Hosted by CAFA Art Museum, undertaken by Guangdong Sheng Shi Chuan Cheng Art Museum, “On Site – 2015 Li Gang” Exhibition will be unveiled at an abandoned factory site in Shunde District, Guangdong Province on December 27, 2015, the artist Li Gang will apply a retrospective way used by the art museum to “occupy” the space of a typical factory site in the Pearl River Delta. This space is a testimony of the industrial upgrading in the Pearl River Delta, and also a symbol of the 30 years of urbanization in China’s social background, it will present a place built in the “ruins” of the post-industrial era. The exhibition is divided into 4 parts including: “On Site”, “Ruins”, “Transmission by Copying” and “Writing”. “On Site” is as the theme of the exhibition, at the same time it is a new start for Li Gang’s exploration and experiment for the culture of Pearl River Delta, he does not only review the own process of ink painting in the space, and also keep the original rushed and messy appearance of the retreated factory, the use of the real scene as the backdrop of “theatre”, taking the remaining production materials of the factory as the medium to implement the performance of packaging and entangling the building.

Over the past 20 years, using abstract ink experiment Li Gang was a part of the ink painting revolution movement in China, in recent years, he extends the methods of folding, rubbing and transferring that were applied in the graphic media to the level of sociology, with his own creative logic, reflecting on the ruins phenomenon and the related social problems that appear in the process of Chinese urban expansion. Li Gang returns to the Pearl River Delta to hold a show accurately capturing the unique context of the zone, trying to use ink to stab the obstacles confusing people and present the underlying problem. The Pearl River Delta region is as the forefront of the reform and opening up, it once held a part of the country and exercised undisputed authority by the advanced processing industry, the towns around Guangzhou such as Shunde and Dongguan have been called the “World Factory”, where gathering a large number of processing enterprises and migrant workers, which has formed a regional prosperity. In recent years, it practices a large area of industrial upgrading transformation along with the arrival of the cruel and terrible reality, and many processing enterprises are failed and relocated, the once overcrowded industrial zones are now depressed and cheerless, in addition, a large number of migrant workers departed also making everything in the former flourishing new towns worse. The progress of the times does not only bring the prosperity, progress and change, and also showcase the cold and merciless side. Supported by the local entrepreneur, Li Gang takes a vacant building where a factory has just migrated, as the localization space of the exhibition, to create an “exhibition” for the specific environment and moment, and it is a new attempt that walks out of the museum and holds an exhibition in the society, while it is also his question and response of the times and the reality. The exhibition sorts out the individual exploration and practice in his process of ink creation, and also presents that the artist uses work to intervene and critic the reality, with a specific environment and background.

The exhibition is entitled “On Site” that accurately summarizes the motive and status of the exhibition, “on site” is the contemporary art’s attitude to space, time and problem, “on site” itself is a kind of cultural position and the question of reality, “on site” is the working way of contemporary artists, the starting point for contemporary artists to intervene the society, reflecting the core value of Li Gang’s creation today. So that the viewer can witness “on site” by the contemporary artist Li Gang, and witness an important connection and collision between the art and society.

About the exhibition

Academic Chair: Wang Huangsheng

Curators: Liang Kegang and Han Jiemei

Opening Time: at 16:00 pm on December 27, 2015

Duration: December 27, 2015 - March 31, 2016

Venue: No.40-45 Bai Chen Road, 105 National Highway, Chencun Town Shunde District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, China

Host: CAFA Art Museum

Undertaker: Guangdong Sheng Shi Chuan Cheng Art Museum

Co-organizers: Guangdong Shunde Li Cheng Guan Culture and Art Co., Ltd.

Shanghai Yu Hai Culture and Media Co., Ltd.

Social Innovation Center of Shunde District, Foshan City

Supports: Culture and Sport Bureau of Shunde District

Culture and Art Development Center of Shunde District

Chen Cun Li Cheng Charitable Foundation, Guangdong Province

Courtesy of the artist, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO.