About the book and exhibition Het Lente-eiland

J. Slauerhoff, one of the most well-known Dutch writers of the twentieth century, worked as a ship-doctor on the Java-China-Japan line in the 1920’s and in this capacity made extensive journeys along the ports of China. Highly fascinated by Chinese culture, Slauerhoff, when his ship arrived at a port, would hurry ashore and emerge himself in the unknown and mysterious cities. He would breathe-in the atmosphere, write diary-entries, letters and reports en would use these later as a source of inspiration for his literary work.

One of his most famous stories Het Lente-eiland was published seventy-five years ago for the first time. This story was inspired by the island of Gulangyu, just of the coast of the city of Xiamen. This spring Dutch photographer Marco van Duyvendijk was invited by the Consulate-general in Guangzhou to make a photoseries inspired on the original story of Slauerhoff. He roamed around Gulangyu for a month with Het Lente-eiland as his source of inspiration.

On the 28th of november 2008 the consulate-general of the Netherlands in Guangzhou would like to present the publication of Het Lente-eiland in Xiamen. The beautifully designed book will be bilingual, containing both the original version of Het Lente-eiland and its first ever Chinese translation, combined with the photos of Marco van Duyvendijk.

Marco van Duyvendijk (1974) is regarded as one of the young talents in Dutch photography. His work, which was made mainly during his extensive travels through countries in Eastern Europe and Asia, was praised internationally for his personal and intimate approach of his subjects and his subtle use of composition and colour. His work has been exhibited in recent years in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France and the United States. He has published three photobooks. Also his work was shown in many publications, both in the Netherlands and abroad.
www.marcovanduyvendijk.com

Gallery

Jaring Lokhorst (1972) and Chantal Spit (1971) are artists from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Both Lokhorst and Spit make figurative paintings, for which they use photographs as point of departure. Their work is a highly personal response to their view of the world. Of course, their paintings are different in many respects; due to the different frames of reference of the makers. Still, both artists have much in common, for in both their works the world as they see it is deconstructed, redefined and in the end creatively articulated with the medium they love most: paint.

‘Sweet & Sour’ is the title of this exhibition. It shows a selection of paintings that Lokhorst and Spit made during their 4-months stay in Xiamen. The title could be, among other things, interpreted as a metaphor for life, which has both its sweet and sour side.

These sweet and sour sides of life are visible in different ways. Lokhorst presents a series of paintings with images of car wrecks or parts of car wrecks as subject. Carwrecks tell us that lives and things don’t last forever. It is quite a dramatic message. At the same time the wrecks have been painted in a way that makes clear that there is beauty in transience. Broken objects, dents, shattered glass, rust and twisted steel are painted with direct brushstrokes and intuitively chosen colours. Generally speaking the composition of the works shows us only a part of the object. But Lokhorst also offers us a look at a whole world of wires and sometimes unrecognizable car parts and in doing so presents the viewer with an adventure of form, rhythm, colour and speed of brush. Although they tell a sad story, there is a beautiful interplay between the subjects of these paintings. Sweet meets sour.

Chantal Spit’s work is a sort of diary. Her subjects appear to be sweet, as is for instance seen on the painting “Lost Bird” where a little bird can be seen sitting on someone’s hand. Still, Spit’s works never reveal what really happens in the picture. It’s not her ambition to force her version of the story on the viewer. Through her paintings she offers a hint at things that one can fantasize about or that might trigger a memory.
Especially in works like ‘Bed’or ‘Red Scarfs’, where someone’s presence can be sensed without seeing him or them, the viewer is challenged to create his own story.

Creating a story in this way means making use of things (experiences, knowledge, memories, feelings) that are already present in your heart and mind. To find these one sometimes will have to go back in time. Maybe that’s the reason for the melancholic nature of Spit’s work.
‘Sweet and Sour’ is a typical ingredient in the Chinese kitchen as well. Being in China, working under different circumstances with different materials, forced both artists to be creative in finding new solutions for the problems they encountered in order to create their works. These small differences and the inspiration that they derived from living in Xiamen for four months flavoured their work with a Chinese sauce.

