Lecture Information

Date：2018.03.24 14:30-16:30
Location：Lecture Hall, #7, CAFA
Guest Speakers：Amalia Ulman (Artist), Ye Funa (Artist), Yuling Zhang (Art Director of KWM artcenter)

KWM artcenter is pleased to present Amalia Ulman’s first solo exhibition in China entitled ‘Privilege’ from 22 March to 19 May 2018. The exhibition presents a site-specific labyrinthine installation in which 15 photographs and 3 video works are exhibited. The photographs are both from her first photographic series ‘Excellences and Perfections’ as well as her ongoing series ‘Privilege’. The aim of the exhibition is to introduce Ulman’s practice to a new audience exposing the contradictory roles of contemporary professional and private life as they play out amongst a monopoly of contemporary stereotypes.

On 24th March, Ulman will bring her prose and poetry work “AGENDA” to CAFA, Beijing. AGENDA is a staged lecture comprised of a Powerpoint presentation, live performance and sound effects. She has conducted this performative lecture at various universities and cultural institutions around the world. Presented through a live Powerpoint presentation filled with a menagerie of static and moving visual ephemera accompanied by sound effects and a live narration by the artist, the AGENDA lecture is effectively an artwork in and of itself. It narrates the storyline of the online performance Privilege from a behind-the-scenes vantage point.

This lecture is co-organized by KWM artcenter, Experimental Art Department CAFA and NYLON magazine.

Guest Speaker Information

Amalia Ulman (b. 1989) is an artist with an office in downtown L.A. Born in Argentina but raised in Spain, she studied Fine Arts at Central Saint Martins in London. Her works, which are primarily voiced in the first person, blur the distinction between the artist and object of study, often creating humorous, gentle deceptions, while exploring class imitation and the relationship between consumerism and identity. In addition to video, sculpture and installation work, her multidisciplinary practice has involved the use of social media, magazine photoshoots, interviews, self-promotion and brand endorsements as tools for the fabrication of fictional narratives. Ulman’s performance Excellences & Perfections was archived by Rhizome and the New Museum (New York) and exhibited at the Tate Modern and Whitechapel Gallery (London). Her most recent works are the video essay Annals of Private History (Frieze Live, 2015), and Privilege (online performance, 2016) and its subsequent solo shows: Labour Dance at Arcadia Missa (London), Reputation at New Galerie (Paris), Dignity at James Fuentes (New York), Intolerance at BARRO (Buenos Aires), Monday Cartoons at Deborah Schamoni (Munich), Atchoum! at Galerie Sympa (Figeac) and NEW WORLD 1717 at Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai).

Yuling Zhang is a graduate of Pekin University and Sorbonne Paris 1, and recieve a doctor degree of European medieval art history. She is presently based in Beijing, as the artistic director of the KWM artcenter. She is also an art documentary producer and script writer and visiting professor of the China Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou.

Funa Ye
1986 Born in Kunming, China
Now base in Beijing
2004 – 2008: BA Experimental Art. Central Academy of Fine Arts, China
2009 – 2010: MA Fine Art, Central Saint Martins college of art, UK
Funa Ye’s practice is mainly concerned with the relationship between the realities of every day life, the perceived connection between authority and many areas of social life.