On March 5, 2016, “Wings” Youth Promotion Project by China Sculpture in the Second Season Touring Exhibition”, which is the finale of the second season of “Youth Promotion Project” after the touring show was on display in 13 locations, opened at the Inside-Out Art Museum, the exhibition is hosted by Inside-Out Art Museum, China Sculpture Institute and Artron.com, co-organized by Central Art Museum in Nantong, Wu Hongliang and Tang Xiao serve as the curators of the exhibition. As a finale show, it does not only adjust the choice of work, highlighting the conceptual sculptures and installations, and also matches the internal space of Inside-Out Art Museum, trying to choose more diversified works.
Youth Promotion Project by China Sculpture Institute aims at building a powerful platform for the show, strictly selecting a group of young artists who just graduated or will graduate, from the universities and colleges of art across the country, the exhibited works are unique and creative, and the exhibition continues the youth’s response to “sculpture”, through a variety of forms, different formal disseminating ways in the future and the possibility. The project first started in 798 Art Zone in September 2010, and it has now entered the seventh year, it has featured a total of 31 exhibitions during this period, and it has promoted 106 young artists, while the footprints of the exhibition cover nearly half of China.
Youth Promotion Project by China Sculpture Institute is a growing artistic project, on the one hand, the project itself has vitality, gradually becoming a high-profile art phenomenon on the basis of short funding support and failed the business objective, and even the Chinese Sculpture Academy was awarded 2012 AAC Art China – Influence Award because of this project. On the other hand, the artists participating in the project also grow both in terms of artistic creation and life experiences. Vice President of CAFA and sculptor Wang Shaojun addressed the opening ceremony and said that he was delighted to see the young people growing to become mature artists under the protection and guidance of the “promotion project”. At the same time, he admitted that the project unfolded in poor conditions, which embodied a feeling and ideal, although each event might be a small matter, it was a big deal so it continued to persist for many years, forming a continuous observation of the sculpture for the youth, because it had offered a referent standard for the youths in the development of Chinese contemporary sculpture.
This art project makes the curator Wu Hongliang think a lot, it originated from a simple idea, overcoming a variety of difficulties and he joked that the exhibition album was “palm-sized” because of funding problems, but it toured across the country with the support of many art fellows, and was attended by all the parties involved, many young sculptors were concerned because of the “Youth Promotion Project”, and their works were collected by art museums. Wu Hongliang described this course in this way: Not afraid of slowness or weakness, the most important thing was advancing bravely with a clear goal and task. Observed from the exhibited works, although the artists that have newly graduated or are still studying in the academy, they all embody the various thoughts of the young artists working in contemporary sculpture, perhaps the inheritance of the traditional techniques, perhaps the expression of humanistic ideas, or the innovation of the new material, or the transformation and implementation of ideas.
As the pusher of the “Youth Promotion Project”, Inside-Out Art Museum has been committed to creating an open platform focused on the development trend of Chinese contemporary art. Director of Inside-Out Art Museum Yuan Zuo said that, “Youth Promotion Project” offered academic thoughts on the creation and research of contemporary sculpture, and also helped us see the sculptural growth in the future. As an organization focusing on the development of young art, Inside-Out Art Museum will also hold an academic seminar entitled “Youth Art Ecology” on March 19, starting from a sculptural exhibition that discusses the development of the youth art project. The exhibition is themed “Wings”, which hopes young sculptors will be able to fly higher and higher. The exhibition continues to March 27.
Text and photo by Zhang Wenzhi/CAFA ART INFO
Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO
