Beschreibung:

Katalognummer: CA0919-345 „WILL/WE MUST“ BY ZHOU TIEHAI (BORN 1966 IN SHANGHAI, CHINA) Collage from ca. 90 single A4 pages of the movie script to the black and white silent movie “Will/We Must”, mostly on newsprint, created between 1996 and 1997. Drawing in pencil, felt and ball pen above the collage. Will/We Must consists of a black-and-white soundless video that Zhou Tiehai created in 1996 and a group of works on paper and canvas that he made based on it. The characteristically humorous video dramatically exposes the strange phenomena of the Chinese art world at the time. Its imitation of the style of silent movies exaggerates the absurdity of the content to the point of becoming satire. During the nineties, Chinese artists frequently participated in exhibitions abroad. Reflecting on this period of prosperity, Zhou Tiehai satirizes the overseas curators and collectors, as well as the Chinese artists themselves, in this footnote to the history of contemporary Chinese art. Provenance: From the collection of Andreas Krüger Germany. Acquired directly from the artist ca. 1998 via his gallery Lorenz Helbling, Shanghart. Exhibited: Kunstverein Museum Schloss Morsbroich e.V. Leverkusen, Germany, October 17th – November 12th, 2000. Published: “Zhou Tiehai / Met in Shanghai”, catalogue to the exhibition at Museum Schloss Morsbroich e.V. Leverkusen, Germany, page 23, published in October 2000. Scans of the respective catalogue pages are accompanying this lot. Condition: Good condition with intentional creases, minor wear and losses, one tear of ca. 25 cm. Dimensions: 273 x 194 cm The movie Will/We Must has 9 independent soundless scenes. The first is a mock military meeting that dramatizes an artist’s need to establish his own status independently from museum directors, critics, and gallery owners. The second scene demonstrates an artist’s wish to befriend critics and media in order to have his works exhibited. In the third scene, we see one patient after another queuing to be examined by a “foreign expert”; this is a parody of the need for Chinese artists to be “treated” by foreign critics before successfully exhibiting abroad. The fourth scene is a conversation between a collector who has traveled to China from afar and a guide taking him to an artist’s studio; we witness the guide’s taste and the collector’s list of artists to visit. In the fifth scene, we see an artist calling five curators to say only, “Whatever show you curate I am willing to participate in.” In the sixth scene, a Qing-dynasty official receives a foreign emissary, who denigrates China for having only traditional medicine and witchcraft but no art. The Qing official snaps, “Must our art suit your taste?” Here Zhou Tiehai articulates the prejudices held by foreign critics about the Chinese art world. Following all these absurd and bizarre situations, the last scene features 10 desperate artists on a raft, unable to move forwards or backwards, embodying the embarrassment and anger Chinese artists felt as they attempted to interface with the outside world in the nineties. This scene—and the video as a whole—ends with a line filled with pathos: “Goodbye, Art!” The series Will/We Must includes works that recreate important scenes from the video. Some of these are on newsprint, others on white paper. Will/We Must expresses Zhou Tiehai’s artistic philosophy and documents his creative direction. Satirizing the art system itself has become an important topic in his subsequent works, including the renowned Placebo and Tonic series. Zhou Tiehai is a contemporary Chinese artist. Trained as a painter in his native Shanghai, Zhou co-founded Shanghai’s first international art fair, SH Contemporary, in 2007, assumed the directorship of the Minsheng Art Museum in 2010, and founded West Bund Art & Design in 2014. Zhou’s art often attempts to satirize modern Chinese art. He does not paint his own works, though he earned a M.F.A. from the School of Fine Arts at Shanghai University i