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How can Gu Dexin’s work be understood in the present context? How is it relevant? What does his exit from the art world signify and does it change our understanding of his work?

In a very special one-off session, Artists, Curators, Writers, Critics and Academics go head to head in discussion over one of China’s most contentious first generation contemporary artists, Gu Dexin. In conjunction with his solo retrospective in UCCA’s Great Hall, Gu Dexin: The Important Thing is Not the Meat, this roundtable brings key individuals together for the first time to address the artists’ work, practice and legacy.

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Guests: Karen Smith (writer, curator, critic), Qiu Zhijie (artist, curator, educator), Feng Boyi (curator, critic)

Karen Smith divides her time between writing and curating, and is now one of the foremost authorities on China's contemporary art scene, both in China and abroad. Resident in China since 1993, her publication Nine Lives: The Birth of the Avant-Garde in New China covers the remarkable developments in Chinese art over the last couple of years and is widely considered to be the first systematic study of Chinese avant-garde art by a foreign critic. One of the nine chapters focused on Gu Dexin as a seminal artist from his generation. She curated and co-wrote The Real Thing: Contemporary Art From China (2007) with Simon Bloom for Tate Liverpool’s inaugural exhibition.

Qiu Zhijie is an artist, writer, curator, and educator, based in Beijing and Hangzhou. Overall, Qiu Zhijie's work suggests the struggle between the forces of destiny and self-assertion. Other common themes are social fragmentation and transience. The artist's break-through exhibition was in 1992 with China's New Art, Post-1989 at the Hanart Gallery and Hong Kong Arts Centre. By 1999, his work began receiving overseas interest with his inclusion in Revolutionary Capitals: Beijing-London at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. In 2007 he had his first solo exhibition in the United States at the New York gallery Chambers Fine Art. In 2009 he was featured in the UCCA group exhibition Breaking Forecast: 8 Key Figures of China’s New Generation Artists.

Feng Boyi is an eminent independent art curator and critic in China. He has been assistant editor of the China Artists' Association newsletter Artist's Communication since 1988. He has also edited and published numerous catalogues and papers on art and established the Artists' Alliance, a major online forum for contemporary art in China. In 1994 he edited ‘The Black Book’ with Ai Weiwei, a seminal text on contemporary art at the time. ‘The White Book’ followed in 1995. ‘Traces of Existence: A Private Show of Contemporary Chinese Art’ was his first independent curatorial project, and was the first time Gu Dexin among other artists were able to exhibit publicly. In 2000, Feng Boyi and Ai Weiwei jointly organised "Fuck Off," a notorious art exhibition which ran in opposition to the Shanghai Biennial. Its name was a loose and questionable translation of the exhibition's corresponding Chinese title: The Uncooperative Attitude. Feng was also one of the organizers of the 1st Guangzhou Triennial (2002) in Guangzhou.

Moderator: Philip Tinari (UCCA director)

Sponsor: Smart