40+4 Art Is Not Enough! Not Enough!
An interactive panoramic documentary film installation
Year
2010-2011
Media
Panoramic video installation
Produced by
What is the situation of artistic development in Shanghai? What are the positions of artists in that? How do artists perceive themselves in this fast-changing context and art economy?
40+4 Art Is Not Enough! Not Enough! is the first interactive panoramic video installation about art in China. It originates from a series of videotaped interviews, by Davide Quadrio, Lothar Spree and Xiaowen Zhu, with forty Shanghai-based artists, dealing not with artwork per se, but rather with how artists themselves perceive their activity, their role, and position in a changing, post-conventional society. It seeks to “map out” some of the contours of the city’s artistic imagination, providing cartography of the force fields of its subjectivities. Above and beyond an unsparingly critical, and at times partisan analysis of artistic imaginaries, it provides a heuristic focus on the urban subjectivities of one of the contemporary world’s most intense urban experiments—Shanghai.
The PanoramaScreen version of 40+4 was created in collaboration with ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe through Xiaowen Zhu's participation in the artist residency program at the museum in 2010 and 2011. 40+4 is part of the museum's permanent collection.
This project is supported by Arthub Asia, Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina, and ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe.
Interviewed artists include Shen Fan, Zhang Enli, Shi Yong, Yu Youhan, Zhou Tiehai, Huang Yuanqing, Xu Zhen, Huang Kui, Yang Fudong, Lu Chunsheng, Liang Yue, Liu Jianhua, Li Shan, Zhang Ding, Tang Maohong, Wang Xingwei, Song Tao, Lao Jin Feng, Hu Jieming, Xiang Liqing, Yang Zhenzhong, Ding Yi, Luo Yongjin, Qiu Anxiong, Xu Longbao, Wang Tiande, Zhu Julan, Song Haidong, Gu Wenda, Li Xiangyang, Gong Ya, Li Lei, Liu Dahong, Wang Nanming, Yu Xiaofu, Zhang Peicheng, Qiu Dexiu, Yang Hui, Zhang Haitian.
© Davide Quadrio | Lothar Spree | Zhu Xiaowen 2010
40 Questions Asked of Participants:
Personal
1. Is an artist powerful? Do you like to be so?
2. Is an artist corruptible? Are you corruptible?
3. Have you ever been doubtful of you yourself being an artist?
4. How do you deal with critics and criticism of your work?
5. Do you think that people should understand your art?
6. Do you find it necessary that a creative/artistic person has a belief?
7. Have you anything to say about art and fear?
8. What do you believe in?
9. During your career, when did you feel special, different, frustrated? And why?
Public
1. Does the artist have to take responsibility for the society he lives in?
2. Is “decency” of concern for an artist?
3. How do you see the relationship between art and ethics?
4. How would you react if a government agency/institution commissioned you to produce a specific work of art for them?
5. What is the relationship between art and power?
6. What is the relationship between art and culture?
7. What and how–do you think–the relationship between Art and Politics should be?
8. Does art open conflicts? Should it do so?
9. What is the relationship between Art History and Ideological History? Is Art History equivalent to Ideological History?
10. Do you still read now? Is reading important for an artist?
11. How did people around you react to you calling yourself an artist?
12. What is the most important contribution of art to social life/society?
13. Do you feel you are a responsible factor within a social and cultural context? How?
Market
1. How do you arrive at a price for your art?
2. Do you like to share your money with your gallerist?
3. Is a curator a facilitator or an artist-user?
4. Is your art a product?
5. After you sold your art, do you miss it? Do you know where it is? Always?
6. Do you like to use your money to support young artists? Just to sponsor them?
7. Is art a mass product? Should it be?
8. Luxury and art, art and luxury? What do you think about this relationship?
9. What do you believe the relationship between gallerists and artists should be?
Two sets of cards were produced and presented during the making of this project, one in English and one in Chinese.
Exhibitions
40+4 Art Is Not Enough! Not Enough! – Chronus Art Center, Shanghai, China, August 8 - August 27, 2014
Move on Asia - Video Art in Asia 2002 to 2012, ZKM | Center for Art and Media– Karlsruhe, Germany, 02.09–08.04, 2013
THERE IS NO WHY, SOLO EXHIBITION, The Arcade Gallery – San Pedro, USA 09.06-09.25, 2013
RUN RUN SHAW CREATIVE MEDIA CENTRE SUMMER FESTIVAL, Hongkong 22.5.2013 - 22.6.2013
"Double Infinity", Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, 2010
"Double Infinity", Shanghai EXPO Dutch Cultural Center, Shanghai, China, 2010
Shanghai eArts Festival, 2010
“Reversed Images” Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, Chicago, USA, 2009
“China! China! China!” Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK, 2009
“Cina! Cina! Cina!” Strozzina Art Space, Florence, Italy, 2008