On the Visual Practice of Historiography by Southwest China Curators

This paper looks at the curatorial practices of five Southwest China curators, Wang Lin, Lv Peng, Huang Xiaorong, Lan Qingwei, and Ni Kun, discussing their curatorial work over the past three decades on Chinese contemporary art. Wang Lin and Lv Peng began curating in the 1980s, at a time when Southwest artists still migrated to Beijing for developing art careers, and thus their practice and influence had national and international trajectories. Lv Peng denies any particular focus on Southwest art, stating that “The local is a nomenclature which derives its meaning in a global context.” By contrast, Wang Lin has come nearly exclusively to locate his practice on the site of Huangjueping arts district in Chongqing. While Wang Lin, professor of literary theory at Sichuan Institute of Fine arts in Chongqing, works more frequently with more Southwest official institutions, Ni Kun curates for non-profit art space Organhaus in Chongqing, sponsored in part by Germany’s Goethe Institute. Huang Xiaorong began curating in the late 90s, and was able in 2001 to instigate and co-curate the first Chengdu Biennale, and then the second in 2005. Lan Qingwei, a student and protégé of Lv Peng’s, began curating shortly after Lv Peng opened the Chengdu MOCA in 2011. All of these Southwest curators focus on reformualting and rewriting of Chinese contemporary art history.