Gloves off in Asia expo art show brawl

In a defiant move against a government-sponsored art fair, a group of artists protested a last-minute revocation of their entry to the show by exhibiting the rejected works independently over the weekend at 798 Art Zone, Chaoyang district.　

The exhibition, entitled "Announcement," was open retaliation, its curators said, but in the ensuing rounds of mutual finger pointing, the artists also launched an attack against more enduring issues, such as freedom of expression and state patronage of the arts.

Ren Zhitian, 43, and 15 other artists had worked for more than a month for the Fourth Asia Art Expo, sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce, when he was told,on the morning of January 1 that his installation, Pentagram, was no longer welcome.

Six other artists were also rejected on the same day, just one week before the art fair was due to open, he said.

"This is ridiculous," Ren told the Global Times during the launch of their exhibition on Friday at art gallery 798 Space.

"What I heard is that someone there [Asia Art Expo] was afraid my work might topple over," Ren said. "The real issue, as I see it, is that there are people in charge who hate contemporary art."

Since 2009, the annual Asia Art Expo, has proclaimed that its mission is to "rejuvenate Eastern art" and fight "the cultural colonialism of the West." It mostly features Chinese traditional paintings and oil paintings by Chinese artists.

Ren and his fellow artists decided they would either go to the show as a group or not at all.

On the afternoon of January 1, the artists received an emailed announcement blaming them for quitting the expo. The email, which was shown to the Global Times, is allegedly from expo staff member Li Zhigang.

"The Asia Art Expo has decided to ban these people forever and will report them to the ministries of commerce and culture," the announcement reads. "The expo will also inform other art curators, both at home and abroad. Expo curator comrade Wen Wenwu will be penalized for his mistake."

Wen was the man who invited the artists to the expo, which was held Thursday through Sunday at the China World Trade Center, Chaoyang district. Wen refused to comment on the announcement to the Global Times on Saturday, and said that the artists were just seeking attention.

"They are picturing themselves as censored artists when in fact they are just stupid, and trying to create hype," Wen said.

The expo organizers had the right to accept or reject a piece of art, but "I became the victim," he added.

For the artists, the announcement has added insult to injury.

"They talk to us like bureaucrats," said Liang Kegang, a friend of the indignant 16 and one of Announcement's curators. "The tone is completely Cultural Revolution."

Gloves off, the artists scrambled to put together an exhibition in 64 hours, which they defiantly named Announcement.

"This isn't just another exhibition, this is an incident," said Liang, which was symbolic of their "abridged freedom of expression."

The rejected works were not politically sensitive and their authors are not dissidents, he added.

However, the installation Left & Right by Wu Junyong, a visual illusion which combines the two Chinese characters for the words "left" and "right," seems to carry a political metaphor. So does Ren's Pentagram.

"The fact we've gone through with Announcement shows we do have some freedom," the exhibition's other curator Gu Zhenqing told the Global Times yesterday.

While the cancellation of these artists may not have been politically motivated, it says something about the official selection of art, said one Beijing-based art publicist, who talked to the Global Times yesterday anonymously to preserve business relations with the people involved.

"It is like the expo organizers don't understand their work," she said, "but the way they handled it is just disrespectful."

She described the expo as "cheesy and ridiculous," but said the 16 artists are taking unnecessary action by hitting back.

"If an idiot kicks you, will you kick back? That just brings you down to his level," she said.

The brawl is threatening to sour the long-term relations between artists and a system that patronizes art. "These people, I helped them to get their works in the expo and they betrayed me," Wen said.