The 4th Guangzhou Triennial will be different from any previous international biennial or triennial of any region, which is going to be divided into three sessions including an Inauguration Exhibition, Project Exhibition and Theme Exhibition in accordance with the development of the reconstruction and expansion of Guangdong Museum of Art . Raising its curtain with the Inauguration Exhibition and the Theme Exhibition forum, regarding five project exhibitions from home and abroad as case study and exploring process, ending with the Theme Exhibition as well as its forum, the 4th Guangzhou Triennial will be a dynamic triennial that cross three years. Inauguration Exhibition Exhibition Theme: Meta-Question : Back to the Museum Per Se Exhibition Time : September 22, 2011 to November 27, 2011 Exhibition Venue: Guangdong Museum of Art (Yanyu Road 38 of Ersha Island in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong) Curators: Luo Yiping, Yang Xiaoyan, Zhang Kexin, Zhang Yun Nominators: Peter Noever (Austria), Jiang Jiehong (China), Ashish Rajadhyaksha (India), Pooja Sood (India), Benjamin Weil (USA). Artist exhibited: •Chinese artists: Feng Feng, Group of Feng Feng (Including Deng Biwen, Feng Feng, Guo Qian, Liu Qingyuan, Yang Min, Yang Xiaoman, Yang Yifei), Yang Yong, Zheng Guogu, Zhang Lujiang, Zhang Xinmin, Qiu Zhijie, Sui Jianguo, Miu Xiaochun. •Foreign artists: Aris Kalaizis (Greece), Ranbir Kaleka (India), Ram Katzir (Holland), Mani Kaul (India), Jannis Kounellis (Italy), Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba (Japan, Koen Vanmechelen (Belgium). •Members of H-Box program: Cao Fei (China), Nikhil Chopra and & Munir Kabani (India), Cliff Evans (USA), Mark Lewis (Canada), Hwayeon Nam (Korea), Sara Ramo (Spain), Julika Rudelius (Germany), Wang Jianwei (China). •Territory Movement (ASEAN and China——10+1 Art Strategic Exhibition ): Tun Win Aung& Wah Nu (Burma), Mark Salvatus (Philippines), Andree Weschler (Singapore), Jeremy Hiah (Singapore), Michael Lee (Singapore), Kamin Lertchaiprasert (Thailand), Amrit Chusuwan (Thailand), Maitree Siriboon (Thailand), Pham Ngoc Duong (Vietnam), RichardStreitmatter-Tran (Vietnam), HeriDono (Indonesia), Indieguerillas (Indonesia), Dyatmiko Bawono, The Santi Ariestyowantis. The 4th Guangzhou Triennial Exhibition Inauguration Exhibition Theme Philosophers have long raised questions about “the basics” so-called, such as “essence and phenomenon,” “the exception and the rule,” “existing and deriving,” “form and material,” “langue et parole,” and so on. Even now these themes continue to be elaborated and explored. Taking the Guangdong Museum of Art’s imminent expansion as a point of departure, the Inauguration Exhibition of the Fourth Guangzhou Triennial will turn the museum itself into one such “basic issue”. With “demolition” and “construction” serving as the key words, we will be pursuing the many “basic questions” of the cultural logic behind its transformation from the traditional to the contemporary. Chinese contemporary art is “derived” from extremely unusual historical circumstances, both international and domestic, under unprecedented cultural phenomena that are both multidimensional and fragmentary. If some philosophical language insists upon logical expression, then contemporary art, by contrast, emphasizes the critical construction of reality and the practice-based research into the nature of art. Contemporary art thereby reveals the struggles between culture and power; while at the same time it distills and manifests the spiritual fruits and visual creations that are happening now and pointing us towards the future. As an official item in the Guangdong Province Outline of the Plan to Build Culture and Strengthen the Province (2011-2020), the reconstruction and expansion of the Guangdong Museum of Art is expected to be completed in 2013. Following the progress of this project from beginning to end, the Triennial will occur in three phases, comprising an Inauguration Exhibition, Projects Exhibition, and Theme Exhibition. The purpose is to manifest materially the various social and cultural issues evoked by the Triennale’s site. Amongst these are responses to the many paradoxes brought to both human society and the natural environment by the rational civilization of the post-Enlightenment West, as well as reflections on the transformations of thought and values in China for the last hundred years since the Revolution of 1911. It is worth noting that the “derivation” of art is a negotiation between many forces of the times; and this is especially true for contemporary art. As Henri Bergson wrote: “The boundaries between things and their environments cannot be very obvious. Things in the universe are intimately related. The constancy of action and reaction is not enough to prove that between things there does not exist the precise boundaries that we force upon them.” Therefore, based upon the Museum’s ostensibly simple undertaking of “demolition” and “construction”, we have grounds for the organization of one exhibition related to visual thoughts occurring successively, one after the other; with one in-depth and persistent intellectual interrogation arising after another. We will reflect upon the artistic expressions that have happened, are happening, and will continue to happen, as well as the relationships they maintain to the latest trends in history, philosophy, society, culture, tradition, contemporaneity, religion, technology, nature, ecology and many others within the global discourse of Modernity. Since “demolition” and “construction” already hint at the historical progress of cultural deconstruction and reconstruction, we must urgently begin within the Museum itself to search for the spiritual essence of contemporary culture and the origin of its creative energy; that is, to search for the heterogeneous time-spaces of discursive concepts and their ever-fading boundaries. Project Exhibition There are five project exhibitions among the 4th Guangzhou Triennial, which will be held gradually during 2012 to 2013. 4/2012. Expanded Exhibition of the Parallel Exhibition of the 54th Venice Biennial.Hosted by Guangdong Museum of Art. Curator：Wang Lin Venue of exhibition：Guangdong Museum of Art 7/2012. “The Third Nature: Rebuild by China” Curator：Gao Ling Venue of exhibition：Guangdong Museum of Art 7/2012. “Rebuild the spatial relationships of the paper and ink dimension Curator：Luo Yiping Venue of exhibition：Guangdong Museum of Art 4/2012. Exhibition Theme：Undetermined Venue of exhibition：United Kingdom 6/2013. Exhibition Theme：Selected Venue of exhibition：USA