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“Look Inside "Qin Feng Art Exhibition
Interview with the Contemporary Art Research Center of the Central Academy of Fine Arts
Live video of the exhibition"Looking Inward - A different Qin Feng"
On December 6, 2024, Yuan Art Museum hosted “Looking Inward - A different Qin Feng”. Research Center for Contemporary Art, Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum (CA) conducted a special interview with the artist Qin Feng and the director of Yuan Art Museum Gu Yan.
Left: Gu Yan, Director of Yuan Art Museum right: Qin Feng
CA: Can you tell me about your artistic stories with the artist Qin Feng?
Gu Yan: The story of my connection with Qin Feng is somewhat lengthy, as we share a special common interest: the art museum. Both Qin Feng’s Songzhuang Contemporary Art Museum and Yuan Art Museum have the significant similarity of being privately supported, with the operating costs being primarily covered by individuals. A frequent topic of conversation between us is how Qin Feng can sell more works to generate income to sustain his museum, while I similarly discuss how to make the most of my limited resources to accomplish meaningful and interesting activities within the museum’s operations, ensuring its long-term viability.
Naturally, we also exchange complaints and encourage one another in the process. When it comes to art, we often engage in discussions. Although our tastes and styles differ, our understanding of art and our attitude toward it are sincere and passionate. As Qin Feng puts it, having the ability to support a museum for the next 20 years is truly no easy feat.
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
CA: From an academic point of view, what is your understanding of "marginalization"?
Qin Feng: It is a misdirection, which is a scholar to the common people or intellectuals put forward a new misunderstanding. In a sense it is misleading. I think the decentralization of cities, from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization to modern information society, which is the edge? The so-called modern civilization centered on the city is not necessarily a centrism, it is not. The center is uncertain what to say about the edge, so this is a false proposition. I hope I didn't influence or hurt anyone.
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
CA: From the perspective of the art business market, we can say that "marginalization is an active artistic attitude of self-recognition and choice. It seeks innovation in abstract forms of expression, but it is often difficult for the audience to understand, because the traditional logical concept conflicts with the image expressed by the abstract picture. In China, the art and theory of marginalization have not received the attention and research they deserve." What is your current understanding of "marginalization"?
Gu Yan: “Marginalization” is, strictly speaking, the title of the exhibition “Marginalism”, I held at Yan Art Space in early 2022. It also reflects the artistic attitude that has been upheld by the Yuan Art Museum for many years. However, this notion of “self-awareness” is based on the artist’s belief that “I cannot be the mainstream of the public.” Marginalization may have many interpretations within the realms of economics and philosophy, but in the context of art, I think that elevating it to an “-ition” is merely a self-determined choice we make when discussing or holding exhibitions and events over a long period. It serves as a declaration or self-motivation. Avant-garde art, or the vanguard of art, plays a crucial role in advancing artistic thought and form. Marginality is not necessarily synonymous with being avant-garde, but early avant-garde art is undoubtedly marginal. As the vanguard at the margin becomes classic and mainstream, new margins and avant-garde ideas inevitably emerge.
Left: "The Boundary of Ice Water", vermilion stone, acrylic cloth, 360 x 480 cm (6-pack), 2021
Middle: "Stacking X Lemon Yellow+Grey+White", Chen Wenji, oil on canvas painting, 206 x 161 cm，2021
Right one: "The Berlin Wall", Qin Yufen, Xuan paper with colored ink, 180 x 500 cm，1990
Right second: "Untitled", Tan Ping, acrylic fabric, 400 x 300 cm，2021
At the exhibition site of "Marginalism", Yan Art，2021
Thus, the marginalization I refer to here is not simply the societal position of the artist or the art, but rather an attitude, an assertion of self-awareness. Regardless of the era, marginality first signifies a distance from the mainstream. This distance greatly influences the natural development of both criticality and conformity. Secondly, it embodies an antagonism toward the mainstream. If everything follows the trend, new ideas or art lose their foundational essence. Therefore, marginality is not a physical situation; it is a choice we make. This so-called self-chosen position is a form of self-awareness. For some artists and art institutions, the popular trends and market are not the sole truth of art.
