In spring 2012 Faurschou Foundation presented a solo exhibition by Chen Zhen, one of the best known exponents of Chinese avant-garde art. The space is divided into two parts, one reveals the contradiction and conflicts of the society, and the other, by the form of a room, creates a place for spirit purification and culture lavation. He was born in Shanghai in 1955 and died in Paris in 2000.
Chen Zhen left China in 1986, and rapidly attracted international attention for his remarkable mixedmedia installations. The exhibition at Faurschou Foundation presents a variety of Chen Zhen's sculptures and installations produced between 1992 and 2000 - most of them made out of all kinds of everyday objects like cloth, candles, chairs, fabric, bicycle tubes and other objets trouvés.
Chen Zhen lived in Shanghai and Paris and travelled a lot in Europe, USA, South America, and Middle East. At a t i m e when neither multiculturalism nor globalization had yet become dominant discourses, Chen Zhen was interested in cross-cultural social dynamics. His own experience of being between cultures and his great interest and engagement in the various cultures he constantly met, made him coin the concept "transexperiences". This is a central concept in Chen Zhen's work and expresses his striving to create harmony by acknowledging difference.
When he was 25, Chen Zhen began to suffer from haemolytic anaemia. This illness greatly influenced his art; Chen Zhen explores the intricate and often paradoxical relationship between the material and the spiritual, between community and individual, and between interior and exterior.
As an artist, Chen Zhen bears a sense of mission. The future and destiny of mankind is the key theme of Chen Zhen's works. He hopes people would reflect and meditate through his works. He expects a harmonious relationship between man and nature, man and man.
About Chen Zhen
With his own experience of exile - of being in the state of what he called "Transexperience" - Chen Zhen's works is very much about interaction - about relationships across the globe and mutual respect and understanding of different cultures. He has travelled around the globe, initiating several projects with various communities of people. Zhen often addressed the opposing approaches in Eastern and Western medicine - like he often used Buddhist spirituality - the bipolar dialectic of yin and yang - and always connecting the dichotomous relationship between the material and the spiritual; the body and the mind. As such, Chen Zhen's work reflects his fascination with different cultures, social contexts and aesthetic approaches in an increasingly globalized world.
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Somewhere
Weiwei + Liu Wei
Works from Collection