You Look Like a World - the Body Narrative in Contemporary Art

“… you look like a world, lying in surrender.
My rough peasant's body digs in you and makes the son leap from the depth of the earth.”
- Pablo Neruda

The body, as the expression content of artistic works, has appeared in cave murals in ancient times. By the time of the European Renaissance, artists held high the banner of humanism and established the peak of realistic painting by studying human body based on anatomy. Since modernism, the artistic implication of the body has gone beyond the aesthetic principle of sublime rationality in the classical time. It had been endowed with richer connotations, turning into an image of the spirit of the times. In the post-modern period, the body has been constantly deconstructed and constructed, becoming the carrier of soul, concept, philosophy, religion, politics, history, etc. It even goes beyond the cognition and appeals of the above dimensions and becomes the new beginning of exploring and breaking through the unknown world.

Among them, the most characteristic expression is the Live Art. This is a holistic idea. It has been used to describe theatrical performances, dances, improvisational music, action painting, performance art, sound art, conceptual art, etc. which have taken place extensively in public arenas since the 1970s. It is the kind of art that highlights live, time, space and experimentation. Because of its overt connection with space, time and audience, it is different from the more static aesthetic modes of traditional painting and sculpture, and others. Especially since the 1990s, the rise of live art festivals in many cities around the world has made it possible for the above-mentioned live art performances for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary exchanges.

The artists invited to this exhibition share certain commonalities in many ways, of which "body" has been an important element in their artistic works. Intervening the expression of artistic works with physical experience could be found explicitly or implicitly in their works. Their works make available for us observable samples for the discussion of body narrative in contemporary art.

They work with painting, video, performance art, conceptual art and other artistic forms, including motif from nature, history, politics, religion, city, to daily life, and more. They present their own diversified personal experience and expression in the context of today's globalization.

Some of these artists have lived and created their arts in Yunnan for a long time, while others only stayed and created here for a short time. This makes the exhibition more of a sample of regional contemporary art in the context of globalization.

It is also in this setting that the discussions about artists and their works are made into concrete and sensible coordinates that cross-reference and define each other. They in turn connect the network of the world, Asia, China and Yunnan, translating into the cultural happenings that are being generated at this moment.

By take advantage to hold its debut exhibition, the Empty Space wants to send a message to the public that an open and experimental art sharing platform welcomes everyone to give it a different spirit and implication.

Presented by Kunming Soho Culture Communication Co., Ltd

Organized by Jinding 1919 Cultural and Creative Park

Co-organized by Kong Art Space

Curator: He Libin.

Artists:
Be atrice Didier (Belgium), Bunny (Kunming), Deng Shangdong (Chengdu), Ding Aichun

(Kunming), Efat Razowana Reya (Bangladesh), Hu Yanzi (Chongqing), Li Zhiyang (Kunming), Mao Xuhui (Kunming), Tang Zhigang (Kunming), Tong Wenmin (Chongqin), Yang Hui & Tang Weichen (Kunming), Evamaria Schaller (Germany), Prithvi Shrestha (Nepal), Xin Wangjun (Beijing), Yan Yingjia (Hong Kong), Yumi moon (Korea), Zeng Xiaofeng (Kunming), Zhou Bin (Chengdu)

Extension: 10:00-18:00, July 6 –July 20, 2019 (Every day, except on Mondays)