清影

Curator:	Inna Xu
Associate Curator:	Liu Tian
Artist:	Chen Yujun, Fang Wei, Guo Xi, Huang Songhao, Liao Wenfeng, Li Jianhong, Wu Junyong, Yu Qiongjie, Zheng Hong, Zhou Yilun
Date:	2014.06.28-07.27
Opening:	2014.06.28, 15:00
Venue:	No. 465, Hefang Street
Add:	No. 465, HeFang Street
Organizer:	Inna Art Space

Pleasures - Convictions

 

The present is both stirring up the fervour of progress, at the same time as it propagates an aesthetics of the cuteness and naivety, an apparent paradox that harbours within itself a coherent framework of desire, the extremes of which converge in a single deficit. The greatest difficulty this presents in fact hinges on the matter of how exactly one progresses, stoically; avoiding binaries of ends and means or tangible things and mere accessory values. It is for these reasons that the issue of unifying ones pleasures with ones convictions assumes such unprecedented importance.

 

Pragmatically speaking, when an individual or a given structure for instance engages in some affair - regardless of how apparently minor - all stumble upon this quandry, itself a construct of society as a whole. As an essentially self sufficient, small structure, it is the stoicism of the Inna Contemporary Art Space that seems most worthy of attention here. This quality originates it seems in a diminution of self to the “0” degree, not only a conscious decision not to covet grand schemes, but also a refusal to self aggrandise or to make do merely with existing systems; so all that remains is to distill the imaginative potential of ones ideals; taking a certain quotient of pleasure to bring about the conviction required to broach the unknown and strange and stave off the adverse potentials of mere status based acclaim. One hopes there might be some pleasure in all this too and, resting on connections regulated by the systems of social production, fosters in ones self the equanimity required to confront the aforementioned frameworks of desire, not seeking external impulses or conventional acclaim; never shirking to promote those things that are of real value. 

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Pleasures - Convictions

 

The present is both stirring up the fervour of progress, at the same time as it propagates an aesthetics of the cuteness and naivety, an apparent paradox that harbours within itself a coherent framework of desire, the extremes of which converge in a single deficit. The greatest difficulty this presents in fact hinges on the matter of how exactly one progresses, stoically; avoiding binaries of ends and means or tangible things and mere accessory values. It is for these reasons that the issue of unifying ones pleasures with ones convictions assumes such unprecedented importance.

 

Pragmatically speaking, when an individual or a given structure for instance engages in some affair - regardless of how apparently minor - all stumble upon this quandry, itself a construct of society as a whole. As an essentially self sufficient, small structure, it is the stoicism of the Inna Contemporary Art Space that seems most worthy of attention here. This quality originates it seems in a diminution of self to the “0” degree, not only a conscious decision not to covet grand schemes, but also a refusal to self aggrandise or to make do merely with existing systems; so all that remains is to distill the imaginative potential of ones ideals; taking a certain quotient of pleasure to bring about the conviction required to broach the unknown and strange and stave off the adverse potentials of mere status based acclaim. One hopes there might be some pleasure in all this too and, resting on connections regulated by the systems of social production, fosters in ones self the equanimity required to confront the aforementioned frameworks of desire, not seeking external impulses or conventional acclaim; never shirking to promote those things that are of real value. 

 

The most important result to consider here - in this age of propositional schemes; where intellectual conventions based on a progressively depleting notion of time are inverted - is how we have come to resemble inhabitants of the ancient world in the way that we literally possess our time. Given to this, as we engage now at length in efforts of self understanding, it becomes noticeable that (to quote Confucius, sic.): “One who knows a thing is second to one who makes it his project; one who makes a thing his project is second to one who delights in it”. With this in mind, gradually, one cultivates a stoic, steadfast centre, itself a miniature cycle of sorts. Engaging in this cycle: one begins with pleasures; developing these further with conviction; exploring thereafter via the practice of refined skills, namely the arts. 

 

 

Specialists - Amateurs

 

The requirement that one both delight in a thing at the same time as one engages actively in its furtherance and pursuit is central to linking the aforementioned notions of pleasure and conviction. One might think of this also in terms of a specialist ethic, or rather, suffusing this harmoniously with the spirit of an amateur.

 

The proposal for a mutually exclusive dialectics of art and life fails to acknowledge one very particular and essential remedy to the issue that is its subject, namely, to take art in its variety and integrate this as an impetus key in daily life itself. Another solution to the issue would be to regard art itself as but another, specialised form of labour, a profession that requires its own ethic, knowledge sets and motivations; the common factor connecting these being, above all, existence itself, which in continuing day after day to generate ceaselessly new significances, forms links between subjects and their external context.

