Humanism in China
A Contemporary Record of Photography
Themed "Humanized China - Individualized China", the exhibition "Humanism in China" derives from the following three ideas. First,to record in detail the daily lives of ordinary Chinese in different periods of time; Second, to display the diversity of Chinese people's lives from all walks of life;Third, to promote the humanistic spirit of contemporary Chinese candid photography.
The exhibition is divided into four subjects: Existence, Relationship, Desire and Time. "Existence" reveals the contemporary Chinese people's everyday existence. "Relationship" presents the complexities and nature of relationships among nature, mankind and social environment. "Desire" stresses the influence of mental strain, manifesting people's self-awareness and natural human desires. "Time" shows the Chinese folk customs and social fashion to reflect the process of humanization and individualization in China.
The exhibition was organized by Guangdong Museum of Art and Guangzhou Integrated Image Co., Ltd., and curated by Wang Huangsheng (Director of Guangdong Museum of Art), Hu Wugong (photographer and curator) and An Ge (photographer and curator). The 601 works by 270 photographers were exhibited in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing. From 2006, it is in tour exhibition in five famous museums (Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art, Stuttgart State Gallery, Berlin Museum for Photography, Munich Museum of Contemporary Art, and Dresden National Art Museum) in Germany. The 3-year exhibition tour is the largest Chinese exhibition ever in Germany, earning great reputation. In July 2008, the exhibition travels to Edinburgh's City Art Centre in Scotland and is ranked a five star exhibition by the local newspaper the Scotsman.
Words from the professionals:
"Visitors will be grateful, for nowhere in any other contemporary exhibition has it been possible to get closer to the ordinary life of the nation that makes up a quarter of the world's population." (By Tilman Spengler, Die Zeit, a German nationwide weekly newspaper)
"Precisely because it was not some foreign eye behind the camera, as these photographs instead express the perception of the world by a generation that grew up in China, this exhibition is more than a photographic show it is truly a document of the times." (e-flux, an international network which reaches visual art professionals)
"It is in fact a remarkable, warts and all portrait of the people, or peoples – for the subject matter ranges across the whole range of China's diverse population – of an extraordinary country, but it is not the place made familiar by tourist images of the Great Wall or the Forbidden City." (By Duncan Macmillan, the Scotsman, 04 July 08)
