Untold story of how art exhibition was smuggled out of China to the Venice Biennale at height of Sars epidemic
Artist reveals for first time how he disguised artworks as trade shipment to get around quarantine during Sars epidemic, and how artists took circuitous route to Italy to beat health curbs on travel
The 2003 Venice Biennale was going to be a big coming out party for artists from China. But the timing was disastrous. The severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic was raging in China and Hong Kong, forcing countries around the world to impose strict quarantine requirements to halt the spread of the virus.
In the end, the inaugural China Pavilion exhibition in Venice was cancelled because the artists and their artwork were stranded in Beijing. However, one group of artists managed to get their own exhibition, called “Canton Express”, shipped from Guangdong province, and shown in Venice.
This week Zheng Guogu, who was in charge of logistics for the group at the time, revealed to SCMP.com how he managed it. The Yangjiang artist is in Hong Kong for the restaging of the “Canton Express” show at the city’s M+ Pavilion.
“It was smuggling,” says Zheng. “We shipped under the name of an import-export company in Yangjiang – home to many factories shipping products across the world. Quarantine requirements were looser for trade shipments. Maybe it helped that my artwork was actually a fake sample room of kitchen utensils!”
Here’s one Hong Kong art show that would have been ideal handover anniversary highlight
Shipping the art was relatively straightforward compared with how the artists got to Venice.