2003 – CEAC

SELECTED SPAM

root — Fri, 05 Dec 2003 14:28:39 +0000

Opening

December 6 at 5 PM, 2003

Duration

December 6 till January 11, 2003

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

Sjerk Timmer and Femke Schaap

In 2002 Sjerk Timmer and Femke Schaap gave a new media workshop at the Xiamen University Art College. Now they are back in Xiamen as artists in residence on invitation of the Chinese European Art Center and with Dutch government support by the Dutch Fund for the Arts.

ABOUT VIDEO’SAND INSTALLATIONS
We don’t film stories, we film situations.
Shapes and figures that are literally enclosed within their frames, non-persona, who only exist by gratitude of their background. Working, waiting, denial and loneliness, a failed encounter, events in which people are trapped in their occupations, disappointments, utter joy, in the repetition of a gesture. These events we capture in a brief, minimally moving image. In our installations, we give this film a renewed spatial existence. Parts of the total image then are captured on different films. These we project on in silhouettes cut-out panels, that are posted in the space. The actual flat projections seem, because they are projected in their contour with match-ing or slightly differing rims, to have the appearance of dimensionality and reality. The spectator can walkin-between the panels, can walkin the film, through which an almost touchable experience arises. The distance taken while watching a normal film, has been replaced by the unavoidable physical confrontation. The spatial film installations area
temporary conclusion from a search we began in my ”normal” filming.
Coming from double-exposure of tiles, using the emulsion as a material,
we are a sculpturers of light. From parts out of reality we compose an
almost graphical image, in which flatness and dimensionality are fighting
for existence inform we try to catch both situation and content.

Gallery

CHAT AND CHAT

root — Wed, 05 Nov 2003 14:07:52 +0000

Opening

November 21 at 5 PM, 2003

Duration

November 21 till December 1, 2003

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

Group exhibition

Chat and Chat is the idea exchange between Belgian and Chinese contemporary artists.

Project curator: Zhu luming
Participating artists: Nico Dockx, Helena Sidirppoulos, Fanny Zaman, Stefaan Smaghe, Jethro Volders, Dong Xing, Ma Yong Feng, Shen Ye, Shen Jing Dong, Wu Ming Hui.

An art workshop between Belgian and Chinese artists in Xiamen. This exchange project is based on a utopian idea-to bring together people from
different cultural backgrounds really collaborating and working together.
What do we want to do?What shall we do together?And how shall we do it?
We intend to realize a constructing process between the various disciplines-like within a laboratory.I am very interested to see what this agitator-like cooperation will eventually produce.In the agitating process the existing experience and thinking patterns are thrown into a confusion and at the same time new questions are arising：which factors allow us to have dialogues with each others?And where to will it lead us?Is it in the form of the artwork-something that can be felt?Or does it exist in a certain time and space but comes to almost nothing in the end?Or will this outcome eventually continue its development in some organized form or operating mode?And how can we communicate with our audience as artists?

Yes, we are in an exchange period.A question of collaboration. I think this cooperation mode does not intend to create something new-a form
or a shape, but it is much rather to breakout of existing working and thinking models and to create a platform that really allows people to communicate. People will then no longer be confined to their own experience; instead they will exchange their thoughts in order to explore new possibilities and reflect upon these elements of change-as artists. Perhaps that looks like chaos: everything being in a state of constant flux and mixture.But does order evolve from a state of chaos?

Let us exchange views and ideas….

I want to express my gratitude to the following institutions and individuals for making this project possible:
The artists
The Ministry of the Flemish Community, Belgium
The Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Belgium
Stiftung Kun s lerdorf Shopping en, Germany
The Chinese European Art Center, Xiamen

Zhu Lu ming

Gallery

Eight European artists

root — Sat, 04 Oct 2003 16:08:53 +0000

Opening

October, 2003

Duration

October, 2003

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

Group exhibition

Group exhibition: ” Sculptures, Photography, Installations, Video ” by Guido Vlottes NL, Jaap Kroneman NL, CJ Vander Heijden NL, Sigurdur Gudmundsson IS, Twan Janssen NL, Teun Hocks NL, Bard Breivik N, Ruri IS.

Eight European artists who are exhibiting together in Xiamen have had their works compiled into a book by the Chinese European Art Center (CEAC) at Xiamen University.

