Light in the Endless Black: Stars-1979, The Beginnings of Chinese Contemporary Art │ 無盡黑夜裏的光 星星－1979，中國當代藝術的源起

Drink Reception 開幕酒會 6:30pm
Lecture 講座 7:00pm
Close 結束 8:30pm

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the famed 1979 Stars Exhibition, the Stars Art Foundation and Asia Society Hong Kong co-present a panel discussion between Huang Rui, Ma Desheng, Li Xianting (via Skype) and Pi Li, moderated by Anthony Yung. This collaborative discussion presents a unique opportunity to hear first-hand accounts of a pivotal turning point in China’s Contemporary Art history, The Stars Exhibition, as well as contemporary observations on the event and its impact on future generations of Chinese artists.

今年是著名的1979年《星星美展》40週年，星星藝術基金會與亞洲協會香港中心藉此聯合舉辦相關主題座談會，由翁子健主持，與黃銳、馬德升、栗憲庭（Skype視像會議）、皮力對談。此次座談會千載難逢，十分難得邀請到各位重量級嘉賓同台講述《星星美展》的故事－一個被視為中國當代藝術史重要轉折點的事件，並通過當今視角回顧此事件對後世藝術家的影響。

Huang Rui (Born 1952 in Beijing, China where he lives and works) is an artist that crosses the boundaries of painting, installation, sculpture, photography and performance art. He is well known for his influential role as the founder and one of the main leaders of the Stars Group 1979-1983 and the early art avant-garde, as well as a founder of the 798 Art’s District in 2002. During the late 1970s his figurative paintings showed the everyday sentiments and strife of his generation. In the early 1980s Huang Rui moved away from his earlier figurative painting style and took a radical artistic position of abstraction derived from Chinese concepts. This study of “Space” from the 1980s until today has been a continuous experimentation infused with Taoist and Zen concepts but void of spiritual ideology. Huang Rui has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Rencontres d’Arles Photography Festival, Groninger Museum, Netherlands; Cobra Museum, Amsterdam; the China Institute, New York; He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen; and the Guangdong Museum of Art, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; and his works are included in other public and private collections worldwide.

黃銳（1952年生於中國北京，現於北京工作和生活）是一位多元藝術家，其作品橫跨繪畫、裝置、雕塑、攝影與行為藝術的領域。他是「星星畫會」（活躍於1979年至1983年）的創始人以及主要領軍人物之一，也因2002年創辦「798藝術區」而聞名。70年代末期，他的具象派畫作主要展示了他這一代的人民日常生活中的情感與紛爭。80年代初，黃銳擺脫了早期的具象繪畫風格，轉而從中華文化的概念中衍生出抽象的表現形式，採取了激進的抽象藝術主張。從80年代直至今天，他不停歇地對「空間」進行研究，一直進行著融合了「道教」和「禪宗」知識理念的實驗，但并不強調唯心主義的意識形態。黃銳的作品被威尼斯雙年展、阿爾勒攝影節、荷蘭格羅寧格博物館、阿姆斯特丹眼鏡蛇博物館、紐約華美協進社、深圳何香凝美術館、廣東美術館、紐約所羅門·R·古根漢美術館、香港M+博物館展出，並被收藏於全球各地公共藏品和私人藏品。

Ma Desheng (Born 1952 in China, lives and works in France) One of the most captivating artists from China, Ma’s early Stars Period (星星) woodblock prints of 1979-1981 publicly confronted and challenged the system. Ma says, “We wanted to express democracy and freedom. And even beauty. At that time beauty was not fashionable.” In 1982, Ma started to work in ink exploring figurative abstraction in his “transcendental bodyscapes” that tread the realms of both painting and calligraphy, and in the following three years from 1983 to 1985 he created a gigantic abstract ink painting at 180 x 5000cm. Ma left China for Europe in 1985, and then moved to the US where he was tragically involved in a car accident paralyzing him from the waist down. The years that followed were difficult. He moved back to France and began to paint in acrylic on canvas. Working from a wheelchair, he uses brush extensions to paint his massive canvasses. One of Ma’s subjects, since the Stars years in China, has been his Rock painting series. Ma explains, “Rocks existed before humans.” Ma’s rocks take on a multitude of ideas - balance and harmony alongside the difficulty in movement. They feel almost human yet clumsy, light yet heavy. They express the human condition and his deep underlying philosophies. Ma Desheng is a published poet and his artworks are collected by the M+ Museum, Hong Kong and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, The British Museum, London, Museum Cernuschi, Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, l’Association du Museum d’Art Contemporaine de Chamalières, France, Museum of Oxford, London, Museum de Melun, France, Asian Art Museum, Nice, Museum and Art Gallery of The University of Hong Kong.

馬德升（1952年生於中國北京，現於法國工作和生活）是中國最具魅力的藝術家之一。1979年至1981年的「星星」時期，馬氏創作了其早期的木刻版畫，旨在公然對抗并挑戰當時的政局。他闡述道：「我們希望表達民主與自由，甚至美。在那時美並不怎麼流行。」1982年開始用水墨探索介於抽象與具象的創作風格，融合了繪畫與書法的技法，創造出「超凡的抽象与人體景觀」的作品。1983至1985年創作了一幅180公分乘50米的巨幅抽象山水畫。1985年，馬德升遠赴歐洲，再之後移居到美國，卻不幸遭遇車禍，導致下半身癱瘓。之後的幾年日子變得很艱苦，他搬回法國，開始用丙烯在布面作畫。他坐在輪椅上，用伸長的畫筆在巨大的畫布上塗抹。自「星星」時期結束以來，馬氏創作的主題之一便是他的「石頭」系列。馬德升說：「石頭在地球上比人類更早存在。」。他的石頭呈現出多重理念 - 平衡與和諧以及不易移動，它們既擬人化又顯得笨拙，既感覺輕盈又顯得沉重，表達了人類境況和藝術家深層次的哲學思想。馬德升同時也是一位著名詩人，他的藝術作品被收藏於香港M+博物館、巴黎蓬皮杜中心、倫敦大英博物館、巴黎賽努奇博物館、巴黎市現代藝術博物館、法國查邁利維斯當代歷史博物館協會、倫敦牛津博物館、法國默倫博物館、尼斯亞洲藝術館、香港大學美術博物館。

