Pi Li – författare

Considered the first Chinese artist to work in video, Zhang Peili (b. 1957) manipulates perspective, close-ups, and framing to create astonishing recordings of banal repeated actions, such as breaking glass, reading, washing, shaving, and blowing bubble gum. He is a pioneering figure, experimenting with a video camera in the late 1980s, exploring digital formats in the early 2000s, and developing large-scale, immersive scenes today. Despite Zhang’s pivotal role in the global history of video art, his oeuvre has received relatively little attention. This book, which includes insightful essays, color plates, and an illustrated chronology, is one of the few in-depth explorations in English of this important artist’s work. Distributed for the Art Institute of ChicagoExhibition Schedule:The Art Institute of Chicago(03/31/17–07/09/17)

The first book to explore the life and times of Chinese artist, businesswoman, socialite and style expert ‘Madame Song’, whose life was spent in the company of a Who’s Who of Cold War China and which paralleled the highs and lows of the country’s history. The extraordinary life story of Song Huai-Kuei, better known as Madame Song, follows the arc of 20th-century history. Artist, entrepreneur and impresario, Song broke cultural barriers for love, transcended Cold War borders for her art, and laid the foundations for a global fashion industry. With her cosmopolitan outlook, she defined an influential vision for Chinese culture on the world stage and asserted an Asian perspective in 21st-century art and design. Madame Song is a name that everyone interested in the roots of contemporary visual culture needs to know. At the heart of this volume is a critical biography that explores Song’s youth in revolutionary China, her cross-cultural marriage to Bulgarian fibre artist Maryn Varbanov, her success within avant-garde circles in Eastern and Western Europe during the Cold War, and finally her efforts within China to revive traditional aesthetics in tandem with the explosive rise of global couture. Throughout her life, she cultivated an aspirational image of what a modern Chinese woman could be within a changing and opening world. A consummate networker, Song built bridges between people, disciplines and business interests, often in the elegant surroundings of Maxim’s de Paris, Beijing, the restaurant she famously helped to open. In tracking the highs and lows of the massive social changes that occurred throughout her lifetime, Madame Song’s exceptional life serves as a fascinating lens through which to view 20th-century China.

Stay Connected: Art and China Since 2008 is a landmark compendium produced by Tai Kwun Contemporary and Asia Art Archive. Bringing together over 80 artists from China and beyond, the volume maps artistic responses to the profound social, economic, and technological shifts of the 21st century. Structured around nine keywords, it features newly commissioned essays by curators, writers, and scholars, alongside short texts on artworks and an extensive archival section. With three in-depth curatorial essays, this richly illustrated book offers a panoramic yet incisive account of contemporary art’s entanglement with the realities of globalisation, making it an indispensable reference for understanding China’s place in the world today.

Utställningen Right is Wrong presenterade centrala verk av betydande konstnärer och en nutida kinesisk konsthistoria. Den omfattade drygt 80 verk ur en av världens främsta samlingar av kinesisk samtidskonst: M+ Sigg Collection från M+, det stora museum för visuell kultur som byggs i Hongkong för att öppnas i slutet av 2017. I den rikt illustrerade utställningskatalogen ger kurator Pi Li en konsthistorisk översikt av den kinesiska samtidskonstens utveckling. Med start i 70-talet och konstnärsgrupper som No Name och Stars, via händelserna på Himmelska fridens torg 1989, följer vi utvecklingen fram till dagens rika konstscen. Boken beskriver den kinesiska konstscenen i relation till den politiska händelseutvecklingen i Kina. Här presenteras också en tidslinje där historiska och politiska händelser i Kina kan läsas mot viktiga händelser inom konstområdet och ger oss möjlighet att studera sambandet mellan konst och samhälle utifrån den specifika kinesiska nutidshistorien. Till katalogen bidrar även Uli Sigg, vars privata samling utgjorde en förutsättning för utställningen, med en personlig reflektion kring det egna samlandets drivkrafter och mål. Katalogen, som finns i både svensk och engelsk upplaga, inleds av ett gemensamt förord av kuratorerna Katarina Pierre, museichef Bildmuseet och Lars Nittve, museichef M+. Right is Wrong var resultatet av ett samarbete mellan Bildmuseet, Umeå universitet, och M+ i West Kowloon Cultural District, Hongkong. Utställningen visades på Bildmuseet under det Europeiska kulturhuvudstadsåret i Umeå 2014. Utställningen har kuraterades av Pi Li, chefsintendent M+; Lars Nittve, museichef M+ samt Katarina Pierre museichef Bildmuseet i samarbete med Uli Sigg.