Intelligentsia catalog 8 by Intelligentsia Gallery

INTELLIGENTSIA GALLERY 智先画廊

SUPERFOLD: CONNECTIVE MULTIPLICITIES OR COILING AD INFINITUM 超折叠: 连接的多重性和盘绕的无限性 VEGA ZAISHI WANG 王在实 MARIANNA IGNATAKI REN ZHITIAN 任芷田 MENG ZHIGANG 蒙志刚 OPHELIA S. CHAN 陳秀煒

29 November 2014 2014 年 11 月 29日

Superfold: Connective Multiplicities or Coiling Ad Infinitum Intelligentsia Gallery is delighted to present Superfold: Connective Multiplicities or Coiling Ad Infinitum, a group exhibition with works by Meng Zhigang (b. 1975 Guilin, China), Ren Zhitian (b.1968 Xishui, China), Ophelia S. Chan (b. 1985 Hong Kong, China), Vega Zaishi Wang (b. 1985 Liaoning, China), and Marianna Ignataki (b. 1977 Thessaloniki, Greece). Based on its operative function and characteristics, the fold with its twists and turns, coils and bends has the capacity to connect on a single surface diversified multiplicities. Either metaphysical or material, in the form of a textile labyrinth or as the endless virtual projection of images, the fold can outline topographical maps of rhizomatic relations as connective tissue of history and visual information. The artwork and the work of art act as codifiers and decoders of processes that are then revealed as territorial connections of multiplicities and episodes, as extensions of surfaces and meaning. Curated by Garcia Frankowski under a structural framework built by Gilles Deleuze, Superfold explores surface extension in all directions: the folding cloth over the furniture, the bottom layer of naked skin potentially covered by opaque sensuous clothes that reveal by disguising, the washed out covers of glamour images diluted into new forms of visual paraphernalia, images projecting from space into a cache of collective assemblages of enunciation, hanging material folds of the stored sublime path of performative history. By means of painting, collage, mix-media, fashion and video installations the exhibition aims to create a flexible, elastic body, able to bring all the multiplicities ( historical, theoretical, functional, aesthetic, philological) into a cohesive surface unveiling the connective continuality of the artwork as Superfold and its capacity to coil ad infinitum. Intelligentsia Gallery

超折叠：连接的多重性和盘绕的无限性智先画廊乐意呈现超折叠：连接的多重性和盘旋的无限性。参与群展的艺术家包括，蒙志刚（1975，桂林，中国），任芷田（1968，习水，中国），陳秀煒（1985，香港，中国），王在实( 1985 辽宁省，中国), 和 Marianna Ignataki (1977 塞萨洛尼基，希腊)。基于其可操作性和形式特征，通过扭、转、盘、弯的手法，折叠具有在单一表面上连接形成丰富多重性的可能。折叠，既是形而上的，又是物质的；既可以以织物迷宫的形式出现，也可以是无尽的虚拟影像投射；它仿佛历史和视觉信息间的接地组织，勾勒出一幅事物间根系状的关联图。由Garcia Frankowski策展，基于Gilles Deleuze建立的结构框架，超折叠探索了表面在各方面延展的可能：家具上折叠的布，底层裸露的皮肤在揭开的不透明性感衣物之下半遮半掩，魅惑的图片被洗刷去表层之后成为新形式的视觉品，图像从空间中被投射到一组隐藏的组合装置中再被传达出来，悬挂材料的褶皱储存着过去行为的极端痕迹。以绘画、拼贴、混合材料、时装和影像装置等形式，展览旨在创造一个灵活有弹性的整体，将所有多重性（历史、理论、功能、美学、哲学）都汇集到一起，形成连贯的表面。通过超折叠的概念，它构成了艺术作品间的连续性，并将无尽盘绕的可能揭示出来。

