Zooming in on three exhibitions and their transnational itinerates that map the discrepant connections across stories, artworks, cities, and thoughts, the long-term project “Three Contested Sites – The Worldly Fables of the Long 1990s” attempts to unpack the long 1990s in view of post-Cold War Europe-Asia reverberances. The exhibitions include: China Avant-garde at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin that marked the watershed year of 1993 together with a succession of “offshore” exhibitions focused exclusively on contemporary art from inside mainland China; Die Hälfte des Himmels (Half the Sky) at the Frauenmuseum Bonn in 1998 as the institution’s rebuttal to a protest against the lockout of Chinese women artists in the China! exhibit at the Kunstmuseum Bonn in 1996; Cities On the Move, the emblematic exhibitions that toured a variety of locations in Europe, the U.S. and Asia (Vienna, Bordeaux, New York, Humlebaek, London, Bangkok) and documented the accelerated changes and urban flux occurring in global Asian cities. More than key events in Chinese contemporary art history, these exhibitions are also transnational sites of contacts, conflicts, and productive contestations, where the joint forces of social processes, art projects, cultural agents, institutional positionalities and urban spaces have intersected to create worldly fables about the canonization of Chinese contemporary art, the global rise of the Asian art market, the dualistic fixation of East-West ideologies, and the emergent millennial coordinates of gender, ethnicity, and urban identity.

Through an array of on-going interviews, re-organized archives, and historical and new artworks, “Three Contested Sites” dis-entangles the complex cultural network of exchange that had engendered these events in order to reveal the diverse agencies, and how these exhibitions about Chinese and Asian art mediated with the globalized motivations from within and outside amidst the post-Cold War zeitgeist and global flux at the time. The assemblage unpacks the ways in which the curatorial and artistic practices engaged various nationalizing frameworks and images, with de-nationalizing intentions and international imaginaries, to shed lights on itinerant exhibitions as a relational practice of world-making. A mapping-out of events, peoples and objects as a constellation ultimately brings new perspectives on the globalizing process of the 1990s as plural, relative, and contingent.

In September, 2022 at the Times Art Center Berlin, we will stage an archival revisit of these three exhibitions contextualized by artistic responses and reflections from the present moment. A multitude of institutions as well as a variety of engaged individuals, will be our partners and interlocutors, and an intergenerational mix of thinkers and researchers will be invited to interrogate the impactful cultural resonances of the long 1990s with fresh eyes.

Album cover of Die Hälfte des Himmels (Half the Sky), published by Frauenmuseum Bon
Huang Yongping’s work on China Avant-garde, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 199
Exhibition view of “Cities on the Move”, Vienna Secession, 1997

Expected researchers:

• Have a deep understanding of the history of contemporary art in China and Asia, and have a command of methods for further research
• Be able to explore and integrate local research resources
• Be able to build structural links between the exhibition, transnational networks and the wider historical context
• Be adaptable to team research and willing to communicate and share resources with teammates
• There is no restriction on the applicant’s nationality, but applicants should be able to read both Chinese and English materials and write academic essays accordingly

Project “Three Contested Sites” provides:

• Professional guidance and subject workshops by the Academic Committee of Guangdong Times Museum and top international research and publishing agencies of exhibition histories;
• RMB 15000 (about USD 2300) for the full project duration payable in two instalments
• Presentation of the research progress on TM and TACB platforms;
• Publication of the research results, and additional contribution fee will be paid;
• Assistance to academic and resource development

Important Dates:

Application Deadline: Feb 22th 2022
Interview: Feb 22th-27th 2022
Notification: Feb 28th 2022
Project Duration: 6 months
Exhibition: Sep 2022
Publication: To be confirmed according to the project development

Applications must include:

• Cover Letter (please detail the reasons of your interest in the position, how you would be able to contribute to “Three Contested Sites” based on your previous work and/or interests, and how the presidency would benefit your own practice and development);
• 1-2 publications or previous essays
• CV
• Please submit your application to exhibition@timesmuseum.org

Scope of Work and Responsibilities include (but may not be limited to):

• Commit on a part-time basis to access site-specific materials, objects, and to conduct archival and research-based work locally;
• Conduct interviews with relevant individuals and groups;
• Maintain digital correspondences and share relevant materials with project team;
• Participate in online meeting monthly to report research progress;
• Contribute to identify relevant data, records, booklists, bodies of knowledge, and expertise and sort out the literature work for the exhibition;
• Participate in the publishing activities of the research results

Submission of Research Results:

• 1 interview relate to research
• 1 research report of no less than 5000 words
• 1 public event on Times Museum or TACB platforms (lecture, workshop…)

If any questions please email to exhibition@timesmuseum.org