Jaring Lokhorst and Chantal Spit are thoroughbred painters. They consider themselves heirs to the Dutch tradition where brightness and treatment of paint have the utmost priority.

In this exhibition the pleasure and enthusiasm with which they worked in Xiamen is clearly visible.
Enjoy the show!

The exhibition was made possible with support by The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.
www.fondsbkvb.nl

Jaring en Chantal joined forces during their residence at the CEAC in Xiamen. Both artists make figurative paintings in their own style. Through their work the artists show their individual perception of the world around them.

The exhibition ‘Sweet and Sour” shows the work that Jaring and Chantal made during their 4 month stay in Xiamen. The Consul General of The Netherlands from Guangzhou Mr. Ton van Zeeland will open the exhibition. We are happy to invite you to this exciting event.

Homepages:
www.jaringlokhorst.nl
www.chantalspit.nl
isplay”>Gallery

]]> https://www.ceac99.org/7695/exhibitions-and-events/feed/ 0 https://www.ceac99.org/7691/exhibitions-and-events/ https://www.ceac99.org/7691/exhibitions-and-events/#respond Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:44:05 +0000 http://www.ceac99.org/?p=7691

Opening

October 17 at 5 PM, 2008

Duration

October 17 till November 7, 2008

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

Group exhibition

The Chinese European Art Center invites you to the exhibition You can miss things you never had, a cooperation between postgraduate students of the Multimedia Department of Xiamen University Art College and the MFA students of the Sandberg Institute Amsterdam. Twenty European and Chinese students are selected for this show.

The exhibition You can miss things you never had is about the desire to transform. The title, referencing the sixties hit by Ike & Tina Turner, points to a quickly changing world and the longing to step forward and experience something new. It shows a concise interplay of young European and Chinese contemporary art. This fruitfull cooperation, strengthened and underlined once more in this exhibition, combines artworks about cultural identity and its perception as well as personal and unique positions. Most of the works on view are specially created for this artistic intercultural encounter. Live performances take place during the opening.

Participating artists: Libin Chen, Wei Chen, Marieke Coppens, Nina Glockner, Freya Hattenberger, Xiaoqin Huang, Jin Jing, Wypke Jannette Walen, Vera Korman, Battal Kurt, Jenny Lindblom, Hermen Maat, Zhenxi Mi, Kali Nikolou, Julia Ortlieb, Wouter Venema, Zenghui Xue, Hechen Wang, Weina, Zhifei Yang and Emile Zile.

Gallery

Xu Huijing: ‘Do you see? I am here.’‘The Earth, The Human Being’
“Each of us is a universe. We used to the integrated with the earth but we are shattered apart in the reality. This is a world where we walk around like fearless monsters. We are limbs incised from a body, a finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a human being.”

Virginie Bailly: ‘Behind the wall’ there’s ‘a mop for every day’
Between 2006 and 2008 I stayed three times in China and explored the areas around and between Beijing, inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Xiamen. During these fascinating travels a variety of images were imprinted on my retina. Three times I looked at China, though each time with a different eye.

My first look at China was characterized by surprise, chaos and overwhelming images, but was at the same time limited to an aesthetic formal language and a feeling of alienation originating from that. I read above all the beauty of China. My second travel provided me with a wider view. Forms were linked with content – beauty was converted to appearance. Because my view was broadened, certain aspects that were troubled by fascination and overwhelming feelings during my first trip were now illuminated. One of the most striking elements were the piled brick walls that were erected in both the countryside and the cities. The walls each told their own story. Were they there to be used? Or were they waiting to be taken to another place? As I became more and more absorbed by China, those autonomous sculptural walls became a metaphor for the country. The construction and deconstruction of metropolises. The destruction old quarters to make way for new estates. Brushing up the streets for the Olympic Games in Bejing and the world expo 2010 in Shanghai. Certain aspects of Chinese culture are concealed by those big walls that serve as fences. Demerits are hidden by the pursuit of harmony that creates a one-sided image of China at the expense of its multiple richnesses.

