, the contemporary and the critic of new media art against the backdrop of the times.

Text by Zhang Wenzhi, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo by Zhang Wenzhi/CAFA ART INFO & New Media Art Center of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute