HOW NOW 新展预告 | a'a'a'jiao：一个ID

展期：2019年4月27日 - 7月14日

地址：上海市浦东新区祖冲之路2277弄1号昊美术馆（上海）3楼6、7号展庁

昊美术馆（上海）荣幸地宣布，将于2019年4月27日至2019年7月14日举办aaajiao/徐文恺个展“a'a'a'jiao：一个ID”。本次展览属于昊美术馆推出的中国青年艺术家HOW NOW系列展览。

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图片致谢艺术家

1989年，万维网在英国科学家蒂姆·伯纳斯·李(Tim Berners-Lee)手中诞生。aaajiao（徐文恺）正是在数字技术与网络连接中成长的一代。

《观察者》，单频彩色录像、网站，尺寸可变，15'32''，2017，图片来自艺术家工作室

三十年后的今天，人们仍然无法用一个词或者一句话来描述互联网带来的改变。在aaajiao看来，技术带来了更多的可能性，满足了人们更多的欲望，同时也带来新的困局和危机：人们越来越以数字和在线的形式存在，被更紧密和广泛地联系在一起，“独立”、“自由”越来越成为无可理喻的抽象概念。

《博客考古》，装置，亚克力，电子秤，240cm × 350cm × 140cm，2010，图片来自艺术家工作室

数量难以想象的数据被争夺和控制，技术的空前强大和渗透使强权的宰治变得便捷，人们越来越面临爱德华·威尔逊（Edward O．Wilson）描述的“真社会生物”中个体异化的危险。如果说艺术表现着人们心灵的形状，那么这一形状正在被技术深深地改变着。

《水测•石油》，装置，绮怡玻璃瓶、BLK水、蠕动泵结构、金属和亚克力配件，20 x 12 x 50 cm，2017，图片来自艺术家工作室

《视窗碑林》，装置，金属结构和 UV 打印，尺寸可变，2016，图片来自艺术家工作室

针对这一问题，艺术家们如果想有所作为，只能从技术的核心和机制中展开工作，而aaajiao由于所学学科的原因正处于这一位置，他直接面对并紧紧拥抱了革新中的技术和思想，从对技术的反思中探索着人类精神的安全出口，同时赋予作品以新的思维和美学。

《存在》，雕塑，3D打印树脂 ，30 x 30 x 27cm，2015，图片来自艺术家工作室

关于艺术家

aaajiao，是年轻艺术家徐文恺的化名，也是他虚构的网络分身。1984年（他的出生年份恰好是乔治·奥威尔经典预言式小说的名称），出生于中国最古老城市之一的西安，aaajiao的创作结合了浓重的反乌托邦意识、对文人精神的反思。他的很多作品都致力于探索新的科技和媒体影响之下的文化现象和政治策略，从社交媒体写作、数据处理，到网络和移动媒介下的新美学景观。作为今天全球新一代媒体艺术的代表人物，aaajiao将今天中国特殊的社交媒体文化、科技运用带入了国际艺术的话语和讨论。

aaajiao的作品频繁展出于全球的美术馆和艺术机构，例如：《1989年到今天：网络时代的艺术》，美国波士顿当代艺术中心 ICA Boston，2018；《非真实》，瑞士巴塞尔电子艺术之家（HeK），2017；《身体·媒体II》，上海当代艺术博物馆，2017；《上海种子》，2017；《带我走（我是你的）》（由Hans Ulrich Obrist与Jens Hoffmann策展），美国纽约犹太人美术馆，2016；《时间转向：当代亚洲的艺术与思辨》，美国堪萨斯斯班塞美术馆，2016；《波普之上》，上海余德耀美术馆，2016；《黑客空间》（由Hans Ulrich Obrist与Amira Gad策展），香港K11艺术基金会临时空间及上海chi K11美术馆，2016；《全方位：全控制和言论控制》，德国ZKM卡尔斯鲁厄艺术与媒体中心，2015；《齐物等观——2014国际新媒体艺术三年展》，北京中国国家美术馆，2014，等。

他近期个展包括2016年英国曼彻斯特华人艺术中心以及同年OACT西安馆的《电子遗留物》等。2014年，他不仅获得了第三届三亚艺术季暨华宇青年评审大奖，亦入围首届 OCAT皮埃尔·于贝尔奖。

aaajiao现生活、工作于上海、柏林两地。

Duration  2019/04/27 - 07/14

Venue    Gallery 6/7, F3, HOW Art Museum, No 1, Lane 2277, Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai

We are pleased to announce that HOW Art Museum （Shanghai）will be hosting a solo exhibition of aaajiao/Xu Wenkai aaajiao：an ID from April 27, 2019 until July 14, 2019. This show is part of HOW NOW exhibition series featuring young Chinese artists.

