THIS IS WHY WE PLAY THIS IS WHY WE PLAY

Preface
by Mian Bu translate Xu Huaning

Being 3 Gallery is honored to have the participation of this group of young artists for the exhibition This is Why We Play.  The phrase refers to the expanded scope of contemporary artistic experimentation presented at the gallery, the attention it is giving to young artists, and the thorough and diverse exchanges and explorations taking place among young artists active in the nearby Heiqiao art district of Beijing.

In a true sense, this is a “self-organized” exhibition, in the way that artists have selected each other for this exhibition. For the contemporary art scene, with its often inclusive approach, such a system of organizing is neither new nor unusual: “self-organizing” has been a common occurrence in the visual arts since the beginning of modernism. Nearly every influential art movement was initiated through this process. It is this continuous self-organizing that defines the nature of contemporary art, i.e.,this form of contemporary art is a type of art that exists for theartists. This statement carries two meanings: firstly, only artists are responsible for their art despite other influences; secondly, this kind of art is  usually only received and understood by a minority of artists, since it is not based on popular tastes.

Individuality, perhaps, is the defining characteristic of this exhibition. In the same way that each person’s calligraphic style isdifferent, each artist here draws from a unique educational and cultural background: the things, perspectives, concepts, and social issues they pay attention to are diverse. Yet, behind every work there is a theoretically informed foundation that is strong and mature. The reason we are able to organize an exhibition in such an organic manner is because of the “contemporary”context. Contemporary artists make work based on their own context, which might refer to things external to art, such as society, politics, everyday life, and personal experiences, or to things internal to art, such as forms, structures,techniques, and images. It is these varied contexts that determine how artists work. If we want to fully appreciate an artist’s work, we need to place ourselves in the same context or understand that context: Cai Dongdong continues his program on seeing and being seen; Dai Chenlian maintains his exploration of the art of theatre through poetic but shapeless singing; using the medium of video, Du Yuqing pretends to analyze poems and contemporary art to create a sense of the absurd; He Xun situates his work in the church-like space of the gallery and discovers where poems come from and where they are going. It is hard to define He Chi: he has his own style which is insisted upon in this exhibition; the installation work by Han Wuzhou uses the ever-changingcharacter of everyday objects to highlight their fascinating qualities inspace; Kang Xueru continues to use ready-mades to create poetic expressions thatare romantic and academic at the same time; and Qiu Fei‘s suspended woodprint Dark Cloud considers metaphysical and spiritual existence through the themes of nothingness, emptiness, sadness, and absurdity. Li Pengpeng has irrationally grafted collectable arborvitae into instruments of punishment; Xiao Wucong expresses his passion for contemporary art with elements ranging from easel paintings to texts that simultaneously constitute a complete work of art; Yan Bing has based his work on inspirations  and friendships, regarding his friends’ bone fractures as a source for new work,and so on. In one word, this exhibition intends to show the “context” for the artists’practices through their individualized ways of working, while at the same time,through the mutual understanding among the artists, reveal the points they have in common with each other.

The interviews of participating artists and the gallery owner, which features Wu Wei as the primary interviewee, highlight the intangible logic that runs through the exhibition as a whole and contributes to the organic atmosphere of the exhibition. It includes archival materials,which is the most difficult part of the exhibition to define.

The avant-garde experimental nature of Being3 Gallery’s programs encompasses the 16-hour documentary film by German artist Burkhard Von Harder, Ai Weiwei’s 200 hours of documentaries, the gentle but provocative spatial experiments by the young artist Yang Wei, and the 17-minutedocumentary film by Ju Anqi:  these workshave consistently forged a path for avant-garde experimentation at the gallery,and help to chart its course for the future. In 2016, the theme for Being 3 Gallery’s annual exhibition series is “Supergene,” with this specific group exhibition reachinga high level of spiritual affinity that opens up the possibility for much more.