sui jianguo - Hotel de Gallifet

SUI JIANGUO
Sui Jianguo, Dream stone, 2010, Acier Inoxidable.
SUI JIANGUO
(b. 1956 in Qingdao, Shandong province) received a BA in the Fine Arts Department from the Shandong
University of Arts in 1984 and an MA in the Sculpture Department from the China Central Academy of Fine
Arts in 1989, where he currently presides as the head of the Sculpture Department. He has been praised by
art critics for being a «pioneer venturing to the farthest reaches of Chinese sculpture.»
Sui Jianguo’s art explores his unique understanding and recognition of creation, form, alternative media,
alternative methods, and space-time. His sculptures are ingenious fusions of concept and form, as many
of his works utilize large-scale force to impact viewers. Sui Jianguo’s early works carry strong symbolic
content, most of which carefully relates the peculiarities of society and history. His later creations gradually
became disconnected from his own identity and began incorporating a bigger visual angle, thus makinghis
concepts of cultural space-time apparent. Sui Jianguo’s work also succeeds in bringing forth introspection
on the artistic process in modern China. Whether it bethe Realism in hisearly works or the classic shapes in
his later Mao Jacket and Dinosaur pieces, both rely on the wisdom of native Chinese genealogy and channels
of culture to serve as ways to solve problems, as outlets. The work reveals an obvious academic’s severely
critical standpoint regarding society and human morality.His works also touch on the realms of video and
public performance.
The artist has participated in many group and solo exhibitions, includingThe Hague Under Heaven: Sui Jianguo Sculptureat Museum Beeldenaan Zee, Hague, Holland (2011), Sui Jianguo: Dream Stone at JGM Gallery, Paris (2010), as well as The City of Forking Paths: The Sculpture Project of the Expo Boulevard, World
Expo Shanghai 2010, Shanghai, China, Motion/Tension: New Work by Sui Jianguo, Today Art Museum,
Beijing, China (2009), Fashion Accidentally, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, China (2007), and Susi:
Future & Fantasy, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila, The Philippines (2006).
«Blinder» height 70cm 2012
Solo Exhibitions:
2012
«Sui Jianguo’s Discus Thrower» The British Museum, London, UK.
«Sui Jianguo» Pace Beijing, 798, Beijing
«Restrained Power: Sui Jianguo’s Work» MOCA， Singapore
2011
«the Hague Under Heaven---Suijianguo Sculpture» Museum Beelden aan Zee, Hague, Holland
2010
«Made in China by Sui Jianguo» Art Issue Projects, Beigao District, Beijing, China
2009
«Motion/Tension : New Work by SuiJianguo», Today Art Museum ,Beijing,China
2008
«Art Time Square-Exhibition of works by Sui Jianguo» HongKong, China
«Revealing Traces», Joyart, Beijing, China
2007
«Dian Xue - Sui Jianguo Art Works», OCAT, Shanghai, China
«Speeding up – Sui Jianguo Space Video», Arario, Beijing, China
2005
«Sui Jianguo: The Sleep of Reason», Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA
1999
«Clothes Veins Study», Passage Gallery, Beijing, China
1997
«You Meet the Shadow of Hundred Years», Victoria College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia
1996
«Exhibition of Works by Sui Jianguo», Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong
1995
«Deposit and Fault», New Delhi Culture Center, India
1994
«Exhibition of Works by Sui Jianguo», Hanart Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
«Remembrance of Space», CAFA Gallery, Beijing, China
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2012
«The 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale: Accidental Message» OCAT, Shenzhen, China
«The Special Show for The First International Festival of Contemporary Sculpture 2012» Kiev, Ucrain
2011
«Leaving Realism Behind» Pace Beijing, Beijng, China
«Start from the Horizon-Chinese Contemporary Sculpture Since 1978» Sishang Art Museum, Beijing, China
«Ideology and Manifestation» Wenxuan Art Museum, Chengdu, China
«the 4th Guangdong Trinnale» GMOA, China
«Super-Orgnasm-CAFAM Biennale» Beijing, China
«Collection Histry-China New Art» MOCA Chengdu, China
«Martell Artists of the Year» Beijing,Shanghai, Guangzhou
2010
«Made in Pop Land» National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea
«The city of forking paths» The sculpture project of the expo boulevard, world expo Shanghai 2010, Shanghai
«The constructed dimension 2010