The author of the book, Professor Qin Jian, spoke at the opening ceremony of the group exhibition of the eight artists. The artists include Guido Vlottes, Jaap Kroneman, JCJ VanderHeijden, Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Twan Janssen, and Teun Hocks, from the Netherlands; Bard Breivik, from Norway and Ruri, from Iceland.

Over the past four years, the CEAC has presented over thirty exhibitions to a primarily Chinese audience. Works exhibited over the years represent the trends in European contemporary and experimental art from the 1970’s to the present. “Contemporary art relates closely to life experiences, and expresses new ideas by means of new forms. Our guiding principle has been to exhibit truly innovative new art rather than mere variations on trendy ideas.” Professor Qin stated.“The practice of art is no longer an isolated expression of thoughts and feelings understood only by a trained audience. On the contrary, the rapid and great development of contemporary art is indeed undergoing a process of questioning resulting in breakthroughs and discoveries about the nature of culture itself.” He said.

In Chinese art circles, there is a saying that in the past twenty years, China has percolated all the modern and post-modern art forms created by Western artists over the past century. The speed of assimilation in the arts, as with all the disciplines, is due to China’s unique situation in the twentieth century. The presentation of the series of the books, as well as the group exhibition, is certainly a part of the efforts of the CEAC in introducing contemporary European Art to China on a long-term basis.

Ineke Gudmundsson, director of the CEAC, spoke highly of Professor Qin and all of the artists who worked very hard on this project free of charge. “We thought it would be a good idea for the viewer to walk around with the books while looking at the exhibition. And I hope you have a joyful time here with the books in your hands and the art around you.” She said.

Gallery

Strong People?

root — Thu, 04 Sep 2003 15:17:31 +0000

Opening

September 12 at 5 PM, 2003

Duration

September 12 till October 5, 2003

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

Charlotte Schleiffert

I don’t have a definition for a good painting, or for any other kind of visual art. A good work simply “grabs” you. You keep looking at it and it excites you. There are no preconditions for this to happen. Much are aims just to be beautiful. I think what I am seeking is the opposite: my work always has to have a certain ironic character. It is only interesting when you feel there is something going on under the skin. I simply don’t want my work to be seen as something beautiful, as a thing of beauty in its own right. That’s why I like to show traces of spontaneous action, of the working process. That gives the work certain vigour. Sometimes I have the idea that my sense of beauty falls a long way short of most people’s standards. The concept and the form often focus excessively on the subject. The subject is important, of course, but the way I present it is just as important.

My paintings are here for the people and myself. They can enjoy or give a new experience to them and me. Very often people here in China say to me: but I don’t understand. I think it’s not so much about understanding. People are maybe afraid, are not used to look at art. People have to use their own imagination. They have to search for themselves what they experience. You can just enjoy the colours. I hope people get some kind of feeling when they see my works. They like it, or really dislike.
What I research in a painting is, what is beauty, or what is not beauty. My interest goes more to the “not beauty”. I like it when the painting is questioning me. Do I like the painting, or not. I like it when the painting is difficult. That is on the edge of beauty or ugliness. Then it becomes interesting.

In the first place, I make a painting for myself. Some paintings are more difficult than others. It is a challenge for myself, a research for myself, and in myself. The audience can watch it.

But I never think of the audience when I make a paiting, because then the painting will not satisfy me, because I will get frightened. When you are an artist you always should challenge yourself.

Gallery

Sea & Music Sculpture Manifest Xiamen 2003

root — Tue, 02 Sep 2003 07:56:48 +0000

Opening

2003

Duration

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

Group exhibition

Gallery

DV Space

root — Wed, 04 Jun 2003 15:10:28 +0000

Opening

June 6 at 5 PM, 2003

Duration

June 6 till June 16, 2003

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

Group exhibition

This group exhibition is presented by the art students from the Art College of Xiamen University and is curated by Prof. Qin Jian. The participating artits are:Liu Fang 刘方,Chen Wei 陈伟,Lin Meiya 林美雅,Tang Nan’nan 汤南南,Gu Yue 顾跃,Ying Jian 应健,Zhang Weiwei张微微,Chen Lijun 陈丽筠,Yang Zhifei 杨志飞,Yang Jian 杨健,Wang Weijie 王伟杰,Lan Wux 蓝武锡, Zhou Jie 周婕.