智先画廊

SUPERFOLDING Garcia Frankowski

The Baroque does not refer to an essence, but rather to an operative function, to a characteristic. It endlessly creates folds. It does not invent the thing: there are all folds that come from the Orient—Greek, Roma, Romanesque, Gothic, Classical folds…But it twists and turns the folds, takes them to infinity, fold upon fold, fold after fold. –Gilles Deleuze, The Fold The Superfold is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. As with the fold, with its twists and turns, coils and bents, its performative (dis)continuality has the capacity to connect on a single surface a plethora of multiplicities. Either metaphysical or material, in the form of a textile labyrinth or as the endless projection of images, the fold can outline topographical cartographies of rizhomatic relations as connective tis-

sue of history and visual information. The artwork and the work of art (as in the production of the artwork) act as both as signifier and signified, codifiers and decoders of processes that are then revealed as a network of connections of multiplicities and episodes, as extensions of surfaces and cognitive relations. In its superlative function, the Superfold explores surface extension, albeit in all directions. The Superfold is the folds magnified. It is simultaneously folded as sensuous device, as time-space machine, as performative recording, as historico-epistemological coiling, as philosophical cloth. The Superfold extends in different forms, from the folding cloth over furniture of Meng Zhigang, to the hypothetical bottom layer of naked female skin potentially covered by sensuous clothes conceived by Vega Zaishi Wang, the washedout covers and advertising pages of fashion magazines of Ren Zhitian, the machinist images projected into space into a cache of assemblages of enunciation of Ophelia S. Chan, and the Deleuzean dialectical historic-epistemological folds of the baroque dresses worn by a headless woman in Marianna Ignatakiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work. Folding in and out of itself, the exhibition creates an extended territory that bends and turns, twists and loops far beyond the contained reach of the physical limits of the gallery, folding into an endless Superfold. Fold as Sensuous Device The work of Vega Zaishi Wang deals with one of the most fundamental folding strategies: the ontological fold as sensuous device. Clothing, which takes form within the socio-cultural apparatus in the realm of fashion, deals with several simultaneous folds. The fold of being is defined by a carefully conceptualized series of garments meant to be worn in order to create an extension of the self while developing a collective formulation of being (as in being in the world). If being is defined by the spaces we inhabit whether cultural, geopolitical, philosophical, psychological), clothing and fashion at large is potentially the most intimate of those spaces, where in its tangible manifestation or in its more underlying societal role. Every cut, every texture, fabric selection, color and design decision deals with a multiplicity of layers that bend and materialize as folds with the potential of extending towards the user as it becomes seduced by the experience of wearing it or to the viewer who is attracted to the sensuousness of the garment as a visual device. The body is extended by additional folds that form a continuous layer and an expansion of itself. Fold as time-space machine Ophelia S. Chan deals with the fold as a dual machine working with both time and space. Two metal stands hold a monitor and a mirror respectively. Behind the mirror a wireless camera captures images of unsuspecting viewers that look at their reflection without noticing that their image is being projected in the monitorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s screen. This cache or visual loop creates an iteration of the fold as machinist dialectic, as stream between time and space, author and user become embedded in this device of assemblages of enunciation. The fold here works in all directions and manifests itself in all the elopements whether virtual of physical: from the objects (monitor and mirror), to the space that contains them (the gallery and the virtual vacuum of image transposition), to the time consumed to capture and project the images and in the viewer captured in these images that make him into an involuntary performer and as a fundamental part of the artwork that is only completed one the fold extends from time to space by means of the body.

