Chen Zhen

Chen Zhen (1955-2000) Un village sans frontières (A Village Without Borders) wooden chair and wax candles 27 x 12 x 12in. (68.6 x 30.5 x 30.5cm.) Executed in 2000 Galleria Continua, San Gimignano. Acquired from the above by the present owner. PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE GRAZIELLA LONARDI BUONTEMPO 'It is interesting to withdraw from one's own usual context and meet a new world, especially today, when cultural and ideological Hybridisation has become an irreversible fact. The problem is not just that of understanding the work of art superficially, but also to try to effectively understand it with maximum clues. A quote from Chinese army strategy techniques and symptomatic of my attitude is often used in different contexts: 'The winner is the one who masters the two sides of the battlefield'. Part of my research is in rereading Chinese culture in a Western context.' (Chen quoted in H. Hou, 'Entropy, Chinese Artists, Western Art Institutions: A New Internationalism 1994', H. Wu (ed.), Contemporary Chinese Art Primary Documents, New York, 2010, pp. 249-250.)

Chen Zhen (1955-2000) Chair of Concentration 1996 wooden chair, Chinese chamber pots, metal bar, audio player and electrical components 180 by 106 by 60 cm. 68.5 by 43.3 by 25.6 in. This work was executed in 1996 and is unique. Provenance Art & Public, Geneva Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2000 Exhibited Geneva, Art & Public, Nightly Imprecations , 2000

Chen Zhen (1955-2000) Un-interrupted Voice signed 'CHEN-ZHEN' (on the left edge of the bed) metal bed, cowhide, wood, bells and string 58¾ x 59 1/8 x 30¼in. (149 x 150 x 77cm.) Executed in 1998 Acquired directly from the artist. Chen Zhen was an artist who brilliantly bridged Chinese aesthetics and philosophies with Western art practices; and Un-interrupted Voice is a work that bears exemplary witness to such quality. This rare example from Chen's Daily Incantation series consists of three wooden chamber pots attached to a board with metal fasteners. The pots instantly resemble Buddhist bells that signal practitioners to their daily prayers, expressing a meditative element and sense of austerity reminiscent of monastic life. At the same time, the pots are a personal symbol for the artist, a reference to a childhood memory where noises from the cleaning of chamber pots were intermingled with mandatory reciting of Mao's Little Red Book. Chen's elevation of the chamber pot to the level of a religious object thus has a decidedly subversive edge, championing the most mundane object of material culture and bodily necessity to evoke a forgotten tradition of worship, meditation and communal ritual. Chen's works may have their roots in Daoism but his move to Paris in 1986 had a significant impact on his work as he ceased painting to concentrate on mixed media installation. Since leaving China, Chen became increasingly engaged with the disjunction of cultural differences and expectations between East and West. Having later exhibited at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, at the First Shanghai Biennial in 1996, and in venues throughout Europe, Asia and North America, Chen's oeuvre can be seen as a reaction against the cultural ideology of his youth, as well as his struggle to find the spirituality of the old China which he thought had been suppressed under Communism and the Cultural Revolution. By incorporating found objects laden with symbolic meanings, Chen challenged his viewer to immerse himself or herself into his world, a world in which humour and science, and in particular medicine, collide with the mythologies of the East and West. Therefore, despite the simplicity of the materials, Un-interrupted Voice is thick with cultural references and personal history. Un-interrupted Voice ultimately speaks of Chen's desire to heal his audience's world physically, mentally and spiritually.

LOT 135 CHEN ZHEN 1955-2000 DIVINE JUDGMENT (NINE PANELS) executed in 1992 aluminum, newspaper ashes, Plexiglas, serigraphy, acrylic on woodboard, plastic film, fibreglass, cotton cloth, plastic skull each: 160 (H) by 60 by 62 cm.; 63 (H) by 23 5/8 by 24 3/8 in. overall: 220 (H) by 606 by 62 cm,; 86 5/8 (H) by 238 5/8 by 24 3/8 in.