Actively distancing oneself from the mainstream, embracing self-imposed marginalization, and seeking one’s own artistic truth and logic is also an inevitable choice. It is not to say that creating mainstream art is inherently bad, but if everyone pursues the mainstream, who will create the non-mainstream? Who will push forward this era and art through the avant-garde, non-mainstream art? So I think the so-called marginalism is more of an artistic self-selection.
"Desire Landscape Series 2024-4-1", Qin Feng, special paper, acrylic, ink, 110x160cm, 2023
CA: In the introduction to the exhibition "Looking Inward - A Different Qin Feng", you mention that "since the 1980s, thin red lines have been appearing in his works at intervals, and what is interesting is the simple and orderly running through or the alternations of entangling and stirring the picture, but the logic is not clear. The mysticism of the thin red thread wrapped and tugged at his mind, making him search for himself." How do you understand "Looking Inward"?
Left: "Desire Landscape Series 2024-4-1", Qin Feng, special paper, acrylic, ink, 110x160cm, 2023
Right: "Desire Landscape Series 2024-3-15", Qin Feng, special paper, acrylic, ink, 160x270cm, 2024
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
Qin Feng: I think the proposition of "Looking Inward" is very meaningful. Usually, everyone will draw up a grand theme, which is all about looking outward, crossing boundaries, merging. Big, big themes, "Look Inward". We ancients, Zen, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism inside to pay attention to the heart, the inner, there is an inner cycle. The so-called "inner cycle" in this is like nature, it is actually an inner cycle in the process of circulation, not an outer cycle, we go to outer space, in fact, there is not much direct relationship.
"Desire Landscape Series 1507-2-32", Qin Feng, linen paper, acrylic, ink, 156x300cm, 2012
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
Therefore, I think inner/introversion is a process of self-awakening/reflection, and naturally there is also a process of repair, and inner itself has the ability to repair, so I think introversion/inner is a very interesting topic, it has a broad space to expand and extend. "Inside," which in turn contains the outside, which in turn contains something that exists and something that dies, something existential and something that dies, or something that is an illusion. The inner thing, we say your inner enough is strong, it is a world like. I think in this case we can make a proposition from this point of view, we can expand this proposition.
The inner most typically, if you read it from an image, it's a correlation between the inner and the outer, a relational schema interpretation. The so-called inside/inner, in/out of the mirror, in/out of the frame, within which it has two kinds of new picture and interpretation space, for example, this picture frame, inside the frame, outside the frame, it is also a kind of schema logic in the inside, it has a kind of saying that this kind of informatics inside says: It is an implicit structure and logic in it, so the inner things are more able to convey the relationship close to nature and man.
The outer thing is the universe that we can't control and can't imagine, can't see, etc. It is actually a big outer space. So there is a secondary affirmation in this, where our experience, knowledge, secondary existence, and inner things come together to affirm such a concept or to elaborate such a concept. The maturity and vein structure of this schema is very clear, and the internal topic/introverted topic mentioned just now is closer to it. Whether it is our ancient people or our current people, especially the eastern philosophy is the inside/outside of the box, the inner/outer, which I think is clearer than the Western philosophy, the logic is clearer and more natural.
