Illustration by Vanilla.Specially made for the latest issue's feature article "Accent Trilogy: Like Dew, or a Lightning".
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LEAP 19

AS WE DROVE from Taipei to the suburb of Xinbei, our host, the artist Chen Chieh-jen, delivered a nonstop monologue from the front seat, narrating the passing scenery. For example, there were some high-profile development projects, a leper colony that had been fighting demolition for years, and so on. Chen’s tone quickly grew severe. The…

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2012 WAS MULTIPLE years for me. It was seven years, but not lived consecutively. It was a year that played out with seven ways of pushing each day. Each day, I carried seven levels of responsibility— seven new friends and seven things forgotten. Seven potential opportunities and seven turned down. Seven victories and seventy challenges….

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I traveled from Beijing to Guangzhou, and hopped on a four-hour bus ride back north. The subtropical scenery outside the window speeding past was no longer a novelty for this secondtime guest from the north, and I was drowsy all the way. It has been eight years since curator Duan Yuting signed his ten-year contract…

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BERLINDE DE BRUYCKERE seems to be something of a sage. She has not left her hometown of Ghent for more than 20 years; she was born there, grew up there, got married and started a family there, all the while creating new artworks at her studio in the harbor district. She chose to open her…

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A CALL FOR ACTION IN 2013—WITHDRAWAL TO WITHDRAW MEANS to, within a set of existing regulations that are commonly known by names, go into shock. The withdrawal I propose refers to something different from the classical understandings of breakthrough or flee, for today it is futile to seek creative possibilities in the world of forms….

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WITH 2012 BEHIND us, it is necessary to organize our thoughts on our industry and on the work that we have done. THE YEAR OF BUILDING TUMULTUOUS MUSEUMS In May of 2012 during Art HK, it was announced that the giant “Yinchuan Museum” would soon be erected in the northwest of China. The news caused…

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OVER THE PAST 30 years, Xia Xiaowan has painted countless images that are better described as deities, devils, or souls than as people. These images seem like those of gods in temples, vivid and lifelike, but nothing like in the natural world. In fact, in the 1980s and 90s, Xia studied the colors and brushwork…

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THIS JANUARY, AN exhibition of Damien Hirst’s “spin paintings” opened in Istanbul. Naturally, the news did not come lacking in controversy. The first solo show of one of contemporary art’s greatest heavyweights in Turkey was held not in a museum, but in the exhibition space of a local auction house— these were secondary works up…

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THE ART WORLD in 2012 witnessed a paradox. On the one hand, the value of contemporary art as an investment continued to rise. Despite a worldwide financial downturn since 2008, the fall 2012 contemporary auctions at the Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York together brought in close to USD 1 billion. The figure is staggering:…

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THE 1966-1976 Major Events Pavilion, located in Anren, Dayi County, Sichuan, is built across a river and thus serves as a footbridge— hence it being called the “Museum-Bridge.” The museum houses relics from the Cultural Revolution collected by Mr. Fan Jianchuan. Everything about this building, from its shape to its name, hints at a sense…

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AT A VERY young age, Chen Zhe has already widely been touted as one of the most compelling Chinese photographers practicing today. In 2011 alone, she was the recipient of the Inga Morath Award, the Three Shadows Photography Award, and the Lianzhou Photographer of the Year award. These accolades are due, not in small part,…

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WHY RETHINK RELATIONALITY now? The recent surge of relational practice and community-oriented art in China seems to be finally subsiding even as critical interest in such work is transferred into the scope of nouveau institutional critique. Indeed, editor of this volume and curator of the attendant exhibition Bea Leanza notes early on in her introductory…

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KANG WANHUA—THIS name draws a big blank for most people in China’s contemporary art scene. From 1976 to 1979, he served as a political prisoner of the Chinese government. During those four years, he secretly painted more than 400 richly colored and vibrant works. Even though these paintings are, for the most part, only the…

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THE FUTURE IS Now: Art, Technology, and Consciousness is a collection of essays and lectures by British media art pioneer Roy Ascott. The book contains his writings from 1964 to 2011, presented in chronological order. What is odd is that writings from each period are all grouped under the same subject heading— as though over…

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ART BASEL MIAMI Beach is the winter destination for the art world’s global players, who descend on the city for what is essentially a high-end popup shop the scale of the Burj Khalifa. It is a place where the art world can come together in one place for a short length of time with the…

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WHAT IS COMMONLY accepted within the industry as independent Chinese animation has only been in existence for about seven or eight years. If we include the earlier days of Flash animation, it would maybe grow to a dozen or so years. I had a conversation with a young independent animation director once. He said that…

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The wall text for Chen Shaoxiong and Liu Ding’s “Project Without Space” characterizes it as an “iteration,” suggesting a serial repetition— one instance on top of the last, in a process of refinement. Now that it has reached its sixth version, what lessons can we draw from these critical installations? Spread over three rooms, “Project…

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  EMILY WARDILL British artist Emily Wardill revives the genre of the melodrama in her feature-length video works. In Fulll Firearms, 2011, Wardill introduces us to the life of Imelda, a protagonist convinced that the ghosts of people killed by guns produced by her father’s arms manufacturing company will haunt her for life. Inspired by…

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In Europe, old-fashioned public institutions are receiving ever fewer resources and ever less support, and governments are investing less in cultural benefits to society. As a consequence, many art professionals consider it very normal to seek help from private capital, but we must consider the price of such actions. Critiques and discussions of neoliberal capitalism…

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