Artists with identities in crisis

An exhibition explores the darker side of life, Yu Ran reports.

As the second part of a two-year art workshop, 10 young artists from Europe and Asia shared with the public their views on identities in terms of the exhibition Moved, Mutated and Disturbed Identities at the DDM Warehouse in Shanghai.

"As a follow-up to the 7th Asia-Europe Art Camp - Art Workshop for Visual Arts 2009/2010, organized in Luxembourg last year, the second part of the residency program for young Asian and European artists is a representation of identities," said Biljana Ciric, the curator of the exhibition.

The first part of this residency workshop took place at the Casino Luxembourg - Forum of Contemporary Art in July 2009.

Nine Asian and nine European artists, selected through an open call by an international jury comprising a panel of workshop leaders and organizers, met in Luxembourg for a two-week residency program. At the end of two weeks, the artists presented their work-in-progress in an exhibition at Casino Luxembourg between July 19 and Sept 6 last year.

After the residency program in Luxembourg, 10 artists were selected to continue the international program in Shanghai. Here, they worked on their final pieces related to the topic Moved, Mutated and Disturbed Identities to finish the two-year program.

Most of the exhibits were photos, videos and art objects that represented the creative concept of young artists.

Austrian artist, Christoph Schwarz, 29, produced two videos showing how he overcame isolation and boredom during his four-week trip from Hamburg to Shanghai on a container vessel.

"It's a kind of personal video diary in which I talked about isolation and deprivation in an intimate way. After spending a long time with the containers, they turned out to be the substitute of my social interaction," said Schwarz.

Applying the same method to express a more aggressive message, Indian artist Abhishek Hazra performed in a six-minute video in which he turns, symbolically, from male to female using fake genital props. Hazra concentrated on the notion of science and sexuality during the two-year program to finish the scientific experiment by confessing his true feelings.

"It's essentially a kind of transformation. The question I wanted to ask was that 'who is me?' Of course, I was the one doing the project but it was not all about me, which I was quite interested in," said Hazra, 33, whose project centered around the manifestation of himself and how to define maleness.

Different from Schwarz and Hazra, who expressed their feelings through videos, Italian artist Ingrid Hora displayed objects as a form of protest for the generation born in the 1980s. Most of her objects are made of metal and painted in gray, and look similar to training devices found in some Shanghai parks.

"I was really looking at people born and growing up in the 1980s, who are suffering because nobody really knows how they feel. I made these devices to help them speak up," said Hora, 33, adding she was interested in certain generations in different countries in her creations. She tries to encourage the 1980s generation to go to the streets in protest to release pressure, as they carry a big burden on their shoulders.

"It's very tough for this generation," Hora said. "But they ought to face all challenges and make decisions alone."

Hora felt that Chinese younger generation should also speak out.

New terms like the NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) and Ants (a gathering of graduates who have failed to find jobs) that symbolized in the 1980s generation have also been applied in Hora's works.

The exhibition runs until Oct 10.

If you go

Minsheng Art Museum

570 Huaihai Road W, Bldg F

Opening hours: 10:30 am - 8:00 pm