On June 21, during the continuous rainy season, "Cao Fei: Tidal Conjunction" opened at Shanghai Pudong Art Museum. This is Pudong Art Museum’s first solo exhibition of a female artist and the first major exhibition of video and media art. It is also the first time artist Cao Fei holds a large-scale exhibition in Shanghai. On the eve of the
exhibition, The Paper held a conversation with Cao Fei facing the Huangpu River in the Hall of Mirrors, which was transformed into a tropical island. This was also the first time that the Hall of Mirrors was officially used as an exhibition hall. After seeing her focus on the virtual world, manufacturing, and historical sites, the works displayed in the Hall of Mirrors record the origin of her creativity. For Cao Fei, who comes from the south, the Huangpu River she is facing at this moment contains her emotions towards the great river. "My works are both past and future - they talk about the past in the future, and they talk about the future in 'Red Clouds'. It is a complicated timeline. The so-called 'tidal universe' means that the tides wash and confuse the times. "Cao Fei said.
"Cao Fei: Tidal Convergence" exhibition view, Pudong Art Museum, 2024, Photography: Xia Mu
As one of the most influential Chinese contemporary artists in the world, Cao Fei's works integrate social commentary, pop aesthetics, and refer to surrealism doctrine and uses documentary shooting techniques to reflect the rapid development and changes of contemporary Chinese society. Cao Fei is also the first Chinese artist to hold a solo exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris. She has held solo exhibitions in many international museums such as the PS1 branch of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Serpentine Gallery in London, and the State Museum of Contemporary Art in São Paulo, Brazil.
This exhibition is named after "Tide and Universe". The word "Zhouhe" comes from the article "Guanzi·Zhouhe", which means the symbiosis between heaven and earth, and "tide" points to the surge and continuity of time. Absolutely. "Tidal Universe" means a system that is constantly improving and updating itself, which coincides with the spiritual temperament of Cao Fei's creation, an open, inclusive and continuously evolving world view.
Cao Fei and Yang Beichen (one of the curators, left) guide the
exhibition to sort out and display Cao Fei’s artistic practice spanning nearly 30 years, including many long-term important projects by Cao Fei. Representative series include " Early works from the "Pearl River Delta" period, the "Metaverse" digital virtual time and space starting from "Renmin City", and the research project "Hongxia", etc. The second-floor space of Pudong Art Museum is transformed into a factory scene, a virtual world, and the historical scene of Hongxia Theater, making people forget that they are in an art museum.
"Cao Fei: Tidal Convergence" exhibition view, Pudong Art Museum, 2024, Photography: Xia Mu
The Paper: In recent years, you have held large-scale exhibitions in many important art museums around the world. Which one do you think is the most special? ? And what is the focus of this exhibition at Pudong Art Museum?
Cao Fei: The exhibition at Pudong Art Museum is my first time in Shanghai, and it is also my first time to do a large-scale exhibition in a state-owned art museum. The last retrospective solo exhibition in China was the "Stage of the Times" at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing in 2021.
’s solo exhibition abroad is a different experience every time. If I have to say that the most impressive one is probably the solo exhibition at moma ps1 in the United States in 2016. This is my first time outside China that is relatively comprehensive and can be called A solo exhibition with a mid-term retrospective nature. It also gave Westerners a holistic and up-close understanding of my works for the first time. Then in 2020, there was a solo exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London, England. It was the first time that a series of works such as "Red Clouds" were exhibited in London. The exhibition review of the "Guardian" gave it a full five stars (the "Guardian" exhibition review was Known for being stingy in scoring), although the exhibition only lasted for two weeks and was temporarily closed due to the epidemic, it still received a lot of attention, which shows that the audience understands my works from a certain perspective.
After that, the Ullens Beijing 2021 will be my first solo exhibition in China. The title of the exhibition "Stage of the Times" also reflects the relationship between the work and the nodes of the times. Later I heard some comments that the exhibition became a so-called "punch-in exhibition", which I did not expect. In 2021, the popularity of self-media (including personal media) has increased rapidly. I did not expect that the environment of my works would become a scene connected with the audience. I often say that I don’t create landscapes for punching in, but for the needs of the artistic language itself.
