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| A Discussion on Metaphysics in Art by National Art Theory Circle Assembled at OCAT |
| By ArtZineChina |
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 n June, 20th, 2009, the exhibition “Image Dialectic:The Art of Shu Qun” was held ceremoniously at OCT Contemporary Art Terminal. This is the first significant art exhibition by OCAT this year, and the only big solo exhibition of artist Shu Qun since the 1980s. Taking this opportunity, the sponsor held a seminar tea party on “are metaphysical methods of inquiry still relevant to the discussion of conceptual blind spots” and specially invited the most significant scholars, critics and artists in Chinese contemporary art circle to take part in the discussion during the exhibition.
 The tea party was hosted by Lv Peng, and Zhang Zhiyang, Gao Minglu, Zhu Qingsheng, Fei Dawei, Pi Daojian, Huang Zhuan, Liu Xiaochun, Yi Dan, Wang Mingxian, Zhou Yan, Wang Guangyi, Wang Huangsheng, Yan Shanchun, Ren Jian, Yang Ruichun, Wang Xiaojian, Shi Jian, Lu Hong, Dong Bingfeng, Li Hongyu and others, altogether more than 30 distinguished guests. And the activity was held in a café in hopes that the participants were able to speak their minds freely in a relaxing circumstance.
When the party began, the prolocutor Lv Peng introduced the topic discussed on the opening day of Shu Qun’s solo exhibition: How personal psychological motivation and concern about metaphysics turn to be a universal value, is it possible? Philosopher Zhang Zhiyang responded to the question at first. He believed that metaphysics itself was the biggest blind spot, so it was impossible for metaphysics to provide any blind spot beyond concept; and as for how the artists made use of western philosophy to transfer images, there was not such one-to-one correspondence between western philosophy and image, it was just personal experience and behavior.
Shu Qun thus came to his point that contemporary art should create blind spots of reading. However Zhu Qingsheng mentioned how Chinese contemporary art could develop by following our own cultural style, he believed that the problem of contemporary art should be  a problem of our mark of spirit. Gao Minglu and Huang Zhuan both believed that when reflecting on the philosophical discussion in the 80s, it’s necessary to put it into historical situation at that time because the philosophical problems discussed at the time were not correct in terms of theory, but correct in terms of politics. Huang Zhuan said, “Year 1979, 1985 and 1987 are all focal points of art in the 1980s. And in the specific Chinese art context, many valuable questions were forced to hang up, such as language of art, political nature of art (art of no standpoint) etc.. These are all fundamental problems that Chinese contemporary art should face, and hope they could take good opportunity to be carried out again at present. Thus some scholar also mentioned what resources of contemporary thoughts could we make use of to help establish independent theoretical logic of Chinese contemporary art.
Gao Minglu and Lv Peng argued about art market intensively during the tea party. Gao Minglu questioned about the possibility of discussing capital and art market, however Lv Peng believed that art marketization was inescapable. And Huang Zhuan also pointed out that the art marketization should not only be a problem of morality to criticize, but it was actually a problem of consumption, therefore it is more necessary to find a theory to support and to interpret. According to his observation of western contemporary art, Gao Minglu spoke out his analysis, “It is impossible for Chinese contemporary art to separate itself completely from the market to create works that seem to  be absolute irrelevant to the society as western art does. However it is also impossible for Chinese contemporary art to get involved into marketization completely and to follow market operating method. Between the two extremes, there should be a third space which relates to both market and government, and is established based on independent human values of the intelligentsia.” Then Huang Zhuan responded quickly, “The independent judgment should also include the estimate of market.”
A significant phenomenon rising in recent years was also discussed in the tea party that western scholars and critics began to pay close intension to Chinese contemporary art. It was different from previous art activities such as visiting art galleries or embassies, it revealed that developing for more than 30 years, Chinese contemporary art began to draw attention of western intelligentsia gradually, and the tendency was just demonstrated by “International Summit Conference of Chinese Contemporary Art” held in London recently and “China Forum” held in Beijing in May, 2009.
The discussion in the tea party went far beyond the planned themes, it concerned about all kinds of problems that Chinese contemporary art should face and possible solutions. The tea party started from 15:00 on 21st, and continued for 6 hours until 21:00 in the evening.
Below are some pictures from the discussion at OCT Center in Shenzhen:
Gao Minglu speaks
Huang Zhuan speaks
Liu Xiaochun speaks
Zhang Zhiyang speacks
Host Lv Peng speaks
Members in the discussion
Related Link:
www.artzinechina.com/display_vol_aid783_en.html 
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