Chinese contemporary art invitational exhibition» National Art Museum of China
«Sculpture - Sui Jianguo and his students» A4 gallery, Chengdu, China
2009
«The home court» White Box Museum of Art, 798, Beijng China
«Beijing—Havana The Revolution of Art» The National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba
«I Can Believe Chinese Contemporary Artist’s (Invitation) Exhibition & Star Art Museum Opening Exhibition
Embrace Suzhou - Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art» Suzhou Art Mseum, China
«09 Art Changsha» Hunan Museum, Changsha, China
Conversation With Chinese Contemporary Sculpture Milennium Park, Chicaco, USA
State Legacy-Research in the visualisation of political history Manchester, MMU, UK
«Spectacle—to each his own» Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei
2008
«Art and Chinese Revolution» Asia Society, New York
«Beyond-Sotheby’s at Chatsworth» Chatsworth, UK
«Conciliatory-Bozinan Biennalia» Bozinan Art Museum, Poland
«Come Over» Li Space, Caochangdi, Beijing
«Hanging in Sky Drifting on Surface» Linda Gallery, 798 Beijing
«Reflective Asia—3rd Nanjing Triennial» Nanjing Musuem, Nanjing
«Hypallage — The Post - Moden Mode of Chinese Contemporary Art» The OCT Art & Design Gallery, Shenzhen, China
«Half - life of a Dream — Contemporary Chinese Art» SFMOMA, USA
«Ships at Sea» – Henk Visch & Sui Jianguo, C - Space, Beijing, China
«New World Order», Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands
«Free Fall», Chen Ling Hui Contemporary Space, Beijing, China
«Crouching Paper Hidden Dragon» F2 Gallery, Caochangdi, Beijing
«Hunting Birds», Tang Contemporary, Beijing, China
2007
«Energy—Spirit, Body, Material, The First Today’s Documents 2007» Today’s Art Museum, Beijing
«Forms of Concepts—the reform of concepts of Chinese contemporary Art 1987-2007» Hubei Art Museum, Wu Han, China
«Red Hot - Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection» the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
«Metamorphosis: The Generation of Transformation in Chinese Contemporary Art «, Tampere Art Museum, Finland
«Fashion Accidentally», Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan
«What is Monoha?», B.T.A.P., Beijing, China
«Breathe», Jinan, China
«Top 10 Chinese Contemporary Sculptors», Asia Art Center, Beijing, China
«Chinese Contemporary Socart», The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
«We Are Your Future - Special Project for 2nd Moscow Biennale», Russia
2006
«Double - kick Cracker», Tang Contemporary, Beijing, China
«Susi - Future & Fantasy», Metropolitan Museum of Manila, The Philippines
«Absolute Images», Arario Tian, South Korea
«China Trade», International Center for Contemporary Asian Art, Vancouver, Canada
«Jianghu», Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, USA
«Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China», Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
«On the Edge», Davis Museum and Culture Center, Wellesley College, Massachusetts, USA
2005
«Beautiful Cynicism», Arario, Beijing, China
«Ten Thousands Year», Postmodern City, Beijing, China
«To Each His Own», Zero-Space 798, Beijing, China
«Xianfeng! Chinese Avant-garde sculpture, Museum Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen, The Netherlands
«Transportation Box», Jianwai SOHO, Beijing, China
«Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China», Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA
2004
«Now - Conceptual Estate in Shanghai», Shanghai, China
«The First Nominative Exhibition of Fine Art Literature», Wuhan, China
«Sculpture by the Sea», Sydney, Australia
«Gods Becoming Men», Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece
«What Is Art - Two Wrongs Can Make One Right», Xian Art Museum, Xian, China
«Playing With Chi Energy», House of Shiseido, Tokyo, Japan
«L’art à la Plage», Nice, France
«Exposition des Sculptures Chinoises», Jardin Des Tuileries, Paris, France
«BetweenPastandFuture:NewPhotographyandVideofromChina»,InternationalCenterofPhotography/AsiaSociety,NewYork,USA
«Le Moine et le Démon», Lyon Contemporary Art Museum, Lyon, France
«Busan Sculpture Project», Busan, South Korea
«Light As Fuck», National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway
«Beyond Boundaries», Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China
2003
«Open the Sky: Contemporary Art Exhibition», Duolun Art Museum, Shanghai, China
