The China Project

299 1990 The Chinese stock exchange, suspended in 1949, re-opens in Shanghai. Avant-garde art activity is severely curtailed by the Tiananmen crackdown, although small exhibitions, such as Liu Xiaodong’s solo exhibition, are held within art schools. Xu Bing completes his major installation project Ghosts pounding the wall , which features 1300 sheets of rubbings from the Great Wall. 1992 Deng Xiaoping undertakes his Southern Tour of the SEZs of Shenzhen and Zhuhai, urging economic reform, marking the end of the post-Tiananmen crackdown and the emerging consumer society in China. The first ‘Guangzhou Oil Painting Biennial’, the first official avant-garde exhibition since 1989, opens with an aim to increase the commercial value of Chinese art. Political Pop and Cynical Realism emerge as dominant styles. ‘Post-Mao Product: New Art from China’ opens at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, and travels to the Queensland Art Gallery. It features a version of Xu Bing’s A book from the sky . 1993 Jiang Zemin becomes President of the PRC. Art groups such as New History Group and Big Tail Elephant Group begin to critique consumerism and materialism in China, organising events and exhibitions in bars and stores. ‘China’s New Art, Post-1989’ opens in Hong Kong. The exhibition travels to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, under the name ‘Mao Goes Pop’, and to venues in North America and Europe. Chinese artists are included in the Venice Biennale for the first time. ‘The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT1) at the Queensland Art Gallery features eight mainland Chinese artists and two from Hong Kong. 1994 Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam project in central China. When it is completed in 2008, the reservoir has a surface area of around 1000 square kilometres; its construction submerges over 1000 towns and displaces over one million people. The East Village artist community in Beijing emerges as a key centre for performance art, and includes Zhang Huan, Ma Liuming, Zhu Ming and Cang Xin. The São Paulo Bienal features political pop works by artists such as Fang Lijun, Yu Youhan and Zhang Xiaogang, with works featuring Mao Zedong causing controversy among Chinese in Brazil. 1995 China conducts military exercises and tests missiles in the Taiwan Strait during the Taiwanese general elections. 1996 The first Shanghai Biennale opens. A series of performance events take place in Lhasa, Tibet, including Song Dong’s Stamping the water. ‘The Second Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT2) opens at the Queensland Art Gallery, featuring six artists from mainland China and two from Hong Kong. 1997 Deng Xiaoping dies. Separatist riots and bombings take place in Xinjiang Province in the far west. Britain returns Hong Kong to Chinese control. The exhibition ‘Bloodline: Big Family: Zhang Xiaogang’s Oil Paintings’ opens at the CAFA, Beijing. The touring exhibition ‘Cities on the Move’ is organised by the Vienna Secession, introducing a number of Asian artists to European audiences. The tenth Documenta exhibition in Kassel, Germany, includes Chinese artists for the first time. ‘In and Out: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and Australia’ opens in Singapore and travels to Australia and China. The exhibition features work by Chinese and Chinese–Australian artists. 1998 Economic reforms are announced following the Asian financial crisis. State-owned enterprises are amalgamated and shares are floated. There are widespread bankruptcies and four million civil service jobs are cut. ‘Trace of Existence’, a major exhibition of site-specific installation art (curated by Feng Boyi), opens in a factory warehouse in Beijing. ‘Inside Out: New Chinese Art’ opens at the Asia Society, New York, and later tours to venues in North America, Asia and Australia. 1999 Portugal returns Macau to Chinese control. The Falun Gong spiritual sect is outlawed, sparking ongoing demonstrations around the world. The Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art, the first privately funded art museum in China, opens ‘Gate of the Century’, a major 20-year retrospective of contemporary Chinese art. The Venice Biennale features 20 Chinese artists. Cai Guo-Qiang wins the Golden Lion award for his reproduction of the Cultural Revolution sculptural work Rent collection courtyard. It creates controversy in China over plagiarism and intellectual property rights . The exhibition ‘Transience: Chinese Experimental Art at the End of the Twentieth Century’ at the University of Chicago takes a historical approach to avant-garde art in China. ‘The First Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial’ features four Chinese artists. ‘The Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT3) features eight artists from China, as well as the Chinese–Australian artists Ah Xian and Guan Wei. Chinese artists and academics also feature in the Virtual Triennial, an online component of the exhibition. The Guan Wei survey exhibition ‘Nesting, or the Art of Idleness 1989–1999’ opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.