Date: 2017.02.25  14:00 – 16:00
Location: KWM artcenter
Speakers: Thomas Eller, Zhang Yuling

SPEECH INFO

Fathers and sons and male desire – these are the main topics of KWM’s current exhibition featuring artworks by Li Xinjian and Ren Hang. What looks beautiful in the exhibition however is not without contention. Different parts of the world have very different traditions in channeling the energies involved. So how do we understand the two artists work in a time when images travel around the globe even faster than people do, giving everybody access to information about what artists do on the other side of our planet?
We bring our own contexts and collective memories to what we see in the works of artists from different backgrounds, leaving a lot of space for “positive misunderstandings”. Beyond obvious and superficial similarities of artistic production in East and West, artworks very often have a different “feel” to them. Where does this difference originate from?
After an introductory statement, Thomas Eller and Zhang Yuling will talk about the cultural differences that inform artistic practices in China and the West from the differing vantage points of individual desire and social behavior as exemplified by myth, folk tales and the legacy of psychoanalysis in modern and contemporary art.
Expect some “wild thinking”, as the talk will utilise images as well as ancient folk tales and myths to help the audience understand of the intentions of the artists more closely.

 Speakers 

Thomas Eller
President of RanDian, Gallery Weekend Beijing CEO

Zhang Yuling
Curator, Artistic director of the KWM art center