After the 2022 "Walking Environment" granary art exhibition, Culture Wuzhen Co., Ltd. once again collaborated with the School of Sculpture and Public Arts of the Chinese Academy of Arts to host the 2023 Art Warehouse • Wuzhen "Nomadic Seeds" granary art exhibition.

The exhibition officially opened on the afternoon of July 29, 2023 at Wuzhen Granary, with nearly a hundred artists and media friends present to witness this artistic event together. The "Cultural Wuzhen" will once again opened its arms to friends from all directions who come for art and communication from a perspective of inclusiveness, variability, and foresight.

At the opening ceremony, Ms. Chen Yu, Vice President of Dingdu Group and General Manager of Cultural Wuzhen Co., Ltd., delivered a speech:

Wuzhen is an ancient town in Jiangnan with a history of over 1300 years. Since its protection and development in 1999, it has gone through "sightseeing tours", "vacation tours", and "cultural tourism". For over 20 years, as a leading ancient town in China that combines culture and tourism, Wuzhen has taken inheriting and promoting local characteristic culture as its own responsibility, and spreading the essence of traditional Chinese art. Art not only brings visual enjoyment to people, but also nourishes the spirit. With this belief, Wuzhen is committed to creating a harbor where everyone can find their inner habitat in art, creating an artistic blueprint for the public's ideal life.

As a representative of a cultural town with Chinese characteristics, Wuzhen has a more forward-looking international perspective and cutting-edge artistic expression. Mao Dun once said, "Only with the modesty of bamboo, the tenacity of cowhide tendons, and the passion of fire can truly immortal art be produced." Regardless of the scorching sun or wind and rain, Wuzhen will always forge ahead with young people and artists, and offer the most sincere works of this era with sincerity. We welcome more national and international cultural artistic teams and projects to choose to work together with Wuzhen to write a new chapter of legend. With the cultural influence of Wuzhen as an advocate for the lifestyle of young people, we hold high the cultural and artistic torch with many ancient towns in China, and jointly prosper China's literary and artistic cause.

Professor Fu Qiaoling, Vice Dean of China Academy of Art, delivered a speech:

The Youth Art Week of China Academy of Art is committed to promoting the construction of "college without walls", hoping that creation, teaching, and exhibition can take root in the local area, ideas in the human world, and feedback to society. It is precisely with the support of this concept that the teachers and students of the School of Sculpture and Public Art, relying on their dedication and passion for art, work hand in hand with Cultural Wuzhen, allowing the brain garden of young artists to light up the millennium Wuzhen, and allowing the creativity of art to fully bloom in the Jiangnan water town.

The cooperation between a century old prestigious school and a millennium ancient town has its inherent opportunity, which is the call for beauty. The "warehouse" itself has the meaning of storing energy. How to transmit this artistic energy to more society and the public? I think through two years of cooperation, the "art warehouse" has achieved this, and this energy is accumulating, and its influence is further showing. In fact, the cooperation between China Academy of Art and Wuzhen has been going on for a long time. As early as the early stages of developing Wuzhen, Mr. Chen Xianghong and Xu Jiang, the then dean of China Academy of Art, had in-depth discussions on the protection and development of Jiangnan water towns, which has been passed down as a good story.

Actions speak louder than words. The cooperation between China Academy of Art and Cultural Wuzhen cannot be called a pure school-enterprise cooperation. This is the cooperation between two cultural institutions, which has a common point of convergence. More importantly, this cooperation is actually advancing, which is not easy. In terms of workload alone, such cooperation has added a lot of workload to the School of Sculpture and Public Art. However, for students, their graduation works have broken the campus barrier and become public, which is very meaningful. As the exhibition theme states, "Nomadic seeds " are waiting to sprout and grow. Of course, we also look forward to more and deeper cooperation between Cultural Wuzhen and the China Academy of Art.

