Antenna Space is pleased to announce that the artist Liu Chuang participates in the exhibition Body Cosmos: The Art of Living Together at Xie Zilong Photography Museum. The exhibition opens on April 30, 2022 and will last until August 28, 2022.

“Body · Cosmos: The Art of Living Together” is the major exhibition and research project of XPM’s transformation plan from 2022 at its 5th anniversary, curated by Mr. DONG Bingfeng, the academic director of XPM. The exhibition presents a variety of works by 15 contemporary artists and art groups from home and abroad, including photography, paintings, animations, videos, installations and site-specific art. This exhibition intends to place an urgent contemplation on the realities of our present world within a broader cultural and historical view, trying to outline an approach of “Living Together” towards the future that constantly crosses the boundaries of academic disciplines and visual arts.

“Body · Cosmos: The Art of Living Together” focuses on the “body” of the artists: a unique subjective experience and artistic concept expressed in different historical periods. In the meantime, it regards the external objective world “cosmos” as the core moral value and intellectual energy of the artists. Therefore, the combination of “body” and “cosmos” can be considered as a comprehensive interpretation of the cultural conditions and the spiritual essence of the time in which the artists live.

The Covid-19 pandemic that has swept the world in recent years is now having a significant and far-reaching impact on human world and its current system. As a result, whether in social, political, cultural spheres or in the reality of rapid development of technology, constant reflections and changes have taken place. “Body · Cosmos” initiates from a global perspective, applying art practices from different historical periods over half a century, to contemplate and constantly explore the complexity and its major debates on contemporary art that intertwined itself within the historical judgments and contemporary concepts. In this regard, “The Art of Living Together” is an active response and a bold experiment to issues such as technological changes, political life and ethic values under the context of the current turbulent reality.

Session One: Body and History | Artists: FENG Mengbo, Ayoung Kim, CAO Shu, ZHUANG Hui

Is memory based on artists’ individual experience or historical cognition? How should the narrative patterns and value judgments therein be gradually built up? The body, consequently, is both the subject and object of historical writing, and at the same time a tool to be shaped and disciplined. How would artists develop an effective contemplation and conduct a free practice on this topic? From the themes of museology, geological research, occult studies, and digital virtual, etc., the four artists in the “Body and History” session offer challenging perspectives while making their work an important carrier and site for integrating individual experience with collective memory.

Session Two: Body and Technology | Artists: Antje Ehmann & Harun Farocki, Tactile Art (WANG Luyan & GU Dexin), HU Jieming, LIU Chuang, MIAO Xiaochun, XU Bing

The technological revolution is constantly promoting the development of human society, but the infinite expansion of technology and its impact on public life usually bring about strong criticisms and questions. Hence, how technology can always maintain a necessity of ethical reflection and affirm the specific value of life itself is undoubtedly the core concern of the current reality. Starting from the body of the labor force, it includes the analysis of various dimensions between man and technology, and even the deeper exploration of the communication of consciousness and the spiritual life of the community. The “Body and Technology” session aims to explore and promote the possible coexistence between the real and the virtual world as well as the courage to imagine the future.

Session Three: Body and Cosmos | Artists: Maya Deren, GUO Fengyi, MAO Chenyu, ZHENG Guogu, LIU Xin

How can human beings live in symbiosis with all creatures? First and foremost, the body is the conjunction place for the self-being, the world and art. The “Body and Cosmos” session ranges from the initial “cosmology” of mankind and cosmopolitanism” in the modernization process to the current heated topic “cosmotechnics”. The session explores the significance of the concept of “whole- tech” and its energetic network that art today is continuously creating. But all these ultimately comes to human itself: the body opening up towards the world, not splitting it. Only by constantly transcending the visual centrism and its obsolete epistemology, can art truly possess the endless life energy of the body and propose realistic solutions for a new life.

Participating Artists: CAO Shu, Antje Ehmann & Harun Farocki, FENG Mengbo, GUO Fengyi, HU Jieming, Ayoung Kim, LIU Chuang, LIU Xin, MAO Chenyu, MIAO Xiaochun, Tactile Art (WANG luyan & GU Dexin), XU Bing, ZHENG Guogu, ZHUANG Hui

Text Courtesy of Xie Zilong Photography Museum