Press Release

Complete Art Experience Project No. 1 - Incest
Beijing, China
12 April 2005

Incest, an exhibition conceived and organized by Complete Art Experience Project (CAEP) opens on May 7, 2005 at Platform China, a new center for contemporary art in Beijing, China.

Complete Art Experience Project (CAEP) is an ongoing art project initiated and developed by a group of artists, curators and filmmakers currently active in China. Established in late 2004, CAEP is aimed to practice and explore site-specific, integrative, penetrative, and versatile nature of art through interdisciplinary exchange and interaction as well as a mixture of collective and individual projects. As the virtual function of media grows and the art system decentralizes, we plan to carry out broad research and experimentation in extending the forms, categories, structures and boundaries of exhibiting art through a series of exhibitions, events, and seminars. CAEP continues to contribute to contemporary art and culture in China with a committed intellectual outlook, sharp perception and forward-looking experimental spirit.

As an enthusiastic and creative art venture, CAEP is committed to a long-term partnership with Platform China. Platform China is a new non-profit art center in China, which is fully sponsored by non-governmental funding and is dedicated to supporting and promoting the most dynamic experimental art in China. Platform China will serve as the key venue for CAEP’s major events. Incest is the inaugural exhibition of CAEP, as well as the opening event for Platform China.

The infrastructure of the increasingly industrialized and commercialized art world is getting progressively more powerful. This presents a new challenge to the artist in terms of his/her working methodology and position within this complex system. Must the artist play the role of an anonymous part in the growing number of international art extravaganzas and surrender to the overpowering force of the curator, or is there an alternative? How unshakable is an artist’s independence and spirit? In this sense, Incest is a highly experimental, and bold project that examines and challenges the irreplaceable nature of an individual artist. It questions the inner workings of the "art machine" by turning the very notion of the "art exhibition" on its head. The participating artists engage in restraining, clashing, rejecting, and overthrowing each other's works throughout the exhibition.

Participants of Incest are the members of CAEP. They include: Colin Chinnery, Rania Ho, Li Zhenhua, Liu Ding, Liu Wei, Shi Qing, Wang Wei, Wang Yu, Wu Ershan, and Zhang Hui. This exhibition is a metaphorical dialog on the art exhibition system and interdisciplinary art practice. It takes place in three phases. The first phase of the event is a traditional exhibition between May 7 to May 13, which features installations, performance, videos and sound projects created independently by each participating artist. In the second phase of the project the artists relinquish ownership to their own work and step out of their personal fields to execute interference, alterations, rejections or subversions onto the other participants’ works. There are three designated times when this revision of artworks is allowed to take place: May 14, May 21, and May 28, within 24 hours on each date. Each artist is required to make at least one revision to one of the other artist’s work. All of the actions during these three days will be recorded through video, photography and in writing. All these documents will be shown together with the final art pieces in the third phase. The last opening is scheduled on June 4. Incest promises to be an effective discussion of the independence, adaptability of the artist as well as the absolute supremacy of the art piece. The mixed-media nature of Incest, including the exhibition, subsequent happenings and documentation provides the audience with a completely new exhibition-going, art-viewing experience.

Exhibition title: Incest
- Complete Art Experience Project, No. 1

Participating artists:
Colin Chinnery, Rania Ho, Li Zhenhua, Liu Ding, Liu Wei, Shi Qing, Wang Wei, Wang Yu, Wu Ershan, Zhang Hui

Exhibition Dates: May 7 – July 4, 2005

Openings:
3pm, Saturday, May 7, 2005
All day, Saturday, May 14, 2005
All day, Saturday, May 21, 2005
All day, Saturday, May 28, 2005
3pm, Saturday, June 4, 2005

Venue: Platform China
Address: Inside Art Zone, 319-1 Caochangdi, Cuigezhuang Xiang, Chaoyang District, Beijing (Opposite Guang Han Tang Antique Furniture), China

Brief Concept
This exhibition tests the boundaries between exhibiting art and art practice. The three-act event starts as a traditional exhibition, progresses to an ongoing alteration of the featured artworks by the other artists, and culminates in a show of the final art pieces accompanied by video, photo and text documentation of their evolution. In this project, each artist starts by creating a work of his/her own and goes on to study, interfere, change, resist, and overthrow the works of the other artists during the first month of the exhibition. The process of this cross-interference takes place over the course of three happenings, which are all open to the public. The work provokes discussion on the changeable, continuous and classical nature of art exhibitions, individual willpower and adaptability of an artist as well as questions the idea of the absolute in art. This will be a unique exhibition-going, art-viewing experience for all audiences.

Exhibition Rules
l Each participating artist must present an independent and complete artwork for the first opening on May 7. These works will be exhibited in their unaltered state until May 13.
l When artists begin to change each other’s work, each artist forfeits ownership to his/her own artwork.
l Each artist must change at least one work in the exhibition during the course of the month.
l All the changes made to the featured artworks must take place within 24 hours on the three designated dates: May 14 (Saturday), May 21 (Sat), and May 28 (Sat). These three openings are advertised and open to the public.
l The last opening is scheduled on June 4. The final results from all the previous changes and all documentations in the form of video, photography and text will be on display.

Contacts:
Liu Ding ::010-8596 9809 ::pinkstudio2002@yahoo.com.cn
www.caep.com.cn