This exhibition brings together recent works by seventeen Chinese artists, in an attempt to display a small but representative sample of the diversity of formal and conceptual approaches favored here today. It coincides with the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Beijing and to the UCCA, at a time when China is playing an increasingly central role on the global stage. China has been a vital presence on the French contemporary art scene since at least 1989, when three members of the Chinese avant-garde participated in the exhibition Magiciens de la Terre at the Centre Pompidou and the Grande Halle de la Villette. The most recent major exhibition of contemporary Chinese art in France, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2016, was co-organized by UCCA, an institution with a strong European background, and whose first two directors were French citizens. The current exhibition is offered in a spirit of discussion and exchange, and with the hope that the intricate and inspiring works on view—addressing issues, and using techniques, at once Chinese and global—might offer another way of thinking about the major questions of China, its distinct yet hybrid culture, and its place in the difficult world of today.

Robert Lacombe

Cultural Counselor, French Embassy in China

Philip Tinari

Director, UCCA

Participating artists (in alphabetical order):

Cao Fei, Cui Jie, Fang Lijun, Gao Bo, Huang Rui, Kan Xuan, Lin Tianmiao, Liu Wei, Liu Xiaodong, Qiu Zhijie, Rong Rong & Inri, Xing Danwen, Xu Bing, Xu Zhen, Zeng Fanzhi, Zhang Xiaogang, and Yu Hong