In times when financial crisis hits the news and people spend most of their time waiting for yet another specialist to come up with answers and a plan, art in Beijing has taken the opportunity to give modern circumstances a different perspective. Different from the TV know-it-alls, new artists in the Chinese capital have put on a show that, instead of putting answers down at the table, raises questions about what goes on backstage. The exhibition “Crisis… What Crisis?” held at Beijing's China Visual Arts Center (now the Museum of China Cultural Arts), is about the problems created by economic and political agendas — those that will not necessarily make it to the headlines.
It may come as a bit of a shock that the capital of the Dragon´s Empire would bring up the catastrophic and degenerative results of development. It´s an exposure of the medical care system, housing problems and political ventures, all part of the same money-driven spheres — got the idea of the crisis here? The pieces somehow give you the idea of a velvet tumor on the country´s throat.
The exhibit was made up by six newly graduated students from CAFA (Central Academy of Fine Arts), with some experience in shows put on by their school. Their works, done as final projects for academic degrees, caught the attention of the Visual Arts Gallery. “We saw their show at CAFA and decided we should give them an opportunity, give them a bigger space to exhibit,” explains curator Matt Fox.
Yu Benping’s piece shows the lack of freedom and the personal choices available for the women of China when giving birth. She has created two vases with a collage of pictures taken of women’s C-section scars, a debatable medical practice that even though hated by health organizations worldwide and that will leave irreversible scars on women’s bodies, is very popular on China's national health scene. “The most important thing about this piece is that is related to today — China’s fast development and the problems that are in this.”
The installation project done by Deng Zhen is called “Which one am I?” The work is done in several media, such as oil paint, photography, and sculpture, and it questions loss of identity in globalized, economy-driven China. "Twenty, 30 years ago, there was a lot of limitation on what people could achieve or obtain in their life, and therefore what they could do with their own lives. They came to the question of how to identify themselves; they had hopes, but never knew what they could actually become, due to the lack of resources and opportunities. We now have access to much more. We have a lot of dreams: I want to become a painter, I want to get this thing or that thing. So we´re concerned about the things we want to have or achieve."
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