The exhibition scene of "Cao Fei: Stage of the Times" at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing in 2021
In 2021, there may have been less mobility during the epidemic. Moreover, the exhibition period of Ullens Beijing was only 3 months, so I missed it quickly.
So, this time in Shanghai is a real presentation to a certain extent. In addition, due to the "summer time" and Pudong Museum of Art's geographical location as a tourist attraction, the exhibition will "meet" people from various backgrounds. Maybe some visitors come to see the river view, and some come to see the old master painting exhibition, so it is difficult to imagine the audience. Unlike the exhibition in Beijing at 798, the audience is mostly limited to art exhibition crowds. I think many visitors to the Pudong Art Museum may not know who Cao Fei is. But through the exhibition, we will have a new understanding of both the positioning of the museum and the artistic landscape of contemporary China. Meeting new people is also fun for me.
"Hongxia" project, opening scene of "Cao Fei: Tidal Universe", Pudong Art Museum, 2024
In terms of exhibition environment, Beijing 798 is a factory workshop in the 1950s. It is wallless and has a ten-meter-high ceiling. However, the Pudong Art Museum will be completed and opened in 2021. The architectural language of Shanghai's Lujiazui CBD and the industrial sites of old Beijing are completely different from what is carried behind them.
So Beijing’s “Times Stage” is built like a small town, with cinemas, gardens, real restaurants and fountains. But in the Pudong Art Museum, all facilities, including the lighting of the exhibition hall, are made according to world-class standards. So the challenge for me is how to weaken these high standards with my artistic language; how to make the audience forget that they are in a The space of the museum, but return to the work itself?
Different from easel painting, my works may require the audience to walk into the created scene and better enter the core of the work. Therefore, the focus of my exhibition is more to let the audience come to the Pudong Art Museum, but in the process they forget that they are in an art museum.
"Cao Fei: Tidal Convergence" exhibition view, Pudong Art Museum, 2024, Photography: Xia Mu
Compared with the roughness of Beijing 798, Shanghai is exquisite, and I am from Guangzhou and live in Beijing. We hope that the fusion of Guangzhou’s down-to-earth street culture, Beijing’s roughness and Shanghai’s sophistication will give the audience a different experience.
"Cao Fei: Tidal Union" exhibition site
The Paper: How to combine these elements in the exhibition?
Cao Fei: Although is a high-quality production, the presentation has an original feeling. The specific points of integration, such as the virtual world of "Renmin City" and the correspondence with the real Oriental Pearl Tower and Lujiazui CBD, are like virtual meeting reality.
People's Walled City project, opening scene of "Cao Fei: The Tidal Union", Pudong Museum of Art, 2024
But this was not intentional. Maybe in 2007, the moment I created "Renmin's Walled City", it was destined that one day, The real body and the virtual body will overlap. In 2007, I could not have known that this exhibition would exist in 2024, but now the virtual and real Pearl of the Orient have really met. "RMB City" designs a virtual future world - science fiction meets reality, and the future meets the past. I feel that the sense of time has many layers in my works.
Cao Fei (Avatar in Second Life: Tracey China), RMB City: Second Life City Plan, 2007-2022
Credit: Artist, Vitamin Art Space and sprüth magers
The Hall of Mirrors is also the museum itself and the exhibition The highlight is that it faces the Huangpu River. There is no river in Beijing, but there is the Pearl River in Guangzhou, so the Huangpu River contains my emotions for the great rivers and my yearning for life in the south. I treated the Hall of Mirrors into the concept of an island and a beach, a bit like a leisure area. It displays my early works in the Pearl River Delta in the South. It also allows the audience to walk through the three exhibition halls and walk through some heavy and connotative works. , when you are overwhelmed and even feel tired, come to this bright and open space.
