Incredible Action

It is fitting here to introduce the context of our work and address a series of topics we continue to ponder: how to keep the balance between being artistic and being socially significant, establish the connections between art and the locality, enhance the execution of the communication and curatorial mechanisms, and make use of the feedback of art projects, etc. All of these topics centre around sites (both the location and the work site) and the relevant events as well as geographical and historical background. We have conducted a lot of preparatory work, especially the collection and summarisation of information, with the aim of laying the foundation for future art practise and art discussion. During the early years, we initiated numerous projects, including the promotion of children’s education programmes, which have been in operation for a decade thanks to their unparalleled relevance to the public. Meanwhile, the drive to incorporate artists from home and abroad to conduct site-specific art projects also brings art closer to the locality. Not only does it include individual art practice but also reveals the progress of art institutions’ objective to become more site-specific and site-related. Such work takes time; it is a necessity for other possibilities to blossom. All work contributes to the shaping of a key shared feature ‘participation’. Unlike theoretical work, the site-specific practice of art projects provides a wealth of real-life examples and a variety of approaches.

“Incredible Action” echos with our attempts in space (a variety of environments including galleries, community spaces, residential buildings, domestic spaces, etc.) informed by the long-standing practice of individual and group actions, which encompass not only artists, curators, and collaborators of all kinds, but also audiences or certain cohorts. They may originate directly from the initial curating plans, or continue to be generated and modified through the process. In comparison to the nearly globalised phenomena of artistic collaboration, participatory art and worldwide experiments, this new phase retains the value of encouraging people to rethink the format and content of actions in relation to art and society and continue to contribute to the ongoing discussion. This objective leads the exhibition back to a familiar context (the community or city) where the artists and the participants jointly enact the actions while engendering new possibilities along the way. The exhibition features the imagination and ambition of the artists. No matter which section of their works they arrange for ‘participation’, they are ultimately brought here together to reveal the immense vitality, dynamism and ‘transversal criticality in relation to other sets of values’. In addition, more dimensions of the actions, including but not limited to their meanings, or spatial and temporal dimensions, will be exhibited. The results, processes, and media of images, sounds, stories, objects, actions, etc. are the cores connecting artists, local residents, and audiences while guiding the constant generation and change of meanings.

——Cai Liyuan