「展览现场」欢迎预约观展 陌生的客人The Other ——当代艺术展
The Other
"One Atelier," as a space to showcase art, differs significantly from conventional "white cube" spaces in that it is originally a residence. Therefore, when the owner's aesthetic tastes and style are manifested through classic home designs and collections within the space, the exhibitions at One Atelier exude a distinctive characteristic--there is a “comfortable” relationship between the place and its furnishings. However, "comfort" also inherently carries a consistent and monotonous frequency. When visible elements are only a propagation of things with similar temperaments, and when they are arranged in a neat sequence, it becomes the "homogeneity" often contradicts contemporary art. And this is the first impression I had of One Atelier.
In contemporary art, which must engage with the real-life context, "heterogeneity" is an indispensable element. It relies on a certain negating force to preserve its critical core amidst the dazzling forms of modernity, to squeeze out the space and vitality for "contemporary art." Coincidentally, whether it is the avant-garde art experiments of the past in the West or early contemporary art in China, they have both found shelters with private apartments to realize the possibilities as the “heterogeneous others.” In a relatively stale social environment, early "apartment art" were able to carry out new artistic expressions and aesthetic explorations, thus shouldering the mission of “providing a way for living art”.
In the context of today’s art market, contemporary art in its broad sense no longer has the anxiety of survival. However, how to identify "living art" has become a central concern. This is because space for individual artistic creation is succumbing to institutional establishment, increasingly specialized texts, popular knowledge production, and the "smooth" screen-based experiences devoid of physical body—live streaming, online conferences, online sharing, clicking “likes” --all of these are suffocating “living art”. Artistic practice is losing its physicality and its connection to reality, conforming to the numb regression of the times.
Within the current art system, young artists engaged in the creation of non-easel art often face even more challenges. Contemporary art creation provides them with the impulse and abilities to express themselves in the face of changes and reality. However, this autonomy of expression and emergence of perceptual forms are often suppressed and delayed by both their own social circumstances and the pressure of consumerism. The growing predicament of individual expression, in turn, further exacerbates the deterioration of the ecological system of art. Consequently, a significant number of those “outsider” art workers are neglected and undermined. Many of these young individuals, after graduating, reside in places "other" than urban areas such as Shunyi or Yanjiao, or commute between their hometowns and Beijing. This distinct geographical boundary and vertical power structure are deeply imprinted on this generation of young artists. Moreover, the substantial scale and dispersion of their position relative to the "center" make them markedly diverse from one another. The young artists invited to this exhibition were all born between 1989 and 1999. In addition to their youthful vigor, the most crucial commonality is their fierceness imbued with a certain "rawness." History appears to be repeating itself, as today's active young artists seem to seek refuge once again in apartments—this time at One Atelier—to gain visibility and mark the beginning of identifying the essence of "living art."