August 22, 2017, by Franziska Koch

Call for Articles: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (5.2&3) on “Chinese Art outside the Art Space”, due: 30 Sept 2017

The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (JCCA, Intellect) calls for contributions to its next double issue. It is dedicated to discuss “Chinese Art outside the Art Space”. The deadline for article submissions was extended to September 30th, 2017. The principal editor invites contributions that provide an innovative and interdisciplinary perspectives on understandings of contemporary Chinese art.
Historically, in China, ‘art outside the art space’ can be understood as both a cultural and a political proposition. From a cultural point of view, the notion of public ‘exhibition’ is entirely Western, whilst in the Chinese tradition of literati art, for example, artworks were made, shared and appreciated within the form of scholarly ‘elegant gathering’ (yaji), which was essentially a kind of private (rather than public) event within secluded (rather than institutional) spaces. From a political perspective, the ‘outside-ness’ immediately relates to the ‘unofficial’ status of contemporary Chinese art from its early development. For example, the first Star Group exhibition in September 1979 – generally acknowledged as the very first show that marked the beginning of contemporary art in China – was staged in a small public park just next to the China National Art Museum, outside the legitimated and official art space. Today, the situation of Chinese art taking place outside the museum and gallery spaces continues, but with a completely different momentum and agenda.

Art has been produced site-specifically for spaces other than art institutions in China, including those of working venues, shown in a range of alternative spaces beyond galleries or museums, and has ‘happened’ in the public sphere and become political or social ‘events’, or artistic ‘incidents’, as a special form of ‘exhibition’. Creative curatorial and artistic strategies have been developed to respond to the constraints of art institutions, censorship and at the same time, to push the boundaries of art. Focusing on art made, displayed, performed or executed outside the conventional venues of art museums and galleries, this themed double issue not only hopes to offer a unique perspective to understand Chinese art in the contemporary context, but also, more importantly, it aims to critically reflect upon the understandings between art and art exhibition, between artistic productions and audience perceptions, and between art and our daily life.

The journal would like to invite article submissions from innovative and interdisciplinary perspectives to develop new understandings of Chinese contemporary art. The following series of relationships in the context of Chinese art and culture is seen as indicative, but submissions need not be limited by it:

• China’s art museums, galleries and alternative spaces
• Curatorial strategies and artistic responses beyond institutional spaces
• Exhibitions, events and incidents
• Art production, dissemination, participation and reception
• Performance and performativity
• Art and everyday life
• Contemporary art and censorship

Timeline
30 September 2017, abstracts due (300 words) 28 February 2018, full manuscripts due (6-7,000 words) Publication in Volume 5, Issue 2&3, Autumn 2018
Please send submissions and correspondence to:

Principal Editor Jiang Jiehong ccva@bcu.ac.uk, with the subject ‘JCCA 5.2&3’.

Please visit Intellect’s website www.intellectbooks.com to follow its house referencing guidelines.
Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art is an associate journal of the Centre for Chinese Visual Arts at Birmingham City University.

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Google+
• Share on LinkedIn