The 8 of Paths: Art in Beijing

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The 8 of Paths: Art in Beijing

The 8 of Paths: Art in Beijing / Die 8 der Wege: Kunst in Beijing.

April 29 through July 13, 2014

An exhibition of 20+ younger artists from Beijing at

Uferhallen, Uferstrasse 8-11, 13357 Berlin

With works by Chen Xiaoyun, Colin Chinnery, Fang Lu, Guan Xiao, He Xiangyu, Hu Qingtai, Kan Xuan, Li Binyuan, Li Hui, Li Ran, Liu Chuang, Liu Wei, Lu Song, Sun Xun, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, UTOPIA group – Deng Dafei & He Hai, Wang Sishun, Wang Wei, Yan Xing, Yang Junling, Yu Honglei, Zhao Zhao and Zhu Yu

Berlin, 17 February 2014 – “The 8 of Paths: Art in Beijing” exhibition is opening on April 29, 2014 in Berlin’s Uferhallen venue. The show and accompanying program—including a symposium with prominent experts in the field, guided tours and a film series—will showcase works by young artists living and working in Beijing and highlight the diverse artistic practices in that city today.The exhibition presents work by over 20 artists ranging from some already successful, such as Liu Wei, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, and Sun Xun, to young and aspiring artists, such as Yang Junling and Hu Qingtai. This exhibition marks the first time that major works by He Xiangyu, Fang Lu, Kan Xuan, Li Ran, Wang Sishun, Liu Chuang and Yu Honglei are being shown together in Europe. Colin Chinnery has designed a dedicated sound installation to welcome visitors as they move into the exhibition space. The artists also include Zhao Zhao, a former assistant to Ai Weiwei and also well-known in Germany, with conceptual works, while Li Binyuan has prepared a high-energy performance for the opening.

The curatorial team comprises Guo Xiaoyan – one of China’s best known curators, at present at the Minsheng Art Museum and previously Chief Curator at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art – as well as Berlin curators Thomas Eller (former Director of the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin) and Andreas Schmid. Together, they visited over 50 ateliers in Beijing’s 798 Art Zone, Cao Chang Di, Hei Qiao and Song Zhuang to select the works for “The 8 of Paths”. The exhibition’s title not only evokes the lucky number 8 in the Chinese tradition, but also their own curatorial journey as they explored the paths of discovery through Beijing’s varied landscape of artistic approaches.

The interest in contemporary art in China has only grown markedly in the broad art world over the last few years. The legendary “China Avantgarde” exhibition held twenty years ago in Berlin’s Haus der Kulturender Welt is regarded as the first of its kind in Europe. That exhibition, also co-organised by Andreas Schmid, co-curator of “The 8 of Paths”, jump started an interest in Chinese contemporary art in the West. Building on that tradition, “The 8 of Paths” spotlights leading current positions and profiles a new generation of artists who, thanks in part to the older generation around Ai Weiwei, have acquired quite new possibilities and freedoms over the past years.

Initiated by Professor Yu Zhang and organized by the Gesellschaft für Deutsch-Chinesischen kulturellen Austausch (GeKA e.V.), the exhibition and its accompanying program are part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of Berlin and Beijing’s city partnership, and are funded by the LOTTO-Stiftung Berlin. This project has also been generously supported by the Senate Chancellery of Berlin, the Senate Chancellery’s Cultural Affairs department, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, BMW AG, Lufthansa AG and Ströer AG, as well as Kulturprojekte Berlin.