Totem, Sculpture, Resin， Dimensions variable, 2015, Photo provided by artist's studio

In 1989, the world wide web was created at the hands of the English scientist Tim Berners-Lee. aaajiao (Xu Wenkai) is part of the generation who grow up within this interconnected network and experienced the process of technological digitalization firsthand. Yet, thirty years later people are still incapable of summing up in one sentence all the changes that the internet has brought.

Anomaly, Installation, Sponges, 72 * 66.5*67.7cm/each, 2015, Photo provided by artist's studio

aaajiao holds the perspective that, with the plethora of possibilities and immense satisfaction technology has brought with it a host of new dilemmas and crises: individual existence is increasingly defined on-line and in the form of numbers, the tightening of the inter-net makes the extensiveness of connectedness more and more immediate, causing the notions of “freedom" and “independence” to become abstract concepts outside the range of perception. 

Email Trek, Video installation, website, 17' LED screen, PC sheet with UV print, 2016, Photo provided by artist's studio

The attainment and ascendance of an unfathomable amount of data paired with the unprecedented penetration of preeminence via technology make governance evermore convenient. People are increasingly faced with the danger of individual alienation by becoming what Edward O. Wilson described as "Eusocial Organisms”. If art represents the state of people's minds, then its form is in the process of being profoundly altered by technology.

Membranization_Gluttony, Installation, PVC sheet, Solar film, Dimensions variable, 2018, Photo provided by artist's studio

Faced with the given predicament, if artists hope to play any sort of role in all of this, then they must first posit their practices at the core of the technological mechanism. Due to aaajiao’s background, he welcomes and fully embraces new technology and thought brought about by this revolution; exploring the potential emergency exit for the psychological disposition of human beings through reflecting on technology while proposing a new way of thinking and aesthetics in the form of artworks.

About the Artist

Active online as a media artist, blogger, activist and programmer, aaajiao is a virtual persona of Shanghai- and Berlin - artist Xu Wenkai. Born in 1984—the title of George Orwell’s classic allegorical novel — and in one of China’s oldest cities, Xi’an, aaajiao’s art and works are marked by a strong dystopian awareness, literati spirits and sophistication. Many of aaajiao’s works speak to new thinkings, controversies and phenomenon around the Internet, with specific projects focusing on the processing of data and the blogsphere. aaajiao’s recent projects extend his practice to various disciplines (among them, architecture, topography, and design) to capture the pulse of the young generation consuming cyber technology and living in social media.

aaajiao’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions around the world, upcoming and recent shows include “Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today”, The Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Boston (2018); “unREAL”, Haus der elektronischen Künste, Basel (2017); “Shanghai Project Part II”, Shanghai (2017); “Temporal Turn: Art and Speculation in Contemporary Asia”, Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas (2016); “Take Me (I’m Yours)” (curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jens Hoffmann and Kelly Taxter), Jewish Museum, New York (2016); “Overpop”, Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2016); “Hack Space” (curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Amira Gad), K11 Art Foundation Pop-up Space, Hong Kong and chi K11 art museum, Shanghai (2016); “Globale: Global Control and Censorship”, ZKM | Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2015); “Thingworld International Triennial of New Media Art”, The National Art Museum of China, Beijing (2014); and Transmediale, Berlin (2010). His solo exhibition includes: “Remnants of an Electronic Past”, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester (2016); OCAT Contemporary Art Terminal Xi’an, Xi’an (2016), among others. 

He was awarded the Art Sanya Awards in 2014 Jury Prize and was nominated for the first edition of OCAT-Pierre Huber Art Prize in 2014.

aaajiao lives and works in Shanghai and Berlin.

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