Nothing zen about Zhen

Xu Zhen is one of the few artists to enjoy fame and wealth in his early 20s. He was the youngest Chinese artist to participate in the Venice Biennale in 2001, and four years later, he exhibited his video “Shouting” in the first Chinese pavilion at the biennale.
But he found himself losing his curiosity and interest as an independent artist. So he announced his decision to change direction and founded a company, MadeIn, to produce “contemporary art creations”.
Xu, now 36, calls the two-story warehouse, located in an industrial zone in Shanghai, the place where he diffuses his art practice and “changes the world”.
“It’s really boring to live without changing the world,” Xu once said about his art engagement. Looking back at the brave claim, the Shanghai native says he still believes he was not exaggerating and has implemented his art idealism into China’s contemporary art scene.
Since its birth, MadeIn, which is the short form of “made in China” and “made in Xu Zhen”, has showcased its works at Shanghai Art Gallery, Long March Space in Beijing, James Cohan Gallery in New York and the Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland.
MadeIn’s latest stop is Beijing’s Ullens Centre of Contemporary Art.
“Curiosity is crucial for me. When I started preparing for this exhibition, I was curious to see what it would be like. And surprisingly, I reviewed my past works and MadeIn, and found out that what I have done reflected the changes of the Chinese contemporary art scene. I feel very excited about that discovery,” says Xu.
Titled “Xu Zhen: A MadeIn Company Production,” the exhibition, which features with more than 50 installations, 10 videos, 40 paintings and several performances, offers a retrospective, exploring the artist’s practice since 1997 and his art extension through “MadeIn.”
The exhibition includes a number of his landmark works, such as the video “Shouting” (1998), in which the artist shouts on crowded city streets, only to capture the shock and dismay of hundreds of passers-by.
In a major commission for the lobby, Xu literally juxtaposes East and West by mounting headless replicas of key Hellenistic and Buddhist figures neck to neck.
Another highlight is a large, life-size replica of a convenience store, filled with shelves of empty packaging entitled “ShangArt Supermarket”
“Since the early 2000s, Xu Zhen, with his unique combination of scepticism and action, contemplation and involvement, has produced some of the most compelling and self knowing art contemporary China has ever seen. We look forward to presenting his considerable output to audiences who might not yet be familiar with the arc of his career,” says Philip Tinari, director of the UCCA, who is co-curating the show with Paul Tsai.

A TRIP TO THE STORE
“Xu Zhen: A MadeIn Company Production” runs through April 20. Find out more at www.UCCA.org.cn