Is “Asia” a cultural conception? Or is it merely a geographical designation?
Is it a collective term that stands for certain shared qualities? Or is it simply the name of a location on the globe?
We could pursue such a discussion endlessly and never reach a conclusion.
I first conceived of this special exhibition as a forum through which to demonstrate how the creative
energy of Asian contemporary art exists in dialogue with the rest of the world; I also wanted to reveal
the new aesthetic movements that are being led by artists from Asia. This is an exhibition about new art of the
21st century that is conscious of questions of heritage, environmental issues, and innovations in green
resources for the future. In the digital environment of the 21st century, channels for sharing knowledge
have become more diverse than ever. Contemporary art throughout the world is tending toward neoeclecticism,
uniting the experiences of conceptual art with investigations into new materials and subject
positions, and destabilizing the pre-existing hierarchies found in the dialogues among diff erent cultures.
“FUTURE PASS – From Asia to the World” is co-organized by the Fondazione Claudio Buziol, Venice; the UNEE CFoundation, Taipei; the Today Art Museum, Beijing; the Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam; and the National Taiwan
Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung. “Future Pass” will be presented at both the original location (Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana) and the new location (Abb azia di San Gregorio) of the Fondazione Claudio Buziol in Venice from
June 4 to November 6, 2011. In fact, “Future Pass” will serve as the inaugural show for the recently renovated
Abb azia di San Gregorio, a 14th-century building. The exhibition will then travel to the Wereldmuseum in
Rotterdam in December and to the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung and the Today Art Museum
in Beijing in 2012. Thanks to the eff orts of the Streaming Museum, some of the new media works included in
the exhibition will be shown on large outdoor screens on seven continents, as well as on the Streaming
Museum’s website.
With the supp ort of Silvia Buziol, President of the Fondazione Claudio Buziol, I was able to invite Renzo di
Renzo, the Artistic Director of the Fondazione, as well as Felix Sc hoeber, my former colleague at the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, to co-curate this exhibition. We agreed on one condition—that
the exhibition must be curated from an Asian perspective. This exhibition brings attention to diff erent values
that can be recognized in contemporary art. It also responds to the general theme of the 54th International
Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, presenting not only an artistic “nation” that transcends national
boundaries but also a new artistic universe centered in Asia.
This large-scale international exhibition will include more than 106 artists and groups from around the
world. A total of 150 artists are actually involved with this project. Never in the history of the Biennale has
so many artists been included in a single show. Exhibitions at the Biennale usually give special attention only
to one artist or a small group of artists to emphasize their individual achievements in art. In the past, it seemed
reasonable to expect that people would pay more respect to a so-called “master” of art. A few modern
masters enjoyed great fame and succ ess in their lives during the last century. But in the 21st century, there
are no longer haloes to be given to any master. Famous artists will rise and fall like movie stars. Now, it is
easy for people to become famous “for 15 minutes” like Andy Warhol once predicted. People have become more equal thanks to their being able to express their ideas through blogs, Youtube, and Facebook. More
people are able to exchange ideas and information through such channels than through any other medium
in history. Thus, this concept of the possibility of equal exposure became the basis for my “big name” list of
invited artists. If la Biennale di Venezia did not have rules limiting the number of artists participating in a single
exhibition, I might have invited many more artists to show their works in “Future Pass.” The list of artists may
indeed evolve when this show travels to other venues. The installation of this show privileges a kaleidoscopic
vision that breaks away from the typical “white box” of the museum. This all-over visual experience speaks
directly to our viewing habits in this digital age, and especially to our relationship to the computer screen.
“Future Pass” has been structured around a series of dichotomous pairs, beginning with the dyad that lies
at the very root of ancient Chinese philosophy—the concept of “yin” and “yang,” the idea that opp osites
complement each other. Yin and yang, male and female, lightness and darkness are interdependent; they
have a shared origin. One cannot exist without the other, and each can transform into its opp osite. The
same law app lies to the other concepts around which “Future Pass” is organized: East/West, Past/Future, Yin/
Yang, Universal/Individual (all of which are exhibited at the Abb azia di San Gregorio), Virtual/Real and Cosplay
(exhibited at the Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana). While these concepts may seem dichotomous, they are brought
to resolution in each work of art on display. “Future Pass” is a meeting of diff erent cultures, ages and
personalities. Cosmopolitan Venice, historically an empire of travelers, is the perfect site for it.
