Guangzhou Triennial Returns as China Eases Pandemic Control
By Tong Tung Yeng
Installation view of the seventh Guangzhou Triennial at the Guangdong Museum of Art, 2023. Courtesy the Guangzhou Triennial.
After its year-long postponement due to China’s Covid-19 restrictions, the Guangzhou Triennial opened its seventh edition “Symphony of All the Changes” on January 10. Featuring 59 artists from around the globe, with over a dozen newly commissioned works by luminaries such as Huang Yishan, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Eduardo Kac, and Wang Lijun, the show will run through April 10, 2023 at the Guangdong Museum of Art, with special exhibitions spanning across the Pearl River Delta region.
The latest edition of the Guangzhou Triennial highlighted the transformative potential of Chinese contemporary art in the face of numerous regional and international disruptions, most notably caused by the recent global health crisis. Led by Chinese curator Wang Shaoqiang, the curatorial team consisting of Wu Hongliang, Jiang Jun, Philip Dodd, and Thomas Eller presented four sections, which provided four perspectives of connectivity and transformation of the Chinese contemporary art scene propelled by change.
In the section “Bumps on the Edges,” Wu posited the fringes of society as the “birthplace of ideas and art” in art spotlighting experiences of marginalized communities. Dodd focused on the local and the handmade in the section “In Praise of Slow Art: when all that is solid melts into the air,” by contrasting traditional handwork with dominant narratives of acceleration and technological determinism. Eller explored humans’ ever-evolving relationship with technology in “Touch Screen/Me” through ethics and philosophy via four chapters: “Touch,” “Mother,” “Water,” and “Body.” Lastly, Jiang’s section “Immanence” transposed Chinese contemporary art into three contexts most significant to its development: the literati tradition, socialist era, and globalized world.
In addition, there are also four complementary exhibitions happening across the following locations: OCT Boxes Art Museum in Foshan, Yuheng Art Museum and Justart Space in Guangzhou, and 21 Space Art Museum in Dongguan.
“Symphony of All the Changes” is the last exhibition at the Guangdong Museum of Art’s current venue at 38 Yanyu Road, before its relocation to the newly built Bai E Tan Great Bay Art Centre.
Here is the list of artists and collectives participating in the seventh Guangzhou Triennial:
Bumps on the Edges
AN Ge (China)
JIA Zhangke (China)
LI Huasheng (China)
MA Kelu (USA)
SHEN Fan (China)
XU Bing (China)
XI Chuan(China)
YIN Jinan (China)
ZHAN Wang (China)
ZHAO Liang (China)
CAO Fei (China)
LI Linlin (China)
WUTIAOREN (China)
YAN Changjiang (China)
DUAN Jianyu (China)
LI Binyuan (China)
PAN Lin (China)
WEN Ling (China)
XIN Wei (China)
ZHONG Jialing (China)
In Praise of Slow Art: when all that is solid melts into the air
Francis Upritchard (New Zealand)
Joana Vasconcelo (Portugal)
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas (Poland)
Skuja Braden (Latvia & USA)
SONG Dong (China)
Chun Kwang Young (South Korea)
Edmund de Waal (UK), LIANG Shaoji (China)
LIU Jianhua (China)
ZHU Jinshi (China)
Marc Laf (USA)
Samson Young (Hong Kong, China)
YIN Xiuzhen (China)
Yuken Teruya (Japan)
Touch Screen/Me
CAO Yu (China)
HU Qingyan (China)
TONG Wenmin (China)
ZHANG Yu (China)
Aaajiao (China)
Gary Hill (USA)
Peter Campus (USA)
SUI Jianguo (China)
Eduardo Kac (USA)
LU Yang (China)
MIAO Xiaochun (China)
Almagul Menlibayeva (Kazakhstan)
Immanence
DING Yi (China)
HU Jieming (China)
WANG Guangle (China)
XUE Feng (China)
YOU Dongkun (China)
ZHANG Ding (China)
HUANG Yishan (China)
LI Qing (China)
WANG Lijun (China)
ZHANG Xiaogang (China)
DING Li (China)
FAN Xi (China)
SHEN Linghao (China)
Tong Tung Yeng is ArtAsiaPacific’s editorial intern.
