More photos are on Cantocore Photo Album

Huangpu Village Project Group (Wang Ge, Deer Fang and more), video installation, 2008
黄埔村录像计划小组（王铬和方鹿等） 黄埔村录像计划 录像装置 2008

JD Beltran, Downtown Mirror, video installation, 2008
JD Beltran, 城市镜， 录像装置，2008

Kathrine Worel， Domestic Bliss, single channel video and photos, 2008
Kathrine Worel 家庭福佑 单频道录像和照片 2008

Zhou Tao, One Day, single channel video and photos, 2007
周滔 某一天 单频道录像和照片 2007

David Johnson, Made In China, Installation, 2008
David Johnson 中国制造 装置 2008

Lin Fangsuo, Exploitation, video Installation, 2007
林芳所 剥削 录像装置 2007

Lin Fang Suo and Deer Fang, 林芳所和方鹿

Deer Fang, Pierre Picard and Huang Xiaopeng 方鹿、石头和黄小鹏

Cao Zhiling，Jon Phillips, Deer Fang, Qiu Qiu, Pierre Picard
曹芷玲, 方力中，方鹿，邱丘，石头

Feng, 阿峰

Above is the full PDF of the show booklet. The physical copies are running low, so if you want to print this out, please go ahead! All the content is available for your use as long as you link back to this booklet and/or this post.

Inside the booklet are short paragraphs about each work, bios for all participating artists, and then the show statements by myself and Woo Jay. All the text is also in English and Chinese. The show statements are soon to be published along with interviews about the project in Art Map magazine.

I presented in Kansas City this last friday and made a larger write-up on my website. Here is the slide deck I used which has a bunch of Cantocore Import photos:

Opening Remix Networks at Nelson-Atkins Museum for Electromediascope

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: art media)

Here is the basic 6th grader breakdown of my presentation:

Oh, and I forgot to give a summary of my talk last night: I build remix communities which make systems for producing objects. Currently, I’m making cultural remixes.

It took a big journey for me to attempt to get to the Cantocore Export opening last night in Guangzhou. I made it in at 11:45 PM to find only a handful of friends at the Ping Pong Bar and I got to see some quick pictures of what I missed. Well, I tried to get to the opening, and let’s just say I got back in time!

Anyway, Lu and I are going to the exhibition today to take some pictures today and will get them posted up here shortly. I’m very interested to see how the show came out since I’ve been AWOL in USA for last couple of weeks and Lu has been an editor at Art Map in Beijing while teaching at CAFA’s experimental video lab.

I just updated all the artist pages, projects, about page with Woo Jay’s exhibition statement and a big huge thanks to all contributors on the credits page.

And, don’t sit down too long, the 2nd half of the show, Cantocore Export, opens this Sunday, September 21 from 8 - 10 PM in Guangzhou at Ping Pong Space (see right-hand sidebar for address). Artists include JD. Beltran, Lin Fang Suo 林芳所, Huang Pu Village Video Group 黄埔村项目小组, Kathrine Worel, Zhou Tao 周滔, and David Johnson.

Following the opening, the Stardusted video screening is then from 11 PM until midnight in the Ping Pong Bar.

Here is a snippet of Woo Jay’s writing, Reconsidering Daily Experience in English.

Globalization and pluralism as concepts are quickly becoming clichés. The Chinese contemporary art trend has developed so rapidly that it has almost caught up with its international counterparts much like the huge trade surplus in Sino-US trade. Why do we then still invite seven San Francisco-based artists to come to Canton and make a “deficit trade” through exchange? Since 1849, when the first batch of “Mai Ju Chai” (Contracted Labors) from Taishan, Siyi and Zhongshan landed in San Francisco, did any city in the world mean so much to Canton. At the same time, Bruce Lee and Chinatown, two of the biggest symbols of San Francisco Chinese ethnicity, had become the condensed imagination for Americans to conceptualize how a modern China might look.

And the intro paragraph in Chinese:

在全球化、多元主义这些概念快成陈词滥调，中国当代艺术的走向，迅猛得都快赶上中美贸易领域的巨大顺差时，我们为什么还要邀请七位旧金山的艺术家来中国做一次“逆差型”的交流呢？自第一批台山、四邑和中山的“卖猪仔”在1894年登陆旧金山以来，全世界也许没有哪一座城市和广东如此咫尺天涯。而旧金山的李小龙和唐人街也成为了美国对于现代中国的浓缩想象。当我那些中山和四邑来的远亲，讲述着他们的旧金山表亲时，口气轻松得仿佛只是家长里短，而大洋彼岸的金门桥对我来说，却依然陌生而又遥远。直到有天在上海新天地和一个来自旧金山的年轻ABC喝酒，听着他用比我更标准的粤语，和更更标准的带着粤语口音的英语聊天时，我才突然捕捉到了一丝真正从旧金山飘来的湿濡气息。

Here are shots from installation and a few from the exhibition aftermath.