East / West
When we look at Asia within the global context of the present—and in particular, if we compare the diverse
cultures of the East (Asia), which have followed divergent paths for so long, with the more singular culture
of modernization shared by the West (Europe/America)—, we find that a distinct contrast still exists between
the cultures of the East and the West.
Grouping together all the regions of Asia—from Turkey to China, from Korea to India, from Kazakhstan to
Indonesia, as well as the islands of the Pacific Oc ean—, we come up with an area that encompasses nearly
three-quarters of the world’s population. Although the West is as ethnically and linguistically diverse as
Asia, it is a region that was unified by the single religion of Christianity for two thousand years. Moreover,
after three hundred years of industrialization and modernization, Western societies have been brought
increasingly closer together to form the largely shared culture of Western modernity.
In Asia, on the other hand, the existence of diverse traditional cultures is still common. Industrialization
and modernization have only recently taken hold. Consequently, the diff erences among the ways of life
of people within each region of Asia—and even within each of its countries—are still great. Ev en though
the present moment is one in which globalization is proclaimed as universal, the cultural division of Asia
remains an indisputable fact.
Western modernist abstraction had little eff ect on Asian contemporary art in general. A hundred
years have passed since the rise of abstract aesthetics at the beginning of the 20th century. Since the last century’s end, contemporary art has moved toward a condition that is both diverse and diff use. Will
another dominant aesthetic emerge in this new century? Contemporary art today not only excavates and
rebuilds new perspectives and interpretations, but also it combines the diff erent spices of the cultures of this
global melting pot, presenting the narratives of the artists’ own individual experiences of this increasingly
interconnected world.
Internationally renowned Japanese artist Takashi Murakami is the best example of someone whose individual
style has risen to global prominence in both the art world and the creative industries. He has achieved fame
beyond the realms of art. Not only has he worked with famous luxury brands, but also he has created his
own artistic brand, “Kaikai Kiki.” He organized his own art fair, “Gesai,” as a means of discovering new talents
in Japan; in recent year, the fair has expanded to include artists from neighboring countries. He combines the
traditional Japanese concept of a master of at” to train his assistants with the Western Renaissance tradition
of the artist’s studio workshop. His background in Nihonga painting paved the way to his development of the
theory of the “Super Flat.” He is the King of his own Kingdom. His former assistants Mr. and Chiho Aoshima
joined his Kaikai Kiki collective with already famous young artists like Aya Takano and promising new talents
like ob. TEAMLA B is a group of “ultra technologists” that was established in 2001. The group consisted of
a wide range of specialists including programmers, network engineers, designers, robotic engineers,
architects, CG animators, mathematicians, etc. With Toshiyuki Inoko as their visionary and creative director,
TEAMLA B is a typical example of the new form of creative production in the 21st century. People no longer
work isolated in private spaces to create personal forms of art. TEAMLA B’s association with Kakai Kiki is a
further extension of Takashi Murakami’s vision to cross all boundaries. Through collective collaboration,
the members can easily build bridges between technology and art, between tradition and innovation, between
time and space.
Yuan Zai worked at the National Palace Museum in Taipei almost her whole career, but she studied in Belgium
and the United States in her youth. Liu Dan spent many years in the United States. Both of them have deep
knowledge and understanding of Western art and ways of life. The combination of East and West in their
art came naturally given their life experiences. In works by Fang Lijun, Son Dong Hyun, Ye Yongqing, Xu
Lei, Hong Ling, Lee Sea-Hyun, and Sang Huoyao, we also see the app lication of traditional Asian methods
or materials to Western contemporary art concepts. Qiu Anxiong transforms traditional ink painting
into animated films. SEO uses paper collages to replicate the “texture strokes” (cun fa) of ink paintings.
Shinjiro Okamoto, Lee Dongi, and Yang Maolin adapt ideas app ropriated from Pop Art to create their own
iconoclastic figures. On the fa?ade of the Abb azia di San Gregorio facing the Grand Canal, Chinese Cubes
(Rex How, Huang Hsin-Chien, and Akibo) and Vicky Liang project words from the Bible in Chinese on LED
screens. They will interact with boats that pass by.
Past / Future
Orientalism, which invariably denigrates Asian cultures for the diff erence from Western cultures, has had
a profound eff ect on the history of the relationship between the West and the East. In Asia it has recently led many people to overlook practices that perpetuate traditional culture, the development of which has
remained unbroken for centuries. Strictly speaking, everything that is happ ening in Asia now should be seen
as part of “contemporary” Asia. All of the types of art produced within the plural cultural systems that exist
within contemporary Asia are forms of “Asian contemporary art.” Contemporary art is not merely art that
shares commonalities with the art of the West.
