HYP IN VENICE
by Mathieu Borysevicz

As the war in Kosovo was coming to a close, the last Venice Biennale of the century was opening its doors. By its sheer proximity and inherent agenda of ethnic antagonism, the conflict in Kosovo informed not only the spirit and content, of the 48th Biennale, but also the degree of intensity with which art, seemingly attempted to bridge the divisions of culture and ethnicity.

Guided by curator Harald Szeemann's extraordinarly grand theme of "dAPERTutto" or "APPERTO over all" - an utopian agenda that encouraged openness, freedom, and a certain shift to the peripheries- those who hitherto had spoken with an alternative voice were called up to the front and center. This Biennale's general scheme of inclusiveness and its deliberate attempt to denationalize itself, invited all the blurry configurations recently undertaken by globalism in the arts to blossom in full.

Szeemann's "dAPERTutto" formed an irregular, albeit colorful weave of contemporary cultural production which was most prominent in the Italian pavilion and the newly reclaimed space of the Arsenale. However by far the bravest display of multiculturalism manifested itself in the French pavilion. France, seemingly a bastion of cultural purity went fiercely against the grain and choose to exhibit, alongside painter Jean Pierre Bertrand, Huang Yong Ping, a Paris based, but China born conceptual artist. What ensued was a discourse that while harmonious was dominated by the latter's dramatic muse on the inadequacy of a "national art" in the ambitious project - "Nine Animals, One Man" . Huang Yong Ping's installation beautifully synchronized site with specificity of context, to "emphasize the paradox of Culture" and "reconstruct an open space where shifting identities can be played out."

"Nine Animals, One Man" consists of nine natural wood pillars positioned in a loosely formed queue. Starting from the rear of the pavilion at a height of 15 meters the columns proceed one by one, becoming gradually shorter through the entrance with the two shortest ones standing out in front of the pavilion itself. The columns pierce the pavilion's roof and lodge themselves into its floor as if unexpectedly plunging down from the sky. The effect is almost pure Hollywood in its theatricality. Huang's columns navigate through the pavilion at once acknowledging and countering the staid symmetry of its design. Atop each column, as if poised in mid-stride, are perched the nine imaginary beasts of the Shanhaijing from The Book of Mountains and Seas which is devoted to Chinese mythology. Coming from distant lands each of these species deliver a different prediction of the fate of the world.

Facing this procession of fantastical beasts on the ground before the pavillion is a lone character pointing in amazement at the forthcoming stampede. The One Man , as denoted in the piece's title, stands atop an idle Compass Chariot, the traditional Chinese tool for measuring time and direction. Thislone figure , presumably the artist himself, heroically confronts the convoluted situation of culture at the end of the 20th century.

Beginning with a direct attack on the architectural authority of the pavilion itself and the edifice's embodiment of Nationalist self-consciousness, Huang's piece performs as a metaphoric conduit. The hybrid beasts connote a homogenizing global culture whereas the broken Compass Chariot signifies the end of the millennium, void of any discernible ideology. The contradictory omens that each of these fantastical beasts are said to deliver is but a subtext to the mythic sense of chaos created by the haunting scale of the columns themselves. The piece pierces and stretches through the pavilion- eventually looking back on itself in paralyzed astonishment.

From the outset Huang Yong Ping's oeuvre was defined by the breaches and bridges between Eastern and Western thought. Huang's efforts to negotiate between cultures was consummated early on in his "The History of Chinese Painting and A Concise History of Modern Painting Washed in a Washing Machine for Two Minutes", 1987 . Equally under the influences of Dada and Daoism, Huang compounds the quintessential doctrines of Eastern and Western high art. It was a gesture that he continues to re-explore to this day.

Since 1989 Huang Yong Ping has been living in Paris and experiencing cultural differences first hand. Huang's strategy often employs full fledged exoticism to "interrupt a dominant (Western) discourse". It is a tactic which, by introducing an iconography alien to the majority of the audience, sets a myriad of identity issues into play.

This continued use of a symbolism that is exhumed from the archives of an ancient civilization is questionable in both its integrity and leverage. It also helps to index certain phenomena in the contemporary arts worthy of inquiry. The use of explicitly eastern historical motifs, which some may argue have as little to do with contemporary Chinese life as they have with contemporary Western life, are employed by not only Huang Yong Ping but also by several other 'Chinese' artists who share similar backgrounds. Huang, along with Xu Bing, Cai Guoqiang Chen Zhen, Gu Wenda, Ai Weiwei, and Wang Du amongst others, have all resided outside the P.R.C. for over a decade. Each has achieved momentous prestige within the international art world by unrelentlessy referencing ancient Chinese civilization. Whether this is a defensive manoeuvre to counteract the dominant discourse, or a condescending attempt to accomodate an audience with an appetite for the exotic, this phenomenon certainly indexes the state of convolution traversed by contemporary world culture.

On a similar note, Huang Yongping belongs to a category of international artists whose practices are increasingly distanced from the sanctuary of the studio. Instead, new works are conceived specifically, and installed accordingly at each new site. His goofy "Peril de Mouton" at the Foundation Carter, concerning the mad cow crisis in Europe; VOC , originally made and shown in Amsterdam (also currently showing in Venice) re-examining Dutch colonialism , or Da Xian, The Doomsday, created for the occasion of Hong Kong's return to the mainland all exemplify this trend . These globe trotting art-world superstars, equipped with large budgets, have turned the notion of artistic production into an enterprise wich is as ephemeral as it is extravagant.

Concurrent with the steady rise of this production has been the decentralization of the art world's focus of attention towards the periferic "Other". As the economies of the "developing nations' have strengthened so have their art industries, producing exciting domestic scenes which are rapidly 'absorbed' and disseminated along the international circuit, often assuming quite different connotations. One of the questions arising from the last Venice Biennale of the century is whether this kind of art will eventually find a way back home and be conceived and viewed within the same cultural framework while still mantaining momentous 'international' significance.

To view past works of Huang Yongping, click here