During my stay in Xiamen I recorded images with my video and photo camera that made me decide: ‘Behind the wall’ there’s ‘a mop for every day’. The mops caught my attention in the first place because they are funny and unknown instruments to fight the dirt. More and more they came into the picture: a mop in the gutter; one on a hatstand, another leaning like a dull doorkeeper against the door, still another one planted with its handle in a flowerbed and finally a whole row of mops in a temple as a group of graceful cheerleaders for Buddha. In short, I started to collect those images in which mops in all their appearances got their own character and individuality. In relation with the brick walls, the instrument to remove dust and mud all of a sudden got a metaphorical meaning; they both clean up temporarily.

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Cecile van der Heiden is artist in residence for 6 months from May 1 st until November at the Chinese European Art Center (CEAC). Cecile van der Heiden, born in the Netherlands she is a Dutch based artist. She has travelled and worked in Mexico , Italy , Egypt , Spain and The United States.

Until now the outspoken images in the work of Cecile van der Heiden, were made on a base of Perspex. With more recent works the images are no longer caught in a frame. The new forms hang as independent constellations on the wall. Strong movements are combined with quiet fields. In the process of pouring they seem to appear spontaneously. In fact, the artist chooses her colour palette very decisively. The movement is directed and ends in a moment of great precision. The arrangement of colours has a strong visual diversity. Concentration, balance and vitality are keywords for the work of Cecile van der Heiden. Her work is represented in various national and international private and public collections. She teaches at The Royal Academy of Visual Art in The Hague , the Netherlands.

During her artist in residence program, a lecture about her work at the Art College , Xiamen University will be held. In the beginning of May 2008 Cecile Van Der Heiden arrived in China . She stepped into a different world than the western society previously inhabited. She explored the streets of Xiamen , discovering the city on foot, by bicycle and bus. Immediately, Chinese influences crept into her work. She started with a series of small sculptures that she prefers to call ‘props’, in which she uses different daily articles that struck her in the first weeks in China. On a rainy day Cecile visited the island of Gulang Yu , in an almost mystical atmosphere. No tourists to be found in the rain, the island alone with itself, exotic flowers, roofs covered by swirling plants, lost villas, quiet, yet waiting for a tune to come. Arrays of beautiful shells were discovered.
She decided to make a series of works under the title;
Artis Natura Magistra: nature is the teacher of art .

The props, mentioned above, can be viewed on the exhibition.
She has always admired Chinese art and calligraphy. One day Ineke Gudmundsson showed her an old Chinese children’s book with a beautiful cover. Additionally, the story and illustrations throughout the book pleased her very much. The cover illustration had a stark similarity with the forms of her plastic works. She decided to use the cover and title of this children’s book for her exhibition.The vitality of her work can also be seen in the recently made fans. She is happy to be welcomed into the Chinese society, every day discovering something new in the amazingly ancient and current culture of today’s China .

For more information you can check website www.cecilevanderheiden.nl

Gallery

]]> https://www.ceac99.org/7622/exhibitions-and-events/feed/ 0 https://www.ceac99.org/7594/exhibitions-and-events/ https://www.ceac99.org/7594/exhibitions-and-events/#respond Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:00:11 +0000 http://www.ceac99.org/?p=7594

Opening

June 6 at 5 PM, 2008

Duration

June 6 till 21, 2008

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

About Andrew Kelly

A major concern of Andrew Kelly’s practice is how value may be placed on ‘artworks’. The work is produced in response to his feelings’ paradox, that either art is not appreciated enough, or sanctified too much, either by artists themselves or other figures in the art world.Kelly displays a capacity to initiate a series of enquiries that co-relate philosophical and conceptual discourse, a personal relationship with images derived from diverse environments and professional commitment to the exploration of digital media.