In the second half of the twentieth century, Asian contemporary art followed its own independent course
of development. In particular, the experiences of Chinese artists who were born after the end of Second
World War and who lived through the Cultural Revolution were radically diff erent from the experiences of
artists raised in modern Western society. The melancholic paintings of Zhang Xiaogang seem to remain in a
perpetual, poisoned dream state. The reality of the present does not really matter.
A shared interest in representing precisely both the grand and the minute has long had a profound influence
on the narrative tendencies seen in traditional Asian art. This interest has continued to develop to this day.
Attention to the finest details of the style of the narrative, as well as the extensive use of metaphoric symbols,
can be found in many Asian contemporary artworks in all media, from painting and sculpture to film and
video. The meticulous paintings of the popular Indian artist duo of Thukral and Tagra (Jitten Thukral and
Sumir Tagra) and the animated films of Pakistani female artist Shahzia Sikander are the best examples of this
aspect of Asian aesthetics.
On the one hand, such attention to detail is, of course, a product of the influence of academic art training,
as in the work of Zhang Kai and Qiu Jie. In contrast with the American artist Leonard Porter, the Asian artists’
use of these especially concrete narrative techniques is not only the result of an aesthetic decision by the
artists themselves; it is also linked to the more general traditional aesthetic predilections held by the society
at large. Ev en sculptures and multi-media installations give a sense of the great value that artists place on
fine details when devising the narrative content of their works. In their sculptures, Wang Mai, Huang Zhiyang,
and Li Hui all demonstrate their tireless attention to detail.
These works also show the artists’ impressive ability to exploit expressive theatrical tension. All of this is
intimately connected to the traditional arts and crafts of Asia. The art of the last century in the West was
characterized by an “avant-garde” movement whose “revolutionary” ideology emphasized a trajectory of
endless innovation and rejection of the historical past. “Post-modernism” is but the recognition that art
and culture has entered a new age beyond the trajectory of avant-gardism. “Post-modernism” does not
emphasize the invention of a personal style but rather off ers multiple choices among diff erent modes of
thinking. The power of a living grassroots culture that combines recent animation and comic culture
with traditional folk images and texts that have been transformed into symbols, as well as a local style of
uniting narrative texts and images, are visible in many contemporary Asian artworks.
Pre-modernity, Modernity and Post-modernity co-exist in a lively fashion in most Asian countries today.
In Asia the past is also a part of the present. The reversed color glazes of Liu Jianhua’s ceramic works and
Zhan Wang’s fake scholar’s rocks fabricated from stainless steel are examples of acts of app ropriation of
concept that speak to this co-existence of past and present in ontemporary art.
Yin / Yang
The black-and-white symbol of yin and yang represents the ancient Chinese perception of how the universe
functions. The outer circle represents "the whole," while the black and white shapes within the circle represent
the interaction of two energies, called "yin" (black) and "yang" (white). Yin and yang are complementary
opp osites that interact within a greater whole as part of a dynamic system. Ev erything in the universe has both
yin and yang aspects; neither can exist without the other. Yang represents everything “positive” or “masculine,”
while yin represents everything “negative” or “feminine.” Thus, throughout Chinese history women have
been identified more with the negative yin energy. Ev en without the concept of yin defining them as innately
inferior, women in the West fared little better throughout history.
In our contemporary moment, we often relate awareness of women’s issues with the feminist activities of the
1960s. The feminist movement in contemporary art began in the late 1960s and flourished throughout the
1970s. It was very much integrated into the Women’s Rights Movement, and its eff ects continue to be felt in
the present. However, feminist theory actually developed much further back in history with the ancient Greek
poet Sapp ho. App roaches to vindicating the rights of women in the last century took the following forms:
Liberal—emphasizing the individual equality of a woman
Socialist—seeking collective reform of the fundamental inequalities of the rights of women in capitalist societies
Radical—fighting patriarchy
Third Wave—working toward the personal empowerment of women
Ec o—addressing the links between the exploitation of nature and of women
Black—addressing the links between racism and misogyny
The first woman artist from Asia to have a connection with this predominantly Western movement was Yayoi
Kusama, who lived and worked in New York City in the 1960s. Kusama herself has never acknowledged that
her work was part of the feminist movement. She can be seen more as a predecessor to the new aesthetic
of hermaphroditism that developed in contemporary art at the end of the 20th century. She was kind of a
masculine/feminine god/goddess who earned respect for her multiple talents, yet she remained feminine and
stayed independent of her male counterparts. She empowered herself with an infinite imagination that goes
beyond the dichotomous conception of gender as being either male or female.
