Flash Art Books is pleased to announce States of tension, an English monograph on the work of Chinese artist Hu Xiaoyuan, featuring an essay by Nicolas Bourriaud and a conversation between Gea Politi and the artist. A panel discussion between the authors will be presented at Westbund Art & Design, Shanghai on November 9th at 13:00, as well as a Q&A with the audience.
“What is the major art issue of our day and age? In the eclectic proliferation of present-day artistic output, most commentators have given up asking themselves this question… In the classical aesthetics hailing from the Greco-Latin philosophical realm, the Beautiful never comes from matter, but from form: it is a principle of unification, a process aimed at rendering the world intelligible, once grasped within an “idea” or a geometry capable of reinstating its coherence. This is tantamount to saying that, when confronted with the question of multitude, which is a global issue, Western thinking finds itself in an awkward position. And that the Chinese “great form” has many things to bring to it. ” — Excerpt from the essay by Nicolas Bourriaud
