也是个地儿² also space²

Artist: Liu Ding

Work Title: In “Also Space”

Time: 12.30-2.30pm, May 12, 2010

Venue: C-Space, Beijing

Participants: Liu Ding (artist), Tang Xin (Art Director of Taikang Space), Carol Yinghua Lu (moderator)

This is a non-public conversation between Liu Ding and Tang Xin, Art Director of Taikang Space. This conversation is Liu Ding’s work entitled “In ‘Also Space'”, which is his contribution to the exhibition “Also Space”. Conversations that take place within a specific context and engage players and practitioners in the art world in non-public and informal exchanges of opinions are the latest focus of Liu Ding’s practice.

This conversation isn’t an interview in which the artist would throw questions at another practitioner, neither is it a debate of opposite opinions. This is an opportunity for mutual inspirations, clashes of ideas and in-depth exchanges. It’s where we share our understandings of and perspectives on our work as creative agents and participants in the art world, our shared contexts and environments.

“Also Space” is a proposal taking into account the various formats of organizations in the art world such as spaces and exhibitions. What it addresses is that if the formats of spaces, exhibitions and other forms of organizations that we usually see and know existing in the art industry have been accepted arbitrarily and unconsciously as rules, orders, standards and levels of judgments, can we still propose other forms of organizations within the grids of such rules and standards. Yet “Also Space” shouldn’t be trapped within a role of simply being a proposal in opposition to such a condition,which is a functionalist way of working. What it tries to be is an autonomous mechanism and method that can be self-reflective, self-corrected and self-growing through developing within an extension of period and being a self-organization that grows with ongoing additions of participants, artworks, projects and opinions.

In light of the exhibition concept of “Also Space”, Liu Ding has invited Tang Xin, the art director of Taikang Space that is adjacent to C-Space for the conversation. He started the dialogue by sharing with her the idea of Also Space but extend the discussion to cover the following aspects:

• The changing identity and ways of organizations of Taikang Space and its contexts
• The current forms of organization of Taikang Space
• The curatorial and creative practice that has arisen within such a format of organization
• The uncertainty, plasticity and questionable nature of history and value system by specifically discussing Taikang Space’s focus on photography
• The differences of impacts and values different contexts and forms of organizations could have on creating, presenting and interpreting artworks