[spectre] National Art Museum of China to Launch "Translife: International Triennial of New Media Art"

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中国美术馆主办 “延展生命：媒体中国2011， 国际新媒体艺术3年展” 即将开幕（中文内容请见后）

TransLife: Media Art China 2011
International Triennial of New Media Art
Organized by the National Art Museum of China

Opening: July 26, 2011
Venue: National Art Museum of China  No 1 Wusi Street  Dongcheng District
On view from: July 27 – August 17, 2011


Following the groundbreaking international new media art exhibition Synthetic Times, a 2008 Beijing Olympics Cultural Project, the National Art Museum of China presents TransLife, the next installment of the Media Art China series, now instituted as a triennial, slated to open on July 26, 2011, in Beijing.

Amidst the global challenges of climate and ecological crises that threaten the very existence of humanity, the exhibition TransLife reflects on the whereabouts of humankind in relationship to nature through an unique perspective and philosophical speculation, calling for citizen participation in facing these imminent challenges with artistic imagination to advocate a new world view of nature and a retooled humanist proposition.

The exhibition is structured by three thematically related components that gradually progress from the discovery of new sensorial potentials that extend our cognitive capacities to the emergence of multiple life forms to biodiversity and an exploration of the symbiosis of cohabitation, revealing emerging concepts of life and provoking contemplation on the biosphere. In doing so, the exhibition also strives to reassess the historical roots and epistemological foundation of the current ecological and environmental predicament, interrogating the notion of subjectivity inherent in the project of modernity and the anthropocentrism derived from that tradition. 

“Sensorium of the Extraordinary,” the first section of the exhibition, reveals and amplifies subdued and muted sensorial experiences through technological intervention and augmentation to bring awareness to otherwise imperceptible human capacities as well as the dynamic exchange between the self and its vibrant, sentient surroundings. The revelation of a new sensorium beyond our biological limits implicitly complicates our understanding of embodiment and the body’s newly acquired significance in mediated social spaces, broaching the visual–auditory dominant perceptual paradigm, freeing us from the hierarchy of sensory systems and opening up new possibilities for the imagination of bio-equality.  

The second part of the exhibition, “Sublime of the Liminal,” takes artificial life, intelligent objects and transgenic hybrids as natural objects, exploring the liminal states of these emergent life forms and their unique manifestations of vitality, extending the concept of life from the biological to the informatics, from the natural to the artificial, thereby delineating a new domain in which the organic interchanges with the inorganic and the biological with the artificial. In defying conventional taxonomy, it extends the notion of life, preparing for a contract of biodiversity that relies on mutual respect and the interdependence of all species and things.

TransLife’s third section, “Zone of Impending,” brings into focus concerns about ecosystems and environments upon which all life depends, calling attention to the plight of ecological disruption through creative inspirations via artists’ great imaginations and ingenious strategies to engage us actively in environmental protection and in the reconstitution of a healthy ecosphere, thereby advocating for a new consciousness of shared responsibility and citizen participation.

Within “Zone of Impending,” a special project named “Weather Tunnel” composed of contributions from multiple art schools in China and around the world will be an architectural spectacle. “Weather Tunnel” acts as a presentation of an immediate and intuitive revealing of complex and otherwise incomprehensible environmental data, epitomizing the living conditions humanity faces and highlighting concerns about the Earth on which life depends as a prominent focus of the exhibition.

The exhibition’s architectural design starting with the first floor of the museum and extending to the third and the uppermost floors resonates with exhibition’s thematic construct in which the progression from the sensorial experiences of the individual to the recognition of the multitude of life phenomena and, finally, to the attention to life-sustaining ecosystems echoes with the emotional and perceptual evolution from micro-worlds to a macro-universe, making the curatorial concept an organic and symbolic physical presence.

TransLife will bring to the Chinese audience an unparalleled roster of 53 artworks by over 80 artists and artist collectives from China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands, Latvia, Ireland, UK, Finland, Belgium, Norway, Serbia and Australia. 40 works will be included in the theme exhibitions and 10 works will be installed in the “Weather Tunnel” special project.

The exhibition will occupy three galleries on the museum’s first floor and the entire space of the museum’s 3rd and 5th floors, totaling over 4000 square meters.

The cutting-edge Chinese architect MA Yansong will design a large installation for “Weather Tunnel” in collaboration with artists from many countries in an open area of the museum.

The exhibition catalogue will consist of a collection of scholarly texts contributed by world-renowned authors to elaborate on the exhibition’s themes and their philosophical ramifications. The catalogue will be co-published by NAMOC, The Liverpool University Press and the Foundation for Art and Creative Technologies and distributed globally.