Gallery

Shipping-Xiamen port Artistic Event

root — Fri, 04 Apr 2003 13:58:01 +0000

Opening

April 26 at 5 PM, 2003

Duration

April 26 till May 30, 2003

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

Group exhibition

Shipping-Xiamen port Artistic Event is presented by curator Wu Minghui and participating artists: Yi Xuan, Hong Shunzhang, Wu Minghui, Shenye, Chen Wenling and Dong Xing.

Xiamen port is connected with the world， therefore， Ships and businessmen from all directions come together here and the economy is prosperous. Driven by profits, figures shuttle and ships sail back and forth.The history is described in the rhythm of the tide. Ships from various places perch briefly here, and meanwhile, commercial, cultural resources and values are exchanged.

In the early days of Qing Dynasty, as the trading seaport of Fujian, Xiamen did an active trades with southeast Asia. Tea, tobacoo, porcelain, brick, paper umbrella and dried fruit were exported, on the other hand, rice, silver dollar, wood, marine algae tc were imported. Before Opium War, British cargo ships frequently came in and went out of Xiamen seaport.They not only purchased our white sugar, medicine and silk, but also peddled their tin, lead, woolen goods and pepper. There were about 36 ships going in for trade in sixty years. The shipping is two-way with import, export and Resale intertwined. Western and eastern cultures mingle together bit by bit. Even if the country was confronted with the heavy artillery bombardment, the power of the cultural permeation of the weak should not be underestimated. In Xiamen Island, many buildings have western-style pillars and Minn an-style roofs. “The westwind is overwhelmed by the eastwind.” some-countrymen joke. Qi Jiguang, a patriotic general for fighting against Japanese pirates in Ming Dynasty, once said, “My ambition is not to be made noble, only to hope these a waves were calm.” In fact, these a has never been calm, neither will it， otherwise it would be dead. The change of cultural weakness and strength depends on competition.” The things which go advance at the beginning will fall behind. Whereas, the things backward will go forward from behind.” Nearly all of the cultures absorb something from foreign cultures and then localize it.

Gallery

Woman in The Mirror

root — Fri, 04 Apr 2003 13:33:42 +0000

Opening

April 11 at 5 PM, 2003

Duration

April 11 till May 11, 2003

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

Xiang Jing

Details easily to be found in adolescent females’ daily life are picked out from their realistic background by the Artist Xiang Jing. Those young women’s images are true and their manner are straightforward. But their distracted attention and expression in eyes give the fair tale about adolescency and growing up a sense of instability. It seems that Xiang Jing is showing us some scenes in daily life. However, the scenes themselves are not her point. What she intends to show is the young women’s real mind condition behind their appearance: be at a loss, bored, and depressed. They have been expecting something for too long time.

Xiang Jing’s painting style colour up,her sculptures which is concise and controlled, proves to be an unreplacable art language in her works. Young girls’s images, stimulated by colours, absolutely deny the worldly poetry and slide over the meaning of images in social criticism. However, they amazingly accord to Xiang Jing’s daily life, therefore bear traits of existentialism. Xiang Jing’s awareness of art language and consciousness of taking individuals as art subjects are still distinct in the sculpture coterie in China.

No One Can See For Us
We are combating with eyeballs-for eyeballs are so expensive.
But the only thing we can exchange for, is gazing. Gazing is one way we see, but not with eyes. You collect a great sound from nature. But people shake their heads, “no, I do not hear it.” Do not be disappointed. Gathered people are not natural. You can break the sound and hand the pieces around-“oh, yes, it’s so great.”

Everyday when you get up, you hear the sound of the sky’s beginning. But at dusk, you never notice the setting sun, for you are hurrying with your journey. So you are more meticulous at night than you are in the day, and you are more sober when you are sleeping than you are awake. Appealing, is a way of speaking. But it always looks like a kind of performance, even when hiding behind the annals. It is simply a reproduction of some games to pirates who like melodizing. But anyway performance is a type of visual arts. When you wave your arms with a flourish on the beach, you really seem to be dancing. But pirates think that you just want to get on board.

Look, there is the setting sun behind the boat-it is splendent, and never appeals.
Metaphysics is an offence. It pretends to enlighten you but in fact curses your eyes.
In the musical class you see the piano jounce, but cannot see any sound from it.
With a flight ticket, I see woods and moors, but cannot see the greenness of newly
broken branches, the scorch of fallen leaves, the glittering of dews and the sound
of wind blowing across the field. In the farthest distance, you see the red spire
of a church, but you do not know the direction it is showing.
So “No one can see for us”.