Hermaphrodite is the god/goddess of love, beauty, and transsexuality in Greek mythology. He/she was an idol
widely worshipp ed in Ancient Greece and is still venerated today, as can be seen in works by the young Chinese
photographer Qu Yi, whose “Men and Flowers” series depicts young men with a feminine style of beauty. The new
generation of contemporary artists makes continuous attempts at contemplation, assembly, unification, reassembly,
and rebirth in pluralistic ways. Artists like Yang Na, Mu Lei, Ouyang Chun, Joyce Ho & Craig Quintero cross-pollinate their art with questions of gender and ecology, which has resulted in the production a
multitude of visual forms. The rise of women artists in the art world will also be seen as a testament to the
growing power of the new aesthetics of the hermaphrodite. The hermaphrodite provides a new metaphor for a
notion of beauty that pushes beyond the dichotomy of “yin vs. yang” or “female vs. male.”
Yoko Toda went to Cambodia in 1965 to document the situation there as her mentors Robert Capa and Henri-
Cartier Bresson might have done. She was one of the pioneers of her generation of women, who lived
independently and dared to travel extensively worldwide to seek truth and enlightenment in life. She did a
performance in relation to the condition of Japanese women in Paris in the early 1970s. Her early awareness
in feminine qualities and women’s rights made her a legendary figure in the history of art by Japanese women.
Xiang Jing, Mika Ninagawa, and Janice Devali are a diff erent kind of women warrior. All were born after the
Second World War. In their educations and careers, they have experienced the equality of the conditions of
the sexes. Their works of art are testimonies to their time. Rolf A. Kluenter is a unique artist who has taken on
the identity of “Ke Luo Fu柯罗夫 ,” his Chinese name. The split between his two personas in his real life and in his art
has enriched his films, giving them a sense of eternal transience. In his case, “yin vs. yang” is a question of his
Western self and his Chinese alter-ego.
Universe / Self
Chinese literati art centers on abstract judgments of spirituality, and thus it has inevitably followed a path
diff erent from that of the Western Renaissance, where representation and changes in “shape” and “form”
were emphasized. In the eyes of the Western scholars, the slow evolution of Chinese art is often attributed to
the conservative nature of Chinese culture, as well as to the influence of political and societal regulation.
In reality, one of the most important sources of the slowness of change in literati aesthetics was the
philosophy of “the Unity between Heaven and Oneself.” Chinese calligraphy and painting does not focus
upon external form as the locus of change, for the Chinese view “natural harmony” as the highest state
of being—a state where one’s progression of thought follows the natural course of the universe, never
centering upon the individual. The Chinese language is not even structured around a standard of time as
sensed by the passage of an individual’s life; rather, it is fundamentally based on the expansive time of the
universe. Thus, Chinese grammar does not contain notions of time centered on the individual, such as the
past, present, future, or present progressive tenses.
The source of the Chinese language and visual arts lies in learning the law of nature. The universe is the
source of infinite transformations. The cycles of seasons off er “routine change” without betraying “naturallaw.” The universal aesthetic ideology of Chinese culture, coupled with the subtle patterns of natural
learning, pose diff iculties to anyone seeking to theorize it from a perspective informed by the principles of
individualism that characterize Western aestheticism. Thus, the opp osition of contemporary avant-gardism
and traditionalism that arose from a focus upon the individual does not provide an app ropriate framework
through which to address the system of Chinese art. When observed by Chinese scholars, what app ear to the
Western eye as few changes over the course of thousands of years blossom into a kaleidoscope of unique images that exemplify the era of their creation, not a series of repetitions or imitations.
Internationally renowned Chinese artist Xu Bing invented a system of New English Calligraphy, an elaborate
creation in response to the seemingly unchanging traditions of Chinese language and calligraphy. He
app ropriated the forms of Chinese brush strokes as used in traditional calligraphy but used them to write
English letters. Thus, he has created forms that look like Chinese characters but that are, in fact, only
readable in English. Xu created special characters for “Future Pass,” which we will use as part of our
exhibition logo. Xu has also created a new installation in the courtyard of the Abb azia di San Gregorio. Both
Belgian artist Wim Delvoye and Peruvian artist Grimanesa Amoros also have made new sculptures especially
for the site. Delvoye’s large-scale sculpture and Amoros’ light installation work together with the ink-onpaper
installation of planets by Chinese artist Cai Xiaosong to exemplify extraterrestrial interrogation into
unknown universes. The relationship between the individual and the universe has long been the main subject
of Miao Xiaochun’s animation productions. For this exhibition, he has developed a 3D version of his film in
collaboration with the HT C design team; their combined eff orts will enable viewers to watch the short film
on the screen of a cellphone without wearing 3D glasses.
