Exhibition Name: "On the Road · 2016: Nomination Exhibition for Chinese Young Artists' Works and Youth Critics Forum"

Exhibition period: November 19th to December 5th, 2016

Exhibition Venue: Hall A, Hall B, Central Hall, Hall C, and Second Floor of Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum

Opening Time: 10:00 AM on November 19, 2016 (Preface Hall on the First Floor of Guan Shanyue Art Museum)

Forum Time: November 19, 2016, 14:00-17:00 PM (Conference Room on the Third Floor of Guan Shanyue Art Museum)

9:00-12:00 AM on November 20, 2016 (Conference Room on the Third Floor of Guan Shanyue Art Museum)

Fund support: Shenzhen Special Fund for the Development of Propaganda and Culture

Hosted by: Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum, China Artists Association Curatorial Committee

Supporting units: Hubei Art Museum, Nantong Central Art Museum, 318 Art Network

Supported by the Shenzhen Special Fund for the Development of Propaganda and Culture, the "On the Road · 2016: China Youth Artist Works Nomination Exhibition and Youth Critics Forum" jointly organized by the Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum and the Curatorial Committee of the China Artists Association will be held at the Guan Shanyue Art Museum from November 19 to December 5, 2016. Sculpture (spatial art) will be the subject of research and exhibition in this nomination exhibition and forum.

Contemporary art is currently the most active art phenomenon, and the attention and research on contemporary art is an important social and cultural responsibility of contemporary art museums. Since its establishment, the Guan Shanyue Art Museum has always attached great importance to the attention and organization of contemporary art phenomena, especially as a national key art museum. It has always delved into the field of contemporary art through research and exhibition work, in order to practice its social and cultural responsibilities and promote the healthy development of contemporary art in China. In view of this, since 2013, based on the two main academic directions of 20th century Chinese art research and contemporary design art research, the contemporary art project "On the Road, China Youth Artist Works Nomination Exhibition and Youth Critics Forum" has been launched. Currently, "On the Road" has formulated a six-year plan - the first five years of the project are based on media as the main sub item - oil painting, ink painting, printmaking, sculpture, and new media. Each year, a sub item is organized to comprehensively and stereoscopically sort out and study different categories and subjects of youth art through exhibitions, forums, and publications. In the sixth year, a comprehensive literature exhibition will be held to present and discuss the academic issues reflected in the five-year activities. At present, the Guan Shanyue Art Museum has successfully held three sessions - in 2013, the first exhibition focused on youth oil painting was held. In 2014, a "New Ink Art Exhibition" was held with youth ink as the main body. In 2015, an "Experimental Print Exhibition" was held with youth printmaking as the main body. In 2016, relying on the field of sculpture media, a "Space Art Exhibition" was held with youth sculpture as the main body and exploring the relationship between art and space.

"On the Road" is a continuous contemporary art project that positions the target artist group in the post-70s and post-80s, two art creation groups that have already reached their peak but have not yet been thoroughly sorted out in history. The historical significance of the post-70s and post-80s generations lies in the fact that their overall ecology has formed another important turning point in the development of contemporary Chinese art. The academic appeal of "on the road" is based on the purpose of dynamic observation and literature review. From the perspective of historical review, starting from the fields where the 70s and 80s generations are the main creative forces, representative artists and their works are observed, studied, displayed, and preserved through expert or institutional nominations, questionnaire surveys, studio visits, exhibitions and literature editing and publishing, thematic websites, WeChat, Weibo, and other methods. The academic issues reflected in these studies are also studied and discussed.

1、 On the Road · 2016 China Youth Artist Works Nomination Exhibition

On the Road: Nomination Exhibition for Chinese Young Artists and Youth Critics Forum emphasizes experimentation and combines current academic issues in various media fields to make the exhibition a process of knowledge production. On the Road: The 2016 Nomination Exhibition and Forum focused on sculpture (spatial art) as a research and exhibition object. After sorting and analyzing contemporary art scenes related to the sculpture media field in China, with the "post-70s" and "post-80s" as the main creative forces, 25 outstanding young artists with experimental and media expansion in this field were selected from more than 130 artists nominated by 24 experts. They had continuous thinking about the relationship between art and its space in their creations and had formed their own unique appearance and aesthetic character. More than 100 pieces/group of works exhibited also represented the knowledge structure, aesthetic concepts, and academic direction of the "post-70s" and "post-80s".

The exhibition is divided into four sections:

(1) Freedom: Material Space

Sculpture is a three-dimensional space art, and material exploration was once one of the main topics in modern sculpture. However, in addition to the physical and visual properties of materials, there are also material properties with more ontological and philosophical significance. As a "language", it is not only pure and innovative in technology, but also focuses on the sculpture itself and its isomorphic relationship with space: one is the visual tension with the language itself occupying the surrounding space, forming a spatial reality, and the other is using a narrow space to lure viewers into a large spiritual space.

