Flowing Books—Temporality: OCAT Nanjing Qixia Public Art Project 2018

OCAT Nanjing Qixia Public Art Project is a long-term public art project for the exhibition area of OCAT Nanjing, aiming at creating a top-notch public art landscape of China by integrating the socio-cultural ecosystem of Nanjing with the architectural layout of OCT Qixia Project—a cultural and tourist holiday resort real estate project to be constructed in sync with the Qixia Public Art Project. As part of the efforts to build new landmarks of urban culture, this public art project is also dedicated to bringing pure and cutting-edge contemporary art into Nanjing.

Traditionally known as the Ancient Capital for Six Dynasties, Nanjing has bestowed our project with abundant classical resources and topics. To make the best use of them and to guard against the narrow-minded and empty regional nostalgia, we will unroll our discussions in a holistic cultural context by addressing multiple dimension of the city including literature, philosophy, history, architecture and choreography while unifying senses with sensibilities. The cross-disciplinary collaborations of our project will never let our guard down against the abuses of supplanting personal experiences with knowledge system of any kind, sustaining an in-depth differentiation of the connections and contrasts between the roles of artists and the traditional literati and contemporary intellectuals.

Each edition of OCAT Nanjing Qixia Public Art Project features a particular subject and form. Every year internationally-renowned artists from China and other countries will be selected to make public art in the designated area of the OCT Project in Qixia District, where their works will blend seamlessly into the geographical, recreational and residential space of the area in an effort to transform this area into a first-rate outdoor art museum.

The first project is curated by Mr. Zhu Zhu, the well-known art critic and curator. He has proposed a three-year public art proposal called Temporality—Qixia Public Art Project, OCAT Nanjing. Temporality emphasizes the creative understandings and expressions on “Now and Here”, reexamining the historic heritage, traditional values and modernization through artistic practices.

Floating Books is the first themed exhibition for this ambitious art project. It features water, a natural vehicle for image composition, combination and disintegration. It is water that holds the key to our interpretation of time, memories, life, circumstances, ethics and wisdom. As the French poet Paul Claudel suggested, “everything the heart desires can always be reduced to a water figure”. As a key regional element and symbol of Chinese history and culture, water will be the fundamental topic for the dialogues among artists.

This project includes exhibition and various public programmes.

Part One: “Temporality” Series Public Programmes
Organizer: OCAT
Co-organizer: LIBRAIRIE AVANT-GARDE, Sifang Art Museum, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts
Sponsor: OCT and Nanjing OCT Industry Development Corporation Limited
Date: June 2018 onwards

Artists will be invited to the designated area to investigate the environment. They can also give lectures in local universities, bookstores, art museums, art galleries or art spaces. The lectures can be about their own artistic practices as well as their thoughts for the upcoming exhibition. Under the authorisation of the artists, we will make a documentary film of artists’ visit, and it will be shown during the exhibitions.

We will also invite guests from various fields including prominent scholars in humanity and social science, writers, poets, critics, curators, architects and actors. They can communicate with artists and make conversations as well as participating into other relevant events.

Part Two: International Exhibition on Public Art
Venue: Designated Area for the OCT Project in Qixia District, Nanjing City (OCAT Nanjing Qixia Exhibition Site)
Date: 9 November 2018 to 10 March 2019
Artists: KIM Byoungho, LI Binyuan, Michal Martychowiec, Sakarin Krue-On, Takahiro Iwasaki, YANG Jian, ZHOU Wendou

Curator: Zhu Zhu
Poet, curator and art critic, born Sept. 1969. He is recipient of Ann Kao Poetry Award, Art Critic Award of the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards, Hu Shi Poetry Award. He has published poetry collections, prose collections and art critic collections including: Qingyan[Wisp of Smoke], 2004 (French edition translated by Chantal Chen-Andro); A Grey carnival: Chinese contemporary art since 2000 (2013 Guangxi Normal University Press, 2016 Taiwan ARTouch); The Wild Great Wall (English edition poetry 2018, Phoneme Media)