"Cao Fei: Tidal Universe" exhibition view, Pudong Art Museum, 2024, Photography: Xia Mu
In the exhibition hall of the museum, I use "channels" to "lock" the audience into time and space. If the first exhibition hall is like a workshop; the second exhibition hall is about the metaverse, fictional, fairy tale, and amusement; and then the third exhibition hall is about a historical and science fiction "Hongxia". All three spaces convey different languages. For example, in the middle exhibition hall, the audience will feel that the artist may be very young; in "Hongxia", he seems to be a 60-year-old artist; and in the first exhibition hall, it feels that the creator is engaged in social science research. Therefore, it seems that each exhibition hall can be a different creator and a different audience. In the final hall of mirrors, everything was "loose".
The "Cao Fei: Tidal Universe" exhibition recreates the "Hongxia Theater" at the Pudong Art Museum
In addition, I usually design exhibition venues in the hope that the audience can be integrated into it. The audience is not only watching, but also contemplating and reflecting. , and even enjoy it, just like the second exhibition hall, the audience can interact. When you arrive at the Hall of Mirrors, it is a space for leisure and rest. Sitting on a chair facing the Huangpu River, you may think of something you missed while resting. You can go back and take a look again.
Opening scene of "Cao Fei: Tidal Universe", Pudong Museum of Art, 2024
The Paper: This is also the first time since the opening of the Pudong Museum of Art that the Hall of Mirrors has been used as an exhibition space in a real sense. What do you think of this space and the works? Contrast with the environment?
Cao Fei: When I first walked into the Hall of Mirrors, I felt that it was a cold space designed for refraction and had little to do with the audience itself. My work emphasizes people and observes their transformation in society. In the exhibition, the audience always has a seat, whether it is a bed, a chair in a factory workshop, or a luminous stool from "Renmin City" or an old movie chair from Hongxia Cinema. I will consider how the audience should integrate with the work. This is also part of the language of the work.
The old movie chairs of the Hongxia Cinema Theater in the "Hongxia" project, the video playing is "Hongxia Presents Song" (2024, 16:9 color single-channel high-definition video with sound, 6 minutes)
From this perspective, the Hall of Mirrors presents The works played in Southern Style are all from more than 20 years ago. It allows the audience to enter the artist's world, or go back to the artist's starting point and see the origin of her creativity. I hope that the so-called review is an inadvertent penetration. I have always opposed the linear presentation of chronological history. Scholars can study it this way, but I do not want to be defined in such a normative manner.
Opening scene of "Cao Fei: Tidal Convergence", Pudong Art Museum, 2024
The history of contemporary art is too short, why should we sort out a small history of our own in it? Integrating the past twenty or thirty years into the experience allows the audience to discover the artist's chronicle on their own, rather than the artist "making it up". Similarly, this exhibition has no set route, giving the audience the initiative. Even if they miss a certain work or get lost, it is still a kind of beauty. It is even possible that the audience did not understand it until they saw the early works and wanted to look back.
"Asia One" project, "Cao Fei: Tidal Convergence" exhibition site, Pudong Art Museum, 2024, Photography: Xia Mu
The Paper: In your works, you are always good at grasping the pulse of the times, and how to maintain your sense of society keen observation and reflection?
Cao Fei: I think my interest in social themes started from the early creation of "Sanyuanli". It was the first time that I slowly entered the social scene from the studio, intervened in the community, and recorded the changes of the times. Then in 2006, for "Whose Utopia", I stayed in the factory for half a year and photographed the reality of factories and workers in the Pearl River Delta production chain. Looking back now, I think that if I hadn't recorded it at that time, this period of history would have passed. By 2016, many industries began to transform and upgrade into the intelligent era, which is why from 2017 to 2018, I photographed JD.com ("Asia One" project). With a difference of more than ten years, the social ecology has changed very quickly.But life is short. I felt something attracted me. It was an opportunity at first and I did it. Later, you found that this thing has been grabbing you and driving me to move forward.
Cao Fei, "Whose Utopia", 2006 Single-channel video, 5-4, color, sound, 20 minutes and 20 seconds
Credit: Artist, Vitamin Art Space and sprüth magers
The Paper: In this exhibition, you are in progress The latest project "Flying" met the audience for the first time. The entire project is expected to be completed in 2025. What kind of project will it be?