Fold as performative recording Superfold presents two series of works by Ren Zhitian. ‘Gauze Curtains’ are two collages made out of a series of covers and advertising pages of fashion magazines that have been washed down until being turned into abstract compositions of pastel colours and barely discernible silhouettes of female figures. A commentary of the superficial character of these types of paraphernalia, his works on mix media are also a fold of process and visual information. The found images are transformed into something new without completely discarding its history. What is left is composition as performative recording, as these new images carry the actions that were executed upon them, and while creating new visual forms they still carry the meaning of a previous life not so disconnected to the aesthetics of the surface. These two pieces are accompanied by an artifact that although possesses completely contrasting visual characteristics still carry the same function of fold as performative recording. ‘Skin’ consists of an oversized sheet of paper hung from the wall. Not like any piece of paper, Skin displays the visual evidence of a yearlong performance where the artist danced and stomped on its surface, creating a piece that carries the physical history of its past while presenting the dialectic of form and action that is also part of his two ‘Gauze Curtain’ pieces. The ritualistic violence intrinsic in acts of stomping and dancing or of continually washing down until the point of deformation make the these pieces unified by a fold of action and performance, by a coil that bends in the direction of physical activity and ends as visual recording. Fold as historic-epistemological coiling By reworking François Boucher ‘La Toilette Intime’ or ‘Une femme qui pisse’ (c. 1760’s) Marianna Ignataki confronts us with refrerences of an epoch that Gilles Deleuze affirms ‘does not refer to an essence, but rather to an operative, function, to a characteristic’, a characteristic that ‘endlessly creates folds’, that while does not ‘invent the thing’ it ‘takes them (Orient, Greek, Roman, Romanesque, Gothic, classical, and we may add, modern, contemporary and so of and so on) to infinity, fold upon fold, fold after fold.’ By bringing a Baroque painting back to life is not the Baroque what is brought back as an event, but the events that the baroque summoned and in this case the fold of the folding fold. If matter (historical, visual) was amassed into these coiling folds, the amassing matter of that fold is the Superfold. The folds in Ignataki’s ‘Adore me’ coil upon history and medium, towards representation and message. By reworking a work product of historic-epistemological coiling the fold is revealed, not only on the suggestiveness of the pastel colours, smeared gouache and color pencil tones, but on the varying surfaces of the baroque topographies and the endless folding of the contemporary also as more than an essence, but as an accumulation of infinite converging events, mediums, strategies and devices. ‘Adore Me’ contextualizes the fold from a Deleuzean point of view, unfolding the baroqueness not only in its image but on its operative function as well. Fold as philosophical cloth Following the path of his previous work series –hovering institutional buildings first followed by empty rooms—Meng Zhigang extends his philosophical questioning to smaller scale items. Obliterated from

his paintings of architectural spaces, furniture appears to pay closer attention to the meaning left unearthed from his Taoist empty spaces. However, as with the ethereal pictures of containment, his painting of furniture throw a new layer of philosophical folding on his own questions that were left unanswered by objects of larger scale. By depicting clothes that disguise the furniture, a new fold is revealed, that of the guessing sight that imagines what lies under the fabric. Like a mask, the blanket covers what was previously removed from his empty-rooms-as-self-portrait, and extend the philosophical mystery by depicting coiling and undulating surfaces that connect with his inner self and with the works that preceded by means of a fold that wraps endlessly endlessly. Furniture covered by philosophical cloths. Philosophical cloth as Superfold.

FOLDING STORY Like the rizhome the fold multiplies within and outside its own ever-expanding form, whether this form is this text that folds and unfolds as the exhibition folds and unfolds taking the form of a precise topographical coordinate where artwork and concept are intertwined as magazine covers and rice paper are repeatedly submitted to the methodical labyrinth of repetitive actions, unequivocally revealing process-driven folds of paper crumbled by the inexorable grasp of manual labour and worn down pages of printed media whose aesthetic prowess has outlasted the predetermined usage of its initial state either as paper sheet or as pure form without any other function than that of being an artwork that is independently from the fact that it still questions the previous folds of the fold, because the fold has the freedom of discarding usefulness or it can become a cloth that hides a secret within the framework of a painting, proclaiming through a sublime code the speechless essence of a state of mind that requires clothing to reveal itself, a state of mind that is willing to show itself by means of the cloth that envelops its body, whether this body is unrecognizable and its completely denied by the presence of the cloth, or if the body is enhanced by the fabric it supports, whether as representation or as physical device while creating an image that folds in multiple directions affecting the mind and the body of the subject under these clothes or the subject that overlooks this dialectic of body and cloth as extension of the body while acknowledging that the body is always subject of multiple forms of interpretation, and these forms of interpretation are enhanced by the devices, vehicles and tools used to understand them, either being analogous devices or activated by the use of digital technologies that can create new pathways for the fold to unfold, projecting through the topos of space and time (time as performance and time as historical reference) creating a flexible cartography of an ever expanding surface.