Professor Ban Lingsheng, Dean of the School of Sculpture and Public Art of the Chinese Academy of Arts, delivered a speech:

The works in this exhibition have rich media means, diverse forms of expression, and diverse themes. They not only examine their own inner selves, but also care for the external world and explore and research professional ontology language. In terms of visual perception, there are thematic narrative expressions, montage-like deconstruction and reconstruction, and more abstract material form constructions. All of these are the multiple questions that young artists have been asking about art in their college life for five or eight years, as well as their self understanding and exploration of the current reality and social landscape. Because they believe that self exile and nomadism in thought are creating works and created by works. Therefore, based on the exhibition theme of "Nomadic seeds", in addition to the narrative of nomadic traditions in the social, cultural, and ideological fields since modernity in the preface, there is also a two-way metaphor: on one hand, the self expectations of young artists, and on the other hand, the expectations of teachers and fellow practitioners towards them.

I remember in my speech last year, I talked about the future development concept of art warehouses, which is to hope that we can work together with Cultural Wuzhen to build a multi-dimensional mechanism for contemporary art exhibitions, storage, leasing, and sales, eliminate the many drawbacks of art marketization, and form a new development mechanism and cooperation model for art schools and young artists. While promoting the cultural richness of Wuzhen, we should start with concrete and subtle actions, summon the ambition of art with our patience, build a vision so as to allow art warehouses to radiate across the country and even global art schools. We aim to create Wuzhen, a cultural life scene with inspirations from the development of Chinese society in the new era, into a development sample where traditional culture and contemporary culture interact and coexist harmoniously.

01 Pulling away from mediocrity

The 'Nomadic seeds' root in Wuzhen

The theme of this exhibition is "Nomadic seeds", and we cannot deny that daily life is increasingly influenced by standardization and stereotype, as if we are trapped in an endless cycle of repetition. Philosopher Gilles Deleuze proposed a philosophical concept called "Nomadic thinking", aiming at weakening these standardized and encoded patterns. The artists’ “Nomadic thinking” represents an acceptance of social mobility and change, a contemporary spirit of innovation, and a pursuit of a “decentralized” pastoral poetic expression. The college garden has a characteristic that echoes nomadic thinking and serves as a breeding ground for artistic innovation.

The “Nomadic seeds” implies the continuous change and evolution of individuals and society, as well as the desire to constantly explore unknown fields. The graduation season is a witness to growth and fruitful results, and it is also the starting point for sowing these seeds into society. In this way, I hope to bravely explore the unknown and face challenges.

The exhibition shows a total of 53 works by 31 artists, divided into three parts.

The first part is the "Light and Shadow Magic Cube", composed of works by Sculpture Department students. Sculpture art is the collision and fusion of power and spirit in space, the interweaving and wandering of light and shadow in space, and the commemoration site of wisdom and enlightenment. Light and shadow are the light and shadow in our thoughts, and the Magic Cube is the challenge and challenge in our actions. At this moment, this is a Magic Cube Garden with the same scenery and situation.

The second part is "Spiritual Space-time Field ", which is the sub theme of the Youth Art Week exhibition "Brain Garden" in the Public Space Art Department, in response to people's rethinking of individuals and society, time and space, and the resulting artistic re-practice in the post pandemic era.

The third part is the "Ancient Culture Pool", composed of works by students of Fiber Art Department. Fiber, as the original source of existence, is a "hidden and invisible thing" that exists in a state of presence, and also an "self-evident physical factor" that resonates. In a greater sense, this is the "metamaterial" that exists in the "plane of consistency" pointed out by Deleuze. The ancient cultural pool deeply buried in individuals allows us to connect with the entire traditional and human battlefield, and to correspond and return with clarity, calmness, and internalization.

02 Join hands to explore

Continuing the Road of Cultural Inclusion

In 2022, Culture Wuzhen Co., Ltd. and the China Academy of Art jointly launched the contemporary art institution - the School of Sculpture and Public Arts of the Chinese Academy of Arts “Armory·Wuzhen” (CAA Armory·Wuzhen), which integrates culture, art, and tourism. With the mission of benefiting the public through art, CAA Armory Wuzhen aims to build a multi-dimensional sustainable development mechanism for the preservation, exhibition, rental, and sale of contemporary art.

