18 artists from Europe and China

On the occasion of Germany 2007 - Presidency of the European Union

State Visit of Federal President Horst Koehler in Shanghai on May 25th and 26th, 2007

 
Take a look at the invitaion card for the Vernissage (pdf-file / 650 KB)!

Take a look at the invitation card for the Finissage (pdf-file / 280 KB)!

The "Eurasian staff" of Joseph Beuys, presented and installed in the St. Stephan Gallery in Vienna in 1967, stood as a symbol of the power emanation into all directions. It builds reference areas, which associate the disparateness and refer to the abolishment of polarities, to integration of opposites, the identification of space and time, and the harmonization of vision and reality.

The geological concept of Eurasia combines not only the climatically different zones, but mainly culturally different areas. Joseph Beuys developed from Eurasian "EURASIA". It is a political dimension and also a utopian belief.

In 1967 he created a utopian internationality, which he named it as the "EURASIA".

In 2007, 40 years later, the artistic works of 18 European and Chinese artists are gathered together in the exhibition "Eurasia One". The obvious commonality of their works exists in the fact of the constant movement and migration between Europe and Asia, Asia and Europe. The development and realization of their artistic vision is independent of a fixed location in a continuous movement between different "Eurasian" cultural circles.

The biographies of the 18 artists stand only exemplary for the post-Beuys' generation in Europe and China. However, a complete or comprehensive declaration cannot be concluded through this approach. "Eurasia One" puts first only the question about commonalities of the contents and distinct differences of the post-Beuys' generation and tries in this way to let the proximity to the original, utopian conception of the Beuys' "Eurasia" become transparent.

"Eurasia One" can be continually organized for exhibitions of Eurasia two, three...

Text and Concept by Rolf Kluenter

Introduction - or "Yours sincerely, the Eurasian"

Nowadays when people talk about the increasing exchanges between the regions, the "globalization" is the optimistic keyword. However, this kind of exchanges refers mostly the economical exchanges. They have little relation to the hopes those artists like Joseph Beuys pinned on an intensive dialogue between the East and the West. Anyway, for Beuys the exchange didn't cover only simplified products, but rather a deepened transfer of thoughts, of the possibility to correct our western thinking through a fundamentally different view of reality. While the rationality and the analytical thinking are dominating in the western world, the "Easterners" are, according to Beuys, more strongly led by the intuition, by the integrated experiences about the world that transcends all rationality. This sensitivity disappeared in our civilization. According to Beuys' conviction, it is of vital importance to the survival of human being to retrieve this sensitivity.

So it is no wonder that Beuys has in the earlier years already developed artistic strategies to trace the other thinking and experiences and to allow space for it. Among others there are two actions in the 60s to be referred: "EURASIA - 32nd Movement of The Siberian Symphony" (1966) and, probably more important, "EURASIA Staff, 82 min organum fluxorum" (1967-1968). In the latter performance he acts with one copper staff, which is fifty kilograms heavy and three and a half meters long. The under-part of the bar is bent. He straightens it with great efforts and holds it alternately in all directions. Therewith he builds not only on a symbolic, but also (thanks to the feature of the cooper as an ideal electricity conduction) on a physical level that the energy exchange between West and East, North and South exists, and with no clear starting point and no destination. Since there is an energy reflux by this bending, a permanent exchange relationship is guaranteed. So antithetic positions will be dissolved and replaced with a dynamic connection netting. For Beuys it is a characteristic strategy to overcome oppositions. In place of callous identities, he puts forward the dialogic principle that is in his eyes also able to combine "eastern" and "western" thinking.

So he saw himself finally also as a "Eurasian", who integrated himself into the two worlds. As a Utopian he was far ahead of his time. Only gradually thrives the delicate plant of cultural exchanges, which doesn't level the differences between East and West, but rather makes them to the basis of a real dialogue. The exhibition "Eurasia One" in Shanghai, which brings eighteen Chinese and European artists together, represents an important stage of this extended western-eastern divan - the Eurasian would definitely welcome this exhibition.

Dr. Christoph Schreier

(Deputy director of the Bonn Art Museum. His work focuses on the art of the 20th and 21st century. There are numerous publications of him in this area. At present, he is in the preparation for an international exhibition tour with works of Joseph Beuys.)

