LAOWAI, Allegorist - Antagonist
2013.07.09-13
BANK
59 Xianggang Road, 1F

LAOWAI 老外 is a Chinese colloquial term for ‘foreigner’. For a culture that is overwhelmingly dominated by the Han Chinese ethnicity, laowai simply denotes those who are not Chinese, and is often employed by Chinese living overseas when speaking about locals. All of the works presented in this exhibition have been produced by laowai, or non-native-Chinese artists within the geographical territory and/or ideological framework of China. 

Comprised mostly of video and photography works by internationally acclaimed artists this exhibition is held in tandem with a NYU symposium that “thinks through the space of Asian art within a global framework” and “the contextual framework of the Inter-Asian art worlds”. Some of these artists have visited China on a short-term basis; others have been long-term residents and are culturally fluent, yet all of the works engage in various aspects of China’s cultural specificity. The exhibition explores what exactly is Chinese about art produced in China. Can a laowai make Chinese art? Is Chinese-ness a shared condition, a visual language, a set of iconographic signifiers, a particular gamut of subject matter, or something more profound? In an age of unprecedented inter-connectedness and multi-culturalism what is left of territorial claims? How does the discourse of multi-culturalism or trans-culturalism pertain to the laowai artist in China? 

The exhibition is divided into two types of work: allegorist- artworks that employ the tropes of China’s cultural landscape to write narratives that are poetic, personal or political; and antagonist- artworks that probe the condition of being an outsider in ways that are antagonistic, defensive and/or absurd.

Participating Artists:
Patty Chang & David Kelley [US], Giralomo Marri [IT], Isaac Julian [UK], Mathieu Borysevicz [US], Marc Lafia [US], Caspar Stracke [DE], Heidi Voet [BL], Rainer Ghanal [AT], Alexander Brandt [DE], Maya Kramer [US].

《老外，寓言家－对手》
2013年7月9日至13日
BANK 
上海市香港路59号1楼

“老外”是中国人对外国人的一种通俗称谓。在一个受到汉族高度统治的文化环境下，本地人之间谈论的“老外”泛指那些不是中国人，即使是生活在海外的中国人也这样称呼当地的“老外”。本次展览呈现的所有作品均由“老外”或者说是非中国本土艺术家出品，其创作都界定在中国的地域疆界与意识形态之内。

展览集合了众多享有国际声望的艺术家影像作品，与同期的纽约大学研讨会协作，“探讨全球框架内亚洲艺术地盘”，以及“亚洲艺术世界中的创作文本”。其中一些艺术家频繁到访中国，另一些已经是长期居民并对生活环境已相当熟识，但所有作品均论及中国文化特征的诸多方面。展览试图探索究竟什么才是这些中国出产的艺术作品中的“中国式”？一位老外是否能够创作“中国式”艺术？“中国式”是否已经成为了一种状态，一种视觉语言，一套图示象征性符号，一个特定范围的主题，还是某种更广泛的存在？这个时代充斥着空前的互联性以及多文化主义，究竟疆域划分还留有什么其它意义？关于多文化主义或跨文化主义的论述在中国的老外艺术家身上是如何显现的？

展览将分为两大板块：寓言家，即那些借用中国文化景观作比喻，以创作一段或诗意，或私人，或政治性的叙事；以及对手，即以一个外来人的视角呈现某些或对抗或防御性的状态。

参展艺术家：
张怡 + 大卫·凯利［美］，吉罗拉莫·马里［意］，艾萨克·朱利安［英］，马修·伯利塞维兹［美］，马克·拉菲亚［美］，卡斯帕·史察克［德］，海蒂·芙欧特［比］，雷纳·加钠尔［奥］，飞苹果［德］，玛雅·克莱梅［美］