«The Sea and the Music: Modern Sculpture Exhibition», Xiamen, China
«Conceptual Estate», Shenzhen, China
«Exhibition of Modern Ceramic Art», Fushan, China
«Second Reality», Pingod Space, Beijing, China
«Red Memory - Left Hand and Right Hand», 798 Art District, Beijing, China
«Open Time», National Art Gallery, Beijing, China
«Contemporary Sculpture - China Korea Japan», Osaka Museum, Japan
2002
«Paris – Pékin», Palace Cardin, Paris, France
«Mirage», Suzhou Art Museum, Suzhou,
«1st Guangzhou Triennial», Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou, China
«Beijing Afloat», B.T.A.P., Beijing, China
«Triennial of Chinese Art», Guangzhou Museum, Guangzhou, China
«Modernity in China - 1980-2002», Fondacion Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP), Sao Paolo, Brazil
«Artists of Ideal», Contemporary Art Center, Verona, Italy
«Made By Chinese», Gallery Enrico Navara, Paris, France
«Made in China», Ethan Cohen Fine Art, New York, USA
2001
«Transplantation In Situ», He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
«Dream 2001 - Contemporary Chinese Art Exhibition», Red Mansion, London, UK
«Forever», Canadian Embassy, Beijing, China
«Open 2001- Fourth International Sculpture and Installation», Venice, Italy
«Art on the Beach», Nice, France
«Between Earth and Heaven: New Classical Movements in the Art of Today», Museum Of Modern Art, Oostende, Belgium
2000
«Shanghai Spirit - Shanghai Biennale», Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
«Sui Jianguo and Zhan Wang», Galerie Loft, Paris, France
«Sharing Exoticisms - Contemporary Art Lyon Biennale», Lyon, France
«Chinese Contemporary Sculpture Invitational Exhibition», Qingdao Sculpture Museum, Qingdao, China
1999
«Second Annual Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition», He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
«Gate of the Century», Chengdu Art Museum, Chengdu, China
«Avant-garde in China», Galerie Loft, Paris, France
«Les Champs de la Sculpture 2000», Paris, France
«The Fourteenth International Asia Art Exhibition», Asia Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
«Volume and Form - Singapore Art Festival», Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
«Four Artists», Beijing Art Warehouse, Beijing, China
«Departure From China», Beijing Design Museum, Beijing, China
«China 1999», Limn Gallery, St Francisco, USA
«Transience: Chinese Art at the End of the Twentieth Century», David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art,
University of Chicago, USA
1998
«Personal Touch - Chinese Contemporary Art», TEDA Contemporary Art Museum, Tianjin, China
«First Annual Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition», He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
«Im Spiegel der Eigenen Tradition - Contemporary Chinese Art», German Embassy, Beijing, China
«A Revelation of 20 Years Contemporary Chinese Art», Forbidden City, Beijing, China
«Vivre Life - Eight Artists Exhibition», Wan Feng Gallery, Beijing, China
1997
«Dream of China - Chinese Contemporary Art», Yan Huang Art Museum, Beijing, China
«Continue - Five Sculptors’ Exhibition», CAFA Gallery, Beijing, China
«Sui Jianguo & Li Gang», Contemporary Chinese Sculpture, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China
MADE IN CHINA
by Sui Jianguo 2009
An abandoned factory building with a nail in the wall from which a framework of neon tubes is hanging. The
words ‘Made in China’ fluoresce pallidly in the midst of the red glow.
Anything that is made is made by people – always, somewhere – and this object ends up finding its way to us
and we derive pleasure from it. As a child I had a toy car with the words ‘Made in England’ on the underbelly,
between the suspension and the exhaust pipe, in minuscule but clearly legible raised lettering. One day, once
I had grasped the words, I understood that this little car also came from somewhere, namely from England.
It was like a home address: the car was on a journey and right now it was here. This address also implied that
it actually belonged somewhere else. I had until then developed no conception of the origin of things that
were part of my life; I was aware of their presence, but not of their provenance. I thought toys came from
the shop, in the same way many children in Europe think that babies are flown to their fathers and mothers
through the sky in the beak of a stork or are simply found under a gooseberry bush.
