Researchers in the BCU Centre for Chinese Visual Arts (CCVA) have been changing perceptions of Chinese art, influencing curatorial practices in the UK, China and elsewhere across the globe since 2007. Researchers have aimed to highlight the relevance of Chinese Visual Art to the universal themes in society.
Summary of research
The research of the Centre for Chinese Visual Art has had a substantial impact on perceptions in the West of Chinese art. It has been far-reaching in its effect, having influenced curatorial practices the UK, China and elsewhere globally. This has fundamentally informing cultural policy for civic, governmental and other organisations.
The Centre’s international curatorial activity has repositioned contemporary Chinese art from being a marginalised topic to one where it is recognised as fully engaging with current global concerns. Through the establishment of large-scale network partnerships and transcultural exchange programmes, artists from China are now squarely located within the international artistic milieu.
How research was carried out
The groundbreaking Centre for Chinese Visual Arts (CCVA) was established in 2007 fostering understandings and perceptions of Chinese contemporary art and transcultural curating. The CCVA has curated a number of exhibitions in the UK challenging the western-centric view of Chinese art.
The Centre has undertaken a range of curatorial research, delivering several significant exhibitions in the UK to showcase Chinese contemporary art and explore its role and relevance. One is Harmonious Society, an exhibition produced by the curatorial team at the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), led by Jiang Jiehong, which was presented at six venues across Manchester. Another was This is Shanghai, a central part of Liverpool’s ‘China Dream’ season, an exhibition that emerged from Jiang’s research on the relationship between contemporary art practice and urban transformation. The exhibition explored and celebrated the relationship between Liverpool and its twin city in China.
The exhibitions not only explored the research of the Centre but also the vision of Chinese artistic responses and artists to cultural transformations and has presented work in China as well as across the UK
The Shadow Never Lies, was presented at the 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai, explored the meaning of shadow in different cultural contexts.
‘Everyday Legend’ critically re-examined the fragmentation of Chinese traditions during political and social transformations. The research project also reinterpreted cultural traditions in the field of contemporary art. It led to two contemporary art exhibitions and workshops in Shanghai, Datong, Groningen, London, a symposia in Beijing, and an international conference in Birmingham.
As part of Jiang’s curatorial research, he challenges conventional art spaces, interrogates the distance between art and everyday life and creates new platforms for cross-cultural exchanges. To this end, his exhibitions are often curated for display across non-institutional venues and public spaces, such as the Thailand Biennale: Edge of the Wonderland, which showcased art in the natural world, with over 65 new works of art installed completely outdoors on Krabi islands.
Outcomes and impact
The Centre’s research has contributed to a significant shift in perceptions of contemporary Chinese art, in the UK and beyond. It has had an impact in three specific areas:
- Art organisations and curatorial approaches: this research has influenced art organisations to feature Chinese art on the international stage. The for Harmonious Society urged the CFCCA to construct five new partnership venues to stage the exhibition, ultimately attracting an audience of nearly 230,000.
- Governments and cultural strategies: this research has influenced the inclusion of Chinese art as part of the cultural strategies in the UK and internationally, encouraged cross-cultural exchange and created new spaces to encounter art.
- Cross-cultural understanding: in addition to the impact on curatorial strategies and cultural policies of organisations and governments, The Centre’s research has provided a platform to enhance cross-cultural understanding between the East and the West.
