Chenchen
Originating in the 1990s, Chinese media art has become a highly innovative and experimental genre in the Chinese contemporary art scene. Unlike traditional artistic media such as paintings and sculptures, media art, with its dynamic and interactive ways of presentation, attracts different generations of contemporary Chinese artists. It provides a platform to experiment with different forms of media, technologies and themes, documenting their social experiences and creatively depicting past and future. Therefore, a closer look at Chinese media art not only helps us identify more details of the rapidly changing society, but also allows us to navigate through different personal and social discourses on themes such as gender, consumerism and social relations of Chinese contemporary artists .
Besides Beijing and Shanghai, many Chinese cities such as Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou have become increasingly important for contemporary Chinese museums and art-venues. Just before the Chinese New Year, I visited the recently opened contemporary art museum, BY ART MATTERS (天目里美术馆), in an upscale creative district in Hangzhou. The museum was designed and built by Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW). For its fifth season’s exhibition, BY ART MATTERS presents a groundbreaking exhibition titled “Motion Is Action – 35 Years of Chinese Media Art. This is a retrospective exhibition of media art in China since the late 1980s. A total of 79 representative works by 72 artists of different generations were exhibited. The works highlight a wide variety of media, including video, installations, performance art, interactive pieces, games and digital art.
I was surprised by the multitude of media forms on display and the range of topics through which artists draw inspiration, about their feelings and opinions on both Chinese and international realities. In the 1990s, video works on physical performance art were popular, exploring poetics and politics in everyday life. The younger generation of contemporary Chinese artists is experimenting a lot with gaming, VR and social media content, thus participating in the globally heated debates on environment and technology. In my opinion, media art can therefore be an interesting field for the public to explore and understand China’s multifaceted society with its unprecedented changes.
I also visited the 14th Shanghai Biennial themed “Cosmos Cinema,” where it was filled with media artworks by contemporary artists from China and a variety of other countries. The participating artists creatively expressed their curiosity, imagination, research into the
universe, the cosmos and related myths, beliefs and stories. I loved the curatorial statement of the 14th Shanghai Biennial: “We have always looked at the night sky to understand ourselves, just as we can look at a screen on which the past and future are projected.”
In the Netherlands, I also enjoy visiting various art museums and institutions, such as the Stedelijk Museum and Framer Framed. There you can see media art by artists from different cultural backgrounds who are actively addressing important social issues such as feminism and decolonialization.
Summary: Media art has emerged as a vibrant and innovative genre within China’s contemporary art scene, giving artists a platform to creatively engage with social change, technological advances and universal themes. As evidenced by exhibitions and events both within China and internationally, media art continues to evolve and expand, allowing audiences to explore and understand the multifaceted nature of Chinese society and the broader human experience.