A major focus develops from philosophical/metaphysical questions, such as the notion of nothingness. He addresses these issues though photography, film and text. When trying to write about ‘nothing’ one ultimately begins to define it , making it something. Attempts to make a photographic image of ‘nothing’, render the incapability to do so, thus developing the paradoxical state that his practice works in. These processes create ephemeral and evolving works, aiming to subvert the apparent model for valuing and making art.

Every work for Kelly is an attempt to understand his own scopophilic tendencies of why one needs to make, photograph or film things. Challenging the notion that ‘nothing’ really is ‘nothing’ has become analogous to a metaphor for the way in which we might value or devalue art. This has meant that the practice has become very open and extremely democratic to itself. He maintains a focus yet has examined his ideas in diverse ways developing independent bodies of imagery relative to specific themes generated through the engagement with object, place or context. Working in China has allowed Kelly to focus on a new body of work that for the first time pays attention to the hypocrisy within the playground of media and governmental powers around the world.

All works are the results of methodical processes documenting the concerns of each piece. Whether layering images of personal occasions, or documents of thought processes and reading, there are double sets of criteria concerning value in each work, working against each other. The more content in a piece means that more ideas and time have been documented, yet creating a work that may only appear to be an attempt to present beauty. The intention in fact, is to strip away the meaning of each image or thought to form an unimportant surface, which ironically may become valued as an artwork. This is where Kelly’s problematic relationship with aesthetic pleasure is embodied.

As part of the exhibition, Kelly has arranged XTOL , a live sound performance based around a formulated board game. Players will be linked to an exhibition in Leeds, UK where they will directly influence and respond to their game partners in UK. Via internet link, a 30-minute audio dialogue will take place.

Performances: Monday 9, Tuesday 10, Wednesday 11 June at 17:15 in CEAC.

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]]> https://www.ceac99.org/7594/exhibitions-and-events/feed/ 0 https://www.ceac99.org/7573/exhibitions-and-events/ https://www.ceac99.org/7573/exhibitions-and-events/#respond Mon, 05 May 2008 14:46:39 +0000 http://www.ceac99.org/?p=7573

Opening

May 9 at 5 PM, 2008

Duration

May 9 till 31, 2008

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

About Matty Vroegop and Ed Schoonveld

What do we expect of art? According to the romantic point of view an artist removes the veil of the commonplace from our everyday world. In giving artist expression to original perceptions the artist offers an image that discloses the world in an eternal light. Such works of art stand out over and against the artefacts and utensils that adorn our dreary homes.

The Dutch artists-duo Vroegop/Schoonveld (Matty Vroegop & Ed Schoonveld )- currently having an exhibition in the CEAC at Xiamen – do not operate in that way. Far from decrying the commonplace they pay due attention to it and unveil it as the amazing world it is, offering a fresh view on the mass-produced things with which we surround ourselves.

In the last century mass production was mostly seen as the opposite of works of art. The mass production and mass copying of artworks did challenge the common ideal of the artist. Perhaps we should no longer look at the artist as the exalted genius who produces unique pieces of art. Rather the contemporary artist, exposed to the surrounding technological culture, may position him or herself as a researcher who investigates the prevailing conditions of perception and image production in everyday life. New technologies, like medical scanning devices, GPS, or telecommunication, change our perceptions and behaviour. They mediate our senses and disclose the world in unprecedented ways. Instead of using these technologies in an instrumental way for unique self-expression, artists can define their work as Artistic Industrial Research. In that case they do not focus exclusively on self expression but immerse themselves in production processes. These become the working material and subject of artistic reflection.

The exhibition of Vroegop/Schoonveld is a proof of this approach of Artistic Industrial Research. They did not bring preconceived artistic concepts to China in order to realize them making use of China’s cheap mass production, but they rather delved into in the conditions and ramifications of mass production in China on its own terms. Their exhibition emerged in the process of making themselves familiar with Chinese operations.

