On August 16, the curatorial team spearheaded by Luo Yiping was officially unveiled at the news release of the 4th Guangzhou Triennial at Peking University

    In a not spacious meeting room on the campus of Peking University, it could be easily seen the characters on the Scaffold set up by the sponsor for the press conference, highly featuring “Meta-question—Back to the Museum Per Se”, so it follows that the theme for the 4th Guangzhou Triennial came straight to the point, focusing on key words of “Guangzhou Triennial”, respectively “demolition” and “construction”.

    On August 16, the Curatorial team spearheaded by Luo Yiping was officially unveiled at the press conference of the 4th Guangzhou Triennial at Peking University, which was composed of many artists, some of whom are not quite known to the modern art circles, particularly including Zhang Kexin, Zhang Xudong, Jiang Jiehong,, Jonathan Watkins, Zuo Zhengyao and Zhang Lingzhen, except for Wang Lin and Gao ling. Such a mixed combination, to some extent, establishes the orientation and development of Guangzhou Triennial— “Deeply rooted in Guangdong, Going Global for interactive communication with the cultural circles”.

    In addition to the “big hype” focusing on the extension of the art museum running through the entire exhibition, the three-year-long “Dynamic Triennial” will stand out, “totally different from any other previous international Biennial or Triennial held in any other areas in the world”. If the previous Triennials were likened to a movie, the 4th Guangzhou Triennial would be “a Block-Buster” for the coming three years.

    The beautiful vision to expect the strong attraction of Guangzhou Triennial to the general public within three years is actually to build a tremendous and even complicated exhibition system. Under the framework of “Inauguration Exhibition”, “Project Exhibition” and “Theme Exhibition”, exhibitions designed by different planers will be held in different places at different time, focusing on different themes through the forum for further discussion.

    Yet, different exhibitions lack the direct connection in terms of the theme (say, the theme for “Inauguration Exhibition” is “Meta-question—Back to the Museum Per Se”; However, “Project Exhibition” has no theme, yet composed of five sub-exhibitions to be held respectively in Guangdong Museum of Art and in England and France; “Theme Exhibition” as the last part thereof, is based on the theme of “The Unseen”), so there seems to be no clear picture about the entire exhibition. Thus, the time layout for the Triennial became the priority requiring special interpretation from Luo Yiping at the news release.

    Long before this time, Luo Yiping talked about the exhibition by remarking, “it is involved with artists, important or less important, from Guangdong, other parts of Mainland China and even foreign countries”. At present, the name list of artists for “Inauguration Exhibition” for September 22 was only announced, including nines artists from China, respectively Feng Feng, Feng Feng’s team, Yang Rong, Zheng Guogu, Zhang Lujiang, Zhang Xinmin, Qiu Zhijie, Sui Jianguo and Miao Xiaochun. It is highly emphasized by Luo Yiping that these artists will present their tailor-made or customized works for this Triennial by focusing on issues concerning the space of Guangdong Museum of Art and “demolition” and “construction” and “Returning to Art Museum”.

    “Forums in Motion” is another highlight of this Triennial, co-sponsored by Guangdong Museum of Art and International Center for Critical Theory-NYU and International Center for Critical Theory-PKU, to explore for the art the possibility of the art production under the condition of the globalization, the conceptual “contemporaneity” and its historical connotations. Through this series of forums, “Reviewing the favorable ‘give and take’” of the art circles and cultural circles in the 1980s” represents one of the major purposes of Zhang Xudong, one of the chief planners.

    Can the seemingly rich and multi-dimensional exhibitions and forums be organically integrated? Can the fencing walls for the art museum be truly turned down for openness? The relevant answers may be unveiled three years later.