 

For something to be specialist, without being alienating, depends on establishing around it something akin to an approximation of belief. On one level, belief dictates that - if its remit is somehow annulled or exceeded - ones actions become invalid, whilst at the same time providing the subject with a substantial, supportive influence, a force dictating their actions must be candidly, conscientiously enacted. In the academic - commercial art of today, whether in matters of progress or critique, all hinges on the subject’s capacity to remain loyal to their convictions, this being the only way one might possibly resist the self-limiting notion of isolated ends and means. Now, if this circumstance is itself only of relative importance, at the same time, it’s hard also to consider it as of independent value, for if ones initial impulses are lacking, nothing else can help one regain these. With this in mind - albeit the two were never mutually exclusive to begin with - one might say it is the amateur alone who realises what it truly means to be a specialist. And yet, given to the currents of specialism and utilitarianism that sweep the globe today, it is the capacity to remain an amateur that’s first to disappear. Hence, attempting to do just this becomes a means of resistance in itself. Amateur status equates with purity, simplicity and foundations.

 

 

City - Space

 

In Hong Kong this year, Ben Brown voiced his favourable estimations of the Inna Contemporary Art Space, saying that although there are thousands of contemporary art practitioners in Hangzhou, there remains but one contemporary art gallery… As it is, the Inna Contemporary Art Space isn’t a gallery in the strictest sense. Everything it stands for - being a not for profit space and running counter to the logic of the art museum - suggests rather something more along the lines of a salon, albeit it remains an open, public space. Although the space might resemble a not for profit art structure in terms of its organisation, it remains far more diverse in its engagements. 

 

Seventy square metres in area and only three hundred meters from both the China Academy of Art and Hangzhou’s West Lake, one might view this small space as projecting the state of culture and art oriented space in Hangzhou today. In the midst of the incomparable acclaim the space has been subject to, it is at the same time equally quite powerlessness. Despite Hangzhou’s being an historic, urban pinnacle of civilisation, aside from pedagogic and governmental structures, other non-commercial cultural spaces still appear distinctly few in number. Deserving of further discussion here therefore is the question - in a city like Hangzhou - in order for a space to orchestrate certain engagements, what is it needs first to be put in place? 

 

Today’s city is a colossus, the burnished, remnant musculature of an aggregate, built on the fortuitously accrued foundations of preceding eras, their successive, historic projects and their annihilation. Given to the utopian forces that have begun to reconfigure the cityscape - a trend of considerable proportions, prior to which, engaging in any project faced great adversity - today, such a small space might  also to become a source for innovative new projects, carrying out its experiments from this very “0” degree, so to speak. Here, the white cube - the supposed pinnacle of modernist ideals - becomes a spatial basis for the logic of modernism’s auto-negation. Undercutting the mainstream - the relentless, but nonetheless divided spirit of the times - those unique spaces that do exist manage to fill the blank this leaves. To put it more accurately, it is these unique structures themselves rather that prize open such a space, one whose proliferation offers minimal emancipation in the face of a future that might otherwise seem predetermined. 

 

 

Passersby - Friends

 

Space itself has the capacity to build relationships and to effect change in the interpersonal realm. What it is that the Inna Contemporary Art Space has stimulated is the birth of a unique sort of space for living in, something which, like the space itself, it is impossible to separate from lady director Inna Hsu and the space’s other management. For reason of the encounters that present themselves, this life might be considered an analogue for a journey, where contact with new things along the way amounts both to the means by which one grows, at the same time constituting the essence of the living process. Here, the space’s continual experimentation even resembles something like the preparation of a meal - such is the closeness of its links to the everyday - where one invests the time it takes to cook, following ones curiosity in attempting different varieties of dish. Although the resultant satisfaction is apportioned first of all to ones self and ones immediate milieu, by no means does this necessarily imply it is exclusive. 

 

    At the Inna Contemporary Art Space, owing to the amicable way it treats its guests and other associates, visitors are at once no longer merely spectators or consumers, nor are they only the space’s represented artists, nor are they dealers, taking art as a premise for doing business. Here, the way in which the passerby’s relationship to the space transforms into that of a friend at the same time has nothing to do with the formation of a cliques, nor is it anything like the seditious fraternising of the market place, where rifts between factions reel up like peaks segmenting valleys, effective barriers to communion, but is closer rather to the notion of friendship in the sense of the term’s initial connotation, namely, a bond of understanding, appreciation, communication and sharing. Each person has the capacity to progress in life; each with their own specific values and trajectories, yet it is the space in which we live itself that binds us each to one other on an equal plane. Artists are the friends of space; it is through space also that an artist in turn becomes a friend, that a friend becomes an audience, that a greater number of spectators also might become friends. Passersby are themselves all just friends of a friend. 