(2) Intertextuality: Participation Space

Unlike painting, sculpture naturally has a strong public attribute, which stems from its tradition in ancient architecture and the demand for contemporary art to intervene in social reality. However, publicness is not only reflected in being placed in public spaces for people to enjoy, but more importantly, it allows them to have direct interaction with the scene and the audience. In this process, the audience gains new self experiences through participation, and the work is able to complete and achieve new construction through this process. In addition, public spaces constantly change their positioning.

(3) Symbiosis: Environmental growth

As a special project, the participating artists create based on the specific environment around the Guan Shanyue Art Museum. The reason for setting such a section is mainly due to academic considerations of the changes in the spatial relationship between the sculpture itself and its growth and existence. As an art medium with spatial characteristics as the main body, whether it is traditional Chinese sculpture or Western traditional sculpture, it is created for a specific space and exists according to this specific space.

(4) Theater: Changing Dimensions

Theater is a metaphor of complexity. The contemporary world we live in is undergoing a dramatic transformation due to the development of technology and the Internet, and the comprehensive and in-depth transformation of public society and private life. So, where will sculpture go in this context? How will it respond to the multidimensional challenges of technology, society, and life? This is a reflection on the future of sculpture, as well as an exploration of sculpture and its complexity. In today's world, sculpture will construct a new ontology and conceptual meaning through its own transformation.

2、 On the Road · 2016: Youth Critics Forum "

Based on the inseparable relationship between contemporary art creation and theoretical criticism, we fully leverage the role of contemporary critics in the organization and planning process of the event, making the event itself a common cause for artists and critics. At the same time as the exhibition, we invited 13 young critics and participating artists to hold a Chinese Youth Critics Forum with the theme of "History, Scene, and Spatial Logic of Contemporary Sculpture". This forum is divided into two parts. Firstly, young artists and young critics face each other face-to-face. Young sculptors combine their creative experiences to make academic judgments on the history and contemporary trends of sculpture, and form dialogues with young critics to truly promote theoretical exploration and creative practice; The second is a keynote speech by young critics, relying on sculpture media to conduct in-depth analysis and discussion on the spatial issues of contemporary art development.

As a medium characterized by materiality and spatiality, "sculpture" can be described as "ahead of its time" in contemporary times. However, with the intervention of ready-made products in "sculpture" materials and the rise of "public art", a series of academic problems caused by the generalization of "sculpture" media have also surfaced. So how to understand the relationship between "sculpture" and "installation" as well as "public art"? How to view the "publicness" and "spatiality" of traditional sculpture in the context of contemporary culture? What is the possibility and inevitability of "sculpture" occurring in a specific space? The development of contemporary technology and society has raised the issue of "spatiality" for humanity, and how young artists have "intelligently" completed the contemporary transformation of sculpture language according to the theoretical framework... These will be the issues that this "On the Road" will focus on and discuss.

3、 "On the Road? 2016" collects and organizes literature for contemporary art history writing

On the road, emphasis is placed on literature collection and organization, with the support of nominated experts and academic institutions, striving to achieve objectivity and comprehensiveness. The activity adopts a combination of nomination, literature publication, selection, and sampling exhibitions in terms of operation. In addition to selecting a certain number of artists to participate in the nomination exhibition, more importantly, it will also edit and publish a collection of literature, including all nominated artist literature, in order to provide more emotional literature and topics for historical research at this stage. Through corresponding collection work, a reproducible and continuous text will be retained for the study of contemporary art history.

Given the public nature of sculpture art, this year's "On the Road" exhibition has set up a special section - "Symbiosis and Environmental Growth". The participating artists in this section will create on-site based on the specific environment around the Guan Shanyue Art Museum, so as to integrate the exhibits with the surrounding environment and become an integral part of environmental planning. This also solves the problem of excessive occupation of collection space during the collection process of sculpture works, making this year's nominated exhibition an endless sculpture exhibition. In addition, considering that some of the exhibited works are based on the virtual nature supported by new media means, the exhibition also includes many interactive segments for the audience, forming a space for intertextual participation during the viewing process, enhancing the public nature of the exhibition. The works of artist Zhang Zengzeng can be presented anytime and anywhere by downloading the app and scanning the QR code on the catalog. This not only breaks the convention of displaying specific spaces in art museums, but also breaks the conventional concept of art collection. As long as you collect this catalog, it is equivalent to collecting this sculpture.