Negotiating Difference: Contemporary Chinese Art in the Global Context

Time: 21-24 October, 2009

For all information and registration form please click here.

The Department of East Asian Art History of Freie Universität Berlin organizes the International Graduate Conference, Negotiating Difference: Contemporary Chinese Art in the Global Context. The conference is realized in co-operation with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin (HKW) that will host the event. It is part of the program of the 7th Asia-Pacific Weeks, Berlin.

Contemporary Chinese art has lately become a topic of in-depth academic research. The conference Negotiating Difference examines contemporary Chinese art in a global context and focuses on questions of methodology. Whether considered from a discursive, institutional or object-centered perspective, contemporary Chinese art always involves aspects of a globally informed locality and a locally affected globality. To account for the complexity of this phenomenon, the analysis of contemporary Chinese art requires a transcultural perspective enabling us to question prevailing research approaches critically and to provide new answers. This perspective is an alternative to single-sided positions that either stress the construction of a ‘Chinese identity’ in essentialist terms or still consider Chinese art only based on a ‘Western’ notion of art.

In contrast, Negotiating Difference proposes conceiving contemporary Chinese art as evolving out of processes of negotiated difference. This approach is in following with art theoretical discussions dating back to the 1970s, which have increasingly been taking contemporary artistic production into account. Rooted in theories of postmodernism, these discussions became particularly focused on so-called Non-Western art during the interdisciplinary ‘post-colonial turn’ of the 1980s.

Contemporary Chinese art lends itself to current art historical debates as an ideal research since its practice, exhibition and marketing–phenomena that developed only after the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976–are obviously marked by complex intertwined local and global relations.

For the first time worldwide, this conference provides a forum specifically conceived to meet the needs of young scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds researching in detail aspects of contemporary Chinese art. As an international graduate conference with a workshop character Negotiating Difference aims to further the discussion on methodological challenges, which have surfaced with the recent, fast, and global growth of this field of research.

Participants: Hans Belting, John Clark, Li-qing Dai, Gao Minglu
Head Professor: Jeong-hee Lee-Kalisch
Conceptual: Birgit Hopfener, Franziska Koch
Organisation: Dr. Juliane Noth, Ronald Kiwitt

Full Schedule:

Thursday, 22 October
4:00 pm Welcome Address by Dr. Bernd M. Scherer (HKW) and Professor Jeong-Hee Lee-Kalisch
Andreas Schmid: The China-Avantgarde Exhibition of 1993 in the House of World Cultures (tbc)
Keynote Prof. John Clark (University of Sydney)
6:00 Dinner and get together

Friday, 23 October
9:00 Introduction-Birgit Hopfener
I. Contemporary Chinese Art in the Transnational and Transcultural Context
Agents of Cultural Translation
Panel Ia Awkward Identities
9:20 Landscapes of Exclusion: The Painting of the No Name Group and the Questions of Multiple Modernities–Dr. Juliane Noth (Freie Universität Berlin)
9:40 Postmodernism and the Awkwardness of Contemporary Chinese Artists–Barbara Jenni
10:00 Panel Response–Prof. Gao Minglu (University of Pittsburgh)
10:20-10:50 Coffee Break
Panel Ib Processes of Identification
10:50 Destroy the Mirror of Representation. Negotiating Installation Art in the ‘Third Space’– Birgit Hopfener (Freie Universität Berlin)
11:10 Cai Guoqiang’s Fireworks: Igniting a Paranational Landscape – Brianne Cohen (University of Pittsburgh)
11:30 Panel Response–Prof. John Clark (University of Sydney)
(10 min. break)
II. The Negotiation of Tradition
12:00 At the Treshold of (In-)Visibility. The White Landscape Paintings by Qiu Shihua–Dr. Silke von Berswordt (Situation Kunst – für Max Imdahl)
12:20 When Contemporary Art Encounters a National Treasure. Fan Kuan’s Travelers Within Mountains and Streams–Wang, Ching-ling (Freie Universität Berlin)
12:40 Panel Response–Uta Rahman-Steinert (Curator, Museum für Asiatische Kunst Berlin)
1:00-2:00 Lunch Break
III. Concepts of Body and Gender in Chinese Contemporary Art
Panel IIIa. Performing the Body
2:00 Ziran in Contemporary Chinese Art – Wang, Ruobing (University of Oxford)
2:20 Expressions of Body and Gender in Contemporary Chinese Art – Sung, Doris Ha-lin (York University)
2:40 Panel Response – Freie Universität, Department of Art History (tbc)
3:00-3:30 Coffee Break
Panel IIIb. Contemporary Chinese Art from a Gender(ed) Perspective
3:30 Masquerading Brides and Grooms. Three Fantasy Portraits in Comparison to Real Studio Portraits – Eva Aggeklint (Stockholm University)
3:50 A Question of Desire: Women, Bodies and Performance Art in China–Adele Tan (Courtauld Institute, University of London)
4:10 Panel Response – Freie Universität, Department of Art History (tbc)
4:30-5:00 Coffee Break
IV. Contemporary Chinese Art and Its Spaces of Production
5:00 A History of Realism in Chinese Art Pedagogy. How Realism Affects Contemporary Art Production and Consumption-Lee Ambrozy (Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing)
5:20 Made in China: Qiu Anxiong´s We are the World– Wenny Teo (Tate Modern, London)
5:40 Panel Response – Pauline Yao (Independent art critic and curator, Beijing)
7:00 Dinner

Saturday, 24 October
9:00 Introduction–Franziska Koch
V. Contemporary Chinese Art and Strategies of (Dis-)Engagement
9:20 Situating Socially Engaged Art in China – Zheng, Bo (University of Rochester)
9:40 Strategic Disengagement. Alternative Spatial Practice and Institutional Loci in Contemporary China-Beatrice Leanza (Goldsmith College)
10:00 Panel Response–Dr. Thomas Berghuis (University of Sydney)
10:20 -10:50 Coffee Break
VI. Curating Chinese Contemporary Art
10:50 The Perfection of the Imperfection or the Principles of Adaptation-Davide Quadrio (Director, BizArt Shanghai/Arthub, Hong Kong)
11:10 Everyone Curates: The Ever-Contested Reality of Chinese Art-Dr.Wang, Meiqin (California State University Northridge)
11:30 Panel Response–Dr. Francesca Dal Lago (University of Leiden)
(10 min break)
VII. Dis-Playing Contemporary Chinese Art
12:00 China and the World: The Official Re-Positioning of Chinese Contemporary Art onto the Global Stage at the Start of the Twenty-First Century – Dr. Thomas Berghuis (University of Sydney)
12:20 Whose Display? The Role of the Collector in the Canonization of Contemporary Chinese Art: Uli Sigg and Mahjong–Franziska Koch (Philipps-Universität Marburg)
12:40 Panel Response–Prof. Dr. Dai Li-ching (Taiwans National Changhua University)
1:00-2:00 Lunch Break
VIII. Contemporary Chinese Art: Market and Meaning
2:00 Contemporary Chinese Art in the International Auction Market: An Insider’s Overview and Assessment in Comparative Perspective–Joe Martin Hill
2:20 Critical Discourses: Debating the Value of Contemporary Chinese Art in the 1990s – Peggy Wang (University of Chicago)
2:40 Panel Response–Dr. Martina Köppel-Yang
3:00-15:30 Coffee Break
3:30 Summary and Discussion: Perspectives On Future Research
Chair: Prof. Lee-Kalisch
Hans Belting, Dai Li-ching, John Clark, Gao Minglu, Qiu Zhijie (tbc)
7:00 Dinner