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
Gu Yan: In fact, the Qin Feng’s exhibition is probably the most tiring and difficult exhibition I have curated this year. Qin Feng's works and exhibitions are very numerous, and we can see that art occupies the weight of his life. Therefore, in the past exhibitions, a large number of works were gathered together, each work had a strong tension, and the dense arrangement formed a very large formation. The discussion of contemporary ink painting or Oriental culture poetry attracted the attention of everyone, but I always felt that there was something missing in the exhibition, which made people interpret or misinterpret the Qin Feng style from the outside. After many years of talking from the art museum, I think he has an inner side unknown to outsiders, and this inner side unknown to outsiders may be the real power of Qin Feng style art, but how to express it and how to go beyond the picture is really a problem. Most of the time we are wrapped up in the picture and confused, but what is the inner driving force of his art? Like the red strings that break up in the picture. What does the red line signify in history and social life? Boundaries that you can't go beyond. But we can also say a red string around the neck or around the wrist. What is that? Is a totem, such as Yang Bailao and Xi'er. And why she tied a red head string? What does "red string" stand for? Represents auspiciousness, happiness... In fact, the red string itself semantic is very wide, I don't know if anyone has to discuss these more. However, the uncertainty of Qin’s Red String itself leads to the fact that we cannot accurately define Qin Feng's works with red string, and they are always in a certain different nature, which is especially necessary.
Exhibition image of 'Facing the Wind', Venice, 2016
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
Also, this red line sometimes appears, sometimes it does not appear, sometimes it appears regularly, sometimes it is entangled, sometimes it is even like a maze, and sometimes it is even a difficult knot to open. An artist is a social person, and for this era and this society, he must have his own feelings, his cognition and what he wants to express. Many of these expressions are not set by him, such as I will mean auspicious this time, next time I will mean boundaries or totems. Most of the time, he is actually an internal involuntary reaction, but this involuntary, shaman like mystic reaction may be another level of manifestation of his thought. Many artists are actually thinkers whose brain is like a think tank filled with countless images, but what is the influence of this think tank? To present the true inner nature of an artist through an exhibition, to express the artist's thoughts through the artist's works, and to curate and organize an exhibition has always been an extremely challenging task for me. Every time you get to the last minute of your research preparation, you have to clear your mind, and then you go back and think about what the exhibition is going to be like a Jedi rebirth. I began to chat with Qin Feng in 2010, I thought it would not be too difficult, and I did not want to feel the confusion and powerlessness that I had never felt after I vetoed countless schemes. Ran to the northwest from never been, sparsely populated winter cold brain frozen clear, "look inside" by the birth. Only by "looking inside" can we see different but real diligence. You're right that he's a prolific artist, but the idea behind that prolific is something we need to think about. You say he is modernist, he is not, he is definitely not, but to find out what is the contemporary meaning of his art, which is sometimes indescribable. Through the exhibition and the field created by the live works, I want to let everyone see the deep meaning of Qin Feng's works that are ignored in daily life, and see the inner nature of the artist Qin Feng that is rarely known.
"Desire Landscape Series 1803-2-1", Qin Feng, linen paper, acrylic, ink, 315x149cm, 2012
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
CA: Most of your art is a true portrayal of your life. It is both a dialogue with ancient civilization and a burst of wild primitive desire. This primitive desire to look inside makes the viewer feel the conflict and reconciliation between human civilization and desire, the combination of the two, the drive of desire and the sublimation of civilization. In the comments of senior international curator Curtis L. Calter, "Unlike some earlier Chinese artists of the twentieth century, Qin Feng does not see the solution to art ' s role in human experience in the politics of aesthetics where art and politics join forces. Rather, he posits a link between art and philosophy where his art ' s focus is on expressing the deeper meanings of human existence, instead of linking art to more immediate political objectives. His reticence to link art and politics extends as well to the politics of globalization. His art can be considered global art in the sense that global art refers to art that is a part of, or participates in worldwide cultural exchange or commerce. On the other hand, he would resist any hegemonic aims of globalization that allows for dominant cultures to impose their art or culture on other cultures in a different state of development. Rather, Qin Feng welcomes the contributions of diversity as a means of building new artistic models as well as sustaining the treasures of past cultural achievements. His focus remains on the meaningful role of art as a purveyor of the deeper meanings of human existence." How do you use this strength, vitality or momentum to express your inner sense and reason?