Li Xianting (Born 1949 in Jilin, China, lives and works in Beijing, China) is an independent art critic and curator of contemporary Chinese art in China. Graduated from Chinese Painting Department, Central Academy of Fine Art in 1978, he became the editor of Fine Art Magazine until 1983. From 1985 to 1989 he was the editor of the authoritative China Fine Art Newspaper, and was active as independent critic and curator based in Beijing henceforth. In the late seventies and eighties, Li Xianting was involved in advocating and introducing the avant-garde art form in China. He organized the "Stars exhibition" in 1979, and coined the terms "Cynical Realism" and "Political Pop". He also lectured and curated international shows, including the China Pavilion at the 45th Venice Biennale (1995). He is now the director of Songzhuang Art Museum and Li Xianting's Film Fund.

栗憲庭（1949年出生於中國吉林，現於中國北京工作和生活）是一位中國當代藝術獨立策展人，是二十世紀80年代、90年代時期的重要評論家，對中國現代藝術運動的發生和發展具有重要而深遠的影響。1978年畢業於中央美術學院國畫系。80年代初栗憲庭在官方《美術》雜誌上首先介紹了「星星畫會」。1985年至1989年擔任《中國美術報》編輯，隨後成為獨立藝術評論家與策展人，活躍至今。栗憲庭參與組織1979年《星星畫展》， 隨後推出了「政治波普」、「玩世現實主義」等藝術流派，並參與教學與策劃國際性展覽，其中包括1995年第45屆威尼斯雙年展。栗憲庭現分別擔任宋莊美術館總監與栗憲庭電影基金總監。

Pi Li is the Sigg Senior Curator of M+, a visual culture museum in Hong Kong. He previously served as the deputy executive director of the art administration department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA, 2001-2012); the co-founder and director of Boers-Li Gallery (2005-2012) in Beijing, former Universal Studios-Beijing in Beijing. Exhibitions Pi Li curated include Right is Wrong: Four Decades of Chinese Art in M+ Sigg Collection at Whitworth Gallery in Manchester and Bildmuseet in Umea 2015 and 2014; Under Construction at Tokyo Opera Museum in 2002; Moist: Asia-Pacific Media Art at the Beijing Millennium Monument Art Museum in 2002; Fantasy Zone at Art Museum of DongA Daily in 2001 and Beijing Modern Art Center in 2002; Image is Power at He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen in 2002. He was the curator of Media City Seoul in 2006. He has also served as curator for the Shanghai Biennial in 2002; and Allôrs la Chine at Centre Georges Pompidou in 2003. Publications include From Action to Concept (2015), Farewell to Moralism (2018). Pi Li earned his PhD degree in art history from the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

皮力是香港視覺文化博物館M+的高級策展人。他在2001年至2012年期間擔任中國中央美術學院藝術行政部門的副執行總監。 2005年，皮力在北京創立了博而勵畫廊（Boers-Li Gallery，原名Universal Studios-Beijing），並在2005年至2012年期間擔任該機構的總監。皮力策劃的展覽包括2015年在英國曼徹斯特惠特沃斯美術館（Whitworth Gallery）及2014年在瑞典默奧大學視覺博物館（Bildmuseet）舉辦的《M＋希克藏品：中國當代藝術四十年》、2002年於日本東京歌劇博物館舉辦的《Under Construction》、2002年於北京中華世紀壇藝術館舉辦的《潤化:亞太媒體藝術》、2002年於北京現代藝術中心及2001年於南韓東亞日報博物館舉辦的《Fantasy Zone》，以及2002年於深圳何香凝美術館舉辦的《圖像就是力量》。2006年，皮力擔任《媒體城市首爾 2006》的策展人。此外，他還曾擔任2002年上海雙年展和2003年《中國怎麼樣?》（法國蓬皮杜藝術中心）的助理策展人。皮力出版的著作包括《從行動到觀念》（2015年）和《向道德主義告別》（2018年）等。皮力在中央美術學院獲得藝術史博士學位。

Based in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Anthony T.K. Yung is AAA's Senior Researcher specializing in Greater China. Representative projects include Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990, which features over one hundred filmed interviews of artists, critics, and scholars. Yung was recipient of the Fourth Yishu Award for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art (2014) and served as the co-curator of A Hundred Years of Shame Songs of Resistance and Scenarios for Chinese Nations (2015, Para Site Art Space, Hong Kong).

翁子健是亞洲藝術文獻庫的資深研究員，致力於大中華區研究項目，主要活躍於香港與上海。他曾負責文獻庫的大型研究項目「未來的材料：記錄1980-1990的中國當代藝術」，於此項目期間跟過百位藝術家、評論家、學者及其他藝術界人士進行訪談，並收集了大量關於20世紀70年代末到90年代初的中國當代藝術的研究材料。此外，他是《藝術》雜誌第四屆中國當代藝術評論寫作獎的得主（2014年），並擔任《土尾世界—抵抗的轉喻和中華國家想像》展覽的聯合策展人（2015 年，香港Para Site 藝術空間）。

Co-presented by
聯合呈獻