The question about the origin of things is in general a question about the beginning, a source.(1) Provenance
is a major factor in the significance attributed to an artwork; the meaning anchors it in time. Made in China
is explicit about its provenance, but it is not precise about the meaning; for this we must turn to the artist.
The artist is the maker and he derives his freedom from what he does, from what he makes, yet he is also
conscious that what he creates is a consequence of what the people who preceded him have produced. The
artist belongs to a tradition in which deeds, techniques and methods are perpetuated and developed further.
The artist knows this and such an awareness makes it possible for him to transpose the might of a whole
country into a work of art, equating his imaginative ability with the productive might of the whole of China.
The artwork gives ‘Made in China’ an identity. These three words no longer denote globe-spanning distribution and trade in goods; they have become an image which is autonomous and self-referential, hypnotically
generating a universe in which the dynamism of an entire nation is palpable.
Made in China is at the same time a personal statement, an existential enunciation by the artist: ‘I am.’ As
a counterbalance to the Western world’s Cartesian credo of ‘Cogito ergo sum’ – ‘I think therefore I am’ – it
asserts, ‘It is made in China and it is me.’ Made in China has become a signature, and the statement is by
extension an intentional provocation as well as an undermining of the myth of the unicity of works of art
and the artist. It replaces the artist, who disappears in three words and is simultaneously subsumed by a
country that is huge. Only the artist who understands the freedom of being unattached, the unconditional,
can proffer this ultimate token of solidarity with his nation.
By employing the vehicle and stipulations of being public, Made in China constitutes the perfect artwork,
obscuring what in the first instance seemed to be self-evident. Identity, whether this is a national identity
or the way everyone interprets this personally, is a fleeting and flexible notion. Since 1999 the work Made in
China has at intervals been re-created several times, but it always features the same three words: ‘Made in
China.’ It is a work that accompanies the artist throughout his life, coincides with it, evolves in parallel with
his personality and thus repeatedly incorporates the shifting social context. It is a work that presents an
ongoing commentary on the artistic calling and its relationship to the world. It is a work that establishes a
network in which everyone participates. It says something about life, because it is an organic construct that
thrives on the dynamism of social developments and is always topical. It is a work that cannot grow old. It
is the perfect artwork, made in China.
Henk Visch
Eindhoven, October 2009
Imprisonment and Struggle Introduction to Exhibition of Sui
Jianguo’s Work, Restrained Power
By Li Xianting
November 24, 2011
As the opening exhibition of the
Singapore Museum of Contemporary Art, Sui Jianguo’s’s large-scale
installation, Restrained Power, will
open in Dempesy Hill, Singapore,
on January 14, 2012. This piece of
work, weighing in at eight tons,
consists of a metal container – 15
meters in length, 2.5 meters in
height, and 2.5 meters in width –
and an iron ball (5 mm thick and
2 meters in diameter) as well as
a related power unit. On display,
the huge metal container occupies
a considerable proportion of the
museum space. The ball inside the
iron container, driven by the power
unit, rolls about, colliding with the
container and making a deafening
sound. Viewers only see a huge metal container, without being able
to see what makes the sound and
how; they just hear the continuous
crash every 27 seconds as the metal container pollutes the air with a
thunderous noise. The impression
given by the metal container is of an
iron curtain or black box, strong and
cold. Whatever is in the container,
it must be driven by some kind of
power; this unknown inner power
can be experienced from outside
the installation through the deafening noise it generates. Therefore
the container and the power inside
the container form a relationship of
constraint and collision. The title of
the work is Restrained Power; in my
feeling, this is a metaphorical installation: imprisonment and struggle;
it is Sui Jianguo’s expression of his
inner feelings, certainly, it could be
read also as an implied meaning of
a living environment.
If we study Sui Jianguo’s oeuvre, we
will find that most of his works have
a feeling of imprisonment, confrontation and conflict. In 1998, I wrote
an essay for Sui Jianguo, entitled
Imprisoned Soul, and in 2004, I interviewed Sui Jianguo and I asked
him about this problem. He answered, ‘Perhaps, it relates to my personality. Although I have a relatively
peaceful life and find it easy to inte-
ract with others, in fact my heart is
more introverted, being more used
to reflecting on myself. I feel that
such a personality makes me feel all
sorts of constraints and I believe in
fate from the bottom of my heart.
