Zhang Huan's "Hope Tunnel" Opens at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

Written by Johnny Sung Monday, 22 November 2010 19:30

BEIJING.- Zhang Huan is one of China's best-known performance and conceptual artists. He is also known for his shocking and absurd photographs and images. For his solo show at the UCCA, Zhang Huan will exhibit remains of the train which crashed during the 5.12 Earthquake in Sichuan and stretch it over the whole Big Hall exhibition space. On exhibition at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) 17 July through 24 October.

“This exhibition is a way of showing the victims of the Sichuan earthquake that they haven’t been forgotten. It’s a curated social project, an artist and an institution working together to help solve a problem.

Art isn’t about making pretty things, putting on spectacles and not showing any concern…it has to give something back” says UCCA Director, Jérôme Sans

When we behold the train that Zhang Huan purchased, refurbished and installed here, we may find ourselves dwarfed by the scale of the wreckage, dismayed by the destructive force of nature and daunted by the challenges that lie ahead. Perhaps we should feel humbled by the shadow of that awesome bulk, but as the title reminds us, while we may be small, we are not powerless. Through remembrance, reflection and concerted action, each one of us has the power to help—and to hope.

Zhang Huan (born 1965, Henan) studied painting and taught art history in Henan but switched to performance art, seeing it as a way to interact with the world. His body became both his medium and his language. In the 1990s, Zhang attracted notoriety and the government's censorship for his unsettling works, which involved subjecting his naked body to pain or torturous circumstances. After Zhang moved to New York in 1998, he walked down the street with slabs of raw meat tied to his body creating the image of a giant walking piece of meat. His works of self-expression have also earned much acclaim.

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