A project by José Drummond
TÊTE-À-TÊTE is a series of online and offline artist talks and studio visits where an artist or a curator is invited to present an art work or a group of works. Tête-à-tête is a French expression meaning a private conversation between two persons.
Shanghai • 09:00 PM
New York • 08:00 AM
Lisbon • 01:00 PM
Berlin • 02:00 PM
Rio de Janeiro • 10:00 AM
Zoom meeting
Language: Chinese (Mandarin) and English translation
This talk explores the work of contemporary Chinese artist Wang Yanxin. The artist will be presenting his works directly from his studio in Chengdu, China.
Born in Lanzhou, Gansu, China graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts. Since 2012, he has explored performance-based multi-media artistic creation. He has been active in international and domestic performance scenes participating in exhibitions and festivals in China and Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and other places.
"The body has to revolt - it starts to shake and I'm forced to rethink that which I can and can't control about my body: to place the body in the public space and let it develop a relationship with nature and reality; to remap the relationships formed by the body in space; to have the body interacting with the audience and re-apprehend the subtle changes between people; to write the body's language and the creative train of thought." Wang Yanxin
Wang Yanxin's work explores emotional, physiological, and psychological experiences as an intimate investigation of the self, the body, and its relationship to the environment.
Wang Yanxin's artistic practice emphasizes the idea of testing the limits of the body while focusing on spiritual and sensory elements. Many of his performances are longer than 30 minutes in which sequential or repetitive actions are taken, highlighting the durational aspects of understanding human existence.
Some performances take place without the presence of an audience, with a fundamentally ritualistic and incantatory nature.
His art practice presumes a unity between mind and body. Using the notion of the body as a vessel, Wang Yanxin explores the way the body is the symbolic and physical link between inner subjective will and outside influence.