Social and environmental issues are reflected in the stylistically diverse works of Wolf Kahlen, Yang
Fudong, Yin Zhaoyang, Mao Xuhui, Ay Tjoe, Wang Fenghua, Yuan Shun, and Zhao Guanghui. Light and
colored lights have become essential media for creating art. To new media artists like Dieter Jung,
Grimanesa Amoros, and Shy Gong, art and technology actually complement each other. Techno art has
emerged as a byproduct of the evolution of science and technology. Some techno art has resulted in
the production of visual and aural products; other works have progressed in the direction of interactive
media. In this new century, the digital environment has profoundly altered our modes of perception and
changed the way we relate to both the real and the virtual. Jean Baudrillard once emphasized that “the
present” is a “society of the simulacrum.” The development of internet technology has hastened the creation
of a virtual society that has abandoned “the authentic.” Today, multi-media operations convey linguistic
conceits with great eff iciency. Heterogeneity, a new dimension of the aesthetics of the present, must make
use of interactive relationships to analyze the language of techno art.
Dieter Jung is a pioneer in techno art. His works explore both light and kinetic art, which was developed
by early modern artists in the first half of the 20th century; but he adds certain new elements, expressing
contemporary reality through his use of multiple media, including laser and computer technologies. Jung
has experimented with the potential of holograms to increase the mobility of kinetic art. Forms are etched
into their surfaces by a laser. The colors change depending on the angle from which the viewer views the
work. In addition to encouraging this kind of viewer participation, the holograms also reflect colored
lights onto the surrounding environment, creating a second composition of light spaces.
The upheavals in art during the last century have been seen as part of a revolutionary “avant-garde”
movement that pushed forward while struggling to break from history and to negate the past. With innovation as its core value, this kind of art developed until the advent of Minimalism in the 1960s, a moment
that signified Modernism’s reacting against and consuming history to the point where as little as possible
existed. At that moment, some Minimalist theorists attempted to use concepts app ropriated from Eastern “Zen”
to explain this emptiness in order to avoid complete blankness. The Conceptualism that followed immediately
afterward in the 1970s adopted stronger positions of confusion, resistance, and experimentation,
declaring an absolute opp osition against and separation from traditional art forms. Yet the art world has
bid farewell to Modernism’s struggles against history, as Modernism itself has also been resigned to the
annals of history. What is known as post-modernism is basically the phenomenon of art world’s entering a
new age without the guidance of avant-gardism.
Yoshitomo Nara and Liu Ye are two of the most popular contemporary artists in Asia. Their styles reflect
the influences they have taken from the cartoon and animation industries. But both of them deny their
connection to manga. They prefer to be recognizing as Post-Pop Artists. Jimmy is the best-known illustrator
in Taiwan. Phunk Studio (Alvin Tan, Melvin Chee, Jackson Tan & William Chan) were designers before they turned
to fine art. Cao Fei’s RM B City is an interesting project that makes use of the “Second Life” website. For her and
her contemporaries, like Kwon Kisoo, Chang Chia-Ying, and Sun Xun, virtual reality is part of the reality of
daily life. Art is a fantastic journey of the imagination—without boundaries and without limitations.
Post-modernism does not emphasize the invention of a personal style but rather off ers a multiplicity of
diff erent modes of thinking. In other words, the artworks created through the diff erent thought templates
of Post-modernism could be said to partake of an Ec lecticism that unites multiple styles and forms.
Virtual / Real
Closely following the development of digital technology, the forms of cartoons, comics, and animated
films have become much more complex, while their distribution channels have become much more diverse.
All kinds of simplified visual forms have become symbols that are transmitted in massive quantities. These
comprise the separate systems of identity that define diff erent cultures and regions. As these symbols are
transmitted, they take root and become bits of the code with which youth cultures from around the world
communicate. No longer are they elements unique to a single era or ethnic group. Instead, they become
the communication channels through which people everywhere seek to express and convey thoughts or
simulate and recreate what fires their imaginations. Xu Bing’s on-going project Book from the Ground
exemplifies this phenomenon, as it aims to build a massive collection of pictorial visual codes to break the
boundaries of language.