FOLD / SUPERFOLD Fold Folds travels from space to space. Fold depicts your image somewhere else. Fold is here, not there. Here and there. Fold is Superfold Fold Fold envelops your body. Fold becomes your body. Fold demarks your body. Fold is Superfold. Fold Fold deletes an image. Fold reveals an image. Fold tells a story. Fold is Superfold. Fold Fold covers a material artifact. Fold creates an immaterial artifact. Fold is above everything above nothing. Fold is Superfold Fold Fold bends in history. Fold creates its history. Fold is history. Fold is Superfold.

Superfold: Connective Multiplicities or Coiling Ad Infinitum

超折叠：连接的多重性和盘绕的无限性

Ren Zhitian 任芷田纱幔1 Gauze Curtain 1 Collage with Washed Magazine Covers, Frame 1500 x 1080mm 2014

Ren Zhitian 任芷田纱幔2 Gauze Curtain 2 Collage with Washed Magazine Covers, Frame 1030 x 1490mm 2014

Ren Zhitian 任芷田皮肤尺寸不定宣纸 Skin Rice Paper 2000 x 700mm (folded) 2009

Vega Zaishi Wang 王在实 Jaran Zagaan Aduu Coat, Shirt Variable Sizes 2012 Autumn Winter Collection

Marianna Ignataki Adore Me watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, pastels on paper 770 x 570mm 2014

Meng Zhigang 蒙志刚黄金拍档 Golden Partners Oil on Canvas 940 x1770mm 2014

Ophelia S. Chan 陳秀煒 Untitled Steel stand, camera, acrylic 850 x 350 x 340mm 2014

Ophelia S. Chan 陳秀煒 Untitled Steel stand, monitor 245 x 245 x 1000mm 2014

Bio Meng Zhigang (Guilin, China, 1975) Meng zhigang is an artist Born in Guilin in 1975. After graduating from the environmental Design Department in Guilin University of Technology Meng Zhigang relocated to Beijing where he currently resides and creates his work. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions in 798 Daku Museum and Today Art Museum in Beijing and in group exhibitions in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Wuxi, Hong Kong, Xian, Milan, London and New York. Deeply rooted in philosophical foundations, the paintings of Meng Zhigang create psychological dissections of the space that surrounds us, from the fictional landscapes of his early works, to the ethereal architectural interiors and Institutional Buildings scraped of context and depicted in his recent paintings. http://mengzhigang.com/ Ren Zhitian (b. 1968 Xishui, China) Ren Zhitian is a multidisciplinary artist born in Xishui, Hubei Province. After graduating from Wuhan University in 1989, he has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His works were part of the group exhibition ‘Confronting Anitya—Oriental Experience in Contemporary Art’ presented at the 55th Venice Biennale. Recent exhibitions include ‘Empty and Elegant’ and ‘Scrip and View’ solo shows at Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai, as well as shows at Time Space, Egg Gallery, Shangyuan Art Center, 798 Space, Art Channel, XYZ Gallery, PIFO New Art Gallery, re-C Art Space, the Tjianjing Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Li-Space, Huantie Times Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai, the Seoul Biennale of Calligraphy Art Exhibition, the 1st International Ink Painting Biennale in Shenzhen and the Golden Lianzhou Contemporary Art Exhibition. www.renzhitian.com Vega Zaishi Wang (b. 1985 Liaoning, China) Born in 1985 in Liaoning province, Vega Zaishi Wang moved to Shenzhen with her parents at the age of 8. She left at the tender age of 16 to move to London to study fashion design. For the next six years, Vega studied at both London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, during which she also interned for Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. All of these experiences, combined with the infectious charisma of British culture, inspired Vega to push her creativity to a brand new level. In 2008, she returned to China to establish her eponymous brand VEGA ZAISHI WANG. www.vegawang.com

