目 Chine A new generation of artists
9 Oct 2024 - 3 Feb 2025
This collective exhibition shines a spotlight on the upcoming contemporary Chinese art scene with works by 21 artists, drawing a subjective portrait for the first time in France. The opening of China to the world, environmental upheavals and the transformation of lifestyles in Chinese society are all topics that have been addressed in the contemporary creative output by this young generation of artists, born in the late 1970s through to the early 1990s, as China experienced a great economic boom.
Under the theme of the character 目 (mù), meaning “eye”, with reference both to vision and the eye’s capacity to organise reality, the rich selection of works picked out by the Sino-French curators covers a broad spectrum of practices — video, painting, sculpture, installations, photography and new media — with emphasis on creations in recent years. In the post-Covid international scene, these works have not enjoyed much visibility abroad, but the Centre Pompidou has bolstered ties with this art scene during this period, thanks to the Centre Pompidou × West Bund Museum Project partnership in Shanghai.
Amid this teeming diversity, the exhibition homes in on salient themes regarding the artists’ practices. Core issues explored in the works of many of these artists include Chinese interaction with the rest of the world, thoughts about globalisation and global challenges, especially environmental breakdown.
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In 1969, President Georges Pompidou decided to provide France with a venue like no other: a centre for art and culture capable of housing both the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, with an international dimension, a large public library (the future Bpi), a centre for industrial creation and a centre for musical research and creation (Ircam), all together in one and the same building situated in the heart of the capital.
It was an immediate success as soon as it opened. Whether people came out of curiosity, as amateurs or specialists, from close at hand or farther afield, the Centre Pompidou welcomed everyone. The venue saw itself as a "cultural machine" abolishing the frontiers between disciplines and between generations, and quickly became one of the five most-visited monuments in Paris.