Ward Walrath Kimball was one of the Nine Old Men who worked in the animation department of the Disney
Company from the 1930s ward. In his days, art and animation belonged to diff erent worlds. He made a
number of drawings on found museum posters to created new meanings for these masterpieces in art
history. His app ropriation of the old masters’ images, which he mixed with his own humorous interpretations,
was his way of crossing boundaries. No matter where they were born, the artists, designers, cartoonists,
animators, and illustrators of today have all grown up in nearly identical environments. Ev en their educational backgrounds are quite similar. Their aesthetic taste has been broadly influenced by popular
culture. Artists of the new generation view forms such as cartoons, comics, and animation as viable
options for artistic creation in the composite media environment of the present. They have stepp ed beyond
the rigid impressions that society may once have had of these visual forms, and they freely draw from
them, reflecting on them in their own lives and imbuing them with a deeper level of meaning. The high-speed
production of novel visual forms in the digital environment of the present not only gives rise to the new
generation’s visions of what is fresh and new but also results in their being blended into the essential formal
vocabulary of popular commercial products. These visual forms become the symbolic codes for trendy,
fashionable goods.
The never-ending quest pursued by today’s youth to renew and transform popular culture through their
artistic creations has itself changed, moving away from the quest for individualistic “originality” of the
previous century toward an interest in playing with the visual codes of “Ultra New Vision.” Fresh sensory
stimulation has become more important than formal creativity. Creative artists of the new generation
frequently process visual codes with interactive techniques so that the information cross-flow between
viewers and creators resembles a game filled with undefined variables. Dutch digital artist Hooger T. Brugge
first worked as a painter and cartoonist until he found the internet in 1996. He created a mirror image of
himself as his virtual identity in the internet world. His Modern Living Neurotica series has become extremely
popular, as has his current interactive series Hotel, created for the online Submarine Channel. In such fictive
environments, the human emotions of the 21st century are developing and maturing through multiple rituals
and behaviors. The interaction between reality and virtual reality will illuminate the incredible forms of
imagination that enrich every individual’s multiple identities.
American artist Gary Baseman is typical of contemporary artists of this trend. He works in various
creative fields, including illustration, toy design, animation, performance, and fashion; sometimes, too,
his art interacts with popular music. He is the creator of the Emmy-winning cartoon series Teacher’s Pet
and the artistic designer of Cranium, a popular board game. His playful, devious, and cleverly named
creatures recur throughout his body of work. This aesthetic trend in the 21st century has taken shape
as comics has interacted with real emotions in the virtual world, thereby cultivating the aesthetic tastes
of a new generation, from the bright and colorful lights of digitized images to forms that transform
instantaneously. In the works of Natee Utarit, Hye Rim Lee, Indieguerillas (Miko and Santi), Tomoko Nagai,
David Chan, Sang-Ah Choi, Chiharu Nishizawa, Hiroyuki Matsuura, Rieko Sakurai, Eddie Kang, Jiang Heng, Han
Yajuan, Tang Maohong, Hsu Tangwei, and Pan Dehai works, the use of metaphors and humorous content, as
well as spectacular visual eff ects that were innovated in Asia, are revealing the possible positions that virtual
beauty can take in life.
In the course of many years of researching new tendencies in art, I have noted that there are a number
of artists throughout the world whose shared aesthetic point of view has led them to make use of
representational practices related to comic books, cartoons, and animation. Such artists include Simone Legno aka Tokidoki, Anna Galtarossa, Aldo Lanzini, Emanuele Sf erruzza Moszkowicz, and Angelo Volpe from
Italy; Mapi Gil from Sp an; Olivier Pauwels from Beigium; Inbal Shved from Israel; and Lelya Borisenko from
Rusia. In doing so, they seem to have established a new aesthetic trend, which I have called “Animamix.” In
English “animation” and “comics” are two separate words, but in contemporary Chinese-speaking contexts,
the two are often combined into a single term that does not possess an English counterpart. Hence, I
combined the words “animation” and “comics” to create a new term, “Animamix,” which describes this new
aesthetic phenomenon.
My concept of Animamix aesthetics is rooted in the gradual evolution of popular culture over the past
several centuries, as well as in the new aesthetic visions that have naturally emerged in the 21st century as
the individual styles of earlier artists have been consolidated and reinterpreted. By focusing on Animamix
aesthetics, I have tried to create an overarching theory of the ever-burgeoning aesthetic tendencies of the
present. Comic books, cartoons, and animation have all developed into independent aesthetic fields, and
they have thoroughly integrated themselves into all areas of life.
