BALD GIRLS "PINK SOLUTION" FUNDACIÓN LIA BOGOTÁ
"PINK SOLUTION" - AN UNUSUAL TITLE. WHAT IS IT?
Pink, actually magenta, is the brand of a group of Chinese feminist artists called "Bald Girls”, i.e., Xiao Lu, Jiny Lan and Li Xinmo, who presented their art works at Iberia Art Center in 798 Beijing under the title “Bald Girls”, which has incidentally become the collective name of this art group.
“Bald Girls” was a provocation with the use of various art media. Their artworks are related to the complex female role, both outside and inside the family, as seen from cultural, social and psychological perspectives, and they depict how women are forced to deal with changing society and its social consequences.
Feminist art is not a phenomenon unique to the West in the 1960/70s－it can be founded in every decade in the past 40 years and in most countries where an international profile for contemporary art has been developed. 40 years later, it happened also in China in 2012. “Bald Girls” continued their battle in 2013 in Beijing with international artists and new art language, which was manifest in cross-boarder art at Zajia.
2014 is a special year for the first Chinese feminist art group. It is now the third year and “Bald Girls” has already made some domestic experiences of exhibitions. Looking for new challenges, it has embarked on a dialogue tour with artists from all around the world. The tour will involve three continents: Europe, South America and Asia, offering three different cultural discourses. Finishing the "Bald Girls - Timelag”, an independent part of the " Single Mom" exhibition at the Women's Museum in Bonn, "Bald Girls" is now ready for the exhibition in Bogotá, Colombia - “Pink Solution”.
Why does “Bald Girls” choose such stereotypical “soft”, ”feminine" pink color? “Bald Girls” stands for soft femininity with strong political statement and rebel against the existing social convention at the same time. Mingling on important social issue, they try to find a different solution to the male method: “pink solution".
Not only “Bald Girls” from China, but also three artists from three different South American countries join in the special transcultural dialogue: the Guatemalans artist, Regina José Glindo, and the Colombian artist, Sandra Miranda Pattin and the Argentinian artist, Sol Storni.
Belonging to the economically fast developing regions, both China and Latin America have bitter semi-colonial or colonial past but different cultural consensus and religions: post-communism and post - colonialism vs Confucianism and Catholicism.
“Pink Solution” shows primarily actual art works on these two continents.
Concentrating on the theme, the exhibition will show a wall painting by Li Xinmo, “Pink Solution - Living without violence “, and a performance work with Japanese artist in 2009 called "The place where ethnicity and politics vanish”. As everyone knows, Japan invaded China during World War II and caused enormous suffering and trauma in China. Both countries have currently a very strained relationship. In this work, Li Xinmo explores issues of ethnicity and identity and tries to overcome the nationalism against Japan.
The Chinese artist Jiny Lan, who lives for most of the time in Germany, reflects that the discrimination against the female system in China is rooted in the bloodline that is overstressed in the Confucian tradition. Jiny Lan has created in 2014 a series of works that not only address the misguided traditional thinking, but also provide a constructive proposal to solve the problem.
As the first exchange between South America and China in such form, “Pink Solution” is going to show some classic art works by two important artists from both cultures. On one side, there is the Chinese artist Xiao Lu. In 1989, prior to the Tiananmen Square Protests, she shot at her artwork "Dialogue" at the opening of the first contemporary art exhibition at the Chinese National Art Museum. This was broadcast worldwide, making this act a symbol of the Chinese democracy movement.
On another side, there is the Guatemalan artist Regina José Galindo. Her performance "Who can deny these Traces? " in 1999 was a protest against the participation of the former dictator in the presidential elections. It became one of the most sensational art events, providing South American female artists with a unique opportunity to air their views and even to influence social and political causes. At the same time she is going to show her classic works and recent video work “Alud” where her body is covered with mud and people driven by an empathy start cleaning it and “Suelo común” regarding the unidentified bodies on what is called the common tombs and that are a found in her country and many others in Latin America
The Argentinian artist Sol Storni considers in her works “Corazón a la deriva” and ” Trapitos” the relationship between gender and genre as well as women artists as producers of images in contrast to the image of woman in the works on the walls. They are about images of women, specially their faces or bodies works or woman’s creative production.
"Corazon a la deriva" is an itinerary action done where for 7 days the artist walk through the city and asks people to listen to their heart beats with the stethoscope, a dialogue is created by stoping people and forced them to be conscious of their being alive, the artist then responses to the dialogue by drawing something on the floor as a "shadow" of the person, like a prove of that person's life and projection on the space.
Trapitos al Sol is a work where many people participated, it speaks about abuse to women in it's various ways, the physical and the physiological one and how by making it public through art it can be healed and transformed.
Interventions of each person are done on white women underwear.
As Colombia-born artist Sandra‘s installation ”Credere” has experienced violence by own place and reflects the vulnerability of the country suffering violence. She builds a 488 floor made of beeswax tiles, being back from abroad involved looking at a country that was being rebuilt after an era of violence that had forced many people to lose their faith and to leave the country. Violence has left an indelible mark that is still very visible in people but it has been slowly replaced by progress and hope.
Finally, there is a joint performance by the artists from both continents who will try to present their unique “pink solution”, actually an epiphany of this exhibition.
