Curatorial Text | 展览文字

This exhibition has a threefold significance. First, as the inaugural show of the Yuz Museum, Shanghai, it announces the establishment of a new public contemporary art space in China. Second, the works in this exhibition all come from the Yuz Foundation, and reflect the distinctive characteristics and directions of this important contemporary art collection. Third, centered on the twin themes of “myth” and “history” and featuring nearly 70 Chinese and international artists, this exhibition aims to explore some basic tendencies and logic in contemporary art and how we construct its narrative.

“Myth” predates writing, transcends direct social experience, and addresses a universe beyond historical continuity and chronology. Some anthropologists and mythologists have thus attempted to uncover structural logic shared by different cultures through analyzing myth, in order to reach a deeper understanding of the human mind. In contemporary art, many artists are likewise attracted to suprahistorical narratives. Their works break away from representations of reality. Through intuition, fantasy, or meditation, they hope to reach an artistic experience beyond words, and they manifest their creativity in pursuing individualized visual languages on philosophical, psychological, or religious planes.

Contrary to myth, “history” is always a narrator’s representation and refraction of reality. The narrator in a broad sense can be an artist, whose creative desire is stimulated by social or political, public or private events. His or her work must therefore be understood within specific temporal and spatial frameworks. The narrator in a narrow sense is the art historian, who organizes works of art within chronology and geography in order to discern different styles and images and their interrelationships, or to reconstruct the historical contexts of artists and their works. The artistnarrator gives form to interactions between life and images; the art historiannarrator shapes the knowledge of art history and visual history.

“Myth” is the central theme of Part One of this exhibition, including the Foyer, the Great Hall, Galleries 13, and the outdoor space. Here we encounter various nonrepresentational expressions by artists from different countries, ranging from minimalist Conceptual Art to powerful, interactive installations with strong visual impact. “History” then takes over to lead the display in Galleries 47, in which a large group of paintings, sculptures, and installations outline the development of contemporary Chinese art from the 1980s to the present. These two dimensions overlap and interlock, showcasing the enormous range and rich imaginary space of contemporary art. （Text by Wu Hung）

Please check the details of the exhibition on the website of Yuz Museum：http://www.yuzmshanghai.org/mythhistory/?lang=en

这个展览含有三重意义。第一，作为余德耀美术馆的首次展览，它宣告了一个新的当代美术公共 空间在中国的出现。第二，展览中的艺术作品均选自余德耀基金会藏品，反映了这一当代艺术收 藏的特殊性格和方向。第三，以《天人之际》为题，通过展示近 70 名中国和国际艺术家的作品， 这个展览围绕着“神话”与“历史”这两个概念，意图发掘当代艺术创作和叙事中的一些基本倾 向和逻辑。

“神话”先于书写，超越直接社会经验，游离于历史发展的延续性和年代学框架之外。一些人类学家和神话学家因而从此入手，以图揭示不同文化所共有的结构学意义上的逻辑，从而达到对人类思维的深层理解。在当代艺术创作中，我们可以看到超历史叙事对艺术家的类似吸引。他们的 作品摆脱对现实的再现，以直觉、幻想或禅观的方式触及艺术体验中不可言传的层次，其创造性 表现为对哲学、心理和宗教等层面上的个性化语言的追求。

与神话相对，“历史”总是叙述者对现实的再现和折射。广义上的叙述者可以包括艺术家：社会 和政治的、公共和私人的事件激起他们的创作欲望，其作品因此只有在特定的时、空场域中才能 被充分理解。狭义的叙述者则是艺术史家：他们把艺术品纳入年代和地域中以组建风格、图像的 关系，或重构艺术家及其创作的历史原境。前者创造的是形象与现实之间的互动，后者所做的是 艺术史和视觉史知识的构成。

“神话”是本展览第一部分的中心主题，包括前厅、大厅、1-3 展厅和场外空间。我们在这里看 到的是由不同国家艺术家创造的各种非再现式的艺术表达，从极简的观念艺术到富于视觉冲击力 的装置作品和互动式呈现。随后的 4-7 展厅则以“历史”为主轴，在年代框架中展现中国当代艺 术从 1980 年代到当前的历程。这两个方面的叠压和交错，显现出当代艺术的巨大延伸维度和丰 富的想象空间。 （撰文：巫鸿）

请于余德耀美术馆主页查看展览信息：http://www.yuzmshanghai.org/mythhistory-cn/