Wang Jin

Wang Jin est né à Datong, dans la province chinoise de Liaoning. Il est diplômé de l’Académie des Beaux-Arts en 1987, où il se spécialise en peinture traditionnelle chinoise. Wang Jin vit et travaille à Pékin et expose régulièrement dans de nombreux pays.

Son travail recourt indifféremment et parfois simultanément à plusieurs médiums, tels que la photographie, la sculpture et la performance. Son oeuvre très conceptuelle s’inspire d’expériences personnelles. Elle exprime une subjectivité assumée tout en faisant écho, avec une ironie mordante, aux évolutions et aux problèmes de la société chinoise.

Sa célèbre photographie Se marier avec un âne (1995) le présente en costume, menant un âne revêtu d’une robe de mariage. Cette performance dénonçait l’absurdité des blocages bureaucratiques lui déniant l’obtention d’un visa pour se rendre aux États-Unis, ce qui a conduit l’artiste à divorcer de sa femme qui étudiait dans ce pays.

Dans une autre photographie, Fighting the Flood – Red flag canal (1994), il a déversé 25 kilos de peinture rouge dans un canal ancien. Si le rouge est la couleur traditionnelle du bonheur, du mariage et de la révolution, l’artiste évoque par ce geste la transmission d’une pollution ou d’un poison. Il a aussi repeint, avec un rouge obtenu à partir d’éléments de la culture traditionnelle chinoise, les rails d’une voie ferrée entre Pékin et Hong Kong. Plus récemment, dans le même ordre d’idées mais dans un autre registre d’expression, il a exposé des costumes traditionnels chinois tissés à base de PVC, matériau symbolique de la société de consommation contemporaine, désormais bien connu pour sa toxicité. Les robes sont transparentes et blanches, couleur traditionnelle de la mort.

EXPOSITIONS PERSONNELLES

2008

Wang Jin: Dream of China, Designer’s Gallery, Köln, Germany

Food and Shelter, Pékin Fine Arts, Beijing, China

2007
Wang Jin, Friedman Benda, New York, U.S.A

2002
Measuring the USA, Beijing China

1999
100% Beijing, China (performance)

1996
Ice, 96 Central China (Performance), Zhengzhou, Henan, China
Chinese Art Festival (Performance), Munich, Germany

1995
Quick Stir-frying RMB (Performance), Jianxin Hotel, Beijing, China
The Dong’AnMen Night Market (Performance) Wangfujing Dajie, Beijing
Knocking at the Door (21 Cashbricks), Forbidden City wall, Beijing, China (performance)
To Marry a Mule, Laiguangying Village, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China (performance)

1994
Beijing-Kowloon (Performance) Beijing-Kowloon Railroad, Beijing, China
Fighting the Flood – Red Flag Canal (Performance) Lin Xian, China
Investment Guide—the Last Bus, the Beijing Railway Station, China (performance)
Endorse a Declaration—Insect Spray, Forbidden City walls, Beijing, China (performance)

1993
Knocking at the Door (drawing US dollars on the Bricks of the Wall of the Forbidden City) (Performance), Beijing, China

EXPOSITIONS DE GROUPE

2009–2010
The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) Maastricht 2010, Maastricht, Netherlands

Drss Codes: Clothing as Metaphore, Katanah Museum of Art, Katanah, NY, USA

2009
My Tooth, Shandong, China.
Take Part – Zeitgenössische Chinesische Kunst, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
EXPO 2000 Hannover – My Bone, Hannover, Germany.
Our Chinese Friends, ACC Galerie; Galerie der Bauhaus-Universitat, Weimar, Germany.
Inside, Out: New Chinese Art, SFMoMA, San Francisco, U.S.A. Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Monterrey, Mexico

2008
Wang Jin: Dream of China. Designer’s Gallery, Köln, Germany
Food and Shelter, Pekin Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Spring Training: Beijing 2008, Pekin Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Zhu Yi! Contemporary Chinese Photography, Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona, Spain

2007
The Quiet Gesture: Recent Chinese Art, Newark Art Museum, Newark, NJ
Energy: Spirit, Body, Material, Today Art Museum, Beijing
Zhu Yi! Contemporary Chinese Photography, ARTIUM de Alava, Spain
The Year of the Golden Pig: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, UK

2006-2007
Mahjong – Chinesische Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg, Hamburger, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
XIANFENG! Chinese Avant-Garde Sculpture, Beelden and Zee Museum, the Hague, Netherlands

2006
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany

2005-2006
The Wall, Millenium Art Museum, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China; The Albright-Knox ; Museum, Buffalo, NY, USA

2005
Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle; Museum of Contemporary Art, Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, U.S.A
Xianfeng! Chinese Avant-Garde Sculpture, Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, The Netherlands

2004-2005
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

2004
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, International Center of Photography, New York, U.S.A
Le Printemps de Chine, CRAC Alsace, Altkirch, France
Chinese Object: Dreams & Obsessions, Salvatore Ferragamo Gallery, New York, U.S.A

2003
Together with Migrants, Today Art Gallery, Beijing, China
Le Printemps de Chine, Crac Alsace, Altkirch, France

2002
Paris-Pékin, Place Cardin, Paris, France
The Long March – A Walking Visual Display – On the Wall Hang the Swords, Which are Upside Down, Jing Gang Shan, China
Triennale of Chinese Art – The Landscape Here is Beyond Compare, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Guangzhou Triennale, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China

2001
My Tooth, Shandong, China

2000
EXPO 2000 – My Tooth, Hannover, Germany
Our Chinese Friends, ACC Galerie/Galerie der Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar, Germany

1999
Inside Out: New Chinese Art, SF MoMA, San Francisco, U.S.A., Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Monterrey, Mexico
Art 30 Basel, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
TRANSIENCE: Chinese Experimental Art at the End of the Twentieth Century, Smart Museum of Art; University of Chicago, Illinois; University of Oregon Museum of Art; The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, U.S.A
100%, Performance in Beijing, China
POLYPHENOLRENE, Bow Gallery, Beijing, China
APERTO over ALL: The 48th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy

1998
Ink Art Released, National Gallery of Art, Beijing, China
A Chinese Dream, The site of the Ming Imperial Tombs, Beijing, China
Museum City Fukuoka 1998 – Forward to the Victory, Memorealism, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Inside Out: New Chinese Art, Asia Society, New York; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, U.S.A.; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Monterrey, Mexico; Tacoma Art Museum; The Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, USA
Eight Chinese Artists, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland

1997
Chinese Contemporary Art 1997, Watari Museum, Tokyo, Japan
W2.Z2: Multimedia Slide Art, CIFA Gallery of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
A Chinese Dream, Imperial Summer Palace, Beijing, China

1996
Reality: Present and Future. International Art Palace, Beijing, China

1992
100 Straw Portraits, Works: March 1992. The Beijing Youle Amusement, Beijing, China

1986
Trend – Ink Body. The Beijing International Art Center, Beijing, China

1985
Advanced Chinese Youth Art – Pure Brightness, The National Gallery, Beijing, China