Fondation Cartier holds its first exhibition in China
One of the first European institutions to promote and work with Chinese contemporary artists, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris, France, is having its first large-scale exhibition in China.
Titled A Beautiful Elsewhere, the exhibition showcases more than 100 important creations that have resulted from the foundation’s longtime relationship with artists from China and other countries. The event opened at the Power Station of Art, a public museum dedicated to contemporary art in Shanghai, on Apr 25. It will go on till July 29.
As artists have always been at the core of its activities since the Fondation Cartier was founded in 1984, this debut exhibition in China aims to present the unique beauty of each artist’s creation to audiences in China, says Herve Chandes, general director of the institution.
Located in a glass building in Paris designed by Jean Nouvel, the Fondation Cartier invites artists to create two to three site-specific exhibitions every year and these artworks are subsequently collected by the institution.
Chandes added that the Fondation Cartier has always operated independently from its parent luxury jewelry brand and remained faithful to the people with whom it collaborates, pointing out that artists are never involved in any of the brand’s commercial initiatives.
In the early 1990s, it was Fei Dawei, a Chinese art critic and curator, who introduced contemporary artists such as Cai Guoqiang and Huang Yongping to the Fondation Cartier. Fei was of the three curators alongside Chandes and Grazia Quaroni, director of Collections, at the Fondation Cartier.
Cai and Huang, both important artists in China’s contemporary art scene, were artists in residence at the institution and had created artworks for the Fondation Cartier’s collection. Fei later recommended emerging Chinese artists to be featured at the new exhibition at PSA.
“I hope these new artists Hu Liu, Gao Shan and Li Yongbin, will turn out to be successful and claim their position in the contemporary art scene just like Cai and Huang did,” he says.
The Fondation Cartier has continued to push the boundaries of contemporary art over the past few years, presenting unique exhibitions about mathematics, philosophy and even animals. These seemingly unconventional themes have attracted new visitors to the Fondation Cartier, Chandes says.
“Some came to see a particular artist’s work while others came for the subject, such as the animal, the ecology and environment. All of these issues are important and relevant in today’s world, and we have managed to present them in an artistic way that is different from what you would see at, for example, a science and technology museum,” says Chandes.
Visitors to the exhibition at PSA will also find lithographs by American film director David Lynch as well as an installation by Beat Takeshi Kitano, a TV and film performer, director and screen writer from Japan.
“By presenting these important artists’ work in China, the Fondation Cartier is showcasing our history, memories as well as our ongoing relationship with the artists,” says Quaroni.