This collective exhibition shines a spotlight on the upcoming contemporary Chinese art scene with works by 21 artists, drawing a subjective portrait for the first time in France. The opening of China to the world, environmental upheavals and the transformation of lifestyles in Chinese society are all topics that have been addressed in the contemporary creative output by this young generation of artists, born in the late 1970s through to the early 1990s, as China experienced a great economic boom.

Under the theme of the character 目 (mù), meaning “eye”, with reference both to vision and the eye’s capacity to organise reality, the rich selection of works picked out by the Sino-French curators covers a broad spectrum of practices — video, painting, sculpture, installations, photography and new media — with emphasis on creations in recent years. In the post-Covid international scene, these works have not enjoyed much visibility abroad, but the Centre Pompidou has bolstered ties with this art scene during this period, thanks to the Centre Pompidou × West Bund Museum Project partnership in Shanghai. 

Amid this teeming diversity, the exhibition homes in on salient themes regarding the artists’ practices. Core issues explored in the works of many of these artists include Chinese interaction with the rest of the world, thoughts about globalisation and global challenges, especially environmental breakdown. 

This generation of creators has also tapped into fertile themes such as the major changes in Chinese society, especially incessant transformations in lifestyle in ever-sprawling, urban agglomerations and the shifting paradigm of regulation of various flows and activities. A sense of China’s extraordinarily rich cultural and aesthetic heritage provides structure to the work of certain artists, who strive to place it in perspective and give it a fresh twist in a contemporary context. 

Lastly, the exhibition devotes a large section to new media, a particularly dynamic field in a country that has undergone swift, massive and intense digitisation of both its economy and society. 

Artists exhibited: Aaajiao, Alice Chen, Chen Fei, Chen Wei, Chu Yun, Cui Jie, Hao Liang, Hu Xiaoyuan, Li Ming, Liu Chuang, Lu Pingyuan, LuYang, Miao Ying, Nabuqi, Qiu Xiaofei, Shen Xin, Xun Sun, Wan Yang, Yao Qingmei, Yu Ji and Zhang Ding. 

After the exhibition, a considerable number of works representative of this generation of artists will be added to the Centre Pompidou collection.