Guang Ci
March, 2003

Gallery

MENTAL ARCHITECTURE

root — Tue, 04 Mar 2003 13:19:01 +0000

Opening

March 14 at 5 PM, 2003

Duration

March 14 till April 6, 2003

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

Jean Bernard Koeman

MENTAL ARCHITECTURE (a travel survival kit) is a site-specific installation which is partly directed by the measures of the space of the Chinese European Art Center. Like most of Jean Bernard Koeman’s former installations it uses the lines and measurement and also the meaning of the space. The attraction that the CEAC has for the European artist in residence; a far away and fascinating place, is enclosed in the ideas for the work. Koeman wanted to make an installation that deals with the fysical concept of travelling.
His plans for the CEAC are a dosed mix of spacial thinking, the
use of architecture as a vehicle for an almost existential metaphor, the introduction of language and ‘lost and found’ objects of massmedia as a pacemaker for a poetic wandering. The ‘central’ text is a sentence as an announcement; ‘Someone who, during the course of a day, repeatedly stands still and looks around, as if, next to the normal procedure of his day, another procedure exists, that he is not aware of’.

The compact parcours of cargocarriers and textboards is almost shaped like a transitzone; a place to pass and wonder. Unlike most transitzones
it bears no practical information but visual poetry and esthetics thereby inviting the viewer to link, think and compose his or her own voyage.

The boxes in the installation are differently sized copies of cargo-carriers as they are used on airports and airplanes to transport luggage and freightage. Objects that are rarely seen by people who don’t work at airports, like most of us. Actually they are somewhat of a mystery, despite their blunt and practical shape; four of them placed next and on top of eachother form a ‘circle’ to fit in the stomach of an airplane.

The cargocarriers serve as ‘transporters’ for all kinds of pictures and
texts that represent the ‘museum’ and therefore a bit of the identity of the artist. Also take a look in the carriers and enjoy the various images that are offered. The artist sees these carriers as architecture, as a ‘Wohnmaschine’ (a term from the Bauhaus movement), a transportable habitat. He imagines it to be a temporary house in which you could fly allover the world. By giving them
different colors and materials the boxes gain an identity but they
still keep the concept of a proposal, a possibility. This proposal
makes it a ‘Mental Architecture’. They can be seen as metaphores
for our desire to travel the world, as transporters of thoughts.

Gallery

Culture and Urban Value

root — Mon, 03 Feb 2003 13:50:45 +0000

Opening

February 28 at 5 PM, 2003

Duration

February 28 till March 7, 2003

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

Ben Sveinsson

A brief introduction

a. The Siming district is in this concept to become an urban area with the characteristics of a city centre or a semi centre. It is supposed to provide all facilities for demands of middle class urban lifestyle：Business, all kinds of services, shopping in street markets, malls, boutiques, you will encounter restaurants, cafes, bars, cinema and other leisure time facilities as well as cultural offer provided by the culture centre and its institutions. It is as well an area for living, working, spare time and cultural activities.

b.The layout of this downtown as the architecture of its streets, alleys, squares, plazas and oases is supposed to give a attractive stage for urban life. Designed to gain urban value, a city itself as cultural project, which is intended to attract, not only other districts of Xiamen city, but over regional areas as well.

How to reach that goal.

The new Siming downtown, some 500×900 meterinits nucleus, will have the
following characteristics,

1.Non-or very limited car traffic(no driving through).The intention is a calm downtown, with intimate moments in its little streets and idyllic in its oases, but a downtown full of life in its street markets, shopping streets, plazas and piazzas, harbourside or at the culture centre.

2.The downtown, at its outer border, is surrounded with a line or wall of high buildings, up to35 floors, witch enclose the area, creating a kind of valley or canyon, in witch the lower city is located. The high buildings serve three important aspects：a.Provide the density, necessary to create an intensive urban life. b.Spare ground for valuable environment, both within the city as out of the city. c.Keep distances short, witch contents an ergonomic and ecological aspect.It’s to be mentioned, that the high buildings are in a certain sense economic, both for investor and habitant. For the habitants it provides quiet atmosphere high above the ground and wide range and sometimes splendid view.