" Bald Girls - Pink Solution " is truly a cultural dialogue that aims to build with three local artists a new peaceful “ Pink World”, a world without suppression and violence.
26.05.2014
Pink, actually magenta, is the brand of a group of Chinese feminist artists called "Bald Girls”, i.e., Xiao Lu, Jiny Lan and Li Xinmo, who presented their art works at Iberia Art Center in 798 Beijing under the title “Bald Girls”, which has incidentally become the collective name of this art group.
“Bald Girls” was a provocation with the use of various art media. Their artworks are related to the complex female role, both outside and inside the family, as seen from cultural, social and psychological perspectives, and they depict how women are forced to deal with changing society and its social consequences.
Feminist art is not a phenomenon unique to the West in the 1960/70s－it can be founded in every decade in the past 40 years and in most countries where an international profile for contemporary art has been developed. 40 years later, it happened also in China in 2012. “Bald Girls” continued their battle in 2013 in Beijing with international artists and new art language, which was manifest in cross-boarder art at Zajia.
2014 is a special year for the first Chinese feminist art group. It is now the third year and “Bald Girls” has already made some domestic experiences of exhibitions. Looking for new challenges, it has embarked on a dialogue tour with artists from all around the world. The tour will involve three continents: Europe, South America and Asia, offering three different cultural discourses. Finishing the "Bald Girls - Timelag”, an independent part of the " Single Mom" exhibition at the Women's Museum in Bonn, "Bald Girls" is now ready for the exhibition in Bogotá, Colombia - “Pink Solution”.
Why does “Bald Girls” choose such stereotypical “soft”, ”feminine" pink color? “Bald Girls” stands for soft femininity with strong political statement and rebel against the existing social convention at the same time. Mingling on important social issue, they try to find a different solution to the male method: “pink solution".
Not only “Bald Girls” from China, but also three artists from three different South American countries join in the special transcultural dialogue: the Guatemalans artist, Regina José Glindo, and the Colombian artist, Sandra Miranda Pattin and the Argentinian artist, Sol Storni.
Belonging to the economically fast developing regions, both China and Latin America have bitter semi-colonial or colonial past but different cultural consensus and religions: post-communism and post - colonialism vs Confucianism and Catholicism.
“Pink Solution” shows primarily actual art works on these two continents.
Concentrating on the theme, the exhibition will show a wall painting by Li Xinmo, “Pink Solution - Living without violence “, and a performance work with Japanese artist in 2009 called "The place where ethnicity and politics vanish”. As everyone knows, Japan invaded China during World War II and caused enormous suffering and trauma in China. Both countries have currently a very strained relationship. In this work, Li Xinmo explores issues of ethnicity and identity and tries to overcome the nationalism against Japan.
The Chinese artist Jiny Lan, who lives for most of the time in Germany, reflects that the discrimination against the female system in China is rooted in the bloodline that is overstressed in the Confucian tradition. Jiny Lan has created in 2014 a series of works that not only address the misguided traditional thinking, but also provide a constructive proposal to solve the problem.
As the first exchange between South America and China in such form, “Pink Solution” is going to show some classic art works by two important artists from both cultures. On one side, there is the Chinese artist Xiao Lu. In 1989, prior to the Tiananmen Square Protests, she shot at her artwork "Dialogue" at the opening of the first contemporary art exhibition at the Chinese National Art Museum. This was broadcast worldwide, making this act a symbol of the Chinese democracy movement.
On another side, there is the Guatemalan artist Regina José Galindo. Her performance "Who can deny these Traces? " in 1999 was a protest against the participation of the former dictator in the presidential elections. It became one of the most sensational art events, providing South American female artists with a unique opportunity to air their views and even to influence social and political causes. At the same time she is going to show her classic works and recent video work “Alud” where her body is covered with mud and people driven by an empathy start cleaning it and “Suelo común” regarding the unidentified bodies on what is called the common tombs and that are a found in her country and many others in Latin America
The Argentinian artist Sol Storni considers in her works “Corazón a la deriva” and ” Trapitos” the relationship between gender and genre as well as women artists as producers of images in contrast to the image of woman in the works on the walls. They are about images of women, specially their faces or bodies works or woman’s creative production.
"Corazon a la deriva" is an itinerary action done where for 7 days the artist walk through the city and asks people to listen to their heart beats with the stethoscope, a dialogue is created by stoping people and forced them to be conscious of their being alive, the artist then responses to the dialogue by drawing something on the floor as a "shadow" of the person, like a prove of that person's life and projection on the space.
Trapitos al Sol is a work where many people participated, it speaks about abuse to women in it's various ways, the physical and the physiological one and how by making it public through art it can be healed and transformed.
Interventions of each person are done on white women underwear.
As Colombia-born artist Sandra‘s installation ”Credere” has experienced violence by own place and reflects the vulnerability of the country suffering violence. She builds a 488 floor made of beeswax tiles, being back from abroad involved looking at a country that was being rebuilt after an era of violence that had forced many people to lose their faith and to leave the country. Violence has left an indelible mark that is still very visible in people but it has been slowly replaced by progress and hope.
Finally, there is a joint performance by the artists from both continents who will try to present their unique “pink solution”, actually an epiphany of this exhibition.
" Bald Girls - Pink Solution " is truly a cultural dialogue that aims to build with three local artists a new peaceful “ Pink World”, a world without suppression and violence.
26.05.2014
