Exhibition View of Existence

The exhibition Existence hosted by Wind H Art Center and Click Ten Art Space was unveiled on March 18, 2021, and it will remain on view until May 9, 2021. Existence is the first exhibition presented by the Wind H Center in 2021. The exhibition was honored in being able to invite Liao Wen, a contemporary art critic, independent curator and female art researcher, to curate the exhibition which presents artworks created by 14 artists during the special epidemic quarantine. 

Curator Liao Wen delivered a speech at the opening ceremony

As the curator Liao Wen stated at the opening ceremony that she hoped to present this exhibition in a way that everyone can understand. The artworks by 14 artists all stem from their own life experience, and they conveyed their comprehension and thinking of self-existence through various media including installations, sculptures, videos, paintings and so on. “Human existence is spiritual, and it is destined to be free from absolute invariability. It will be different due to different states of mind and will change due to changes in various circumstances. Just like the traditional systems in farming in the countryside, the field will be barren if the farmer does not work on the land or care for the soil continuously.”

Meanwhile, the exhibition adopted a “fully enclosed” design. Different from the conventional layout, each artist’s space is independent. In this case, the exhibition hopes to create a state of being that forced a need to “isolate”, and thus encourage the audience to break the boundaries, to obtain an intrusive/immersive experience, and to actively participate and integrate with their bodies in relation to the space. This design intends to arouse attention to the broader sense of “existence”.

The Entrance of the Exhibition

Exhibition View of Existence

As Santiago Beruete divided the pattern and model of a maze into two types: “Unicursal Model” and “Multicursal Model” in his monograph Jardinosofía: Una historia filosófica de los jardines. In the lobby gallery on the first floor, the form of “Multicursal Model” was used to make visitors experience the “existence in space”. In the gallery on the second floor, the form of “Unicursal Model” was used to showcase the “existence in time.”

Through the era of oral transmission, the era of authors, the era of printing, the era of media, to the information age, people increasingly hurried their steps to navigate amidst the insatiable whirl of information. The unexpected pandemic disrupted our customary convenient lifestyle, so we had to keep discovering how to “exist”. The contemporary artists who bear the basic sensitivities and social responsibilities of our circumstances,  reflected and reacted toward the significant changes in people’s conditions and the meaning of existence.

Most of the works showcased in the exhibition were created by artists during their quarantine. Each artist touches with distinct tentacles every corner of his/her situation in a personal way, delicately and profoundly, and powerfully expresses his/her ideology about the value of human existence. It is precisely due to the similar living and cultural situation shared by artists and spectators that mutual understanding becomes a certain possibility. A spiritual interaction and remedy that can be achieved through this seemingly tortuous but actually intuitive exhibition scheme. 

Text and Photo Courtesy of Wind H Art Center, edited by CAFA ART INFO

About the exhibition

Existence

Duration: March 18– May 09, 2021

Curator: Liao Wen

Organizer: Wind H Art Center

Co-Organizer: Click Ten Art Space

Venue: Wind H Art Center

Add: No.31a Wanhongli, South Gate 798 Art Zone, Chaoyang, Beijing

Participating Artists: Bai Xuejuan, Ding Shiwei, Deng Yufeng, Gu Xue, Hong Lei, Jin Weihong, Li Bo, Liao Jianhua, Luo Mingjun, Xiong Wenyun, Wang Yuqing, Zhang Wei, Zhang Yong, Zhang Zhenyu