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THE ‘BEST’ AND THE ‘WORST’ IN CONTEMPORARY ART
Curator’s Lecture on the Exhibition
THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMES
Time: 3:00pm, Jan 24 (Fri.), 2014
Venue: Bldg.18, No.50 Moganshan Road, Shanghai
Speaker: David Elliott
Language: English (with Chinese Translation)
Free for admission. Please make reservation via info@chronusartcenter.org
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David Elliott, the founding Director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2001-2006), the first Director of the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art [Istanbul Modern] (2007) is a celebrated curator on the Asia Advisory Board of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The Exhibition of “THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMES”, originated from the selected video works at the 1st Kiev Biennale curated by David Elliott, is his directorial debut in China, as well as the special New Year Project of Chronus Art Center (hereafter referred to as CAC) collaborated with MOMENTUM Berlin.
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times. Rebirth and Apocalypse in Contemporary Art, the 1st International Kiev Biennale of Contemporary Art, is the most recent of many large thematic exhibitions that David Elliott has curated in different cities and continents. All of them have examined in distinct ways and from different points of view the varying conditions of contemporary art by reflecting the cultural contexts and critical climates in which they were made. The work in them has been generated by different ideas of aesthetic quality as well as by diverse histories and experiences of life.
In one way the “best” and “worst” may be understood as opposites, as part of the dialectic of rational, western materialism, in which existence is formed by choice and circumstance. Yet, in another sense, the best and worst are embedded within the same cyclical motion. Within the “worst” redemption lies dormant, while the “best” may be an illusion that harbours the seeds of its own destruction.
The intelligence, intuition and humanity of the artists who contributed work to this exhibition give inspiration by its example. Their critical, sardonic, sometimes humorous or iconoclastic views of the world, their ability to think and see outside the cages into which we are so often willingly confined, and their clarity and commitment to truth in art, energizes us to go a step further – to experience and analyse more keenly for ourselves the causes and effects of life, the very fountainhead of art. And this is a necessary prelude for action.
To provide a better and full understanding of the exhibition, David will talk about his curatorial concept, the theme of this exhibition as well as the artworks of seven artists by introducing the exhibition and also the 1st Kiev Biennale, to finally explore and discuss the ‘Best’ and the ‘Worst’ in contemporary art under the social context.
