All under heaven - China now!

The spring exhibition is one of the most ambitious the MuHKA has organised for some time. It will present an overview of recent developments in China which has never been seen before. After the avant-garde boom at the end of the Cultural Revolution, in the last few years a new generation of artists arose who think and work artistically in the longer term – a development in the context of the currently rapidly evolving social and economic situation in this country. Everything under the sun is the first overview of this to be shown in the Western world.

CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS FROM CHINA MuHKA attempts to renew the way in which the West perceives Chinese art and to emphasise its universal meaning. The exhibition will occupy the entire ground-floor of the museum and will present the most divergent mediums: painting, video, photography, installations and sculptures. It will present a selection of those artists who are most active on the Chinese art scene at this very moment and expands into new installations created specifically for this exhibition by Gu Dexin, Xu Zhen and the artists-couple Peng Yu & Sun Yuan.

The project ‘All under heaven’ is the result of joint intellectual research. MuHKA (in collaboration with the KMSKA) and the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation - have made a common option: to highlight individuals in their capacity of creators and to avoid an approach which would be too sociological or collectivist in their search for a opening on contemporary Chinese culture and society. The exhibition emphasises artists who were representative of the nineties such as Zheng Guogu and Lin Yilin, but also on the most promising emerging young artists: Liang Yue, Wang Ningde, A Niu, Xu Zhen… It also presents the founding artists of contemporary art in China from the second half of the eighties onwards, such as Huang Yongping, Cai Guo-Qiang, Gu Dexin, Yang Jiechang or Chen Zhen, who remain of crucial importance. With work of A Niu, Cia Guo-Qiang, Chen Shaoxiong, Chen Wenbo, Chen Zhen, Gu Dexin, Huang Yongping, Li Yongbin, Liang Yue, Lin Yilin, Lu Chusheng, Peng Yu, Rong Rong & Inri, Shen Yuan, Shi Yong, Sun Yuan, Wang Gongxin, Wang Ningde, Wang Xingwei, Xie Nanxing, Xu Zhen, Yang Jiechang, Yang Zhenzhong, Zheng Guogu, Zhou Tiehai.

ANCIENT CHINESE ART KMSKA, the Royal Museum of Fine arts of Antwerp, proposes masterpieces of old Chinese art in parallel. Amongst these are essential works of the history of Chinese art from the eleventh century onwards. Consequently, the presentation of these classical works creates a two-fold dialogue: on the one hand, one with works by Flemish masters from the collection of the KMSKA – ‘Rivers and mountains, a scroll by Wang Zhenpeng (fourteenth century) is exhibited face to face with the ‘Saint Barbara’ by Jan Van Eyck (1437); on the other hand, there is the dialogue with the most contemporary of creations by Chinese artists which are displayed at the MuHKA. Pressetext

All under heaven - China now!

Kuratoren: Dawei Fei, Bart De Baere

mit Huang Yong Ping, Cai Guo-Qiang, Gu Dexin, Yang Jiechang, Chen Zhen, A Niu, Cia Guo-Qiang, Chen Shaoxiong, Chen Wenbo, Chen Zhen, Gu Dexin, Huang Yongping, Li Yongbin, Liang Yue, Lin Yilin, Lu Chusheng, Peng Yu, Rong Rong & Inri, Shen Yuan, Shi Yong, Sun Yuan, Wang Gongxin, Wang Ningde, Wang Xingwei, Xie Nanxing, Xu Zhen, Yang Jiechang, Yang Zhenzhong, Zheng Guogu, Zhou Tiehai