On Tuesday, October 21, I will host a discussion about censorship in China at China Institute. My good friend Colin Chinnery, former chief curator at the Ullens Center, is flying in for the event, joined by Zhang Hongtu, an artist based in NY, who encountered problems with his painting of the Bird's Nest this year in Beijing. (It was stopped in customs and not allowed into China.)
It's funny. With all the hype around the Chinese art scene, little attention is given to this issue, which still hovers over everything that takes place. As Exhibit A, I am passing along this email I just received from Defne Ayas in Shanghai who has run into problems curating the E-arts festival, a city run event.
hi dear barbara,
how are you?
shanghai is busy and continues to be sceptic and more inward-looking than ever.
i am now up to my nose in e-arts, a first attempt to work with a gov't foundation.
dealing with not so much political censorship (so far it has all been smooth), but more so an aesthetic one. after submitting proposal 6 month ago, giving materials for cship review 3 months ago, the young staff tells me that they do not like the way shih chieh huang's work look, how it is ugly and should be replaced, can we remove it?!
they ask me to screen an artist video twice on different screens, when the artist has given me the mandate to screen the work only in one screen.
when i say, i cannot, they say well the artist wouldn't know, it looks so nice on two screens. !!
it is a learning curve for all of us.
hope to see you here again.
love,
defne
how are you?
shanghai is busy and continues to be sceptic and more inward-looking than ever.
i am now up to my nose in e-arts, a first attempt to work with a gov't foundation.
dealing with not so much political censorship (so far it has all been smooth), but more so an aesthetic one. after submitting proposal 6 month ago, giving materials for cship review 3 months ago, the young staff tells me that they do not like the way shih chieh huang's work look, how it is ugly and should be replaced, can we remove it?!
they ask me to screen an artist video twice on different screens, when the artist has given me the mandate to screen the work only in one screen.
when i say, i cannot, they say well the artist wouldn't know, it looks so nice on two screens. !!
it is a learning curve for all of us.
hope to see you here again.
love,
defne
here is the link to the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBRXn4ahblw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBRXn4ahblw
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