About Being Information
Located in CAMP 3399 in Xuhui District, Shanghai, SSSSTART, a contemporary art project space, kicks off an on-going research exhibition project named BEING INFORMATION, which aims to present a unique perspective through a serious of theme-driven experimental exhibitions.
Documenta, born in 1955 in Kassel, Germany, can be regarded as one of the most important origins where we began to talk about the issue of "art archive". The significance of art archive in art system is reflected in many aspects. Firstly, as a carrier of art, archive liberates art from the conventional aesthetics, implying its vanguard character. The success of Documenta, on the other hand, meets the cultural and political needs of post-war Germany (and even the divided Europe) back to the world stage. Moreover, contemporary artists are now faced with the demand of the archival documentation of the artworks. As the academic art system very often uses "archives" as a way of reading and understanding (for example many institutions such as art museum, and curators of various biennale), whether the artists are sensitive to their surroundings, and whether they are disciplined or self-disciplined according to the surroundings and amend their artworks into "archives". In fact, the form of art has gone through some major changes along its history, which are all strongly related to the changes of the way of how art system processes.
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