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Thu, Jun 19, 2008 | 7:30 PM

New Museum theater (directions)

Night School Public Seminar 6: Space within space within space
Hu Fang and Zhang Wei

Part of Night School, Museum as Hub
 
Discussions

Vitamin Creative Space functions as an alternative working model specifically geared to the contemporary Chinese context. In order to operate independently from institutionalized funding, it is active both as an “independent” art space and as a “commercial” gallery. Vitamin Creative Space is actively challenging preconceptions by merging these two models, which traditionally are opposed strategies for supporting and presenting contemporary art, and is developing new Chinese contributions through research into both: the artistic practice and institutional organization within the new global context.

The seminar will look at the recent practice of Vitamin to explore how it is not merely a physical space, but is an attempt to create a new model for development and distribution of artists’ new thinking on creativity.

Night School is an artist's project by Anton Vidokle in the form of a temporary school. A yearlong program of monthly seminars and workshops, Night School draws upon a group of local and international artists, writers, and theorists to conceptualize and conduct the program.

*This event is free but tickets are required. Tickets can be reserved online or at the Museum prior to the seminar's start.

Sponsors TOP

This discussion is made possible by the Charlotte and Bill Ford Artist Talks Fund.

Night School is a program of the Museum as Hub, which is made possible by the Third Millennium Foundation.

With additional generous support from Metlife Foundation

Additional support is provided by the Asian Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Endowment support is provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Skadden, Arps Education Programs Fund, and the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs at the New Museum.

Profiles TOP

Hu Fang

Hu Fang is the artistic director and co-founder of Vitamin Creative Space, a project and gallery space dedicated to contemporary art exchange and to analyzing and combining different forms of contemporary cultures. As a novelist and writer, Hu has published a series of novels including Shopping Utopia, Sense Training: Theory and Practise, and A Spectator. His recent publication is a collection of fictional essays called New Arcades (Survival Club, Sensation Fair, and Shansui.) His writing has appeared in Chinese and international art/culture magazines since 1996. His curatorial projects include “Through Popular Expression” (2006); “Xu Tan: Loose" (1996); “Zheng Guogu: My Home is Your Museum" (2005); and "Object System: Doing Nothing" (2004). He has been a coordinating editor of documenta 12 magazines since 2006. Hu graduated from the Chinese Literature Department of Wuhan University in 1992. He lives and works in Beijing and Guangzhou.


Zhang Wei

Zhang Wei is director and co-founder of Vitamin Creative Space, established in 2002. She graduated with a MA in Creative Curating at Goldsmiths University in London, and has organized numerous exhibitions internationally. Zhang is particularly interested in the exploration of an alternative space for contemporary art in the context of mainland China. She has contributed to numerous exhibition catalogues and international magazines including Parkett. Vitamin Creative Space’s most recent projects include: “Playing at Home/Playing Away: the Maze of Reality” at the Venice Biennial (2003); “Small Universe” at the Liste Art Fair, Basel (2006); and “Through Popular Expression” at the Singapore Biennial (2006).