Asia Art Archive (AAA) announces today its collaboration with Mobile M+ to co-present the exhibition ‘Song Dong: 36 Calendars.’ On 21 January 2013, world-renowned Chinese artist Song Dong will open his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong at ArtisTree with a participatory event in which the artist will invite over 400 members of the public to participate. Conceived during his residency at AAA in October 2011 and January 2012, Song spent more than a year realising this ambitious new project which involves the re-writing of the last 36 years of history from his personal perspective in the form of 36 hand-drawn, wire-bound annual household wall calendars. These calendars build on Song’s longtime investigation into socio-political history, individual experience, and art history.
Song Dong often includes participatory elements in his large-scale works. This exhibition will begin with an event inviting members of the public to collaborate with the artist to complete the project. During the opening, 432 participants will each be given one month from the calendar sketched by Song Dong, on which they will add their own memories of the dates in question. Through such editing and annotation, participants will create yet another layer of historical interpretation.
36 Calendars is co-presented by Asia Art Archive as a project developed during its annual artist residency, a programme that seeks to activate its public collection of material in unconventional ways through interventions by artists, and Mobile M+, a series of pre-opening ‘nomadic’ exhibitions curated by M+ of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA), Hong Kong’s future museum for visual culture. The exhibition allows the museum to explore different possibilities of engaging the public without the presence of a building – planned for completion in late 2017. ‘Song Dong’s 36 Calendars emerges out of the potential of the archive as a platform to re-think history and memory, both through the individual voice and as a community,’ states Claire Hsu, Executive Director of Asia Art Archive, ‘AAA’s partnership with M+ signals an exciting direction towards the kind of exhibitions that the Hong Kong public can experience in the future. It serves as an example of the importance of cultural institutions working together towards achieving the common goal of bringing art to as wide an audience as possible.'
A Call For Participation is open now through 10 January 2013. Interested parties should email personal particulars (name, birth year, contact number and email address) to 36calendars@aaa.org.hk.
About the Artist:
Song Dong (b. 1966 in Beijing) is one of the most important contemporary artists working today. He is a Visiting Professor at Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing Film Academy, and Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Since the early 1990s, Song’s artistic practice has focused on video, installation, performance, photography, and theatre, as well as curating contemporary art exhibitions. The artist participated in Documenta 13 in 2012. He received the Young Artist Award from the UNESCO/ASCHBERG bursary laureate in 2000, the Grand Award from the 2006 Gwangju Biennale, the Annual Award from the Fifth Artron Art China in 2010, and Certificate of Honor from the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco in 2011. Song’s solo exhibitions include 'Waste Not' at The Curve, Barbican Centre, London, in 2012, 'Dad and Mom, Don’t Worry About Us We Are All Well' at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco in 2011, and 'Project 90: Song Dong' at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2009. He has participated in various international exhibitions including Venice Biennale (2011), Liverpool Biennial (2010), São Paolo Biennale (2004), Istanbul Biennale (2003), Gwangju Biennale (1995, 2002, and 2006), Asia-Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art (2002), Guangzhou Triennial (2002), Taipei Biennale (2002), and 18 World Wide Video Festival (2000). In 2001, Song set up a collaborative project entitled ‘THE WAY OF CHOPSTICKS’ with artist Yin Xiuzhen. In 2005, he co-founded a collective artist group entitled ‘POLIT-SHEER-FORM-OFFICE’ with Hong Hao, Xiao Yu, Liu Jianhua, and Leng Lin. He lives and works in Beijing.
Image: © Song Dong