China has a very long history of modular mass production. It started already with the casting of Shang bronzes but pertains as well to porcelain production, lacquer ware and even the building of palaces, temples and houses. Modular mass production requires the breaking up of a total process into composite parts and functions which have to be aggregated again and adjusted under local conditions of use. Mass production presupposes an adequate dealing with the tension between a multitude of things and an ordering grid or an overarching taxonomy of operation procedures. The exhibition of Vroegop/Schoonveld focuses exactly on this creative tension in Chinese production methods.

Mass produced commodities find their way into our everyday life via wholesale and retail. The mainstream of goods branches out into many finer arteries and ends in the capillary vessels of the family businesses bordering on China ‘s crowded city streets. There we see the familiar small scale stores with goods put in the forefront towards the street while the family lives right behind it, grouped cosily around the TV-set, eating noodles while the small child sleeps on top of the crates and packages stacked along the back wall. Vroegop/Schoonveld did not only use this Chinese model in their installation at the CEAC but the model is itself what they want to put on display. The exhibition shows the very tension between the ordering principles (ranging from industries to everyday life) on the one hand and the chaos of a multitude of things, commodities and devices on the other.

Moreover the model exhibited betrays another, more profound tension as well: the tension between the Chinese way of displaying the commodities of everyday life and the artist exhibition thereof within the ‘white cube’ of the Art Gallery . The Art Gallery defines a ritual space in which unique works of art are dramatized. By installing a model of a Chinese shop/wholesale display within the Gallery, two principles of defining art are confronted. Every display of culture betrays a specific culture of display. The Chinese model of display challenges the western exhibition of art, but the model is paradoxically exhibited according to the laws of modern art. The CEAC comes to its right as the arena in which multicultural options clash and fertilize each other. A new type of artist is promoted in this exciting cross-cultural event.

Petran Kockelkoren, prof. Art & Technology of the University of Twente in the Netherlands , cofounder with Vroegop/Schoonveld of AIR&CO (Artistic Industrial Research).

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]]> https://www.ceac99.org/7573/exhibitions-and-events/feed/ 0 https://www.ceac99.org/7548/exhibitions-and-events/ Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:57:14 +0000 http://www.ceac99.org/?p=7548

Opening

April 4 at 5 PM, 2008

Duration

April 4 till 26, 2008

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

About Sara Riel

Sara Riel is exhibiting new works at the Chinese European Art Center (CEAC) Xiamen, under the title Made in China, referring to the fact that she travelled to China and made unique items out of mass-produced materials. The exhibition consists of installations, paintings, a photograph and 700 handmade invitation cards (multiples) that were scattered around the globe.

This exhibition is an investigation of Riel’s perception of a new surrounding and situation, and of the internal, feelings in these moments of being out of place. Searching for influences from the external world, exploring unfamiliar places without expectation, excitingly turning around corners and constantly trusting in the unknown. Finding herself isolated and alienated in the most populated country in the world, due to language difficulties, the situation also forced her to look within and face the many mental stages of the mind.

Another huge influence came from learning Tai Chi and the teachings of her master Yang, about the theories surrounding internal martial art. The importance of flow and finding balance everywhere. Understanding concept such as there is black in white and white in black, there is yin in the yang and yang in the yin. Another thought is to be a rope not a stick, the stick can break but the rope will swing.

These artworks are visual fractions, focusing on arousing a feeling of the vanishing moment or of the thought. They are meant to stimulate the viewers’ imagination rather than to present the obvious. Compared to literature or music, these works are more like poems rather than novels, soundscapes rather than songs.

