A Continuous Cold War: Embodying Post-Socialist Ideas in Contemporary Chinese Art

Since the fall of the iron curtain in 1989, the interest in post-socialism and relational aesthetics in contemporary art exhibitions prompted artists of post-socialist states to decide whether to form an alliance with the neoliberal West, presume a non-conformist position, or adopt a more entangled and strategic attitude. This paper examines how Wang Guangyi, Polit-Sheer-Form office, and Song Ta reacted to the Cold War ideologies after 1989. I argue that the art of post-socialist China can only be an implicit critique of both socialist and neoliberalist values so that it can reclaim art’s autonomy and not fall into instruments of Cold War ideology. The artists at stake all took the non-conformist position when approaching the transitional status from Socialism to Capitalist-economy. Their conceptual practices involve materializing the aesthetics of mass culture, embodying nihilism through the political rhetoric of socialism, and redefining communist grassroots cultures. These artists cite symbols and histories commemorating the communist life, yet when exhibiting overseas, their art can also be interpreted as a critique of the socialist past that celebrates the victory of neoliberalism. The complexity and flexibility of these artworks demonstrate the entanglement and marriage of capitalism and socialism in contemporary Chinese art. Still, the current reception of these artists in Euroamerica focuses on artworks as a critique of specific political ideologies, revealing that the Cold War logic is still continuous in the contemporary art world.