Don't Hang Your Faith On The Wall

2010.05.30 - 07.18
Long March Space, Beijing

text source: Long March Space website

Long March Space is pleased to present MadeIn’s solo exhibition Don’t Hang Your Faith on The Wall opening on June 5th and running until July 18th, 2010.

MadeIn is a progressive cultural production company founded by Shanghai’s leading artist Xu Zhen in 2009. This exhibition debuts MadeIn’s newest body of work True Image. Each work is named after a historical quote, amongst which are Milan Kundera’s “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting;” and Deng Xiaoping’s “Democracy is our goal, but the country must remain stable.”

Since last year, Xu Zhen, as China’s most celebrated conceptual star, has dissolved his identity into a new brand name MadeIn. MadeIn is a team of cultural workers, spearheaded by founder Xu Zhen and organized as a creative company to produce independent and commissioned artworks and exhibitions. Xu Zhen has chosen to engage with this conventional operational model to problematize cooperative cosplay relationships within the field of contemporary visual culture and to urgently examine the continual materialization of visual spectacles in society today.

MadeIn. (established 2009) is a cultural production company based in Shanghai. Drawing on Founder Xu Zhen’s vast array of experiences over the past decade, not only as artist, but also as arts organizer, including directing an artist run space, online art forum, and exhibition organizer/curator, the company provides a comprehensive approach towards art creation, blurring the lines between exhibition, production and curating, as well as authorship. MadeIn has shown in both China and abroad, at the UCCA, Beijing (2009), the S.M.A.K Museum, Gent, Belgium, and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2010).

Xu Zhen (b. 1977, Shanghai) graduated from the Shanghai Arts and Crafts Institute in 1996 and has over the past decade consistently sought to push the boundaries of social assumption, cultural anomaly and the imagined world and its factual relation, to name but a few of the constructs to which he humorously critiques contemporary life. His work has been shown extensively in China and abroad, including Third Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China, 2008; ‘PERFORMA07: Second Biennial of Visual Art Performance’, New York, USA, 2007; ‘The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China’, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK, 2007; 51st Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2005; 2nd Yokohama Triennale, Japan, 2005; and the 49th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2001.

《只要是可辨别的差异，都不会妨碍对话》
装置婚纱、高跟鞋、珍珠、蜡、抽象雕塑、木、铁丝
As long as the differences are discemible, they will not impede dialogue.
installation wedding dress, high heels, pearl, wax, abstract sculpture, wood, metal wire

《人反抗权力的斗争，就是“记忆”反抗“遗忘”的斗争。》
雕塑 树脂
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. sculpture Poly

《一只花花绿绿的巨兽——平民。它不知道自己的力量，只知道绝对服从。》作品1-3
装置 大理石

The people is a beast of muddy brain. It does not know its own force; it only knows absolute obedience.
installation marble
















《群众不受推理的影响，他们只能理解那些拼凑起来的观念》
装置 花岗岩、塑料插座
Crowds do not love logical argumentation, they are not to be influenced by reasoning, and can only comprehend rough-and-ready associations of ideas.
installation granite, plastic plugs







《诗是生活的表现，或则说得更好一点，诗就是生活本身。还不仅此，在诗里生活比在现实本身里还显得更是生活。》
装置 黑色大理石、旋转灯、早餐
Poetry is an expression of life or even better--poetry is life itself. Not only so, life in poetry expresses life better than reality does.
installation marble,barber shop lights ,sunny-side up egg








《一种虚构的关系自动地产生出一种真实的征服》
装置 钢材
A real subjection is born mechanically from a fictitious relation.
installation steel

《团结化是一个减损的过程多于增益的过程，“忠诚信徒”永远不会觉得完整，永远不会觉得安全。》
系列作品1 绘画 布面丙烯
Unification is a reductive process rather than a process of gain, in which loyal believers never feel complete or secure.
painting acrylic on canvas

×这些绘画也是画完以后的照片，整体效果是模糊的，但是仔细看能看见照片中画布的纹理。

《理论与实际越是矛盾的群众运动，就越是热衷把自己的信仰加诸别人。》
装置 蜡、军帽
In mass exercise, the greater the conflict between theory and reality, the stronger its eagerness to impose beliefs on others.
installation wax, military caps











《引向表象之路是一直走得通而且走着的，但可以绕路》
装置 棒球棍、高尔夫球
The path to appearance is always accessible and traveled but one can go around it.
installation baseball bat, golf ball











《民主是我们的目标，但国家必须保持稳定》
装置 钢制弹簧、花岗岩
Democracy is our goal, but the country must remain stable. installation spring steel, granite