The Post Southern Song Dynasty
Curated by Martin Goya Business
2018.9.15 – 2018.10.26
“The Post Southern Song Dynasty” is a group exhibition of 41 Hangzhou based artists curated by Martin Goya Business, a Hangzhou collective platform initiated by Cheng Ran in 2017. The exhibition will be shown from 15th September to 26th October, 2018 at KWM artcenter and is the first presentation by the collective in Beijing as well as the largest group show of Hangzhou based artists in Beijing since 1979. It includes over 80 art works by 41 artists who all work and live in Hangzhou. The artists use painting, sculpture, installation, video, performance and A.I. as their media.
The Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) is historically referred to as the cultural peak of the city of Hangzhou. So what happened to Hangzhou after the Southern Song Dynasty? Today, artists, writers and musicians still inhabit the city and how the geography and history influence them is constantly being explored and reexamined. Although the concept of post-Southern Song dynasty is a grand claim verging on the ridiculous, the exhibition alludes to this most artistically sensitive historical time period in China and attempts, intentionally naively, to propose an imaginative platform from which to answer the question.
Martin Goya Business, an art platform created in Fuyang, outside Hangzhou, wishes to address this notion with open eyes. Their approach is largely experimental. They often decorate exhibition spaces with collected ready-made materials. They often mix up the social identities of artists, novelists, gallery owners and art foundations and exhibit them as artists. They collect art works from strangers on the Internet, make exhibition catalogues on sports wear, and use the art of tattooing to modify the body and transform it into a“body-Utopia’. This exhibition aims to present this spirit of art making and collective thought.
Many contemporary platforms try to break through the historical preconceptions which determine what an“artist” is, what an “art exhibition” is or what an“art work”can be. Martin Goya Business use their aesthetics to exert a rapid and violent attack on these preconceptions. Through avoiding the expected and promoting provocation, they collectively dream of a new win-win situation for the art world. Their activities are varied. They have held meetings on how to make beer, how to design tattoos or even how to raise cats. However, in reality, the collective is interested in how artists form pratical strategies together to survive in the art world, how to the maximize their internet fan base, how to identity possible cross-over branding collaborations, and how to constantly use and reuse waste and cultural products.
The last interest can be seen in the imagery used by some of the artists like the‘Virgin Mary’used by Zhou Yilun, the ‘Greek Gods’used by Wu Junyong, the‘Assassin’used by Li Ming, the’Octopus’used by Yo Ada, the‘A.I robot’by Ma Zhengyang and the Jin Hui Dui (an ancient collage game) like assemblage technique for the video installation.
The curatorial direction takes the lead from a sci-fi Song poem 《Prelude to Yingti: Is the Origin still there?》, which depicts a doomsday meeting in Hangzhou with aliens. All works in the exhibition remind us of the present city and its past incarnations; the romantic and extreme character often refined in a second capital city; and the curiosity and paranoia produced in a city surrounded by world famous mountains and lake vistas.
The participating artists are Bai Shuang, Cao Shu, Chen Gaojie, Cheng Ran, Cai Bo, Cui Shaohan, Da Mian, Deng Yuejun, Ding Shiwei, Duan Yifan, Feng Chen, Gao Yingpu & Lin Zuoxiong, Guo Xi, Gu Rong, Jiang Quyang, Jiang Zhuyun, Jin Shan, Jin Yanan, Li Ming, Li Qing, Li shun,Liu Guoqiang, Liu Yi, Lu Chen, Luo Xinling, Ma Zhengyang, Wang Ke, Shang Yixin, Wang Jiaxin, Wang Jing, Wu Juehui, Wu Junyong, Xu Yihua, Yan Yan, Ye Qing, Yi Lian, You Ada, Zhang Liaoyuan, Zhang Wei, Zhou Yilun, Zhu Changquan
About the Exhibition
BOE igallery is the exclusive screens sponsor for “The Post Southern Song Dynasty”.
马丁·戈雅生意 （Martin Goya Business）
Martin Goya Business, founded by the artist Cheng Ran, is a new platform for artistic experimentations in Hang Zhou. Unlike a commercial gallery or an art museum, it intends to function as an alternative space –to fill the gap between a conventional gallery and a non-profit organisation. Martin Goya Business is committed to encouraging and supporting local young artists and their new approaches, experiments or researches. The focuses are to create diverse artistic practices openly, to set and develop the agendas of artist-led platforms, and to propose a new kind of relationship between art and commerce. As a result, it refuses to be dominated by excessive commercialisation and meaningless trendsetting.
Future programmes at Martin Goya Business will be organised in two different approaches. Firstly, to invite guest curators to stage a series of exhibitions; secondly, the space will showcase young artists with an experimental spirit in their chosen medium.
In addition, projects are divided into sections, and the four sections currently make up ‘Services Project 4S’(which showcases diverse contemporary art practice) are Stage, Screening, Stay and Store.
金杜艺术中心（KWM artcenter）
The KWM artcenter opened on 20th October 2016. It is located on the second floor of the WFC centre CBD in Beijing. The Art center is supported by the law firm King & Wood Mallesons. The KWM artcenter presents and promotes artists both domestically and overseas as well as building up its own collection. In particular, it acts as a rare art institution at the heart of the economic central area in Beijing. It provides high-quality art educational activities and courses aimed to cultivate art lovers and collectors. It serves to improve the international influence of Chinese Art and become a powerful communicator of Chinese Contemporary Art.
