Curated by Bian Ka
This second installment of the research-driven exhibition “Society Guidance” shifts its focus from the profound effects of China’s post-1978 social transformation on its artistic and intellectual elite to the emerging voices of ordinary people during the 1990s, purportedly the time of the rise and liberation of the individual. One example: The show will feature photographer Xu Yong, who extensively documented Beijing’s hutongs—the small, endangered alleyways found in historic parts of the city—and later launched a business providing hutong tours to foreign visitors, a practice once strictly forbidden by the government. Through the thematic lenses of feminism, pop-culture, subcultures, and subjectivity this survey will also present the work of Chen Zhen, Double Fly Art Center, Huang Jingyuan, Li Juchuan, Xing Danwen, Xu Yong, and others, examining the ways artistic practices were used by people who were, voluntarily or otherwise, making a break from existing society.
