With The China Moment, the documenta Institute is dedicating itself to a decisive phase in contemporary Chinese art. The 1980s marked the beginning of a period of profound political and economic change. Influenced by Deng Xiaoping's reforms, a new artistic language emerged that combined individuality, social participation and humanistic perspectives. At the same time, China's opening up and increasing international networking offered new spaces for artistic experimentation and exchange with global discourses on individualism and social transformation. The exhibition shows how art not only reflected social developments, but often anticipated them. It makes visible how the relationships between the individual, the state and society shifted and which social energies, collective experiments and individual self-designs emerged during this time.
Using archive materials, painting, photography, video, installation, sound and performance, The China Moment presents itself as a research project and exhibition: simultaneously archival and narrative. It presents not only works of art, but also the social contexts in which they were created - from spontaneous gatherings and illegal exhibitions in apartments to experimental club and performance scenes. The China Moment spans an arc from the 1980s to the present day and examines how art in China reflected society during a phase of profound transformation - against the backdrop of a shift from globalization to the multipolar present.
The exhibition is accompanied by an exhibition catalog. Curated by Su Wei, Mi You and Anna-Lisa Scherfose.
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