The Armory will regularly hold art exhibitions, invite domestic and foreign art academies to actively participate, create a sustainable and effective art platform, continuously activate the space of the Armory, and expand the international influence of the Wuzhen Armory. The 2023 "Nomadic Seeds" Granary Art Exhibition will be the second exploration since the establishment of the Armory.

This exhibition follows last year's "Walking Environment" granary art exhibition and still sets the exhibition venue as Wuzhen Granary. The granary was originally a Wuzhen Grain Management Office in the 1960s, and was renovated into a modern exhibition space with comprehensive functions in 2017. It covers an area of nearly 10,000 square meters, with an exhibition hall area of 3,500 square meters. Its architectural style continues the typical logo of the 1960s and 1970s, emphasizing the beauty of group combination, and pursuing neutrality, ease, implicit and profound aesthetic personality to reflect the combination of tradition and the future.

Art nourishes and empowers social aesthetic education. In addition to many excellent artworks that can be exhibited in the granary for nearly six months, this exhibition will also hold a series of public education activities. Artists will give lectures and provide free teaching, truly allowing the general public to participate in activities such as art creation, art workshops, and aesthetic education classrooms, realizing the self-respect and sharing of Wuzhen's local art and culture.

03 Same frequency resonance

Creating a flowing art feast

The origin source between Wuzhen and art has a long history. Chinese drama artist Ouyang Yuqian once said, "Art arises from life. Without life, there is no art, but life is not equal to art”. In the unique cultural environment of the Jiangnan water town, "Cultural Wuzhen" is committed to exploring the balance between life and poetry. In every moment between dust and the universe, it nurtures creative inspiration with a desire for change, pursues the essence of life with a heart of aesthetic education, and relies on the exchange of domestic and foreign culture and art to transform Wuzhen into a "utopia" flowing with artistic feasts, becoming a good medicine for contemporary Chinese to temporarily avoid the hubbub of the city and return to the simple soul.

Exhibition period: From July 29 -December 31, 2023.

Exhibition venue: Wuzhen Granary

Academic host: Ban Lingsheng.

Project Planning: Zheng Jing

Project Director: Qiu Jianwei

Master curator of the exhibition: Yu Chenxing

Curator Team: Zhang Jun, Ying Xinxun, Fu Yan and Shi Bing

Project coordinator: Jin Yanan, Kou Shude and Yang Duanchen

Exhibition coordinator: Yin Bao

Visual design: Zhang Wenquan

Image Vision: Xie Xinxin and Qi Guo

Sponsor: Culture Wuzhen Co., Ltd.

School of Sculpture and Public Arts of the Chinese Academy of Arts

Participating artists: Tang Yongqing, Wang Ling, Xu Ke, Lin Jie, Chen Jian, Jia Tongtong, Ren Jun, Sun Yingting, Huang Zixuan, Ying Tao, Zhai Yuhui, Liu Yi, Ren Chao, Yang Hanqi, Ruan Yuanyuan, Zhu Lei, Xu Mingjie, Li Shuangshuang, Zhen Weikang, Wu Yiquan, Xu Xiangzhen, Chen Wanyue, Shu Yewen, Huang Rong, Chen Zirui, Liu Jiachen, Yao Wanqing, Xie Shaofeng, Qian Chen, Tian Tong, Li Wen and Ma Yuqi

Appointment Tips:

1. Exhibition period: From July 29- December 31, 2023, closed every Monday.

2. Admission method: Real name appointment is required in advance for admission. Guests staying at hotels under the Wuzhen Scenic Spot can enter with their room card without reservation.

3. Appointment is not available on the opening day of July 29.

4. Opening Hours: 13:00-20:00 (appointment stops at 19:00 and admission stops at 19:30)

5. Location: Wuzhen • Granary (East Gate of Wuzhen West Gate Scenic Spot to No. 29 Huanhe East Road)