简介蒙志刚（桂林，中国，1975）孟志刚是1975年生于桂林的艺术家，自从毕业于桂林工业大学的环境设计系，蒙志刚就迁移到北京居住并创作至今。他曾在798大库画廊和北京今日美术馆个展，并在北京、广州、上海、无锡、香港、西安、米兰、伦敦、纽约群展。深植于哲学根基，蒙志刚的绘画作品创造出对我们周围空间的心理学解剖，从他早期作品的虚构地景，到缥缈的建筑室内，到他近期作品中描绘的被剥离环境的机构大楼。混合了对打击乐和武术的痴迷，蒙志刚代表了新一代年轻富有潜力的艺术家将在中国艺坛再添一笔。 http://mengzhigang.com/ 任芷田（1968，中国湖北省浠水）任芷田是出生于中国湖北省浠水的多学科艺术家。1989年毕业于武汉大学。他的作品曾在多个个人及群组展览中展出。他的作品曾作为《无常之常 – 东方经验与当代艺术》群展中的一部分参展于第55届威尼斯双年展。近期展览包括：《表象之轻》和《直观•物语》在上海的Art Labor画廊展出，其他展览曾展出于Time Space, 北京Egg画廊, 北京上苑艺术馆，798艺术空间, 北京艺术通道，XY画廊, PIFO New Art画廊, re-C Art Space, 天津美术学院博物馆, Li-Space, Huantie Times艺术博物馆,上海当代艺术博物馆, 首尔书法艺术双年展,深圳第一届国际墨画双年展，金色连州当代艺术展，等。 www.renzhitian.com 王在实( 1985 辽宁省，中国) Vega王在实1985年出生于辽宁省，8岁时随父母去深圳定居。16岁只身前往英国伦敦学习服装设计。在伦敦时装学院和中央圣马丁艺术与设计学院读书的6年间，Vega曾先后在Alexander McQueen以及Vivienne Westwood工作室实习。所有的这些经历，再结合了英国古老文化的熏陶，赋予了她无限的创造力，使自己的设计不断提升。2008年，Vega学成归国，创立了她的同名品牌VEGA ZAISHI WANG。 www.vegawang.com

Marianna Ignataki (b. 1977 Thessaloniki, Greece) Marianna Ignataki holds a DNSEP in Art from the Saint Etienne Fine Art School in France. She lives and works in Beijing, China. Ignataki has participated in several exhibitions in Europe, China and the US. Recent exhibitions/ projects include: ‘Eagerland’ (group show) at Yan Huang Art Museum, (Beijing 2014), ‘Dialog between Chinese and international artists, Taihang – Huang shan’ (group show) at the Renmin University Museum (Beijing 2014), Artist residency at the 18th Street Arts Center (Los Angeles 2014), The End of Magic (solo show) at Outpost project space (Amsterdam 2012), Women’s lines (group show) at Pantocrator gallery (Barcelona 2012), Beijing Design Week (Beijing 2011), Sphinx (solo show) at Fake Space gallery (Beijing 2011), The Beautiful is just the first degree of the Terrible (group show) at the State Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki 2009), This joke ain’t funny anymore (solo show) at Zina Athanassiadou gallery (Thessaloniki 2009), Women only/ Leonidas Beltsios collection (group show) at Margaris Foundation (Amphilochia 2008), Coitus Interruptus (dual show) at Public room project space (Skopje 2008), 13. Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean (Bari 2008). Ignataki has also participated in several art fairs, including Swab, Amsterdam Showcase και Berliner Liste with Pantocrator gallery, and Art Athina with Zina Athanassiadou gallery and Gazon Rouge/ Loraini Alimantiri gallery. She was recently nominated for the Bellagio Creative Artist Fellowship 2015. www.mariannaignataki.com Ophelia S. Chan (b. 1985 Hong Kong, China) Ophelia S. Chan is a practicing artist and writer currently living between Beijing and Hong Kong. She graduated from Chelsea College of Art and Design (University of the Arts London) with a BA in Fine Art and she obtained a MA in Advance Theatre Studies from Central School of Speech and Drama (University of London). Her works have been exhibited and performed in the UK, Norway and China. She is formerly a participating artist at Parlour Collective (UK) and is currently involved in independent curatorial projects working as part of the Beijing based collective - TRIA PRIMA (CN). http://cargocollective.com/opheliaschan

