Beijing Dangdai Art Fair

Era of Encore

Era of Encore
2024.6.8-9.1
TIMES ART MUSEUM, No.69 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, Huaxi LIVE · Wukesong
Curator: Bao Dong
Exhibiting artists: Bian Yunxiang, Cai Jian, Chen Baoyang, Chen Junjiang, Fei Yining, Gao Ludi, Ge Yulu, Co metabolism: Yang Yafei, Zhang Ning, Hu Weiyi, Huang Bingjie, Jing Ao, Kiiss Shao, Li Hanwei, Liu Yazhou, Ma Lingli, Neng Jianri, Pu Yingwei, She Luyun, Sun Manong, Tong Kunniao, Tong Wenmin, Wang Rui, Wang Ziquan, Wu Linghao, Wu Silin, Wu Ziyang, Xia Joey, Xing Wanli, Yun Yongye, Zhang Ji, Zhang Wenzhi

As the curatorial sector STORY of this year’s Beijing Dangdai Art Fair, ” Era of Encore ” is jointly presented by the Beijing Dangdai Art Fair and the Beijing Times Art Museum, which has opened a close cooperation between the two parties in the research, display, collection and promotion of new artistic forces. It continues the popularity of the Beijing Dangdai Art Fair and extends Beijing’s art season to September in terms of time and runs through the east and west of Beijing in terms of geography. The exhibition is curated by Bao Dong, the artistic director of the Beijing Dangdai Art Fair. Under the theme of “Era of Encore”, it focuses on the youngest artists born around the 1990s and their creations. A total of 70 pieces of works by 32 artists were exhibited on site, of which 26 were new works specially created by artists for this exhibition.

“Post-90s” is not only a special generational description in the Chinese context, but also a group that has been repeatedly portrayed and defined in public opinion and the media. In the existing contemporary art narrative, the post-90s artist group has also been constantly written and shaped, hoping to reflect the diversity and multifaceted nature of this generational group, and trying to describe their common commonalities. Against this background, this exhibition aims to expand our discussion of the context of post-90s artists, and from the late 1980s to the present, it provides observation coordinates from four dimensions: art and cultural history background, technological driving force and influence, social scene and issues, as well as aesthetic innovation and rebellion. The exhibition is also divided into four sections: Farewell, Modernism; Future Aboriginals; Social Fieldwork; Recurring Dopamine. We will narrate the creations of China’s youngest generation of artists from these four overlapping clues and sections.

The turn of the 1980s and 1990s witnessed a critical node that influenced the direction of human history. The evolution of the world’s political landscape, the invention and use of the Internet, and the increasingly radical globalization have shaped our lives today, and the ripples of their influence are far-reaching. Various “end theories” and the speculations about the end of the era that they contain also emerged from this period. The voices of the end of history and the end of art and art history still echo today. The theme of the exhibition, “Era of Encore”, is naming on this background of the era.

The past thirty-five years have been the end of the last era, the end of what historian Eric Hobsbawm called the “short twentieth century.” The past thirty-five years have also been the beginning of a new era. Today, we are facing an era of gradual decline in globalization, continuous iteration of new technologies, and rapid changes in aesthetic tastes and the subjective consciousness behind them, especially in China. Chinese artists who were born and grew up in this era of rapid change have been facing a new world from the beginning. They have already or will open up a new kind of creation.

To gain a deeper understanding of the new generation of artists, Beijing Dangdai Art Fair launched the “90×90×90: Survey of Young Chinese Artists” project a year ago, asking 90 artists born after 1990 90 questions related to their creation, life, and values to depict and sort out the collective appearance and characteristics of this generation of artists. The 32 artists in this exhibition are representative case studies in the “90×90×90” project and are also a phased presentation of the “90×90×90” project.

The artist groups featured in the “90×90×90” project and the exhibition “Era of Encore” have gradually stepped into the spotlight of today, becoming cultural producers that can influence current and even future aesthetic trends. They have stepped onto the stage of the times with their own visual languages and action methods, performing themselves in different coordinates and dimensions.

The exhibition “Era of Encore” invites the audience to walk into this group of youths who are in the intermission of the era, record their real and exciting views, and profile the vivid and diverse appearance of this era. Is their art a continuation or innovation, an end or a restart, an encore after the curtain falls, an interlude between the great eras, or an opening prelude before the arrival of the next era? The exhibition attempts to re-understand this generation and its art from the historical framework of “Era of Encore”.