Qin Feng: As far as I am concerned, I think it has something to do with a person's life experience. This kind of experience is directly related to the influence of the cultural field. For example, I live in Xinjiang, where there are 56 ethnic minorities, more than a dozen languages and scripts, and vast desert steppe and mountains connecting the entire Eurasian continent, spanning tens of thousands of kilometers.
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
CA: It's directly related to your living environment.
Qin Feng: It is directly influenced by the environment. I find it difficult to imagine myself excelling as a painter of literati painting, because such an art form cannot be confined to a narrow scope. Your living environment, cultural atmosphere, and regional context all shape you in ways that make it challenging to engage with such traditions. These elements are not in your DNA; they don’t influence you in the way that smaller, local landscapes might. The broader landscape, along with the natural cycles and seasonal variations, is vast, and within the complex context of multi-cultural influences, it becomes impossible to focus solely on one thing. For instance, as a southerner or islander, my perspective on an issue cannot be the same as someone from a different background. Decades of creative experience—such as my time living in Europe and the United States for twenty years - have shaped my views in ways that Western culture has not influenced me as much as some may suggest. People may claim that I have been influenced by this or that, but I believe the opposite is true. My upbringing and experiences are more aligned with symbolic or national elements, or aspects of my personal character, which resonate more deeply with me, much like my mother tongue.
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
CA: This diverse experience doesn't change you, it reinforces something very original about you.
Qin Feng: Yes, the emergence of this force is directly linked to the substantial and complex narrative of desire. Without inner experience, without such a complex range of experiences and influences, one would not be able to make such diverse and powerful choices or expressions. This difference is cultural and ethnic in nature. Take the Eskimo for example - he can withstand temperatures as low as minus 30 or 40 degrees, while you cannot. It is difficult for someone from the south, who is accustomed to warmer climates, to endure such extreme cold. This difference in endurance is not just a matter of physical capacity, but a result of regional and cultural influences. How you feel or react is shaped by your background, just as someone from the Han culture will be influenced differently by their environment. In fact, this is all shaped by regional and cultural contexts.
"Diamond Sutra Series", Qin Feng, album, acrylic, ink, 95x40cm x322021-2022
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
CA: Yuan Art Museum, founded in 2008, is a non-profit, international contemporary art exhibition institution and an art experimental exchange platform. In 2010, it was officially recognized as an art institution by the Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau. In your previous writings, you mentioned: “Due to the frequent changes in the museum and storage spaces, almost every year involved moving—either relocating or renovating before moving - I’ve gotten used to it.” In the current situation, despite such challenges, Yuan Art Museum continues to stay true to its original vision and mission. What is the museum’s vision and outlook for the future?
The exhibition site of "Walking | Yuandian Art Museum (Wuqing) Triennial", Yuandian Art Museum - Wuqing, 2023
Gu Yan: Our museum always looking for something, a motivation that can push Chinese contemporary art and artists to take a step forward. In 2023, “Tiny Step | Yuan Art Museum Triennial” actually represents Yuan Art Museum's expectations for the future, we hope that Chinese contemporary art can really take a step forward, even if it is a very small step, as long as we go, it must have the meaning of existence.
Part of "Diamond Sutra Series", Qin Feng, album, acrylic, ink, 95x40cm x322021-2022
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
CA: Curator Gu Yan said in the article: In a country where the traditional logic is "almost" and "a little", art and artists who use abstraction as a form of expression often face the embarrassment that professional circles and theoretical circles tend to interpret and interpret western art history, logic and philosophy as references, and give conclusions or rehashes, or the underlying thinking logic and concepts of Chinese abstract art are rarely mentioned in theories. How do you understand the international development of Chinese abstract art? What do you think is the current situation? Or what can be considered rational or scientific?
Qin Feng: I think I have a question just for art lovers and our scholars. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art once had a very important exhibition, they hung large advertisements in the doorway from the upstairs five stories, ten floors high, which was a part of the Zhu Da’s stone. When I saw it, I said this abstract painting was too cute, but I also felt very familiar. Last look is Zhu Da, I think I have answered this question.
