Shifting Identities. Between Introspection and Discovery at the Biennial of Video and Photography of
Alessandria (Part of the celebrations of The Year of Chinese Culture in Italy)
Caserma Giletti, Alessandria, Italy
14.04.2011- 31.07.2011
Curated by Manuela Lietti
Featured artists:
Chen Shaoxiong, Hai Bo, Huang Ran, Li Yongbin, Ma Qiusha, Qiu Anxiong, Wang Ningde, Wang Tong

The concept of the individual as outlined by Western philosophy finds its most successful and most immediate conceptual and visual transposition in the work The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo, the portrait of an individual who dominates the space around him with his body. The space surrounding him becomes a mere backdrop that requires a human presence to be activated. The individual becomes the measure of the entire cosmos, the signifier and signified of an existential dimension whose ultimate meaning stresses the importance of self-assertion as a point of departure and arrival for the entire human experience.
No iconographic representation could be more antithetical to the concept of the individual characterized by the entirety of Chinese philosophy and culture than the Vitruvian image. In Chinese culture, the individual is deeply bound to the context in which he operates. Confucian canons stress that, for an individual to be fully considered an individual and endowed with a sense of humanity, he must engage in a process of genuine interaction with and participation in the other in order to create his own ontological value. As a result, a symbiotic process between the Self and the world is necessary; their perfect harmony reaches its peak in the concept of tian ren he yi (nature and man as one). This phrase literally means “the union between the sky (nature, universe) and man,” which implies the full contiguity of the sphere of the individual with that of the cosmos, whose precepts govern the life of each individual. The individual is considered an individual because he is part of a totality that transcends him and completes him. From the iconographical point of view, this holistic approach does not imply the individual’s direct and explicit appearance, but rather his indirect and ethereal manifestation through a series of elements that could be defined as “objects of
affection” or topos. These elements shape the inner world of an individual through categorical correlations that link the microcosm of a single person with the macrocosm around him. Devoid of any primacy over the cosmos, the individual does not dominate the world, but he is nevertheless aware of being part of it in an active way, because his own reason for being lies in his mutual exchange with the external environment or even in his own complete blending with it. This conception of the self and self-expression has been passed down through the centuries and, although this idea has manifested itself in different ways depending on the historical and political context, it has always been a dominant leitmotif of Chinese culture, both a modus operandi (way of working) and a modus vivendi (way of living). Even unconsciously, it has favored the development of a collective sensibility, an artistic approach devoted to collective creation. The poetry and existence of the art practice that has been conveyed to the public has long been considered a collective exercise. Inspired by collective needs and geared towards satisfying those needs, art previously acted as the connection point between the self and the world, even though the world has always had the privilege of unrestrained self-expression, free from any external tasks and driven by egotistical impulses. Aware that their own tradition has always stressed the perfect melding of personal and collective experiences, but also eager to independently investigate the uniqueness of their own life experience and emotions, many Chinese contemporary artists over the last twenty years have become the spokespersons of highly personal approaches, investigated unexplored territories, and embraced a new artistic ethos, thanks to social and cultural changes. While reflecting on the role of individual identity in the light of innovation and Chinese tradition, these artists do not ignore the interlacing of private and collective sensibilities or their own interaction with the collective world, embodied, especially in recent decades, by the relentless flow of history and the ever-changing texture of urban life. Shifting Identities. Between Introspection and Discovery presents the work of different generations of Chinese artists who work in the form of video or photography; they investigate the subtle boundary between the individual and the outside world, the private self and the public persona, and the landscape as a metonymy for the contemporary human condition. Far from being an exhaustive compendium of contemporary Chinese art, which would be a challenging yet anachronistic task in an increasingly fragmented, de-centralized reality, Shifting Identities. Between Introspection and Discovery analyzes different approaches to the idea of ​​identity in the form of case studies. These case studies reflect on both the microcosm of the individual represented by his own inner world and the constantly transforming macrocosm.
However, this reflection is different than in the past, becoming an expression of collective identity and those desires, impulses, and visions that serve as a link between individual and historical memory. “Shifting Identities" moves between reflections on the ego, a no longer monolithic yet still unfathomable entity, and views of a landscape that, whether urban or rural, acts as a metaphor for an identity shaped by events, inevitably changing and being changed. (Text by Manuela Lietti)


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