On March 11, 2023, the twelfth installment of “Reviewing the Past” was held at the Archives, titled “Chongqing Performance Art Archive 1985-2010.” The event was originally scheduled for February 25, 2023, but was postponed to March 4, and ultimately took place on March 11. The repeated delays were due to the discovery of new materials and information during the process of collecting and organizing the documents, which required additional time for sorting, interviews, and verification. It has long been believed that performance art in Chongqing emerged in the mid-to-late 1990s, but during the process of excavation and organization, we were surprised to discover that as early as 1985—the year when performance art began to emerge in mainland China—performance art in Chongqing had already begun simultaneously.
This process of unraveling the truth, with its elements of chance and drama, has been detailed in previous related posts. As a result, the volume of Chongqing’s performance art documentation has become vast and complex, with the sorting workload far exceeding expectations. Therefore, we decided to use 2010 as a temporal dividing point, dividing Chongqing’s performance art history into two phases for sharing. After 2010, performance art in Chongqing underwent significant changes in terms of the quantity of events and works, as well as the diversity and professionalism of artistic language forms. Especially from 2012 to 2017, performance art was formally incorporated into the curriculum of the New Media Art Department at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute.
This unprecedented move not only greatly promoted and enriched the performance art ecosystem in Chongqing but also had a positive impact on broader regions across the country. On the evening of December 23 at 7:30 PM, the 16th installment of “Looking Back”: Chongqing’s Performance Art Archive (2010-2023) will take place at the archive. We are once again honored to invite artist Ren Qian to host this sharing session, where he will introduce what has transpired in Chongqing’s performance art scene over the past 13 years!
Ren Qian
Born in Chongqing, China, in 1971. Graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Art Education School at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 1995. He is an active cross-media contemporary artist working both domestically and internationally, currently serving as a member of the Academic Committee at Xinghui Contemporary Art Museum.
He currently resides and works in Chongqing and New York. Since 1999, Ren Qian’s interdisciplinary and cross-media work has encompassed site-specific performance art, installations, sound and video art, photography, painting, and exhibition curation. In 2017, he was awarded the U.S. Outstanding Artist Grant and relocated to New York City. Ren Qian has been invited to serve as a resident artist in countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Bulgaria, and has participated in numerous contemporary art exhibitions and international performance art festivals both domestically and internationally.
