Contemporary Chinese art challenging clichés and exploring new realities with Paris show

Ai Weiwei is everywhere in Paris – from a theatrical installation of bamboo and silk kites at the ultra-chic Bon Marché department store to the 6.5-meter-high artificial Tree made of industrial bolts and petrified wood. The latter is on show at a new six-month programme presenting 20 key works from the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s Collection of Chinese contemporary art.

The provocative artist’s works are guaranteed to attract interest but visitors would do well to also pay a visit to the Fondation’s pool-level galleries, where a three-month exhibition of works by 12 mainland artists from a younger generation offers thought-provoking perspectives on the shifting values of China’s breakneck cultural and economic transformation.

The exhibition, titled “Bentu” – which translates as “of this earth” – opened in late January and is co-organised with the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA) of Beijing.

UCCA director and pre-eminent Chinese contemporary art expert, Philip Tinari, who co-curated the show with Fondation exhibition curator Laurence Bossé, says he was especially keen to avoid a stereotypical “eroticising” of Chinese art. Instead, the exhibition focuses on what it means to be an artist in China today, both in terms of its national political system and a global audience.

“The choice of artists who represent a diverse range of generations and approaches also helps challenge clichés and expectations,” says Bossé.

“Most importantly, we wanted to show how the exhibits have less to do with artistic movements and trends and are more about individual personalities who have the freedom to chose the media and techniques they want to use.”