UCCA Beijing

Seeking Balance in Extremes: Hu Jieming and the Equilibrium of Beauty

2014.9.17
16:30-18:30

Conversation
Location:  UCCA Auditorium
Language:  In Chinese only

The production of “beauty” within a temporal experience is a central discursive element in the video/installation works of artist and educator Hu Jieming. His recent pieces incorporate long swaths of video into large-scale installations that investigate how beauty is produced through raw materials. His installation Overture-Tai Chi (currently on display in Shanghai’s Chronus Art Center) is the latest, and in some ways the most extreme, expression of this idea.

Drawing on elements of everyday life as well as cultural-historical documents, how do Hu’s video manipulations position themselves in relation to memory? How do flashbacks and flash-forwards act as material within his installations? Hu challenges the idea of balance in art, using its innate potential to create a “balance of extremes.” The artist believes that the balance expressed by this floating state is concentrated within the present moment—an instantaneous beauty.

In this discussion with UCCA Director Philip Tinari, Hu Jieming will draw on his works to address these questions and discuss his recent installation Overture-Tai Chi.

Ticketing & Participation: Free, ticket required.

*Doors close 30 minutes after event begins.

*Tickets are limited. No late entry.

*Collect your ticket from the ticket desk 30 minutes before the event begins.

Speakers

Hu Jieming

As a pioneer of new media art in China, Hu Jieming began to experiment with new technology in the 1980s. Concerned with subjects such as time, history, and cultural memory, the artist attempts to describe the boundary between that which has passed and that which is present. His new artwork Tai Chi will debut at CAC in the form of a bipartite narrative with the artwork Overture. The latter launched on 9 May, while Tai Chi will open in late September.

Philip Tinari (Director, UCCA)

New Media Art Partner

Chronus Art Center (CAC)

Chronus Art Center (CAC) is the first non-profit art organization in China to focus on new media art experimentation, production, exhibition, and education. It was co-founded by entrepreneur Dillion Zhang, independent curator Li Zhenhua, and pioneering new media artist Hu Jieming in autumn 2013. CAC supports the creation of new media art and education, in China and abroad, through residencies, fellowship programs, exhibitions, educational activities, publications, and new media documentation.