When Chen Zhen left China in 1986, it had not yet given in to the path of consumption and it was an “excited, open and incontinent” Western society that he discovered in Paris. Putting aside painting to assemble in vast installations the objects that he saw produced there but above all abandoned, the artist will embrace his condition of permanent emigrant, flying from biennials to exhibitions as the recognition of his work grows, not without affirming (during an interview in an airport): “Travel is destabilizing, that’s what stimulates me. » Returning to the installation in France of ten Chinese artists in the years 1980-1990, the exhibition relates this moment of globalization which sees the triumph of contemporary art – and with it the possibility of an international language where express the culture that each individual holds.

Extrait de l'article de Tom Laurent publié dans le N°109 de la revue Art Absolument. Parution le 11 janvier 2024.

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