Lot Description CHEN ZHEN (1955-2000) Lands-objects-cape métal, verre, terre, objets divers, néon et peinture 110 x 100 x 30 cm. (43¼ x 39 3/8 x 11¾ in.) Réalisé en 1995. Provenance Galerie Hussenot, Paris Acquis auprès de celle-ci par la propriétaire actuel Exhibited Paris, Galerie Hussenot, Chen Zhen, septembre-octobre1995 Post-Lot Text 'LANDS-OBJECTS-CAPE; METAL, GLASS, GROUND, VARIOUS OBJECTS, NEONLIGHT AND PAINTING. View Lot Notes › L'oeuvre est accompagnée d'un certificat d'authenticité et d'undessin signés par l'artiste, et sera incluse dans le catalogueraisonné actuellement en préparation par l'Association des Amis deChen Zhen. Pour Chen Zhen, dont on évoque souvent l'intérêt pour laphilosophie et la médecine chinoises (l'artiste, issu d'une grandelignée de médecins, en utilisera les principes pour soigner samaladie), le système de représentation du monde ne doit pas êtrepensé comme gravitant exclusivement autour de l'homme. Ce centre sesitue plutôt dans une dynamique relationnelle qui unit troisentités : l'homme, la nature et les objets. Pour l'artiste, l'artest l'autre nom de ce centre ; il fait figure de point deconvergence et lie l'un à l'autre chacun de ces trois pôles. Dèslors, le travail de Chen Zhen ne peut que passer par le dialogue etl'interaction, la mise en relation et la communion : 'un artvéritable [est] un dialogue secret, une réflexion mentale, uneprière muette.' (Chen Zhen cité in David Rosenberg et Xu Min(dir.), Chen Zhen. Invocation of Washing Fire, Paris, 2003). Au sein de cette relation, l'objet semble avoir été détourné de sonessence première, comme réduit en esclavage par la société deconsommation, fait prisonnier d'un système utilitariste dans lequelil apparaît toujours comme un moyen, jamais une fin. L'enjeu deChen Zhen va donc résider dans un processus de revalorisation :'l'objet est un enfant de l'homme. Il est produit, consommé jeté,récupéré, exposé, conservé, momifié, mis à distance. Il est prisdans des cycles naturels, culturels et économiques, symboliques etartistiques... J'essaie de créer pour l'objet un nouveau destin,afin que son histoire ne soit pas terminée. [...] Je voudraislaisser l'objet - témoin/victime de notre société - revivre unenouvelle fois spirituellement et dialoguer intimement avec l'hommeet la nature.' (ibid.) Dans Lands-objects-cape, des objets industriels (ustensiles decuisine, canette, chaussure, raquette, etc.) apparaissent couvertsde cendre, usés, reposant dans leur dernier sommeil aprè une vie deconsommation : ils ne servent plus à rien, ils n'ont plusd'utilité. Pourtant, présentés dans leur aquarium de verre, cesobjets sont mis en relief, tout comme ils sont mis en lumière parle néon qui projette sur eux un éclairage nouveau, inédit. C'estcette deuxième vie qui est donnée à voir dans Lands-objects-cape,dans laquelle les objets, ayant rompu avec le cycle court de leurfonction utilitaire, en ont engendré un nouveau, plus long, etd'ordre symbolique cette fois-ci : 'l'objet devient anonyme enperdant son identité passée et revit mentalement une nouvellefois.' (ibid.) For Chen Zhen, whose deep interest in Chinese philosophy andmedicine is often mentioned (the artist, born into a long line ofdoctors, would use its principles to treat his illness), the systemfor representing the world should not be thought of as revolvingexclusively around humans. Instead, the centre is located in adynamic relationship between three entities: humans, nature andobjects. For the artist, art is another name for this centre,representing a point of convergence and binding each of thesepoints to the others. Chen Zhen's work therefore necessarilyinvolves dialogue and interaction, contact and communion: 'real art[is] a secret dialogue, a mental reflection, a mute prayer.' (ChenZhen quoted in David Rosenberg and Xu Min (dir.), Chen Zhen.Invocation of Washing Fire, Paris, 2003). Within this relationship, the object seems to have been divertedfrom its initial essence, as if thrown into slavery by consumersociety, held prisoner by a utilitarian system in which it alwaysappears as a means and never an end. Chen Zhen's challengetherefore lay in a process of revaluation: 'the object is a 'Childof Man'. It is produced, consumed, thrown out, recycled, exhibited,conserved, mummified, kept at a distance... It is trapped innatural, cultural and economic, symbolic and artistic cycles I tryto create a new destiny for the object, so that its story is notover. [...] I would like to allow the object - a witness/victim ofour society - to live again spiritually and communicate intimatelywith mankind and nature.' (ibid.) In Lands-objects-cape, industrial objects (cooking utensils, a can,a shoe, a racket, etc.) appear to be covered in ash, worn out,lying in their final resting place after a life of consumption, nolonger good for anything, no longer useful. Presented in theirglass aquarium, however, these objects are showcased, just as theyare highlighted by the neon which literally puts them in acompletely new light. It is this second life which is revealed inLands-objects-cape, in which the objects, having broken away fromthe short cycle of their utilitarian function, have created a newone, longer this time and of a symbolic kind: "the object becomesanonymous, losing its past identity and lives once again mentally"(ibid.)