Perhaps one’s personality can also
determine his artistry’. As an old
friend, I can understand and appreciate Sui Jianguo’s feelings: the more
powerful the introspective ability,
the more sensitivity to outside pressures, and the stronger the inner
conflict. Moreover, the relationship
of imprisonment and struggle formed by all external pressures and
inner reflections is not abstract, and
can be associated with some events
and psychological states; so, despite
Sui Jianguo’s seemingly varied work,
as a kind of keynote, imprisonment
and struggle have still indistinctly
run through the theme of his works
for more than twenty years.
I
In his adolescence, Sui Jianguo had
the opportunity to study traditional Chinese ink painting. In 19801986, while he studied and taught at
Shandong Academy of Art, Sui was
inspired by Chuang Tzu’s concept
of everything is oneness (wan wu
qi yi), and his main direction at that
time was using corresponding materials to create his work. In 1986,
Sui Jianguo joined the Department
of Sculpture in the Central Academy of Fine Arts to study the approach of realism. It is this approach
that became Sui’s primary focus.
However, his studies in the CAFA
coincided with a time when waves
of cultural criticism and modern art
movements were springing up like
a rising wind and scudding clouds.
This encouraged Sui Jianguo’s inner
conflict – contradiction between
the approach of realism which he
had only just grasped and the artistic concepts he had experienced at
Shandong – now confronted with
the pressure of modernism, and
this urged him to create Balancer
using his spare time in 1987 – 1988
in order to balance his mental imbalance. He utilized plaster, cement,
wood, newspapers, and wire gauze,
‘to make a shape with wire gauze,
insert damaged tables and chairs,
then paste newspapers dipped in
plaster into something, like a caput
with cracks, and construct chairs
and plaster to form a structure with
a sense of equilibrium. So I called
this work Balance or Balancer’.
In June 1989, the student democracy movement occurred in Tiananmen Square. In July, Sui Jianguo
graduated from CAFA, received a
Master’s degree, and stayed on to
teach. Recalling that time, Sui Jianguo said, ‘after June 4, the mood
suddenly changed completely: dull,
depressed. I guess everyone had
some thinking and reflecting to
do at that time. After September, I
always said in the class, that I wished I could go to the countryside
with students. Then when I saw the
imprints of tank tracks on Chang’an
Avenue in Beijing, I felt so miserable. I just went into the mountains
with students. When you really hit a
rock, you will find that the stone is
so stubborn, unlike mud, which can
be manipulated as you will it. You
must take a lot of time and effort
to change a rock’s shape a bit, just a
little bit. I think that it is related to
my mood at that time, and I wished
to consume myself with hard work.
Meanwhile, I thought maybe I could
find a way to escape from the types
of things I had originally done for
realism. In fact, the reasoning then
was to find a way to create from
everyday, from traditions, such as
the clamps used for mending pottery and chains’. So Structure Series then is a combination of metal
and stones, to construct hard stone
with the traditional claws used for
mending pottery, but this work still
shows a pure and elegant feeling of
form. What made Sui Jianguo wellknown and brought him prestige in
the art world was the series Earthly
Force created in 1992-1994. The rebar reinforcement, embedded and
wrapped firmly around the hard
stone like a net, allowed Sui Jianguo to comprehend a real contest
of force, and he found a spiritual
feeling of obsession with these hard
materials.
Sui Jianguo’s unspeakable sense of
imprisonment and struggle was
expressed firstly by the confrontation between two hard materials;
in 1994, he created Closed Memory, in which a stone was closed in a
box welded by steel plate, giving a
sense of closure and heaviness with
the strong, thick steel plate and robust welding. Another example is
his work Space of Memory, created
during almost the same period: it
is an installation-like work, a wall
made of old hand-milled railway
sleepers; when the impression of
these old railway sleepers, which
were laid flat, had been transferred
into a compelling visual image erected in front of people, the objects, so
full of rich life experience became a
code of feeling – ‘an image recording countless milling’ and attracted a lot of attention. It was as if this
life experience of saw-milling, itself,
became a wall blocking Sui Jianguo.
Sui Jianguo vit à Pékin et travaille principalement la pierre. Il se fit connaître comme
un subtil conceptualiste auteur de détournements de sens de l’iconographie maoïste.