Cao Fei: is still in progress. My latest work "Ji Fei" is about unmanned agriculture. Agriculture is a big topic. The shift from unmanned manufacturing to smart agriculture is closely related to my original clue. So, from manned to unmanned, where will China’s labor force go?
It turns out that I photographed factories, and the production lines were full of young faces. Today the face has become a machine. So, where did the original farmers go? Those left-behind children in rural areas have not returned to farmland. Is it possible that they have become couriers? So, who will grow the food we eat in the future? This involves the most fundamental issue of Chinese agriculture. The starting point of the agriculture project is also the node of today's era.
"Flying" project, "Cao Fei: Tidal Conjunction" exhibition site, Pudong Art Museum, 2024, Photography: Xiamu
This project is planned to last until 2025. What is currently presented is the first phase report, and there may be more in the future Different results. This was the case for many of my projects in the past. It might take half a year of shooting before I knew the approximate appearance of the work. Including "Hongxia", I was initially only interested in this cinema, but what is behind "Hongxia"? The deadline I gave myself was to spend five years digging, and it ended up being eight years before and after the demolition; I built the "Renmin Walled City" for two years and operated it for two years after it was completed, which took a total of four years.
Hongxia Cinema
The Paper: Your early projects focused on the metaverse. In your opinion, what is the relationship between AI, virtual numbers, etc. and artistic creation? Some people think that human artistic creation cannot be replaced by AI, but some people think that it has actually been replaced. Do you think it will be replaced?
Cao Fei: I think AI may replace some more traditional art forms, and it may also replace some industries. For example, AI can translate and even write novels. But the language of AI is machine language. It is repetitive, cumbersome, vague, and incomprehensible. But I can identify human writing. Human creations are full of emotions.
"Cao Fei: Tidal Universe" exhibition view, Pudong Art Museum, 2024, Photography: Xia Mu
Back in the metaverse, "Renmin City" is a work from the pre-metaverse, although there was no concept of the metaverse at that time. I'm already paying attention and practicing. Later, some people also said that you can sell your house in the "Yuan Universe" and sell the buildings in the "Renmin City" one by one. I said no, I have to wait and see, I need to step back. At that time, the virtual world did not have a direct relationship with capital as it does today. "RMB City" was idealistic at the time, but when today's "Metaverse" has turned into an economic bubble and capital operation, I feel that it is no longer the work of an artist. Maybe I am born in the 1970s, and our generation still has some idealism.
Opening scene of "Cao Fei: Tidal Universe", Pudong Art Museum, 2024
When the "Metaverse" became known to the public, I decided to take to the streets, take pictures with my mobile phone, and randomly ask ordinary people what they think of the "Metaverse" "Look at how far away ordinary people are from that digital world?
Cao Fei, "Yuan Ji", 2022, single-channel high-definition video, 9:16, color, sound, 28 minutes and 17 seconds
Credit: artist, Vitamin Art Space and sprüth magers
The Paper: As a female artist, in artistic creation What are the advantages and dilemmas?
Cao Fei: I started creating very early, in the late 1990s. At that time, there were no female issues in China, so there was no way to set the creation from a female perspective. People used to say that directing is a male-biased profession, because the setting of the movie camera is a male perspective. I was using a dv, so is the dv for men or women? We can't always use binary division to say whether the attribute of a machine is yang or yin?
When I was growing up, I don’t have much trouble with gender in my memory, but I do have a female body. I am a wife and a mother of two children. I cannot take off my female attributes. . But my creations focus on agriculture, manufacturing, urbanization, society, and the times. Are the attributes of these labels feminine or masculine? I think we need to construct a more diverse perspective of non-dual opposition, and think from a mutually fluid or more complex perspective.
Note: The exhibition is produced by Shanghai Lujiazui (Group) Co., Ltd. and organized by Pudong Art Museum. The exhibition is co-curated by three well-known domestic and foreign curators, namely Nancy Spector from the United States, Tan Xue from Hong Kong, China, and Yang Beichen from Beijing;
will last until November 11 January 17th.
