Beyond the Future: Papers from the Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

interesting and the most quietly powerful aspect of the project. Now, there are some people who talk about the problematic relationship between an interest that I have in fundamental social change and in contemporary art. In my view this is not a problem . Art should be for the people. It emerges from life and even if it is perceived as being h igher than l ife or is higher than life it is still fundamentally connected with l ife. These were in fact Mao Zedong's words. These ideas shaped my early art education , and after all of these years in the West participating in contemporary art practice I still feel that on this particular point Mao's attitude towards art was correct, particularly when he was talking about the problems and shortcomings of contemporary art practice. In fact, for many years you could say that contemporary art has presented an unintell igible and off-putting face to the broad populace. Many art works lack intuitive creativity, and as a result many people have lost enthusiasm and trust in art. It is my wish that people gain pleasure from looking at and reading my work, and that if they find its face to be easily approached , once they reach its heart they will be affected by a fresh and wholly different idea . I have created many text-based works . On looking at them people generally feel both a sense of familiarity and estrangement, or estrangement yet familiarity. But what is happening on the surface and internally are different. They function like a computer virus. Their action within people's minds causes a confusion about original concepts, customs and modes of cognition impeding normal thought processes. What they do is create a new free space and reclaim the origin of the thought process and thereby allow reappraisal of one's own culture. So in my opinion people are actually in need of consciously orchestrated viruses. Over the last few days I have talked with Chen Zhen, who is also participating in this exhibition , about the particular cultural background from which our generation of mainland artists have emerged . Chen Zhen commented that we come from three d istinct decades, but I think that actually four d istinct decades constitute our background; ten years of Soviet socialist education, ten years of cultural revolution, ten years of open door policy and ten years of l iving in the West and participating in the contemporary art world. This complex and multi-faceted background has influenced our participation in contemporary art practice. Many people may see th ings of great significance in my work and that of other Chinese artists of my generation because of our special background. In my work, for example, there is a strong connection between the social aspect of art and the contemporary art world. Finally I would like to comment that in this year's Asia-Pacific Trienn ial there is a special section for children , and a real interest in engaging viewers with the works. I find this extremely interesting and sign ificant. It expresses a particular view of the curatorial staff, and I have come to think that the contemporary art produced in the Asia�Pacific region is particularly engaged with l ife and with its audience. 53