Mais depuis déjà assez longtemps il a pris ses
distances par rapport à l’art qui se contente
de parodier, ridiculiser, critiquer ou de faire
la satire de Mao. Désormais il réutilise les caractéristiques apparentées à l’art politique et
totalitaire sous son régime pour un éloge du
grandiose et des qualités visuelles qui prônent
la verticalité. Un procès qui a fait grand bruit
en Chine l’a opposé à Wang Wenhai reconnu
comme un « serial-sculpteur » adorateur du
Grand Timonier. Le premier a poursuivi le second devant un tribunal pékinois pour violation de ses droits de propriété intellectuelle et
pour avoir utilisé, dans une oeuvre montrée à
San Francisco, à savoir une sculpture de Mao
qu’ils avaient conçue en commun. En dehors
de l’anecdote ce procès indique une dimension
esthétique où apparaît la divergence entre des
deux créateurs. Sui Jianguo, tente de renouer
avec la réalité psychologique de l’histoire.
Selon ses propres termes, la conscience du
peuple chinois est loin de pouvoir tirer un
trait sur l’uniforme maoïste . Et en reprenant la figure « empruntée » à Wang Wenhai
il voulait démontrer que l’uniforme maoïste
représente en réalité un désir partagé par de
nombreux intellectuels chinois vers la fin des
années quatre-vingt-dix, désireux de trouver là un sujet historique susceptible d’exprimer la modernité de la culture chinoise
et d’être salué unanimement par la critique.
Pour Sui Jianguo, l’uniforme maoïste était un
sujet fondamental sur lequel il a construit son
œuvre et sa réputation. Perçu dans le cadre
post-politique d’une nation socialiste où règne
désormais l’esprit du capitalisme international, l’uniforme maoïste figure les préoccupations morales des intellectuels en matière de
culture et incarne les valeurs marquantes de la
Chine moderne. L’artiste a commencé ses séries «Mao Suit» en 1997. Toutes ses oeuvres reflètent son expérience personnelle et explorent
son angoisse face à la peur de l’emprisonnement. Par dessus tout, son travail représente
le point de vue et l’esprit de la génération qui
a survécu à la révolution culturelle de Mao.
Grâce à l’influence de son approche, la sculpture abstraite et conceptuelle a été bien acceptée par le peuple Chinois et par les autorités.
De plus, il a introduit l’art contemporain de la
Chine actuelle dans le monde entier. Son travail artistique est reconnu en Occident . Parmi ses oeuvres les plus récentes, le dinosaure
rouge - le symbole de l’impérialisme chinois,
comme celui de la Chine communiste - avec
la gravure sur la poitrine «Made in China»
est un clin d’oeil aux jouets en plastique datant des débuts de l’envolée économique
chinoise, et représente un symbole fort de la
Chine antique entrant dans l’ère contemporaine. Pendant les années 60, tout était « Made
in Japan » puis dans les années 70 « Made in
Taiwan », depuis quelques décennies, désormais tout est « Made in China ». A titre
d’exemple 95 % des jouets vendus dans
le monde sont fabriqués dans cet empire.
Pour Sui Jianguo l’époque et le déterminisme
maoïstes posent en outre le problème du temps
et de la dimension existentielle fondamentale.
Acceptant (ou subissant à l’origine) cette nécessité, l’artiste fait de sa sculpture un chemin
et un moyen de connaissance. Les œuvres
en sont plus que la trace, les «résidus» alchimiques d’un temps désormais révolu. Saturée
d’empreintes le créateur chinois tente de rendre
compte d’une réalité quotidienne en inventant
ses figurations historiques et désormais animalières. Mais dire comme on le répète trop
souvent que l’art de Jianguo Sui est inspiré
uniquement par Mao reste trop réducteur car
l’artiste puise bien plus profond dans l’histoire
de son pays afin de s’échapper de la surface
des choses. Maître des changement d’échelle
il adore faire en grand ce qui a existé d’abord
en petit (l’inverse est vrai aussi) afin d’attribuer
aux images une dimension supplémentaire.
Pourtant le sculpteur ne se disperse pas :
sans cesse il réexplore son propre parcours
en le remisant et en jouant encore sur dimensions, couleurs et matériaux. Demeure la
prolifération de figurines d’objets dérisoires
en perpétuels transferts et transbordements.
Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret