“Bald Girls” Curator Juan Xu
Exclusive Report by Phoenix Art
September 3, 2014, Phoenix Art
Following participation in the “Bald Girls – Timelag” exhibition at the German Women’s Museum in April 2014, the „Bald Girls” embarked on a dialogue with Colombian and Latin American artists in South America, presenting “Bald Girls – Pink Solution.” After more than two years of preparation, “Bald Girls“ – Pink Solution” officially opened on July 31, 2014, at the “Center for Art Practice” (LIA) in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. This time, “Bald Girls” chose the theme of the “Pink Solution”, which is full of Latin American romanticism and a distinctive “feminine” quality. In this exclusive interview, Phoenix Art spoke with Juan Xu, the curator of “Bald Girls – Pink Solution,” to gain a deeper understanding. Juan Xu has a special focus on Chinese feminist art and women’s rights. Since 2012, she has curated controversial series of exhibitions like “Bald Girls – A Door,” “Timelag,” and “Pink Solution.” In 2013, she co-curated the exhibition “Social Sculpture – Joseph Beuys in China” with the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum.
Phoenix Art: Why did you plan the “Bald Girls – Pink Solution” exhibition? Why did you choose to showcase it in Colombia, Latin America?
Juan Xu: As early as the first “Bald Girls” exhibition in 2012, we began planning to engage in vertical dialogues with domestic women’s rights movements and horizontal dialogues with international exchanges. Since Chinese feminism didn’t experience the Western feminist movements of the 1960s and 70s, our main direction for development was to collaborate with similar Asian, African, and Latin American feminist movements related to social development.
Colombia, as a rapidly developing Latin American country, offers great potential for dialogue with China regarding social equity, environmental sustainability, and women’s rights. Both China and Latin America share a history of semi-colonialism and colonialism, and they are both economically rapidly developing nations currently facing challenges of modern social transformation, such as wealth inequality, minority rights, and women’s equality and liberation. The difference lies in the fact that China has a Confucian culture and practices socialist family planning, while Latin America has a Catholic culture and traditionally maintains conservative views, especially regarding abortion.
Additionally, Colombia was chosen due to its unique social structure, having been in a semi-war state of guerrilla warfare and warlord rule for an extended period. Many people emigrated abroad, and it is estimated that approximately 6 million people were affected by the conflict, with 4 million of them being women.
History has shown that a worldview built on a single male value standard leads to endless resource exploitation, violence, terror, wars, or brutal competition. The effectiveness of resolving conflicts using solely male-oriented thinking is increasingly being questioned. Women approach global issues in a different manner, using a female perspective and female value orientation, providing an alternative way of thinking and possibilities for rebalancing interpersonal, human-nature, and other relationships. Therefore, “Bald Girls” chose the seemingly Latin American romantic and “feminine” “Pink Solution” as the theme, and it collaborates with Latin American artists to oppose violence through art.
Phoenix Art: Is there a mix of new and previously known works from Chinese artists in this exhibition? For instance, Xiao Lu’s “Dialogues”?
Juan Xu: Exactly. The principle for “Bald Girls” exhibitions in China is to display new works whenever possible. Internationally, we are flexible in accordance with the theme. In this case, exhibiting Xiao Lu’s “Dialogues” was necessary due to the theme. Firstly, this work is being displayed in Latin America for the first time. Secondly, the renowned Guatemalan performance artist Regina José Galindo, who participated in the art dialogue, presented her iconic performance art piece “Who Can Erase These Traces?” from 1999. This work caused a significant stir at the time when she used it to protest against a former dictator running for president through performance art.
Its impact in Latin America is similar to that of Xiao Lu’s “Dialogues” in China. “Bald Girls – Pink Solution” is not only a dialogue between the “Bald Girls” collective and Latin American artists but also a dialogue between Xiao Lu and Regina José Galindo, two classic feminist artists from China and Latin America, respectively. Therefore, Xiao Lu’s “Dialogues” is an indispensable example of Chinese feminism. In addition to “Dialogues,” Xiao Lu also exhibited her recent work, “Censored.” “Censored” not only portrays China’s current online reality but also specifically highlights the fact that women in this society still lack the opportunity to express themselves and are “censored” and overlooked. These two works, spanning 25 years, represent Xiao Lu’s initial and contemporary artistic concepts. They are both classic and contemporary.
Phoenix Art: Are there any new works in this exhibition that you would recommend to the audience?
Juan Xu: Jiny Lan’s new work “Reprimand-2” following “Reprimand-1” in Bonn represents a breakthrough both in form and content. “Reprimand-2” is composed of hundreds of children’s head images arranged to form the Chinese character “祖” (meaning ancestor) and the character “且” (meaning furthermore) forms the shape of a phallus. The entire composition gives a sense of visual dislocation, transcending the typical categories of installation, painting, and calligraphy works. It is a work that combines photography, installation, and conceptual art in a novel and concise manner.