The worldwide box-off ice succ ess of the recent 3D animated film Av atar shows that one form of Animamix
aesthetics has already gained the recognition of the masses. I once pointed out in a lecture that Av atar will
prove to be a milestone in human civilization. Before Av atar the virtual and the real held separate statuses;
they represented two opp osing concepts. However, after Av atar the virtual and the real can no longer be
separated; the two have become fully integrated in our lives. With the bombardment of mass media, certain
images have already come to form a symbolic language by which youths around the world communicate
with each other. This is not a mere passing fad, nor is it a form of communication that a single ethnic group
can monopolize.
The Animamix artists of the 21st century are not just the producers of animation and comics, as Animamix
manifests itself in all aspects of the creative industries. Unlike the Pop artists of the last century who
simply app ropriated the visual symbols of comics and animation, the artists of 21st-century Animamix are
completely immersed in and directly concerned with these stylistic forms and symbols. The aesthetics of
Animamix has quickly become one of the most important sources of inspiration for the global art scene of
the 21st century.
I have also pointed out that the Ultra New Vision of 21st-century Animamix can be characterized in four ways.
First, the abundant, diverse Animamix images found in popular culture, be they human figures or animal
characters, are all images that will never grow old. For example, Disney’s Mickey Mouse is over 80 years
old, yet he is still as lovely as he was at his creation and has been loved by children of multiple generations.
However, celebrities who were famous 80 years ago, even if they are still alive, app ear totally diff erent
from how they did when they first became famous. Their collective memory of ageless images has shaped
the aesthetic predilections of the young people of this Animamix Generation. The idealized eternal beauty of
youth is no longer unique to the virtual characters in animation, cartoons, or comics. Indeed, the desire to attain ideal, artificial beauty in real life is common to many people today.
Second, Animamix art is full of strange, malleable narrative texts that give Animamix images themselves
a strong narrative character. Within the digitized environment of the 21st century, the changes to this
narrative environment have become even more interesting. More and more information is communicated
and exchanged via image-based languages. Therefore, even in a small visual symbol, there sometimes exist
multiple layers of meaning, including hypotheses, imaginative constructions, legends, and metaphors. The
anthropomorphized characters in cartoons, animation, and comics, as well as the exaggerated aesthetics
of transformation, have evolved through their combination with narration, and thus they will become the
mainstream of the aesthetics of characterization in this century—just as abstraction led the aesthetic trends
of the 20th century.
Third, since the middle of last century, electronic media have served as the channels through which
images are broadcasted. Colorful lights shine while sounds flow and abound in space. These are a means
of expression equal to painting with pigment on canvas. In this new century, humans everywhere share the
experience of watching their children grow up in front of the television and the computer. The information
they receive and the images they see are usually transmitted through colored lights activated by electricity.
Such florid colored lights have had a very deep influence on artists’ usage of color in their works. The
electronic media of the previous century served to transmit images. The new generation that is growing up
in the digital environment of the present is already familiar with the reception or retrieval of images on the
screen. The perception of and reaction to images of colored lights and dots are naturally very diff erent
from those in response to colors and graphics synthesized by colored pigments or inks. What are seen
on the screen are fluorescent colors or contrastive colored dots, which are synthesized by the eye to
form visions of splendid, dazzling color. Such marvelously colorful visual eff ects are one of the distinct
features of this Ultra New Vision.
Finally, while traditional artworks can be independently produced in a small workshop, Animamix art often
requires a professional division of labor and a strong team spirit. This necessarily involves great human,
material, and financial resources. Cross-industry integration is a phenomenon unique to Animamix culture.
For example, the derivative products created by the American and Japanese comics and animation’ industries
have covered almost all aspects of life, from clothes and food to acc ommodation and transportation.
Thus, the value of the Animamix industry lies not just in Animamix art itself. Animamix is a summary of the
culture of this age, reflecting regional linguistic styles, global aesthetic tastes, historical cultural
frameworks, human mentalities, and social relationships between the collective and the individual.
The lead singer of the famous popular music group “May Day” in Asia, A Shin (Chen Shih-Hung) studied
architecture during his college years. He and his high school friend No2Good (Chen Po-Liang) later
founded “Stay Real,” a youth fashion brand in Taipei that has now expanded to Hong Kong, Shanghai, and
Tokyo. Andre Saraiva and KEA (Tsai Meng-Ta) were street graff iti artists. Andre Saraiva now is known in the
night club, boutique hotel, and fashion and entertainment world. KEA is active in the world of youth street culture. Simone Legno aka Tokidoki also has his own brand and retail ventures in Europe and America.
