Space Station presents an experimental exhibition entitled "A Room Not of One' s Own"

TEXT:Sue Wang    DATE: 2014.6.19

exhibition-a-room-of-one-s-own-poster

An experimental exhibition A Room Not of One' s Own is to be held by Space Station from June 21st to July 13th, 2014. The exhibition, organized by Fu Xiaodong, includes 22 artists'works and aims to criticize the political rights of private space and to transform individual's daily life. The Space Station and Carp Magazine cooperate to bring out this interdisciplinary art project, sponsored by JNBY. Participants include: Chen Xinpeng, Dong Dawei, Dou Bu, Fan Xi, Gao Jie, He Chi, Jia Chun, Lao Mu, Li Binyuan, Liang Ban, Liang Shuo, Lin Ke, Luan Xueyan, Shi Jinsong, Sun Shaokun, Wang Wei, Xin Yunpeng, Yang Guangnan, Yang Jian, Yang Xinguang, Ye Funa, and Zhao Zhao. The exhibiting works show how the artists think and implement towards the studio, the private living space; they are the process and result of the transformation of private space.

In the meantime, the Carp magazine edited by Zhang Yueran and many other writers is going to put forward a theme book on the same name, echoing the exhibition with literature. 30 copies finished with the readers are also going to be presented. On the occasion, the organizer and the chief editor will invite a dialogue of literature and art between the participating artists and litterateurs on the opening ceremony. What will happen then? Your participation is most welcome.

The Collection of Dreg, Liang Shuo, Photography, Size Variable, 2014

The Collection of Dreg, Liang Shuo, Photography, Size Variable, 2014

In the process of urbanization, the space in city is rigidified into spatial models: living and working space have turned into commodities of real estate; people's lifestyle is regularized by commercials and mainstream politics; the way of using space is under strict control and regulation. The function of space, the structural relations between spaces and the establishment of spatial system are all for the purpose of accommodating themselves to the typical power scheme. The formula of daily life is distributed, disciplined and directly shaped by power structure. Within the mainstream living space of the city, the relation between man and space is stipulated, and this rigid living style further leads to the rigidity of body: a kind of invisible control that forms unperceived has become an inescapable power structure. How the artists think of their own private space under such spatial politics? Their resistance and rebellion, cooperation and disassociation are under serious consideration.

The Temple of Dreg, Chen Xinpeng, Wood, 160x300x280cm, 2014

The Temple of Dreg, Chen Xinpeng, Wood, 160x300x280cm, 2014

For the artists, the studio is not only an inorganic productive material, but a mixture of politics, life and experiment, forming a field that studies time and notion, an expressive space that is ever developing and rebelling. Bruce Nauman says "If I am an artist, and I work in my studio, then everything done there is art." Judging from this, art is more of an activity than a product. The studio is both a library for data storage, and a playground for producing inspiration. Some artists' methods and notions of working have intertwined with the space, making the studio the most effective and immediate physical context of the work. In the meantime, that the studio being the manufacturing and living space of an artist has endowed the production of artistic work with a hard-to-be-seen sense of daily life and privacy.

About the exhibition

Duration: June 21 - July 13, 2014

Venue: Space Station

Opening: June 21 2014, Saturday 16:00

Curator: Fu Xiaodong

Artists: Chen Xinpeng, Dong Dawei, Dou Bu, Fan Xi, Gao Jie, He Chi, Jia Chun, Lao Mu, Li Binyuan, Liang Ban, Liang Shuo, Lin Ke, Luan Xueyan, Shi Jinsong, Sun Shaokun, Wang Wei, Xin Yunpeng, Yang Guangnan, Yang Jian, Yang Xinguang, Ye Funa, Zhao Zhao.

Courtesy of the artists and Space Station.