Li Xinmo’s new performance work “Rewriting Hundred Years of Solitude” is also very impressive. She carried Gabriel García Márquez’s “Hundred Years of Solitude” in Spanish and a piece of earth, walked to the Marquez Memorial Museum in the wind and rain, tore the book page by page, and covered it with soil. This work goes beyond her personal pain and delves deep into the lonely inner world of this Colombian writer in exile in Mexico, within a colonial and tragic context. In doing so, she writes her own “Hundred Years of Solitude” from a Chinese perspective.
Phoenix Art: Why did you choose artists from three different countries in South America, each with distinct styles? What’s the artistic philosophy behind it?
Juan Xu: Firstly, we aimed to have a dialogue not only with Colombian artists but also with artists from various Latin American countries. These three artists represent the Spanish-speaking regions of Central and Latin America and are highly representative. More importantly Regina José Galindo as the most famous anti-dictatorship female performance artist, carries strong political and social significance. In addition to her classic work, “Who Can Erase These Traces?” she also showcased her latest performance video “Avalanche,” which explores women’s value of life and the relationship with national rights in Latin America. On the other hand, Xiao Lu’s encounter with
Regina José Galindo marks a historic convergence of Asian and Latin American feminist art. Different from Galindo’s direct intervention in real politics, Argentine artist Sol Storni focuses more on individual existence and female self-awareness. The video work “Wandering Heart” she exhibited in this show is an interactive and engaging performance art piece that is both fun and serious. Over seven days, the artist walked through every corner of the city, asking passersby to listen to their own heartbeat using a stethoscope, forcing them to become aware of their existence. Finally, the artist interacted with pedestrians by drawing “shadows” on the ground, engaging in a “dialogue” about life existence and spatial projection. Storni continued this work series in Bogotá for “Bald Girls – Pink Solution.“
Although the languages on the Latin American continent are mostly unified (except for Brazil), there are significant differences in political and economic development among various countries. The situation in Colombia is particularly unique. Due to years of suffering from warlord rule and guerrilla warfare, the people of Colombia have lived in insecurity for a long time. In recent years, there has been a compromise between the government forces and the guerrillas, leading to an extended period of peace and stability, as well as rapid economic growth. Colombian immigrants, especially from elite classes, have returned to their homeland. The installation work “Credit Guarantee” by Colombian artist Sandra Miranda Pattin reflects the collective psychological fragility that has resulted from enduring armed violence for many years. Using beeswax, the artist created a 488-layer tile structure to express how violence forced people to leave their homeland, leaving behind indelible memories. Rebuilding one’s homeland after exile is as fragile and challenging as building wax tiles, but it is full of hope.
The theme of this exhibition is the “Pink Solution.” In the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá, Colombian and Chinese artists, along with ordinary citizens, engaged in a performance art piece called the “Pink Solution,” which was the culmination of the entire event. The artists and the citizens painted weapons such as knives, guns, daggers, and ropes in pink. Interestingly, the moment these intimidating and highly lethal “weapons” turned pink, they ceased to be weapons and became children’s toys and stage props. Psychologists have conducted similar experiments in the past: they took male prisoners in a prison and divided them into two groups, one group wore pink underwear, and the other group remained unchanged. After long-term observation, they concluded that those from the pink underwear group, upon their release from prison, had a significantly lower recidivism rate compared to the “normal” prisoners. The “Pink Solution” is an invaluable strategy in both art and reality.
Phoenix Art: What’s special about conducting exhibitions in South America? What were some unique experiences with this exhibition?
Juan Xu: Choosing Latin America was, in a sense, a direct choice to challenge ourselves. In reality, it was even more challenging than we had anticipated.
First, there were exhibition problems: Due to severe budget constraints and the need to transport artworks across three continents, we decided to focus on transporting low-cost image and picture works. After solving the transportation issue, we faced the problem of not having large installations, which made the entire exhibition space seem monotonous and lacking in spatial perception.
Second, there were practical operational issues: Obtaining visas, buying plane tickets, and transporting artworks were all extremely difficult. For instance, the artist Jiny Lan had to bring her installation work piece by piece since it was too large for transport. Xiao Lu and Li Xinmo had to carry their works, which were fined for exceeding weight limits, through multiple connecting flights, even waiting for hours at different airports in the middle of the night, and enduring more than 30 hours of travel without complaint. In addition, there were misunderstandings and troubles caused by language and cultural differences. For example, Xiao Lu’s work “Ignition” was too large, and the technical requirements for installation were particularly high. Due to a lack of understanding of many specific details in Colombia, this proved to be a very challenging process. Li Xinmo’s work “Nowhere to Say Goodbye” had to be transformed from performance photos into an installation piece due to a cultural misunderstanding, which turned out to be a fortunate turn of events. Language was also an issue. The guidebooks stated, “It seems that the fact that English has become a world language is not known in Colombia.” Indeed, the Latin American world predominantly speaks Spanish, and English is virtually ineffective in Colombia. Fortunately, a Chinese-speaking art student helped with translation. In Colombia, as a Chinese person, I became aware of the challenges that foreigners face in China: not understanding the language and being unable to read the written text.
Phoenix Art, an exclusive report.
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