Gallery

]]> https://www.ceac99.org/7530/exhibitions-and-events/ https://www.ceac99.org/7530/exhibitions-and-events/#respond Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:39:42 +0000 http://www.ceac99.org/?p=7530

Opening

March 7 at 5 PM, 2008

Duration

March 7 till 23, 2008

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

About Amy Wong

Amy Wong is a painter of Chinese descent, born in toronto, who has lived and worked in Toronto, Montreal and Amsterdam. She is the first Canadian participant in the CEAC residency program, resulting in the exhibition from her 5-month stay in Xiamen, “Work on Wonder.

As a subjective approach to social ideas, Wong s paintings and drawings are
investigations into plurality, romanticism, and a personal politic in an attempt to understand her self within the world. Growing up between two cultures(with many others floating around) in an idiosyncratic way has formed how she looks into the markers of culture/identity, and how people understand each other with such codes She therefore approaches logic within shades of grey rather than in black and white, and looks for truthfulness in contradiction, using ambiguity to play with existing conventions. By looking at different angles simultaneously, she attempts to extract nething meaningful from the inevitable ether of history, pop and garbage that we
live in today.

Wongs points of departure lie in existential moments, and balancing bitchy feelings with soft ones, through the subversion of matrices from eclectic sources. As her way to contemplate life and the inevitable cliches of life, all in a mix of high and low culture Wong searches for a sense of empowerment, asserting a sardonic, but ultimately hopeful sensibility.

To ‘wonder’ is to reflect on a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable

Gallery

]]> https://www.ceac99.org/7530/exhibitions-and-events/feed/ 0 https://www.ceac99.org/7484/exhibitions-and-events/ https://www.ceac99.org/7484/exhibitions-and-events/#respond Sat, 05 Jan 2008 12:55:02 +0000 http://www.ceac99.org/?p=7484

Opening

January 11 at 5 PM, 2008

Duration

January 11 till 27, 2008

Location

CEAC, Xiamen, China

Artist

About Kaleb de Groot and Roosje Klap

Artists Kaleb de Groot and Roosje Klap are closing their four-month residency in China with an exhibition and a book-launch at the Chinese European Art Centre (CEAC) in Xiamen, under the title ‘Exquisite Gunpowder 16 City Shot’, referring to the always fantastic names of
fireworks and its’ awkward Chinese translations, as well as the amount of weeks they have stayed in China.

This project focusses on the idea around implosion and explosion, producing broadband ways to freeze-frame explosions in the most physical of forms. This is resulting in the presentation of a very special ‘artist-book’ and a site-specific installation at the Chinese European Art Centre in Xiamen.

They were both struck in different ways by the rigourous ways of the cities’ new floor plan, demolishing beautiful authentic city along its hungry way. For the installation at the CEAC Kaleb and Roosje have researched ways to make fast-growing mixtures and inflatables that
literally blow up or down in size. These spatial studies are referring to the frenzy in modern (Chinese) architecture: after the construction these sculptures are rearranged in a new order at the Art Center, to create both a floorplan and installation at the same time.

The book on the other hand will focus on the kaleidoscopic translation of the general concept of ‘EGC16S’. The book holds two especially designed pop-ups: explosions in paper. Furthermore, photoseries of their Xiamenese site-related outside event ‘Blowing up in Public’ is featured as well as drawings and other photographs. Kaleb and Roosje have also asked no
less then four internationally acclaimed writers to contribute for the book: fiction-writer Nina Thibo (NL), war correspondent Joeri Boom (NL, chief editor for ‘De Groene Amsterdammer’, Dutch opinion magazine), and curators Huib Haye van der Werf (USA/NL) and Florian Wüst (D). All texts are completely translated in Chinese. The book is published by Revolver, archiv fur aktuelle kunst, ISBN 978-3-86588-458-9; 128 pages, 285×210 mm, hardcover, sewn.

During their stay they kept a weblog on their findings in China as well as the work-process, images and the project-description in full and more information about the artists is also to be found there. You can find a link to this weblog via www.kalebdegroot.nl and www.roosjeklap.nl (English)

Both project and publication are made possible with support of The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture www.fondsbkvb.nl

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