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
In fact, there are some things in Chinese tradition that are very abstract, but we think we know the inscription with a chapter, in fact, we understand Chinese characters, in the eyes of Westerners, whether it is a seal or a signature, it is very abstract. So many people, including Picasso, including Giacometti, who did sculpture and space art, openly admitted that Pollock thought that he was greatly influenced by Eastern philosophy and Eastern art, but after they became famous, they gradually modified/revised their theories, for reasons that were not up to them to decide. Because critics and historians also intentionally re-edit the so-called modern and contemporary art history with the identity of nationalism, nationalism and strong culture, they correct many things to a Western perspective, I think so. Why do you say that? Some time ago, some chaos in the calligraphy world emerged, which can reveal that he was not confident or could not understand the contemporary nature of his native language culture and Chinese characters, or even the very avant-garde/cutting-edge art form, because he was not particularly confident or did not fully understand the very international nature of this art form. Some things from 500 years, 800 years ago are very contemporary. Why do I say that? Our theoretical system and academic construction are very shallow understanding of western and Eastern things, and our scholars have never had a real expert, such as the experts on the Eight Major universities, the experts on the Ming and Qing Dynasties, including the Palace Museum, the art research Institute, etc. Basically, they are intellectuals in the capacity of learning. While contemporary art, modern art, while what gaudy, pop, eyebrows and beard, of course, no one can understand what they are talking about, because they do not have the patience to study deeply, please do not mind me saying this.
"Desire Landscape Series 2024-4-1", Qin Feng, special paper, acrylic, ink, 160x187cm, 2023
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
I know an expert who is British, who has helped the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum and many other museums in the identification, and the accuracy is even more accurate than our experts. Why? It is because he spent twenty or thirty years studying Chinese bronzes and porcelain, and became a real expert on ceramics, and even a real expert on the eight Great Chinese artists, etc., while British experts saw it more rationally. And our scholars have a strict problem. Including some scholars now, you ask him to look at some classical and modern things, he can not see one or two. But they were always very rhetorical about what Socrates said, what Nietzsche said, what Picasso said and did, what Duchamp thought, maybe he was doing his stuff at the time, he wasn't thinking that much, they were just artists doing their art, and these scholars, most typically Pollock and Andy Warhol and so on, At that time, America just needed to create a star, like Disney, Hollywood, McDonald's, this is American culture, they need a star, they created such a fast food culture, a folk star, so we hold him up as a god. In fact, this is our problem, not their problem, this is their culture, he only 200 years of culture can understand, and many of us today are still very passive chewing this taste, just like chewing gum for 30 years, 30 years of reform and opening up, chewing gum is not there? It's still in your mouth. What's that smell? He's numb. He's not discerning. Because of what? There's no taste. He's just habitually chewing.
"Fan Series ", Qin Feng, paper, acrylic, ink, 60x35x5cm x602021-2022
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
CA: How do you see the current trend of artists and art institutions actively marginalizing themselves, actively distancing themselves from the craze and seeking their own artistic truth and logic?
Qin Feng: My personal experience is that I am a person who cannot be born and grow up in a marginal region, and I have consciously gone to the center, the big city center, to work in the city center, live in Berlin, the center of Europe, and New York, the center of the world, to work, live, create and participate in their activities, exhibitions, academics, teaching, and exchanges for nearly 40 or 50 years. So I personally feel that I came from the edge, and now my experience also answers your question, in fact, I also want to go back to the edge to rethink this question. For example, the studio I built in Tibet has no people, and there is no people on the seaside, which I think is called the edge, and if you go further, you will come to Vietnam, if you go to Vietnam, you will come to India, and if you go further, you will come to the frontier desert.
