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The current exhibition, entitled “I Don’t Know the Mandate of Heaven,” is the first major survey in 8 years of Song Dong’s work in mainland China, which is curated by Rockbund’s in-house curators Liu Yingjiu and Xu Tian Tian. The exhibition includes some of the artist’s best-known pieces that were fundamental in establishing his career, as well as several rarely exhibited works. There are also specially commissioned works for this exhibition by the Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) such as At Fifty, I Don’t Know the Mandate of Heaven and Back Image, manifesting the museum’s long-term commitment to support the creativity and production of contemporary art through exhibition projects.
Following the Chinese literary tradition, the exhibition is divided into seven ‘chapters,’ each represented by a Chinese character, which together form a line of a verse:Jing (镜 mirror), Ying (影 shadow), Yan (言 word), Jue (觉 revelation), Li (历 experience), Wo (我 self), Ming (明 illumination). Each floor of the museum is dedicated as a chapter of the exhibition, with the seventh chapter (明 illumination) reserved for the building exterior itself, where Sketch (RAS Exterior) reveals LED lights tracing the contours of the building’s façade every night, emphasizing a sense of historical continuity from the past to the present. It is no coincidence that what greets the visitor at the beginning of the exhibition is also its final chapter. One could say that this paradox adroitly encapsulates the spirit of the exhibition as a self-reflective totality.
“Song Dong: I Don’t Know the Mandate of Heaven” is not a retrospective, neither is it a static show. One’s personal experience is the essence and soul of the viewing encounter. The exhibition promises to delight both those familiar with Song Dong’s work and those seeking to become acquainted with the breadth and scope of the artist’s characteristic depth and charm.About the artist:Song Dong (b.1966, Beijing, China) emerged from a strong Chinese avant-garde performance art community in Beijing in the early 1990s and developed into a significant contemporary art figure in the progression of Chinese conceptual art. He graduated from the fine arts department of Capital Normal University in Beijing in 1989. His work ranges from performance and video to photography and sculpture to explore the notions of impermanence and the transience of human endeavors. Song Dong and his wife Yin Xiuzhen together created a new way of collaboration: THE WAY OF CHOPSTICKS in 2001. He is also the co-founder of an artist collective “Polit-Sheer-Form Office,” which was initiated by Hong Hao, Xiao Yu, Liu Jianhua, Song Dong, and Leng Lin in 2005.
The artist was honored on various occasions including in 2012 when he won the “Power 100 of Chinese Contemporary Art: Artist of the Year” award and in 2012 “The First Kiev International Biennale Award.” He is also the recipient of the 2011 San Francisco Certificate of Honour, the Grand Award of the 2006 Gwangju Biennale in Korea, the 2010 Artron Art China (AAC) Awards as the Artist of the Year (Video and Installation), and has been recognized as the 2000 UNESCO / ASCHBERG Bursary Laureate.
For more information about the Rockbund Art Museum, please visit: http://www.rockbundartmuseum.org