Participating Artists

Alexander Brandt, Germany, Photo-Sound Installation, in-door

Thomas Charveriat, France, Interactive-Installation, out-door

David Cotterrell, Great Britain, Sculptur, in-door

Christophe Demaitre, Belgium, Wallobject, in-door

Thomas Fuesser, Germany, Photography, in-door

Gong Yan, China, Installation-interactive, in-door

Susanne Junker, Germany, Photography, in-door

Rolf Kluenter, Germany, Installation Paper & Plastic, out-door/in-door

Steve Messam, Great Britain, Sculptur, out-door

Paul Schwer, Germany, Light-box-object

Pu Jie, China, Painting, in-door

Yang Longhai,China, Installation-laser-projection, out-door

Zhang Hao, China, Abstract Kaligraphy, in-door

Zhou Shau Shu, China, Installation-laser-projection, out-door

Chen Jiao, China, Painting, in-door

Nik Nowak, Germany, DVD, Video Installation, in-door

Oliver Ross, Germany, Drawings, in-door

Chen Qiang, China, Painting, Abstract, in-door

City Culture Channel - Hamburg Shanghai www.ccc-hs.de, Germany / China, Web-project, in-door

Project- Initiative, Concept & Coordination: Rolf Kluenter

Curator: Andrea Neidhoefer, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Head of Education Department, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China. (Graduated from the University of Vienna, Austria with a Master degree in Art History. Currently works as curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, China and as free-lance author.)

An exhibition catalogue will be released on the 8th of June, 2007 (Finissage). Publisher: timezone 8, Hong Kong, www.timezone8.com Foreword: Dr. Albrecht von der Heyden, German Consul General, Shanghai Introduction: Dr. Christoph Schreier, Kunstmuseum Bonn

Grußwort für den Katalog zur Ausstellung "Eurasia One" im Island6

"Die einzig revolutionäre Kraft ist die Kraft der menschlichen Kreativität. Die einzig revolutionäre Kraft ist die Kunst". Joseph Beuys wies mit diesen Worten der Kunst eine quasi ursprüngliche Rolle zu.  Mag diese Aussage mitunter polarisieren, so lässt sich doch zumindest Konsens darüber finden, dass Kunst neben den Empfindungen des einzelnen Künstlers auch weitreichendere menschliche Aspekte zum Ausdruck bringt. In der Kunst finden wir einen Spiegel der gesellschaftlichen Entwicklung, des Zeitgeistes und gemeinsamer Gefühle, welche über die Grenzen der Herkunft und des Kulturkreises hinausgehen.

Unter der Leitung von Rolf Kluenter wurde anlässlich der deutschen EU-Ratspräsidentschaft und des Besuchs des Bundespräsidenten Horst Köhler in Shanghai am 25.-26. Mai 2007 die  Ausstellung "Eurasia One" organisiert, welche sich an Beuys' utopischem Konzept des Staates "Eurasia" anlehnt. Chinesische und europäische Künstler präsentierten mit ihren Werken Erfahrungen aus der Beschäftigung mit einer fremden Kultur und veranschaulichten auf diese Weise das kreative Potential, welches mittels ungewohnter Eindrücke und auch eines neu gewonnen Blickwinkels auf die eigene Herkunft entsteht. Nur durch den Austausch, dessen Reflexion und den Willen zum gegenseitigen Verständnis ergeben sich bahnbrechende und nachhaltige Lösungen, dies gilt für den Bereich der Kunst wie den der Politik.

Mit der freundlichen Unterstützung von Dr. Christoph Schreier, stellv. Direktor  des Kunstmuseums Bonn, gelingt es nun, die Idee des intellektuellen Ansatzes der Initiatoren sowie die zeitgeistliche Momentaufnahme über die Ausstellung hinaus zu erhalten.

Dr. Albrecht von der Heyden

Generalkonsul der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Shanghai

(Foreword of the catalogue in english language is coming soon!)

More pictures of the exhibition: All pictures are taken by Charlie Xia, Shanghai. www.photo.net/photos/Charlie.Xia