“Manuscript Assignment”, Qin Feng, paper, acrylic, ink, 30x30x5cm x81983-2024
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
Gu Yan: This is a conscious choice, or a spontaneous choice, and from spontaneity to consciousness is a growth process that takes time to accumulate. Just like myself, I did not know what to do when I started to do contemporary art, I used the "exclusive method", "what I do not do", gradually, through exhibitions and exchanges, whether theoretical, ideological, or other cross-art, through the world to see exhibitions, do exhibition discussions, and so on, slowly from what I do not want to what I want. Whether the choice is right or not can not be defined or not, but the most important is that each of us must ask ourselves: what is the meaning of the "what" I want?
“Manuscript Assignment "section, Qin Feng, paper, acrylic, ink, 30x30x5cm x81983-2024
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
CA: Edge is a pseudo-definition, the core is uncertain, the edge cannot be determined.
Qin Feng: That's right. I think that in a sense, from the academic level or the higher level of knowledge structure, we should talk about urban civilization, it should be a central civilization or the center of civilization, and people should not make big fights, that is to say, the so-called marginalism to decorate themselves. What is brinkmanship? "Edge" is sometimes used to mean the edge of a country, the edge of a history or the edge of a people, in a sense that is not accurate. If you say "marginalism," what is the fulcrum, doctrine? A line is called an edge, a cliff is called an edge, a cross-border edge, and a country that crosses a border is also called an edge. When we talk about geographic history, history defines a history, which dynasty and which dynasty is marginal? The structure of our knowledge? The edge of industrial civilization is agricultural civilization, and the edge is industrial civilization.
“Manuscript Assignment”, Qin Feng, paper, acrylic, ink, 30x30x5cm x81983-2024
Exhibition Site of "Looking Inside - A Different Qin Feng", Yuan Art Museum - Beijing, 2024-2025
CA: There should be no edges.
Qin Feng: Of course, we have existed for up and down five thousand years, of course it is alternating, just like music, the three movements span the entire history of human civilization, like Beethoven's Symphony, the three movements are the entire symphony of fate, fate is from birth to death, is before life, is the history of the father, can be reflected in the tragic life to the tragic death, is to be verified. That's got to be it.
《Original Sound》，Qin Feng, Sculpture, Beijing Museum of Contemporary Art, 2007
CA: It is difficult to put Qin Feng's ink painting into a certain genre or scope, he is first of all an experimental artist, and unlike ordinary ink painters who only practice brush and ink skills, Qin Feng does not pay attention to water, ink and paper themselves, these visual materials are all media, and he does not pay attention to the visual world. These views were far from his spiritual world..." Very few artists have transcendent cosmic consciousness, in your works, such as: "God Where Ate Thou", "Allah Why Don't You Wake Him Up", "Divine Music", "Original Sound", "The Riddle Of Pharaoh, Colored Clouds In The Sky", "Clouds Over The Head" and so on. How do you define your art today? Are you relevant in the area of "transcendental cosmic consciousness"?
Qin Feng: There must be a connection, a new way of thinking about religion, a different way of thinking about culture and history than ordinary people. Artists, when you create, your performance, you must extract or make a reference, or, if you want to translate into personal language, you must find a way to express in language, including media, you must consider a very important thinking for the future, the use of materials to reflect the modern civilization of this generation, this is material science. The present information is an important medium for new thinking and discussion about the future universe. For example, the launching of information into the universe and space is a process of information linking and a time of feedback (return). As an artist, I will naturally think about this issue. For example, the concept of God, the pseudo-proposition, as a normal human understanding, he would make it completely religious, become completely individualistic, become an individualistic point of view to understand that throughout his life he may fulfill his image of God and his spiritual model in relation to him, in relation to him. For artists, I think art is my religion, my belief. What is not well understood is that people have different perspectives and different understandings of false propositions and concepts. At this point, I also seriously consider and study contemporary art and the so-called postmodern art concept, and express the concept of postmodernism with works.
