“Not On Site” can be regarded as the double absence of the meaning of work caused by “the author is dead” and “misreading of the audience”, or can also be regarded as the disappearing and dispersion of an art style, or the artists and the work are shielded by the existing artistic narrative structures and the writing of powers, as well as the dissociation of meaning of the art product and its social attribute. “Not On Site” is a realistic portrayal of contemporary art to present society, “contemporary art” is becoming a game which is increasingly addictive for the updating of international art forms and capital operations, compared with the present reality and the spiritual life in China, it presents a kind of separation and fracture.

At the same time, under the impact of the globalized capitalist production mechanism and the new technology, the “Site-Specific” of contemporary art and artists becomes a shamed topic. Artists try to make the cultural identity and background through the fuzzy regions, in order to improve the ranking among the “international art world” in both the imagination and reality. Even if some of artists still emphasize the regional cultural symbols, it actually focuses more on the borrowing and transformation. The research of “Site-Specific” of contemporary art has become an embarrassing topic, the “Site-Specific” of artworks which rely on the global contemporary art shows and the circulation mechanism is nothing but the products that appear as trademarks and selling points.

In the category of art and reality, it is important that body and sensory are“not on site”. The modernist art movement was committed to the purification of the form of work which make the artists, bodies of the audience and artworks increasingly alienated. There were a large number of artists constantly committed to the awakening and recovery of sensory in the art movements after the end of World War II.It is no matter that the rise of Fluxus, Performance Art, Happening Art, or the “Post Sensibility” appeared in China at the end of last century, everyone was concerned about the body and sensory again. In the status quo of the common use of a variety of new medium, body medium, and even biological medium, the significance and legitimacy of the body and sensory is no longer a problem, but the disguised displaced proposition focused on the redefining of “body” and “sensory”, and measuring the absolute threshold in the body estranged by science and technology, new media, become the current problems.

A variety of crossways appeared after Duchamp, for the use of body is still shrouded in the“conceptual” theory of the tool. Physical sensory becomes the steel wire rope connecting art concepts and human nature, how to use body and stimulate the sensory meanwhile feeling the alienation andinstrumental motivation of the body and sensory, this is a tricky problem for Prometheus in the fields of science and technology, the culture– and the artists. Returning to a more macro perspective, if considering the current landscapethen society and the spirit of the times arean organic integrity, while the creation of contemporary art is regarded as a type of stimulating mechanism, how does the mechanism generate? What way can be used to feed back or stimulate the organism? How to define the extent? What kind of conditioned reflex can be stimulated? All of them are explorations about the “absolute threshold of social sensory”.

Therefore, let’s gather a large number of reasons, to conduct an experience attempting to label the boundaries and threshold of catabolic sensory of contemporary man with the new media in contemporary art. No matter if theresult of the experience is “not onsite”.

Zheng Wen

January 15, 2015

About the exhibition

Organizer: Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts

Art Director: Li Xiaoshan

Curators: Zheng Wen, Lin Shuchuan

Artists: Chen Chenchen, Cheng Guangfeng, Dong Wensheng, Guan Ce, Guan Huaibin, FIRST FLOOR, Huang Jun, Jin Feng, Jin Shan, Jiang Zhi, KID A, Li Binyuan, Pei Li, Peng Yun, Qin Ga, Qu Yan, Sui Jianguo, Sun Qiuchen + P.K. 14, Shi Wanwan, SMZB, Tang Guo, Wu Yuren, Wang Shuibo, Xu Xiang, Yang Jinsong, Zuoxiao Zuzhou, Zhou Xiaohu, Zhao Qin, Zhu Yingchuan, Zhang Quan

Dates: March 15– April 5, 2015

Location: Hall 1 & 4 0 Hall Space & Video Space, AMNUA

Opening Ceremony: 15:00, March 15, 2015

Courtesy of the artists and AMNUA, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO, for further information please visit www.nuamuseum.cn.