Conversations | Interventions in the Greater Bay: Reconstructing the Archive of Big Tail Elephant Group
Art Basel Hong Kong 2023, March 25
From 1991 to 1996, Big Tail Elephant Group organized rebellious and innovative interventions in transient urban spaces in Guangzhou, the heart of Greater Bay. Documenting these actions through a reconstruction of the Big Tail Elephant Group’s archives, is a new monograph based on a 2016 retrospective at Guangdong Times Museum, published with the support of Asia Art Archive, Liang Juhui Memorial and various personal estates.
‣ Hou Hanru, Independent curator
‣ Pi Li, Head of Art, Tai Kwun Contemporary
‣ Lin Yilin, artist
‣ Nikita Yingqian Cai, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Times Museum.
‣ Moderator: Anthony Yung, Senior Researcher, Asia Art Archive Hong Kong
‣ Hou Hanru is a curator and critic. Based across Paris, San Francisco and Rome, he was former Artistic Director of MAXXI (2013-2022), National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome, Italy. He has been consultant to many international institutions. For the Venice Biennale, Hou Hanru curated the French Pavilion in 1999, the “Zone of Urgency” in 2003 and the Chinese Pavilion in 2007.
‣ Pi Li was recently appointed the Head of Art at Tai Kwun Contemporary. He was formerly the Sigg Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs of M+, and previously served as the deputy executive director of the art administration department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Over his expansive career, Pi Li has curated many monumental and critical exhibitions in Hong Kong, the region and abroad. He also edited the anthology “Chinese Art Since 1970: The M+ Sigg Collection,” the first anthology of its kind dedicated to this period in art history.
‣ Lin Yilin pursues a multifaceted practice rooted in site-specific performance. Drawing from shifting socioeconomic conditions, the fluctuating political landscape, and experiences of cultural displacement, he reimagines the relations between the self, community, and surrounding urban and rural environments in a globalized context. Lin’s involvement in the Guangzhou-based Big Tail Elephant Working Group (formed in 1990) was pivotal in shaping his responses to and interventions in the catalytic urban development of Southern China.
‣ Nikita Yingqian Cai is the Deputy Director and Chief Curator at Times Museum. She also runs the Para-curatorial series and research network of “All the Way South”, and is the co-editor of On Our Times and the podcast host of “Rolling Congee”.
‣ Anthony Yung has been senior researcher at Asia Art Archive since 2007, specializing in the development of contemporary art in mainland China and the Greater Bay. At AAA, he has participated in and managed important archive projects such as Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980–1990 and the documentary film From Jean-Paul Sartre to Teresa Teng: Cantonese Contemporary Art in the 1980s, of which he was a co-director. Yung is also co-founder and director of Observation Society, an independent art space in Guangzhou.
Language: This talk was conducted in Mandarin, with simultaneous interpretation available in English and Cantonese.
The Art Basel Hong Kong 2023 Conversations program is curated by Stephanie Bailey.
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