FORGET ABOUT THE ubiquitous red paper cutouts that grace major Chinese art shows. At this year's Venice Biennale, which officially opens on June 12, mainland representatives will include a convoy of peasants from northern Anhui province.
But these are no ordinary peasants, they are farmers with an artistic and futuristic streak. Their work, entitled Unidentified Flying Object (UFO), borrows more from the future than from some pastoral legacy.
'Over the past few years, peasants have created strange things such as planes and flying saucers,' says Sun Yuan who worked on UFO with fellow artist Peng Yu, known for her installation Honey, which involved the severed head of an old man and the corpse of a stillborn child. Other installations by Peng concocted with Sun involved dead Siamese twins and pit bulls.
Peng and Sun believe their collaboration with the Anhui farmers perfectly suits the theme of China's inaugural pavilion, Virgin Garden: Emersion, at the 51st Biennale di Venezia.
'It is the first time China has its own pavilion at the biennale and we don't know what the outcome or reaction will be from the international community,' Sun says. 'This is similar to the saucer the peasants are testing in Venice, they don't know if it will fly or if it won't.'
Although this is the first year of formal mainland participation, over the past 10 years, the Venice Biennale has honoured and exhibited the work of many mainland artists. In 1999, Cai Guoqiang was awarded the biennale's highest honour, the Golden Lion, for his installation work entitled Venice's Rent Collection Courtyard. That same year, the late Harald Szeemann's exhibition, APERTO Over All, launched a Chinese coup d'etat with its presentation of nearly 20 mainland artists.
Cai, who is curator of this year's show, believes that the realisation of a formal pavilion in the summer of 2003 was thwarted by a one-two punch of Sars and a sense that 'the biennale office did not see enough commitment on China's end'.
