Xu Bing: Primer for 木、林、森（Mu、Lin、Sen) Project, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen (Nov. 1-Dec. 6, 2009)

Xu Bing: Primer for 木、林、森 Project will be on view at the He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China from Nov. 1-Dec. 6, 2009. The exhibition will include educational materials, student drawings and large scale landscape paintings from Xu Bing’s Forest Project (2005-ongoing).

Through art, culture, education, the involvement of local folks, and the internet, Forest Project creates a system to facilitate the flow of funds from developed countries to Kenya, for the planting of new trees. Students from local primary schools create drawings of trees using forms of writing from a variety of cultures and historical periods (such as Cuneiform, Arabic, and English), which are then sold on the project website. The educational component—embodied in the primer, as well as workshops led by Xu Bing—connects the written word, calligraphy and art into one process.

The exhibition is directed by Le Zhengwei and curated by Feng Boyi and Wang Xiaosong. Exhibition events will include a lecture by Xu Bing on Nov. 1, 2009, 2-4pm at the museum, followed by an opening reception  from 4-6pm.

Fest de Freiheit (Festival of Freedom) – 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall (Nov. 9, 2009)

Xu Bing presents his concrete “brick” at the German Embassy in Beijing on August 13th. Photo: Richeza Herrmann

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9^th, 1989, the Goethe-Institut presents The Wall in the World, an exhibition of “bricks” designed by artists from around the world. The exhibition begins today in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin as part of Festival of Freedom.

Xu Bing, one of four Chinese artists invited in May to create a polystyrene brick for the exhibition, choose instead to create his brick from a slab of concrete on which he inscribed a German translation of a Song Dynasty poem in Square Word Calligraphy. The poem by Lu You (1125-1210) describes a couple’s tragic separation and eventual reunion years later.

The four bricks, created by Chinese artists Xu Bing, Huang Rui, Wang Guangyi, and Zhang Xiaogang, were first presented at the German Embassy in Beijing on August 13^th (construction began on the Berlin Wall on that day in 1961) and were later shipped to Germany for today’s events.

Xu Bing Lectures Nov. 9-11 at CMU, SUNY Buffalo and Portland Art Museum

Speaker Series Fall 2009
SUNY Buffalo
112 Center for the Arts
Nov. 9, 2009, 6:30pm

Xu Bing explores the play on the written word within his artistic practice, in works ranging from monumental installations to handcrafted books.

Sponsored by Department of Visual Studies with co-sponsorship from the Department of Media
Studies, Department of Architecture, Asian Studies Program, the University of Buffalo Art Galleries, CEPA Gallery
and Hallwalls.

Xu Bing
Carnegie Mellon University School of Art Lecture Series
Carnegie Mellon University
McConomy Auditorium
Nov. 10, 2009, 5:00pm

Xu Bing will talk about his works, which question the idea of communicating meaning through language and demonstrate how both meanings and written words can be easily manipulated.

Co-sponsored by SUNY Buffalo.

The Art of Xu Bing - 30 Years of Contemporary Chinese Art Context
Portland Art Museum
Nov. 11, 5:30pm

Part of China Design Now currently on view at the Portland Art Museum.

The 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan (Sept. 5-Nov. 23, 2009)

The 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale in Fukoka, Japan is currently featuring works from Xu Bing’s Forest Project as well as portions of Book from the Sky from the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum collection.

Calligraffiti: Writing in Contemporary Chinese and Latino Art at the Pacific Asia Museum (Sept. 17, 2009-Jan. 17, 2010)

Across the Divide, by Xu Bing, Vince Cavallo, Scud, Duce, and Sano. Pasadena, CA, 2003. Oil and Acrylic on Vinyl. Pacific Asia Museum Collection, 2003.31.1C.

Across the Divide (2003), a collaborative graffiti mural by Xu Bing, Vince Cavallo, Scud, Duce, and Sano, will be displayed at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, CA, as part of its upcoming exhibition, Calligraffiti: Writing in Contemporary Chinese and Latino Art.

The exhibition explores the process of writing in art, as well as the correlation between the elevated form, calligraphy, and its historically de-valued twin, graffiti. Suggesting that these visual practices mirror each other, Calligraffiti presents works that critique social and artistic frames of reference. By layering languages, histories, and philosophies, the works trace evolving paradigms of artistic thought and practice to foster an understanding of socio-cultural multiplicity.

Other artists featured in the exhibition include: Chaz Bojorquez, Vince Cavallo, Cre8, Desi W.O.M.E., Duce, Fung Ming Chip, Gronk, Gu Wenda, Julianna Hernandez, Keo, Leo Limon, Man One, Minette Lee Mangahas, Sano, Scud, John Valadez, Vyal, Yu-Kang Yang, Zhang Dali, Zheng Chongbin, and Zender.