About the CAFAM Biennial

“CAFAM” is an acronym for the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, abbreviated as the “CAFAM Biennial”, the full title is “The Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum Biennial,” and it will be held every two years.

The CAFAM Biennial is founded on a broad vision of contemporary culture, and it references the framework, structure and unique characteristics of international biennials, from a Chinese cultural standpoint, and utilizing the academic research background of the Central Academy of Art, it attempts to explore historical and literary issues, emphasizing the creativity and conscious nature of art as it explores the vanguard in cultural thinking, research and exhibition modes, constructing an international platform for academic research and artistic dialogue.

About the CAFAM Biennial 2011 Super-Organism

Interrogating thought processes and human habits related to material desire (or the elimination of those desires), “Super-Organism” attempts to outline notions of the surreal in contemporary society. “Organic” and “inorganic” become homologous categories that classifying the material world. Among our human activities, material objects permeate all our activities, our participation, they reform our dreams and desires. Humans endeavor to achieve a sense of self-worth and to fulfill their desires in this material world, and thus the universe and history become sociologically significant, constructed social entities.

In an overview of human history, it was human material desire (or the desire to eliminate it) that produced new cultural thinking and practice at every historical moment. Moreover, “supra-desire”, “supra-imaginative”, “surreal” and ”supra-rational” activities continue to create “phenomenon” with sociological meanings, such as “social phenomenon”, “technological phenomenon”, “biographical phenomenon”, “cultural phenomenon” or “genetic phenomenon”. We live in such a wonderland, enjoying extraordinary delights, while we simultaneously bear the misery of hollowness and delusion.

Art is one way to express the significance in this “super-organism”, the boundaries of art have been enlarged and the conventional cognitive methodologies have been overturned as this concept of “transcending” a new language of knowledge comes into being. In a sense, contemporary art is a system that creates new possibilities for interpreting human knowledge, it transcends vision, concepts and language. Thus, the theme of the CAFAM Biennial 2011 will unfold around the notions of “machine”, ”urbanity”, ”body” and “bio-politics”. We believe, these four important and pressing topics, within their cultural and political meaning, create a scene that engenders a “super-organism”, they breakthrough all previous narrow definitions, widen boundaries and invent new forms - Gilles Deleuze’s process of deterritorialisation displays a “super-organic” way of looking, and this is precisely the global cultural-political condition of which the CAFAM Biennial speaks.

Exhibition Structure

Part 1: Machine

Today, the machine has outgrown his originally narrow definition to become became an organic, integrated part of the human body. No longer dialectical opposites, it has become united with the human body to create a new type of composite matter, which we call the cyborg. Our lives have become realms where machines and humans coexist.

Part 2: Urbanity

Rural areas are devoured in the process of urbanization, but now, a contrary process has come into being, where the rural has injected itself into modern urban culture. Cities assume a strong sense of the countryside, citizens have characteristics similar to rural folk, and while our metropolises continue to swell, we may have to reconsider the frontiers between city and countryside, and where the boundaries of the city truly lie.

Part 3: Body

The human body has been inscribed with a brand of power, it is the place where history and society have always left their traces. No longer the realm of self-complacence, it has become a reflection on historical remains. From the inner side, we doubt the conventional dichotomy of flesh and spirit, nowadays the body is the true location of self-genesis.

Part 4: Bio-politics

Macro-politics based upon ideology should be brought to an end! Political beliefs, whether leaning left or right, have come to an end. These quotidian incidents are political, micro-politics will thus cling tightly to daily life. The aims of these specific politics are specific freedom.

Forum

As an important segment of the CAFAM Biennial, four forums will be held from the end of May 2011 to the end of October 2011. Each forum will discuss topics related to the exhibition: machine, urbanity, body and bio-politics. Each session will feature four scholars versed in the literature, and the aim of these forum is to extend cultural discussions through interactive dialogue, putting the exhibition into a visual narrative context.

Publication Schedule

CAFAM Biennial 2011 Super-Organism Exhibition Catalogue

A catalog of exhibited art works, including essays that bring forward innovative ways for reading and presentation the art works.

Forum Series Super-Organism Forum Texts

A register of the dialogue texts from the forum; noting the vivid ideas and the interesting bits of wisdom.

The Super-Organism Reader

Collecting articles and digests from philosophers and ideologists, the aim of the reader is to give a multi-dimensional representation and forward-looking picture of human thought in relation to the exhibition.

Curation: 20 September 2011 to 30 October 2011.

Venue: CAFA Art Museum

Art Director-General: Pan Gongkai

Art Director: Xu Bing

View the Chinese version of this article here