 

    In the wake of a catalytic six years, today the Inna Contemporary Art Space shifts from Hangzhou to New York; the coordinates of its identity are thus both magnified, at the same time as the space must set to work starting again from nothing. Still, treading to the rhythms of an anarchic progress, this regress is but a single, exquisite  caesura. Again (in a paraphrase of Confucius, sic.): One oughtn’t fret that the road ahead will find one without confidante. If a friend leaves for some far off place, mightn’t one also find pleasure in this?

 

Open matter research institute / Liu Tian

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Six years in time is not that long; nor is it short. Like a life force newly emerged, the Inna Contemporary Art Space has grown to thrive within this time. The decision to suspend temporarily our activities at the flagship space on Hefang Jie is a regulatory measure in our development, one made in mind of more distant, future potentials. Although it is not without bitterness and sorrow that we do this, it is nonetheless necessary for us to bid it farewell for now.

 

In the pure white interior of this lakeside space, each stage of these six years has had its specific tone: some were heavy, others light; some dark, others bright. There has been bitterness, fatigue and also sweetness, but throughout it all there has run consistently a single common factor, this being our own investing heart and mind in our endeavours. By means of the unbroken series of our exhibition activities, our communications and mutual understanding have been much augmented, making life that bit more interesting. The way I see it, the Inna Contemporary Art Space has always maintained a principled effort to integrate art and the everyday; having in some respects even managed to realise this to an extent. Now, whenever any of our patrons - all varying in their age and walk of life - expresses to us that they will miss us when we’re gone, I realise frequenting the Inna Contemporary Art Space’s Hefeng Jie premises has already become a part of many people’s lives.

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Six years in time is not that long; nor is it short. Like a life force newly emerged, the Inna Contemporary Art Space has grown to thrive within this time. The decision to suspend temporarily our activities at the flagship space on Hefang Jie is a regulatory measure in our development, one made in mind of more distant, future potentials. Although it is not without bitterness and sorrow that we do this, it is nonetheless necessary for us to bid it farewell for now.

 

In the pure white interior of this lakeside space, each stage of these six years has had its specific tone: some were heavy, others light; some dark, others bright. There has been bitterness, fatigue and also sweetness, but throughout it all there has run consistently a single common factor, this being our own investing heart and mind in our endeavours. By means of the unbroken series of our exhibition activities, our communications and mutual understanding have been much augmented, making life that bit more interesting. The way I see it, the Inna Contemporary Art Space has always maintained a principled effort to integrate art and the everyday; having in some respects even managed to realise this to an extent. Now, whenever any of our patrons - all varying in their age and walk of life - expresses to us that they will miss us when we’re gone, I realise frequenting the Inna Contemporary Art Space’s Hefeng Jie premises has already become a part of many people’s lives.

 

In 2013 alone we orchestrated a total of twenty seven exhibitions, lectures and public art projects, the associated workload for which is perhaps not hard to imagine. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t bear saying it was hard. After six years working consistently at this tempo, everyone has gotten used to it and we will most likely continue to work this way hereafter. Nonetheless, I think to myself at times, when one inhabits a city, an art space, and by means of ones actions engages in some affair, is the relative existence or non-existence of this thing really that important? Operating in conditions where certain amenities are lacking, to push forward and tread a new and different track, does one really need to be so harsh on ones self? As a matter of fact, having asked this, the result is realising one remains deficient still in so many respects; that there remain a great many things it hasn’t yet been possible to realise. Following on from this, maybe there’s nothing better than just starting again and burying our heads in industry … …

 

The Inna Contemporary Art Space will remain in Hangzhou and we will continue doing what we can in working here, the city in which we live. Our second space will continue orchestrating exhibitions of various sorts for our audiences, maintaining the ethic and values of the space, growing, interacting with them and with this city. 

 

We have prepared the present exhibition to open on the day of the Inna Contemporary Art Space’s official website going online again. The exhibition is itself a means of bidding farewell temporarily to the flagship space - having harnessed as it has the collected aspirations of so many - and perhaps in this way it is the best gift we could hope for.

 

At the time of our closing temporarily the flagship space - this being also a most critical juncture for our expanding the second space and establishing the New York studio - I want to thank Dongfan and Fangwei both for having invested so much of their hard work and youthful energy in the space, this and for their consistent belief in me as we have gradually realised together our creative projects exploring the potentials of art. 

 

Thankyou to Feng Tian and Huang Leixin for their unrelentingly assiduous work. You have really excelled yourselves. 