Marianna Ignataki （1977，塞萨洛尼基，希腊） Marianna Ignataki 曾在圣艾蒂安美术学院学习艺术，并获得法国国家造型美术硕士文凭（DNSEP）。现在在北京生活，工作。 Marianna Ignataki 的作品曾在欧洲、中国和美国等地展览。近期展出作品包括“乡愁国”（群展，炎黄艺术馆，北京，2014）、“中外艺术家对话，太行——黄山”（群展，中国人民大学博物馆，北京，2014）、18街艺术中心（洛杉矶，2014）的艺术家入驻计划、“魔法的终结”（独展，前哨项目空间 Outpost project space ，阿姆斯特丹，2012）、“女人的曲线”（群展，Pantocrator 画廊，巴塞罗那，2012；北京设计周，2011）、“斯芬克斯”（独展，虚假空间画廊，北京，2011）、“美仅是可怖的第一层”（群展，塞萨洛尼基当代艺术馆，2009）、“玩笑已死/不再幽默的玩笑”（Zina Athanassiadou gallery，塞萨洛尼基，2009）、 “唯有女性/Leonidas Beltsios“展（群展，Margaris基金会，阿姆菲洛希亚，2008）、”体外射精“（双人展，公共空间项目，斯科普里，2008）、欧洲及地中海地区青年艺术家双年艺术展（巴里，2008）。 Marianna Ignataki 也参与过许多艺术博览会，包括Swab（阿姆斯特丹陈列展及柏林青年艺术博览会，和 Pantocrator画廊联合举办的展览），由Zina Athanassiadou画廊和 Gazon Rouge/ Loraini Alimantiri画廊联合举办的阿西娜艺术展。近期她被提名为2015年贝拉吉奥创意艺术家荣誉候选人（Bellagio Creative Artist Fellowship 2015）。 www.mariannaignataki.com 陳秀煒（1985-，中国香港）陳秀煒目前是实践艺术家和作家，居住于北京和香港两地。她毕业于伦敦艺术大学的切尔西艺术与设计学院，被授予艺术专业的文学学士学位。之后就读于伦敦大学的中央演讲与戏剧学院并获得硕士学位。她的艺术作品及表演曾在英国、挪威、中国展出。奥菲莉亚之前是Parlour Collective(UK)的成员，现在则参与了一个附属于北京艺术三原素（TRIA PRIMA ）的独立运营项目。 http://cargocollective.com/opheliaschan

Intelligentsia Intelligentsia explores the relationship between art and life, between concepts and creation. Intelligentsia is a space for the conception and diffusion of ideas and their manifestation in the realm of contemporary art. Intelligentsia presents ideas in the form of texts, publications, images, pictures, photographs, paintings, performances, videos, objects, events. Intelligentsia offers collectible materials that communicate the ideas of artistic production. Intelligentsia creates a space for positions and oppositions, for dialogue and contradictions. Intelligentsia is a platform for converging projects, juxtaposing narratives, and conflicting art. Intelligentsia recognizes that diversity of projects create an intelligence of contemporary art. Intelligentsia is concerned with artistic production and artistic process. Intelligentsia is fueled with the intellectual discourse of art. Intelligentsia presents events as artistic production. Intelligentsia is an independent art space in Beijing. 智先画廊智先探索艺术与生活，观念与创作的关系。概念在这一空间中孕育和传播，并以当代艺术的方式得以展现。智先的思想通过文本、出版物、影像、图片、摄影、油画、表演、视频、物体、活动的形式呈现。智先提供具有收藏意义的素材，传播艺术生产的理念。智先的空间兼容了立场与对峙，对话与矛盾。智先作为开放的平台，兼有趋同的项目、并置的叙事、冲突的艺术。智先认识到当代艺术的智慧源于项目的多样性。智先关注艺术生产及其产生过程。智先以艺术的思辨讨论为驱动。智先将活动作为一种艺术生产。智先是位于北京的独立艺术空间。

www.intelligentsiagallery.com intelligentsia.gallery@gmail.com

Acknowledgements / 致谢 Intelligentsia Gallery would like to thank everybody involved in the realization of this exhibition. 智先画廊感谢以下诸位对实现此次展览的帮助： Michelle Garnaut; Geisel Cabrera; Hao Chen / 陈昊; Zhang Yanping / 张燕平; Ronald Frankowski, Joao Dias Pereira, Christian Melz; Li Shan, Amanda Zhang / 小静; Kai Nan / 南开; Guido Tesio; Annie Wang; Natasha Qin / 覃美律; Xu Ruiyu / 徐瑞钰

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