School of Art Bringing India into China

The School of Art – Art Theory lecturer, Dr Chaitanya Sambrani, has been appointed as the Exhibition Curator for the unique Chinese “West Heavens” Exhibition Project on display at the Shanghai Biennale (Shanghai Art Museum) from 24 October to 18 December 2010.

Presented by the Shanghai International Culture Association, Institute of Visual Culture (China Academy of Art), the West Heavens is a dual project of visual art and intellectual forums. The academic part consists of inviting eight Indian scholars to visit China, to encourage in-depth exchange with Chinese colleagues and stimulate ideas for joint research efforts in the cultural field.  The visual art program consists of a major exhibition opening in Shanghai in late October 2010 and will include about 12 Indian artists and 6 Chinese artists.

The project is to a be a curatorial experiment with the curators expressly urging Indian artists to create works targeted at a Chinese audience, without the intention of ultimately submitting to the scrutiny of other international platforms.

Artists are asked to treat China as a laboratory for testing new Indian ideas and its modern experience and should take China as the object of desire or critique, or the subject of cultural reception, and India as the originator of its own unique experience and knowledge.

Having stated this intention, the organisers add that the project is clearly conscious of its references within the arena of contemporary art, and there is no avoiding the main dialect of the dominant western discourse.  For more than a century, challenges of imperialism and capitalism have forced India and China to develop strategies that have profoundly transformed both societies. To share this experience is valuable for Indian and Chinese artists alike.

For more information:
               West Heavens Project
               School of Art, ANU
               Chinese Academy of Art