Entitled “Fragile Body”, the exhibition focuses on the frailty of human beings. From birth to death, humans are constantly prey to illness, natural disaster, grief and loss. Despite technological advances and a sophisticated lifestyle, civilizations have not managed to protect themselves from epidemics, hurricanes, floods and diseases. In the current show, Barthelemy Toguo seeks to portray this fragility and instability using materials directly linked to China’s artistic history: ceramics, paper and ink.
Born in 1967 in Cameroon, Barthelemy Toguo has been widely exhibited in solo presentations including at the Uppsala Museum, Sweden, Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle and Palais de Tokyo, Paris. He has been nominated for the 2017 Prix Marcel Duchamp and included group shows at the Venice Biennale, the Foundation Louis Vuitton, Sydney Biennale and Centre Georges Pompidou.
Zhu Zhu, poet, art curator, art critic, was born in September 1969. He won the Second Anne-Kao Poetry Prize and the third Chinese Contemporary Art Critic Award (CCAA). He is the author of collection of poems, essays and art reviews, including Franch version poetry ‘Blue Smoke’ (2004, French version, translator: Chantal Chen—Andro), ‘Gray Carnival: Chinese Contemporary Art Since 2000’ (Collection of ‘Imaginist’ by Guangxi Normal University Press in 2013, published by ARTCO Journal in 2016). The English version poetry anthology ‘The Wild Great Wall’ will be published in 2017 by Phoneme Media in United States.