Christie's Shanghai Art Space opens, 2014
CA: The large-scale painting you created for Christie's Shanghai is very impressive. The audience can freely walk across the huge canvas. In your art, you can feel the call of a powerful force, which is derived from the dialogue of ancient civilizations with a long history, and on the one hand, from the explosion of primitive desires. You are good at drawing power from civilization and desire, how do you understand the post-modern "Civilization Landscape" and "Desire Scenery"?
Qin Feng: In a sense, this work is a performance art, the concept of itself. They chose the place of colonial settlement in Shanghai, China, and started to restart the value of colonial culture. It has three definitions and consciousness in it, so it is quite interesting. Put it directly there so that they can step on it and walk on it, because I think colonization has always been contaminated with the dust of historical time, and only after that can people seriously and re-think this period of history and the pain points of colonization, where the pain points are, including the author.
Christie's Shanghai Art Space opens, 2014
CA: The piece is interactive, and the audience can walk through it.
Qin Feng: You can walk in, the car can drive past, but then you can pick it up and enter the museum, people can't get close to one meter, it's this contrast, I'm talking about a behavior and a concept, but after the car and people step on the colonial brick dust is printed on the painting, people step on the reprinted on the picture, because the propylene, people step on it, where the car comes from, That dust is on top of it, and when you step on it, you leave this dust, which is interesting. Many people, at that time, thought it was incredible that when we looked at public Spaces, galleries and museums, we had to go one or two meters away from the past, where we could step on our feet, dance on it, have a party, and the car could pass by, it was very interesting, it was a method of memory in the historical dimension of time, a node and a method of memory.
“Angry Angel No. 7”, Qin Feng, acrylic fabric, 400x300cm, 2011
CA: “Angry Angels” was completed in 2011, making people feel the artist's sensibility, rationality, divinity, aura, a restrained and controllable energy and a touch left on the cloth, like a cold blue flame, more like the fire of a glacier... Can you talk about this work?
Qin Feng: "Angry Angels" at that time because there are plane, installation, painting and sound, music, behavior, a question of the Middle East war, "Angry Angels" such a thematic work, there is a "God Where Ate Thou" and so on such a number of themes, are some questions, but also with different materials and forms of expression, in different countries are also exhibited. When it was exhibited at the California Museum at that time, on that very day, there were seven sets of "God Where Ate Thou" and "Angry Angels" and "This Day" works, with eggs on top, eggs embedded in them, eggs in the pulp, eggshells coming out, that day the chickens hatched, and some of the eggshells fell to the ground directly, some died in them, some did not hatch out, That day happened to be the sixth war in the Middle East, that is, the day of the 2022 start, that is the opening ceremony of the exhibition. In my impression, especially the front of the work that day was wet, because it fell down and fell dead. I stamped a stamp on the egg before hatching, indicating the time, a record of such a carrier and life, a process of sealing and hatching. This is quite interesting, and it was originally to be exhibited.
“God's Dice ", Qin Feng, 100x190cm
CCA: There's something relatively dynamic about that piece. The process is controlled.
Qin Feng: It is controllable. For example, chick hatching is controllable. On that day, the audience was not allowed to go near, there was a Video recording the whole process, watching the two shots of the audience and the chicken, and finally the exchange was projected in another space, and then transferred to another space, a very calm space, a room, someone sat there quietly watching the Video process. Become a live interpretation of time, is life, war with another form in the call, do not participate in the war, a way and form of calling for peace.
“Manuscript Assignment "section, Qin Feng, paper, acrylic, ink, 30x30x5cm x81983-2024
CA: In your manuscript, you turn to a page with handmade paper that says "Cradle of Lies" in red font, and in the opposite page, there is a portrait with a circle around it, which deeply touches the viewer's heart. Can you talk about this manuscript?