Official website: http://www.mediartchina.org


Exhibition Director: FAN Di’an
Artistic Director / Curator: ZHANG Ga
Architectural Design: MA Yansong, I-MAD

Design Partner:
Parsons the New School for Design (New York)

Technology Collaboration
TASML | Tsinghua University Art and Science Research Center Media Laboratory (Beijing)

延展生命: 媒体中国2011

国际新媒体艺术三年展

中国美术馆主办
开幕：2011年7月26日下午5时
地点：中国美术馆
展出日期：2011年7月27日－8月17日


继2008年中国馆成功举办具有里程碑意义的奥运文化项目，国际新媒体艺术展“合成时代：媒体中国2008”后， 以“媒体中国”系列命名的这一美术馆重要项目将于2011年7月26日以三年展的形式再次推出大型国际新媒体艺术展“延展生命：媒体中国2011”。

面对气候污染及生态危机日益威胁人类生存环境的全球性挑战，“延展生命”以独特的知识视野和哲学思考展开对这一关系人与自然之命运的反思并以艺术的想象唤起大众的认知与参与意识以应对这一挑战，为探讨一种新的自然观和人文理念提出建设性的倡议。

展览以3个分主题为线索， 以层层递进的构思，将对于感官世界的新发掘所揭示的认知的扩展，延伸到因多种生命形态的涌现所带来的有关生命的新的含义的解读， 进而对以生物多样化为基础及物种共生为条件的生态重塑理念给予启示。同时展览也试图对导致生态和环境危机的历史缘由和的哲学背景进行思考，就现代主义运动所催生的主体性以及由此所孕育的人类中心论提出质疑。

展览第一部分以“惊异之感”为题，揭示了在当代技术条件下，人类经验范围的极大扩展，各种通常不宜觉擦的感觉状态得以获得充分的显现。新感觉系统的启迪潜在地影响我们对自身的理解以及对于身体在媒介化空间中所拥有的新意义的认识，以期打破传统以视听为主导的感知局限。为我们去除感觉系统的等级观念，并进而为想象生物平等创造认知的可能。

展览第二部分“临界之境”以人工生命，智能物体，杂交物种作为新的自然对象，探讨这些处于临界状态的生命雏形如何以多元的样式呈现各自独特的活力，将生命的概念由生物学衍生到信息学，由自然体延伸到人工型，并勾勒了两者间相互交叉和溶合的新界域，从而改写传统的自然分类法则，进而延展生命的定义，为创造一个生物多样化， 物种间互为尊重，相互依存的共生关系建议了新的默契。

展览第三部分“悬迫之域”将生命赖于依托的生态环境引入焦点，以艺术的启示来唤起人们对环境破坏和生态失衡的关注，并以艺术家卓越的想象力和巧妙的策略，来介入环境保护和生态再造，倡导新型的公民觉悟和参与意识。

在“悬迫之域”主题下的特别项目“天气隧道”则由国内国际多所艺术院校合作创作。
“天气隧道”以直观并多样的艺术手法实时展现世界各地的天气及环境状况，提供一个人类生存环境的缩影，把对我们赖以生存的地球的关注纳入到展览中一个突出的位置。

展览由美术馆一层渐次上升至顶层的建筑布局也寓意地表现了从个体的感知体验到生命的多元共生继而对生命所赖以依托的生态环境的关注所显示的从微观至宏观的感性递升和认知进程，形象地回应了展览的主题，使策展构思和空间形态形成富有象征意义的有机关系。

“延展生命”国际新媒体艺术三年展将展出包括中国，韩国，日本，新加坡， 美国， 加拿大，墨西哥，巴西，西班牙，意大利， 法国， 德国， 瑞士，奥地利，荷兰，拉脱维亚，爱尔兰， 英国，芬兰，比利时， 挪威，塞尔维亚， 澳大利亚共23个国家的近80位艺术家的50件作品， 其中40件为三个主题展作品， 10件为“天气隧道”特别项目作品。

展览将于中国美术馆一层3个展厅， 三层及五层的的所有展厅， 共计4000余平方米的空间展出。

美术馆主楼前室外空间将由中国新锐建筑师马岩松联合多国艺术家创作大型装置作品“天气隧道”。

展览画册由多篇专题论文及彩色作品画页组成， 由诸多国际著名学者撰写， 对展览各个主题以及由此衍生的哲学和社会问题进行了深入的探讨。 画册由中国美术馆 (NAMOC) 与利物浦大学出版社 (LUP) 联合英国艺术与创意技术中心 (FACT) 合作出版, 并在全球发行。将是一本集文字，图像为一体的具有指导性的学术专著。

展览官方网站：http://www.mediartchina.org

展览组织委员会：
主席：范迪安
艺术总监／策展：张尕

展览建筑设计：马岩松，I-MAD

设计合作：
帕森斯设计学院（纽约）

技术合作：
TASML | 清华大学艺术与科学中心媒体实验室 （北京）

ZHANG Ga

Artistic Director / Curator
TransLife
International Triennial of New Media Art 2011
Organized by the National Art Museum of China
2011国际新媒体艺术三年展
http://www.mediartchina.org

Professor / Director
TASML | Tsinghua University Art & Science Center MediaLAB
--------------------------------------------------
Associate Professor
School of Art, Media and Technology
Parsons the New School for Design
http://tasml.parsons.edu
ZHANG Ga

Artistic Director / Curator
TransLife
International Triennial of New Media Art 2011
Organized by the National Art Museum of China
2011国际新媒体艺术三年展
http://www.mediartchina.org

Professor / Director
TASML | Tsinghua University Art & Science Center MediaLAB
--------------------------------------------------
Associate Professor
School of Art, Media and Technology
Parsons the New School for Design
http://tasml.parsons.edu