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Thirty-one-year-old Li Zhenhua is from
Beijing. While he is a multimedia artist himself, for years he has
worked as a curator and producer of projects reflecting on contemporary
culture. His research has focused on national and trans-national identity,
land and borders, art and science. A basic theme in his curatorial
work is the search for common cultural roots between different populations,
both between China and its neighbours and, at the more macroscopic
level, between East and West. The figure of Genghis Khan, founder
of the Mongol Empire and conqueror of a vast territory during the
12th century, is invoked as a symbol of the pioneering spirit and
communication between civilizations.
In Li Zhenhua’s project developed for the Centro di Cultura
Contemporanea Strozzina Florence, Genghis Khan is the underlying source
of inspiration; the exploration of this figure, however, is not concerned
so much with the historical past but serves exclusively as a way for
the curator to analyze the roots of possible visions of the future
of humanity. In his section, entitled "Multi-Archaeology”,
the curator, along with the chosen artists - Ren Qinga, Wu Ershan,
Shen Shaomin and Zhao Liang – offers site specific projects
and video installations examining cultural identity, how individuals
are moulded by constant change and reciprocal cultural influences,
and thereby the relative value of concepts such as "nation”
or "race”. The CCCS would like to thank the Tang Contemporary
Art Center of Beijing, co-producers of the installations by Ren Qinga
and Wu Ershan, for the works created specially for the Florence exhibition. |
