Sixty ways of looking at China: in the past decade, photography in the People's Republic has become a full-blown art form for the first time in half a century. Now two noted scholar-curators offer a major show—and, below, a wide-ranging discussion—designed to acquaint Western audiences with cutting-edge Chinese photographers and video-makers

Art in America, June-July, 2004 by Richard Vine

RV: You revealed at the press preview that the show was done without use of Chinese government agencies of official channels of any kind. Did this prove, on balance, to be an advantage of a disadvantage? Was there--and is there generally--any problem getting works from China to the West? What about the artists themselves--can they travel abroad at will?

CP: The sad fact is that it's now much easier for Chinese artworks to travel to the U.S. than the artists who made them. The current security concerns of the U.S. government have led to policies that make it all but impossible for Chinese artists to get an entry visa. We're hoping to be able to bring a number of artists from China to New York for the show's opening in June, but the difficulties are proving enormous.

WH: I share Christopher's sentiment. We are inviting artists to New York and Chicago, to participate in symposia and roundtable discussions. I really hope that they can come.

As for the question about using government agencies, my feeling is that we didn't actually need such assistance in organizing this exhibition and therefore didn't even consider it. For example, we can borrow directly from Chinese museums or from artists themselves. It is not necessary to go through the cultural ministry.

RV: Talk a little about the curatorial dynamic at play here. Was it beneficial to have this combination of fluent insider (Wu Hung) and informed outsider (Chris)? What were the major insights you gained from each other?

CP: Seeing the Guangzhou Triennial exhibition that Wa Hung organized in 2002 was absolutely essential for me. It was an enormous show, one that offered a very smart, comprehensive look at the ways that Chinese art developed from 1990 to 2000. To be able to spend time with those works, and to be able to talk to the artists about them, made me see the whole field of contemporary Chinese art from a new perspective. I think the same was true for many of the foreign visitors who came to Guangzhou.

WH: Thank you. The Triennial was a lot of work, but now I am happy that I did it.

The question of our dual curatorship of "Between Past and Future' is something I address in the June issue of Yishu. There I point out that we were faced with the problem of presenting a type of "regional" contemporary art, that of China, in a global context. Many international shows these days are entrusted to whole teams of curators, with the hope that a kind of representative composite will emerge from their choices. Christopher and I worked much more closely, in constant dialogue. Because of his wide-ranging knowledge of photographic history, he naturally tends to treat the Chinese work in a globalized, comparative manner. I, on the other hand, am trained specifically in Chinese art history, and strive to relate individual artists to very particular social, economic and intellectual trends within the country. Far from being contradictory, these two approaches actually fuse effectively and lead to an understanding that is, we believe, at once broad and nuanced.