<p> </p>
<h2 style="font-weight: normal;">China China China!!!</h2>
<h2><span style="font-weight: normal;">CCCS, Strozzina Contemporary Culture Center</span></h2>
<p>CCCS, Strozzina Contemporary Culture Center, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence
(Italy)<br>
Phone: +39 055 2776461<br>
Fax: +39 055 2646560<br>
Contact: Franziska Nori<br>
<a href="mailto:franziska.nori@digitalcraft.org" target="_blank">franziska.nori@digitalcraft.org</a><br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.strozzina.org/cinacinacina/e_index.htm" target="_blank">www.strozzina.org/cinacinacina/e_index.htm</a><br>
<br>
from 21 march 2007 to 4 May 2008<br>
Daily: 11,00 - 20,30. Closed Monday </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">CHINA CHINA CHINA!!!<br>
from 21 march 2007 to 4 May 2008<br>
CCCS, Strozzina Contemporary Culture Center, Florence (Italy)<br>
<a href="http://www.strozzina.org/cinacinacina/e_index.htm" target="_blank">http://www.strozzina.org/cinacinacina/e_index.htm</a><br>
<br>
CHINA CHINA CHINA!!!, will present the work of 18 contemporary Chinese artists
from three different cities- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou - who are all
seeking to define a new cultural identity unfettered by the rules of the global
market. A publication (published by Silvana Editoriale) and a series of
lectures are planned with the exhibition.<br>
This event ties in with the exhibition on the first floor of Palazzo Strozzi,
devoted to the Tang dynasty, universally recognised as a high point in Chinese
civilisation and central to the Chinese Renaissance.<br>
<br>
The aim of the CCCS, under the direction of Franziska Nori, is to approach the
much discussed "China phenomenon" from a different point of view.
That's why the project is entrusted to three young Chinese curators:<br>
- Davide Quadrio, founder and director of BizArt in Shanghai, the first and
only self-supported and non-profit cultural organisation in China, also active
in The In-Between, a network of alternative art spaces in Europe and Asia;<br>
- Li Zhenhua founder of the independent Art Lab in Beijing, artist and promoter
of the new media art in China;<br>
- Zhang Wei director of Vitamin Creative Space Contemporary Art in Guangzhou.<br>
<br>
They are all based and operate in different parts of China, sharing a
commitment to consolidate an independent critical platform supporting artistic
production in China. They want art going beyond official boundaries and not bounded
by the art market rules. Art that represents the complex reality of a
contemporary China in the process of an historical change and cultural
transformation.<br>
The exhibition presents a lively interchange between the curators' three
sections, representing three distinct but complementary attitudes and
perceptions.<br>
<br>
Zhang Wei presents in "Throwing Dice" individual visions of human
existence in a fragmented and constantly changing world. The videos of Kan
Xuan, Pak Sheung Chuen and Yang Fudong (acclaimed in the most recent Venice
Biennale), digital animations by Cao Fei (also present at the Biennale),
technological installations by Chu Yun, and paintings by Duan Jianyu offer
individual stories that engage the spectator in the exploration of a shared existential
landscape and in the constant tension between the world of dreams and of
reality.<br>
<br>
"Art is not enough, not enough!," is a multimedia installation in the
Davide Quadrio's section produced by the CCCS and presented as a world
premiere. It draws on interviews made by the curator with forty different
artists in Shanghai, asked about the role of the artist, their relationship
with the external world, the social consequences of their work and the
international market effects on traditional artistic production modes. It
offers a dynamic anthropological insight into the urban panorama of modern
Shanghai.<br>
<br>
The focus of "Multi-Archeology", the section curated by Li Zhenhua is
the geo-political identity and cultural relativism. Installations by the
Mongolian artists Wu Ershan and Ren Qinga, highlight the often conflictual
relations between the different cultural groups in China today and pose
questions about the undermining of the individual concerning social upheaval.<br>
Both installations, created especially for the exhibition in Florence, take as
their theme the human condition in the face of an uncertain future.<br>
The art video by Zhao Liang and Shen Shaomin documents the situation on the
Chinese border with North Korea and Russia. An analysis of the consequences of
the Mongolian invasion by Genghis Khan on Asiatic culture is compared to the
impact of modern globalisation, in the constant cultural interchange between
East and West.<br>
<br>
<br>
CHINA CHINA CHINA !!!<br>
CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART<br>
BEYOND THE GLOBAL MARKET<br>
21 March - 4 May 2008<br>
Daily: 11,00 - 20,30. Closed Monday<br>
Tickets: € 5,00 (valid for five admissions in 1 month, including lectures), €
4,00 schools<br>
€ 10,00 entrance Strozzina + exhibition China: at the Court of the
Emperors<br>
Catalogue Silvana Editoriale<br>
<br>
INFO<br>
Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi<br>
T. +39 055 2776461/ 06 - tel. 055 2645155<br>
F. +39 055 2646560<br>
<a href="mailto:l.rinaldi@fondazionepalazzostrozzi.it" target="_blank">l.rinaldi@fondazionepalazzostrozzi.it</a><br>
<br>
PUBLIC RELATIONS<br>
CLP Relazioni Pubbliche<br>
Tel. +39 02 433403 + 39 02 36571438 - Fax +39 02 4813841<br>
<a href="mailto:press@clponline.it" target="_blank">press@clponline.it</a><br>
<a href="http://www.clponline.it/" target="_blank">http://www.clponline.it</a></p>
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