Qin Feng: The manuscripts are these works. He raised several earls, a mother, and these families were involved in the planning of the First World War, this is his family's photo album, one of them was a mother, a direct participant in the First World War, the British played a very important role in Europe, the war was completely under the cross and the British claimed that the sun never set on the whole world, Leaving a huge aftershock, the biggest lie, and finally the successor of the puppet, the Americans, began to fight the world, again with such a concept. So this is the title page of the Bible, it's blank, it's a lie, it's interesting. The Bible has a special album, the album of the 18th century recorded the whole process of this family, very interesting, I wanted to prepare a documentary, but I think it is not much fun, this form many people use this form to elaborate, not much fun.
“Manuscript Assignment "section, Qin Feng, paper, acrylic, ink, 30x30x5cm x81983-2024
CA: Just now, Curator Gu Yan specifically mentioned your manuscripts, which represent some of your invisible thinking behind these large works. What's in here will be put on the wall in some other form.
Qin Feng: Sculptures, images and installations will be enlarged, one of which is enlarged, there are some small manuscripts, and now there are some exhibitions enlarged, there is a book over there, there are some white cardstock like here, which belong to the model paintings made in the teaching materials of the Berlin University of the Arts in Germany, when the plane paintings are transferred to the space, these several paintings, and those three paintings, when the conversion, The future is magnified into something large, like a draft or a rerepresentation of a memory.
CA: That's for now. thank you.
Qin Feng: CAFA is my Alma mater.
About Artist
Qin Feng
Graduated from Shandong Academy of Arts and Crafts in 1985
Previously taught at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Central Academy of Fine Arts
Established Beijing Museum of Contemporary Art in 1993
Established in 2020, Qin Han Contemporary Art Research Institute
I am currently a contemporary art researcher at Harvard University
Personal Exhibition
2024 Yuan Dian Art Museum - Beijing
Tianqu Contemporary Art Center, Hong Kong
2024 3723 Art Museum, Shanghai
Spring 2023 Art Museum, Shanghai
2022 Hong Kong Maritime Museum, Hong Kong
Basel Art Fair, Hong Kong
2021 Fantasy Art Center, Beijing
Blain Southern Gallery, London, 2019
2018 Stanford University Center for the Arts, Zero Realms, California
NordArt， Karlshut Art Center, Biedelsdorf
2017 Christie's Shanghai Special Exhibition, Shanghai
Encountering Angels "St. Catherine's Cathedral, Hamburg
2016 Venice Architecture Biennale Qin Feng Invited Exhibition "Facing the Wind"
Pace Gallery, New York
2015 Basel Art Center, Basel, Switzerland
St. Urban Museum of Contemporary Art, Lucerne, Switzerland
2014 Beijing Museum of Contemporary Art, Asian Art Center, Taipei
2013 Banbro, Hong Kong
2012 World Gallery, Hong Kong
2011 Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
2010 Frost Art Museum, Miami
2009 Croatian Art Gallery, Dallas
2008 Harvard University, Boston
2003 Asian Museum, New York
1998 Raab Gallery, Berlin
Group Exhibition
Hundreds of domestic and international group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale, the Asian Art Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Collection Exhibition at the British Museum, and the Boston Museum Joint Exhibition
Collection and social activities
The works have been collected by dozens of museums including the British Museum (London), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Boston Museum. Has won dozens of domestic and international art awards, including the International Art Contribution Award and the National Art Contribution Award. Participate in domestic and international art events such as Sotheby's and Christie's. Nearly a hundred works have been donated to public welfare projects such as art education, war disasters, and orphan relief.
Currently on display
LOOKING INWARD
A DIFFERENT QIN FENG
Artist | Qin Feng
Curator | Gu Yan
Organizers | Yuan Art Museum / Yuan Art and Public Welfare Foundation / Yan Art Space
Supports | Association Internationale d'Echanges Culturels Canalis
Open at 6. Dec., 2024 16:00
Exhibition Duration | 6. Dec., 2024 - 19. Jan., 2025
Venue | Yuan Art Museum - Beijing
112# Lizexiyuan Chaoyang District, Beijing