Location: 207 exhibition hall of 2ndfloorXinjiang International Exhibition Center,No.167 Youhao North Road, Wulumuqi
Discussion Seminar: “In Xinjiang: Art and Society
BackLocation: 207 exhibition hall of 2ndfloorXinjiang International Exhibition Center,No.167 Youhao North Road, Wulumuqi
Seminar Introduction
The Liu Xiaodong Hotan Project is an on-site
painting project created by the artist Liu Xiaodong. Making use of methodology
involving fieldwork and interviews, Liu Xiaodong located a number of jade
hunting laborers and their families residing in and around the city of Hotan,
and with the Yurungkash River as a backdrop, worked on putting scenes relating
to their lives to canvas. The four oil painting works produced in this manner
are to be displayed at the Xinjiang International Exhibition Center in Urumqi.
The hunting of jade in Hotan and the jade trade forms an economic chain that
effects social classes and segments of various level all across the nation, and
Liu Xiaodong begins from the lowest end of this chain, using the ways of the
artist to make a thorough investigation of the unique and distinctive region of
Xinjiang as well as its economic and cultural relationships with the interior.
In order to provide this project with a deeper and more profound source of
resources for contemplation, project curators Hou Hanru and OuNing initiated a
10-day survey and research session, interviewing a great number of writers,
historians and folk artists from both Northern and Southern Xinjiang. The “In
Xinjiang: Art and Society” discussion seminar has been mobilized with the power
of the greater base of knowledge that this research survey has to offer, as it
provides a diverse, cross-disciplinary jigsaw puzzle of information for better
understanding the complexities of Xinjiang’s history and its present, and for
making investigations into the possibility of launching within Xinjiang an closer
kind of interaction between Art and Society. The discussion seminar shall make
use of spatial arrangements and decorations which are rich with local flavor
and characteristics, with the speakers and the audience sitting on carpets on
the floor, and within an open, relaxed and free environment, aims to unfold the
sharing of knowledge and discussion of ideas, and hopes to use Liu Xiaodong’s
works as a spark to light the furnace for casting critical thinking, and to
fire up a wider perspective of knowledge of the region of Xinjiang.
First Module: Multi-ethnic Culture
10:30
am –12:00 pm
Xinjiang
is a region where many different ethnicities live together with each other.
Different peoples with their different languages, cultures, religious beliefs
and lifestyles all coexisting in a single geographic space and sharing the same
social resources forms a situation demanding that these people seek out some
kind of way to get along with each other in greater harmony. At the same time,
the coexistence of different cultures in one place is beneficial for mutual
influence and absorbance across these cultures, as they make use of each
other’s best aspects and make up for each other’s deficiencies. It is even more
beneficial for the creation of a diverse and heterogeneous new culture more
representative of Xinjiang’s distinctive and unique characteristics. This
module invites authors, intellectuals and folk artists of different ethnicities
to share, from the perspective of their own ethnicities, their experiences of
living and working in Xinjiang, aimed towards creating a discussion
investigating the possibilities of peaceful ethnic co-existence as well as the
cultural renewal of the region.
Moderator:
A
Cheng, author
Invited
Speakers:
Ilham
Rehim, Uyghur Muqam Musician
Dilimulati
Tailaiti ,Uyghur Writer and Translator
Yerkesy
Hulmanbiek, Kazakh Author
Second
Module: The Ecological Environment, Historical Preservation and New Economic
Movements
12:30
am – 2:00 pm
Xinjiang
possesses an enormous land area and rich natural resources. Being subjected to
little in the way of modern pollution and contamination, its ecology and
environment have been conserved to an exceedingly high degree. The region also
has historical resources stretching back for ages, bringing together remnants
of civilizations from a variety of historical eras. Yet, caught up in the
currents of a continually concentrated and singular world economic system, the
changes occurring by the new modes of production brought about by the new
economic movements and so on have caused the state of this ecological
environment to become increasingly fragile and led to difficulties for
historical preservation work. How to reach a mre ideal balance of the
distribution and proportions of the nomadic, agricultural, manufacturing and
tourism industries, how to better coordinate and complement urban renewal and
historical conservation projects, how to develop the economy and at the same
time protect the ecology and historical resources- Xinjiang faces all these and
other serious challenges. This module invites artists, writers and researchers
in the field of urban-rural relations to discuss and explore these
extraordinarily pressing issues.
Moderator:
Hou Hanru, curator
Invited
Speakers:
Liu
Xiaodong, artist
Ding
Yan, writer
Feng
Yuan, scholar
Third
Module: Contemporary Xinjiang Literature
4:00
pm – 5:30 pm
As
a powerful cultural force, contemporary literature in Xinjiang has constantly
sought out and traced the history of the area, presented records of reality,
constructing a distinctively styled contemplative background for this unique
land. From the Western Region Poetry of the 1980s to the essays by Zhou Tao,
Liu Liangcheng and Yerkesy of the 1990s, to Dong Libo’s novels of the new
century, to the national-scale obsession with Li Juan’s personal writings of
today- Xinjiang’s contemporary literature has always been a flash of dazzling
radiance within the national literary scene. What exactly goes into its
immensely unique DNA? Where precisely is its link with the spirit of these
lands built up? What is the nature of its mutually life-giving relationship
with Xinjiang’s history and present realities? This module invites
representative Xinjiang authors to delve into and explore the riddles of the
contemporary literature of the region.
Moderator:
OuNing, curator
Dong
Libo, author
Yerkesy,
Kazakh writer
Ding
Yan, writer
Guest
2:Moderator:A Cheng, author Invited Speakers: Ilham Rehim, Uyghur Muqam Musician Dilimulati Tailaiti ,Uyghur Writer and Translator Yerkesy Hulmanbiek, Kazakh Author
3:Moderator: OuNing, curator Dong Libo, author Yerkesy, Kazakh writer Ding Yan, writer