 

Thanks to the Fei Bai Design Studio for their stolid support and sensitive attention to the visual aspects of our exhibition activities. Greater change begins with ones self, starting from a single detail. 

 

Having benefitted from the affection and support these people have offered, the difficulties the Inna Contemporary Art Space has experienced along the way have not meant the whole thing has been entirely without relish! It’s impossible to express thanks to everyone individually here. 

 

It’s been wonderful to have you there!

 

Inna Xu

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【 The Best of Times 】

Exactly which period of time isn’t that significant, since time as a whole has been absolved of idle waste. It’s exactly because time has been absolved in this way, that we can haul up a given period from memory, beating off the dust that’s accrued and sighing, that these were the best of times.

 

——Hou Hsiao-Hsien

 

In August of this year, the Inna Contemporary Art Space will close its flagship space by the Westlake. News of this has already caused something of a stir around Hangzhou. 

 

Many people have e-mailed, others have called, all expressing they find the notion difficult to contend with. During the period of its existence, the Inna Contemporary Art Space has surmounted various obstacles, upholding throughout its standards, striding out alone and moving very much at its own pace. Attending exhibitions at the space has become a part of many people’s lives. It really seems that this small, not for profit space has become one of Hangzhou’s key cultural sites. After these six years, the Inna Contemporary Art Space can surely only progress on to better things. Why then choose to close such a vital space, just when it nears the advent of its best of its times?

 

Although we do so reluctantly, we have to close the space now, if only to make things better. Nonetheless, the Inna Contemporary Art Space will always remain in Hangzhou.

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【 The Best of Times 】

Exactly which period of time isn’t that significant, since time as a whole has been absolved of idle waste. It’s exactly because time has been absolved in this way, that we can haul up a given period from memory, beating off the dust that’s accrued and sighing, that these were the best of times.

 

——Hou Hsiao-Hsien

 

In August of this year, the Inna Contemporary Art Space will close its flagship space by the Westlake. News of this has already caused something of a stir around Hangzhou. 

 

Many people have e-mailed, others have called, all expressing they find the notion difficult to contend with. During the period of its existence, the Inna Contemporary Art Space has surmounted various obstacles, upholding throughout its standards, striding out alone and moving very much at its own pace. Attending exhibitions at the space has become a part of many people’s lives. It really seems that this small, not for profit space has become one of Hangzhou’s key cultural sites. After these six years, the Inna Contemporary Art Space can surely only progress on to better things. Why then choose to close such a vital space, just when it nears the advent of its best of its times?

 

Although we do so reluctantly, we have to close the space now, if only to make things better. Nonetheless, the Inna Contemporary Art Space will always remain in Hangzhou.

 

Looking back on the path we’ve followed through these six years, what exactly have we achieved?

 

Established first in 2008 as a small, alternative art space, the Inna Contemporary Art Space set out on its way in bold and youthful strides;

 

In 2009, “Inna Time” roved the city’s film projection halls, the avant-garde, improvisatory music scene, and turned its attention also to the practices of expatriate artists living in Hangzhou;

 

In 2010, the space promoted interdisciplinary collaborations between artists, beginning also to orchestrate solo artist exhibitions; it paid many a studio visit and concentrated also on the creative practices of University and Art School students;

 

In 2011, the space assisted artists in realising large-scale, artistic projects engaging urban public space; under the monicker “China Youth”, the space also participated in curator Li Zhenhua's project “Walk with Me” for ART BASEL, Liste, as well - also in the same year - as guiding a group of artists through a residency project in Italy;

 

In 2012, the Inna Contemporary Art Space’s flagship site underwent a thorough overhaul; at the same time, it opened its second space, coordinating also the premier, mainland Chinese exhibition of work by German master photographer Candida Hofer, adding to this with a series of group exhibitions discussing themes of daily life;

 

In 2013, Inna collaborated with various institutions and collectives, engaging in interdisciplinary dialogues and diversifying its public projects; it improved its exhibitions programming and also published the series Inna Online Interviews;

 

In 2014, the space focused on independent artists’ projects and producing a series of pragmatically oriented solo exhibitions; it developed deeper collaborative ties with other collectives and institutions; at the same time improving its online platforms and electronic archive. In September of 2014, the Inna Contemporary Art Space’s second site opened to the public, with the space announcing also its plans to establish the New York studio. 

 

I believe what people are most averse to losing most isn’t the Inna Contemporary Art Space’s accomplishments as these are inventoried here; rather, they’re reluctant to see pass the six, splendid years they spent growing alongside the space, here, in this city, with the lasting memory of all those things that once moved them.  

 

【 The Best Time 】

 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going straight to Heaven, we were all going straight the other way.

 

                                                                                           ——Charles Dickens

 

What is the nature of this age we inhabit? And that which lies ahead of us? What of that? What have we accomplished? How do we face the unknown? What about the future?

 

Before the age of personal media, friends of the Inna Contemporary Art Space living in Hangzhou all received SMS compiled by the space, giving details of upcoming exhibitions. Due to the frequency of the events relating to each exhibition however, the collective had to work constantly, amending the exhibition bulletins amongst themselves. They did their utmost to avoid wording, tone or anything else that might recall the dubious intonations of junk-mail. After a while, all manner of events taking place in Hangzhou also began deploying the same fresh, quirky sort of SMS reminders. Of course, this “affectionate” tone already floods the digitised present. No one hesitates to hang up upon receiving those mock-familiar tele-business calls, in the same way we might choose to “decline” to evaluate our experience using some APP or other. When we think back to the time we distributed these SMS however, each response we received somehow never failed to provide us with a peculiar sense of exhilaration and excitement: “So-and-so will be late”, “Someone’s not around, but will come along specially tomorrow”, “Such-and-such a reputable figure offers his-or-her high praises”, “Oh my! He-she promised to bring all his-her foreign friends”…  The glee this kind of simple elation afforded gave us warmth, this along with the catalytic push we needed to keep us marching on. 

 

What we always found most gratifying though was that - in spite of their respectively busy schedules - many still came along. The scene at the Inna Contemporary Art Space’s events has always scintillated with a very human energy. Only recently, there were people came as early as five to attend a lecture scheduled to begin at seven thirty. By seven, only standing room remained. Seeing this, Inna - the director of the space - mused: It’s hard to believe how once before exhibitions, Dongfan would stand in the street and bellow: “There’s free alcohol inside, and an exhibition, come on in, have a look!”  Having at first amassed an audience that consisted mostly of friends and acquaintances, we hoped nonetheless that spectatorship wouldn’t be limited solely to any so-called “art crowd”, but rather accommodate a wider public, allowing a broader range of people from different fields to participate. In Hangzhou particularly, the phenomena that issued were particularly interesting. It was possible to see at any one of the space’s exhibitions people from all walks of life: designers, medical professionals, musicians, high school students, journalists, security guards, poets, film directors, children, educators… New faces abounded and all these people, all coming from their various, particular fields of expertise, would engage in discussion about the exhibition, even going as far at times as taking the initiative to compose a written critique. There was someone once who said that the Inna Contemporary Art Space had “built a bridge connecting art to its public”. Only now, in the age of personal media, can we soberly deduce the inconsequentiality of this. 

 

Scientific and technological progressions have radically transformed the ways we live and communicate. The substance of our communication however remains unchanged. Our operations need therefore to become more specific, more incisive. 

 

How does one communicate with artists? How does one judge integrity? 

How does one choose a discourse? What does it mean to be pragmatic? 

How is it best to exhibit? How does one achieve sincerity? 

How is it best to advertise? What makes a system? 

How can things be made professionally? What amounts to autonomy? 

What’s the best way to serve? What makes a standard? 

How does one achieve a system? What makes something intellectual? 

How does one talk of norms? What gives something value? 

What’s effective? How does one judge?

How does one gauge? How to purge?

How does one engage in dialogue? How to breathe? 

How can we commune? How about being alone?

What makes something authentic? How does one select?

 

… … 

 

A friend once said: “The Inna Contemporary Art Space’s exhibitions are very polished, they have a good rhythm going. They go about things there in a very relaxed way. They get the art done - Haha! The intimate, spontaneous manner in which they present contemporary art isn’t easy to pull off and if it is is rarely done well.” This brought a warmth to our hearts. What we’re striving for here is more than just results. This pursuit itself is so absorbing; its vistas so supreme. Wellbeing is too often short-lived, so a little’s already enough. 

There are many people who’ve been involved with the Inna Contemporary Art Space at some point in time; the number of people in this city who’ve shared in our struggle is even greater. Everyone works away diligently, obscurely, doing their bit to the best of their abilities, striving to improve. Perhaps these aren’t the best of times. Nonetheless, we met when things were in their prime. So surely they can’t be the worst of times either. 

 

【 PS 】

 

I had wanted to say more at this time, pivotal as it is for the space. As it is, there’s no way to put it all into words, but maybe you all get the gist. For us, “No. 465 Hefang Jie” will endure, lodged perpetually in memory. Nonetheless, the Inna Contemporary Art Space’s new site is a herald for the future. 

 

So finally, here’s to a better tomorrow!

 

——Chen Dongfan

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