A collective of artists from mainland China and Taiwan named ANIMAMIX .NET includes a great number
of artists and designers (Chen Fei/Luo Hui, Ye Funa, Tao Na, Lu Tingting, Lin Chin-Hung, Gao Xiaowu, Luo
Dan, Xu Jia, Luo Zhenhong, Sun Dongxu, He Zubin, Rae Chou, Wow Bravo & Funky Rap, Stephany Hsiao, Chen
Zongguang, Fu Kailai, Tess Lin, Victor Xu Weina, Yan Shilin, Chen Hongzhu, Pink Hsu, Wu Dinglong, Zhou Xin, Xu
Qin, Peng Yun, Ma Chunfu, Connie Chang, Leland Lee, and Wu Chang Jung) who have played many diff erent
roles and had many diff erent careers in the creative industries. Some even own their own production
houses. The mode of production employed by the artists of the new generation is becoming more and more
similar to that of designers and animators, and the lines separating the identities of art creators, designers,
and animators are being blurred. The site of the birth and realization of ideas has also been moved from
the personal workshop to the interactive team, even taking the form of corporations that implement
international production lines.
The digital environment has profoundly altered people’s modes of perception. It has changed people’s
relationship to both the real and the virtual, not only overturning our systems of classification and
categories of knowledge, but also challenging the limits of our senses. This phenomenon is best exemplified
by Animamix art. The new artists representing and displaying Animamix elements in their work have shown that
rather than simply app ropriating forms of popular culture, their works themselves have been completely
absorbed into Animamix. We see this in the animations and interactive games of Hooger T. Brugge, Olivier
Pauwels, and Monochrom from Europe. Artists in Asia, including Chen Zhiguang, Wu Rigen and Wen San Su,
have employed this visual language in environmental installations, furniture, and interior design.
The emerging Animamix aesthetic has app eared in all fields of art in this new century. “Animamized” styles are
the archetypes of artists’ creations. This sensational output can be exemplified by the rise of Lady Gaga, whose
overwhelming succ ess in the entertainment business is actually an artistic succ ess. If Picasso can be seen
as the most popular master of the modern art of the 20th century, it is possible that Lady Gaga will turn out
to be the great master of 21st-century art. The increasingly popular cosplay activities in Asia, first associated
with Japanese manga culture, will undoubtedly be influenced by entertainment superstars like Lady Gaga and
will become a form of contemporary art in the future. We have only invited a few artists whose works are
related to cosplay to Venice. They include Kristy Chu Cha-Ray, Ye Yili, Jonathan Anderson and Edwin Low, Demis
Albertacc i, and Giorgia Vecc hini. However, we will host an international cosplay competition in Taoyuan,
Taiwan, in 2012 when “Future Pass” travels to the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung.
The images and symbols of Animamix art are like a communication channel that facilitates individual
expression, as well as the conveying of ideas and the use of imagination.
Therefore, Animamix artworks are not actually animation or comics.
“Animamix” is a kind of total conception of the aesthetic attitudes of the new century in all areas of creation.
Conclusion:
Thanks to the digital environment of the 21st century, the channels for obtaining knowledge have become
more open and diverse. In the new internet age, the world of technology is giving the public a platform
through which to share the playfulness of art and the intelligence of technology, as well as an increasing
spiritual desire for beauty.
The contemporary art of Asia in the 21st century is inevitably moving toward Ec lecticism, opening up more
liberal dialogues by uniting the experiences of Conceptual Art with experimentation with process and materials.
Contemporary art not only excavates and builds new perspectives and explications, but also it presents
narratives of individual artists’ experiences of the present and their sampling of the diff erent cultural spices
of this global melting pot. Continuous contemplation, assembly, unification, re-assembly, rebirth, and even
questions of gender have been cross-pollinated to give rise to a heterogeneity of visual forms.
This heterogeneity includes the familiar veins of traditional art, especially in Asia where the past is also a part
of the present. Indeed, traditional art has become one of the many possibilities open to Ec lecticism. With the
rise of the internet, digital technology has transformed people’s cognitive experience of time, distance,
and other physical phenomena, creating a new state of mind/a new nation, where global citizens find their
homes in a simultaneously “virtual/real” state. The passes to this future state will be labeled with the visual codes
of Ultra New Vision. These new aesthetic movements have risen in Asia and will spread to connect with the rest
of the world.
If art can create a nation, the old Chinese philosophy of “the Unity between the Universe and Oneself” shall be
written into its constitution to pave the way for innovations in green resources in the future. |
