On September 19, 2015, “Reform - the Second Talented Youth Residency Project” opened at Enjoy Museum of Art in 798 Art District, the exhibition is jointly organized by the Graduate Division, CAFA and Enjoy Museum of Art, Prof. Chen Qi, Director of Graduate Division, CAFA serves as the Academic Chair, Dr. Gao Yuan from CAFA serves as the curator, to present the latest works by 10 artists of the “Talented Youth Residency Project” including Dai Xueqing, Liu Chang, Qin Chuan, Wang Hongzhou, Wang Qifan, Wei Zixin, Wu Changpu, Xiao Shanshan, Ye Qiusen, Yu Yang. It is the first round of “Reform” the 2nd Youth Talent Residency Project, and a series of academic activities will continue to be held. Prof. Chen Qi, Director of Graduate Division, CAFA, Curator of Enjoy Museum of Art Wang Feiyue, curator Gao Yuan, Fan Mo, representative of the first Youth Talent project and the participating artists attended the opening ceremony.

The Talented Youth Residency Project was initiated by the Graduate Division of CAFA, in order to promote the outstanding postgraduate students of CAFA. Each professional discipline unit recommends one or two potential outstanding postgraduates each year, the academy offers them an opportunity for concentrated creation in a year, to bridge the academy and society. Prof. Chen Qi, Director of the Graduate Division, CAFA introduced the project, and said the members of the project were from the fields of plastic arts, Chinese painting, design, architecture, they are a generation of artists with the same background, with a convergent art concept, technological method, but there were few opportunities to connect each other, while the talent project offered an opportunity to the artists with different disciplinary backgrounds to participate into a communication activity, to make different collisions and burst out with new ideas, broadening the vision of art. When the executive of the talent project Ma Jiawei was interviewed, she said although the project mode was still in a growth state, it has achieved certain results in terms of motivating creation, artistic promotion, for example, the project set up a talented youth resident camp in Beijing DRC Industrial Design Creative Industry Base, with the cooperation to promote the project to society and the South Pole scientific investigation watch designed by Song Xiaowei, last year it? was paid attention to and was highly praised by Premier Liu Yandong.

The 2nd Talented Youth Residency Project is themed on “Fellow”, on the one hand the participating artists have a collective identity as a graduate of CAFA, adhering to the excellent academic tradition of seeking to carry it out to its breadth and greatness, so as to omit none of the more exquisite and minute points which it embraces and the patriotism of “shaping for China”; on the other hand it reveals the independent consciousness and innovative spirit in the exploration of the noumenal language of art. It is as the first round of the “Fellow” series of the exhibition, “Reform” aims to highlight the consciousness of the pioneer and the elite and borrows from the philosopher Groys’s discussion on “new”, to imply an ideal transformation and logical creation in the current youth artistic creation. The participating artists’ works adhere to the two qualities including the initial “new” and “the newness transcending differences”, their works are the “new things” waiting to be collected and also a sample of daily life.

“The Talented Youth Residency Project” will continue to hold a series of art activities, according to Ma Jiawei’s introduction, during the upcoming Beijing Design Week, it will present Yang Sinan’s solo exhibition in the exhibition hall of Beijing DRC Industrial Design Creative Industry Base, and take turns to hold a solo exhibition for the young artists of the project over the year and hold a variety of exchanges and discussion activities. As for the long-term brand building of the project, Chen Qi said the Graduate Division had taken it as the new mode of the high-end art talent education of CAFA, taking this as a new mode beside the formal schooling education and continuously developing it into the future and it is going to hold a large-scale exhibition on CAFA’s centennial anniversary 3 years later, the students over the 5 years will participate in this project.

The exhibition is held during the 798 art festival, and the exhibition is also used as the thematic exhibition of the 798 art festival, the exhibition continues to September 27.

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

Photo by Wei Wei from Graduate Division/CAFA

About the exhibition

Title: The First Round of “Reform” the 2nd Talented Youth Residency Project opened at Enjoy Museum of Art

Academic Chair: Chen Qi

Curator: Gao Yuan

Artists: Dai Xueqing, Liu Chang, Qin Chuan, Wang Hongzhou, Wang Qifan, Wei Zixin, Wu Changpu, Xiao Shanshan, Ye Qiusen, Yu Yang

Organizer: Graduate Division, CAFA and Enjoy Museum of Art

Duration: September 19 - September 27, 2015

Venue: Enjoy Museum of Art, B06 797 Road, 798 Art Zone, No.2 Jiuxianqiu, Chaoyang District, Beijing