ā á à KENBO Art Journey from East to West

curators: Stanisław Ruksza, Andrzej Wasilewski

ā — “What is it?” “What the hell are you talking about?” — “Ah, oh... I think I understand.” à — “Well, now you know it's art!” *

The exhibition KENBO (Liang Guojian) is a cross-sectional overview of the work of the Chinese artist and an intentional encounter between East and West, both in the context of artistic practices and philosophical or activist attitudes.

KENBO was born in 1973 at the time of the Cultural Revolution — one of the most destructive periods for art in history. He grew up in rural areas in southern China (Foshan in the Guangdong region). From an early age, he was educated in traditional Chinese painting and studied at his ancestral home. Due to his mature attitude and love of classical literature and history, classmates already at the age of seventeen gave him the nickname “KENBO” (“old Ken”). This nickname later became his artistic pseudonym. His work spans a variety of fields, including design, art books, experimental ink painting, installations, performance, video, and sound art.

Since 2007, KENBO has been traveling and studying abroad in Europe and China, constantly learning and absorbing the differences or connections of Eastern and Western cultures. It combines traditional Chinese ink painting on rice paper with the Chan culture (from which Japanese Zen is derived), creating a unique, personal language of painting. In addition, KENBO is actively involved in local community building, participates in rural revitalization activities, and engages in the collection and publication of local historical and cultural materials. “I am full of questions about the world, and art is my way of asking them — an instinctive reaction, like a surprising fourth tone in Mandarin,” says the artist.

The exhibition is conceived as a journey through successive episodes of the artist's work and life as if through chapters of a book. It begins with paintings from the artist's first trips to Europe and various periods of creativity, referring to the stylistics of traditional painting, as well as sculptures, installations and documentation of socially engaged performances. A significant part of the exhibition is occupied by books created by KENBO. From those traditionally presenting calligraphy and the paintings derived from it (shuhua — tongyuan “writing and painting share the same origin”), to the most recent ones, where he consciously operates with destruction and iconoclastic meanings, both in the context of memory, transience, the theme of ritual burning, but also the current catastrophism of the period of the decline of the Anthropocene.

The show is crowned by a series of works on paper that combines the context of Szczecin and the artist's origin, entitled Oder River and Chinese Ink: A record of an irreversible and variable state of time, created every day during the 123 days of the exhibition.

* The title ā á à is taken from the way intonation is written over vowels, with which we denote the pitch and melody of the voice in Hanyu pinyin — the standard system of Latinization of the Mandarin language. The above four sentences are an “indomitable” interpretation of the inexpressible nature of abstract art in the artist's language. Using the four tones of pinyin (ā, á,, à), they evocatively illustrate in the artist's mind the whole process of communing with art: from the initial, bewildered question (ā), through the confusion in the attempt to understand (á), followed by the birth of apparent understanding (), until the moment of final recognition and delight (à).

Project coordination: Andrzej Witczak Exhibition production: Adam Dzidziszewski, Robert Konopski, Alex Vialitchanka Promotion & communication: Anna Konopka

TRAFO team: Director: Stanisław Ruksza Program department: Ada Kusiak, Kaciaryna Bychak, Dominika Głowala, Marta Miszuk, Andrzej Witczak Accounting and administration: Katarzyna Stachera, Katarzyna Drozd, Adam Dzidziszewski, Anna Ściłowska, Mariusz Milczarek, Marta Walaszek