ArtReview Asia Xiàn Chǎng prizewinner

Hao Jingfang & Wang Lingjie have been selected as recipients of the ArtReview Asia Xiàn Chǎng Prize for their work A Cube of Light (2015), an immersive light and fog installation. The work was presented as part of a special project curated by the editors of ArtReview Asia for the West Bund Art and Design fair in Shanghai (9–13 November 2016), which featured 25 works by international artists operating in a variety of media, including large-scale sculpture, installation, moving image and performance. The two artists were selected by a jury of international curators, including Clara Kim, Daskalopoulos senior curator, International Art (Africa, Asia & Middle East) at Tate Modern and Hou Hanru, artistic director, MAXXI, Rome.

ArtReview Asia Xiàn Chǎng originates in the Chinese characters for ‘xiàn’ and ‘chǎng’, which together mean the scene (of a crime, accident, etc); (on) the spot; (at) the site. The artworks on show aimed to explore how context provides a contemporary artwork with added significance or validity – and how the ‘contemporary’ aspect of contemporary art is as much about space or place as it is about time. Artists showing at ArtReview Asia Xiàn Chǎng were invited to play with notions of context, in all four dimensions of space–time, and its ability to bring about meaning, both intended and unexpected, in their work.

ArtReview Asia Xiàn Chǎng was not only conceived as an extension of the magazine’s content, creation and ideas; but was a brand-new attempt to apply and integrate its initiatives within the diverse reality of Asia.