How Living in China Changed My Art | Artist Studio Visit with Martin Wehmer скачать в хорошем качестве

How Living in China Changed My Art | Artist Studio Visit with Martin Wehmer

Welcome back! Beijing has impose more measures after new Covid-19 outbreaks (7 day average 114). We have been advised to stay away from the crowds. For this week's video, I opted for a safer practice - visiting an old friend at his studio. Martin Wehmer, born in Hattingen Germany, is a mid-career artist living in China. After his formal art school education, he started working as a visual artist. In his 30s, he started to receive some awards. To avoid being trapped by his success, he came to Beijing in 2008 for an artist residency and stayed ever since. He has taught as a guest lecturer at several fine art schools in China (yes he taught in Chinese language in case if you wonder). I asked him several casual questions about living in China and the future of contemporary art after covid. He took my questions quite seriously and gave me extensive answers. The original footage was over 45 mins long, edited down to 15 mins. I hope this short version is clear and concise. After this interview, I have been thinking this question: would I agree with the statement that 'contemporary art is not important for China' today? If this is the case, why? I agree with Martin for the reasons below: (1) Contemporary art is a Western concept at its root. Maybe China could use it, but not to its full power. (2) China has always used written language for mass communication. Pictograms are not as common in public. Look around at the airports, train stations... You see words, words and more words. There isn't a tradition of visual communication. (3) Visual art did not play the same role in the past as it did in Europe. We didn't need religious paintings to illustrate abstract concept like God. For buddhism, we had buddhist texts. You see? We had TEXTS! This is my guess on why contemporary art isn't as important in China. Maybe this is not a politically correct way to say in the world of art, but at this very critical point, it is not about what we say, it's about what we do. As a visual artist, what do you plan to do for the greater good? I'd love to hear from you. ---------------------- Previous video visiting an art exhibition in Beijing: ►    • Artworks Inspired by Famous Artists | Beij...   More personalised help on Patreon: ►   / veryprivateart   Visit our website, many in-depth articles to read there: ► https://veryprivategallery.com/ ---------------------- #studiovisit #contemporaryart #artinChina