Cai Guo-Qiang - 1040M Underground opens on Saturday, 27 August through Sunday, 13 November 2011 at IZOLYATSIA. Platform For Cultural Initiatives. in Donetsk. This marks Cai Guo-Qiang’s first solo exhibition in Ukraine and will feature two new site-specific installations by the artist, including a new series of gunpowder drawings produced on the IZOLYATSIA campus. The artist will work closely with local painters, miners and volunteers to create the gunpowder drawings on paper. The production process will be open and free to the public, and audience members will be able to witness an artist at work as well as experience first hand the ignition of the gunpowder drawings.
Cai Guo-Qiang - 1040M Underground chronicles Cai’s dialogue with the local community and their history and culture. His work seeks to express the fate of people, specifically the once-glorified labourers of the lower class in a rapidly changing time. The exhibition also reveals new possibilities through contemporary art: by transforming waste into treasure, we inherit and practice the “Socialist ideal” of art for the people and art embedded in life.
Cai Guo-Qiang – 1040M Underground stems from the artist’s experience in May to the coal and salt mines of the industrial Donbas region. During his visit, Cai descended 1040 meters below ground level and trekked more than 1000 meters in the tunnel, mirroring the same route the coal miners take every day. After his “journey to the center of the earth,” a hike to the top of the IZOLYATSIA terrekon – as “slag heaps” are known colloquially – unveiled a breathtaking view of the city: white smoke from factory chimneys, a bright orange waterfall of molten steel glistening in the sunset, and statues of coal mining heroes that stand tall all over the city.
The dismantling of the exhibition Cai Guo-Qiang - 1040M Underground has almost finished. The installations have been dismantled. The drawings have been packed and sent to the artist to New-York. You can visit a photo-gallery and see the preparation process, opening, the special events and dismantling procedures on the project site.
Dear friends, we sincerely congratulate you with the closing of the exhibition Cai Guo-Qiang - 1040M Underground. During the exhibit period more than 1000 persons visited us, around 30 group excursions were held and 14 events in the terms of the educational program were realized.
We heard many kind words; the guestbook is full of grateful notes in different languages. We thank to all who was involved in the exhibition organization and to all who joined us during the exhibit period.
November event program at IZOLYATSIA started with lection about the development of contemporary chinese art. Independent expert and curator from Paris, Martina Keppel-Young was talking about official policy of China towards art and art tendencies developing outside of official stream. Listeners were intrigued by interpretations of Mao Zedong image, and also by Martina's opinion about works of Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang represented at exhibition "Cai Guo-Qiang - 1040M underground".».
On 12 November, at 1PM in the assembly hall of IZOLYATSIA the lecture of Martina Köppel-Yang "Isles of Autonomy like Rapids within the Flow of Change. Contemporary Chinese Art, Official Guidelines and Artistic Strategies" takes place.
Entrance – free, with registration in advance. The registration by phone 050 477 26 20 or by e-mail: info@izolyatsia.org
School kids turned out to be firmest visitors of "Cai Guo-Qiang - 1040M Underground" exhibition. They weren't afraid of cold autumn rain, and their group of 45 people by the lead of our guides began exploring the beauty of art underneath orange umbrellas. Students of Donetsk Gymnasium №92 were curiously observing exposition, sharing impressions and admiring colorful autumn slag heap.
photo: Aleksandr Strinadko.