I wrote a blog post over on my blog about bamboo structures. Here is an excerpt:

Bamboo scaffolding is a low resolution grid used to produce a higher resolution structure. Living in Guangzhou is inspirational because of the scale of buildings, real imaginations constructed, and accessibility to cheap materials and constant laborers.

And, Lu has been posting some amazing pictures too like:

Bamboooooo

Print Shop

For all you needing images out there, we have just up pushed out images for David Johnson who will be exhibiting a work titled “Made in China” and Guy Overfelt who is getting some magic smoke fabricated.

Guy Overfelt's Untitled (Up in Smoke) Sketch

Please check out the press section to help blog and promote this show!

Deer Fan'g News Reenactment

JD Beltran's Airplane Installation

Justin Hoover's 100 Performances

GUANGZHOU, CHINA & SAN FRANCISCO, USA - August 20, 2008

Today the Cantocore Project and Ping Pong Space announced the upcoming contemporary art show, Cantocore: Import/Export in Guangzhou, China during September 2008. This initial show features contemporary artists from San Francisco and Guangzhou producing artwork around the more detailed relationship between import and export of culture and materials between Guangzhou, China and San Francisco. This first part of the Cantocore exhibition, Import, begins with an opening on Friday, September 5 from 8 PM at the brand new Ping Pong Space in Guangzhou, China. The show continues until Tuesday, September 16 with gallery hours of 2:00 PM until 10:00 PM daily. The second part of the show, Export, opens Sunday, September 21 at 8 PM until 10 PM when a special video screening developed by San Francisco’s Mission 17 titled “Stardusted” will be presented at the Ping Pong Bar from 10 PM until 11PM. The second half, Export, continues daily until Saturday, October 4 with daily hours from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

The Cantocore Import/Export exhibition examines, through applied art practice, the relationship between import and export of culture between Guangzhou and San Francisco by asking a simple phrase: Are you Cantocore? Guangzhou, also called Canton, is the third most populous city in China and its province, Guangdong, is a major manufacturer of textiles and electronics for export to the United States. San Francisco has the largest import of Chinese immigrants of any US city, primarily from the Guangdong province. Chinese immigrants also created the largest Chinatown in North America in San Francisco. However, understanding the conceptual framework of Cantocore is not limited to geographic divisions, nor reductive dichotomies driven by post-colonial stereotypes such as East vs. West, nor Olympic nationalism pridefully paramount in China vs. US “non-political” sports matches. Cantocore is the reality of life versus the theory set forth by jurisdictions where people live.

The artists in the Cantocore exhibition were tasked with creating projects which explore import and export, materially and conceptually. Practically, how can one’s artwork be actualized either through fabrication locally in Guangzhou or imported from San Francisco? Guidelines for the creation of the work were left alone since modern strategies for creating artwork such as remaking, remixing, interpreting, pirating, translating, copying, and appropriating content, already espouse the Cantocore style. After the proposals were received from invited artists, curation of works took place based upon the processes, scope, location of artists and available resources to constitute this first Cantocore dialogue.

Curation for this show has been a group effort by Deer Fang, Justin Hoover, and Jon Phillips from the Cantocore Project and Wu Jay from Ping Pong Space (PPS). Layout and Design for the show is done by Pierre Picard (PPS) while wordsmithing has been handled by Nikita Choi (PPS), Jon Phillips and Deer Fang.

Exhibition Venue
#60 Xian Lie Dong Heng Lu Ping Pong Space, Guangzhou

Cantocore Import
September 6th - 26th, 2008
Opening: Friday, September 5th, 8PM – 10 PM.
Drinks after at Ping Pong Bar.

Cantocore Export
September 22nd - October 2nd, 2008
Opening: Sunday, September 21st, 8PM - 10PM

Video Screening “Stardusted” at Ping Pong Bar
September 21st 2008, 10PM – 11PM

Regular Gallery Hours
Tuesday - Sunday 2 PM – 10 PM
Gallery Closed on Monday

Ping Pong Bar Open Everyday

硬核广州
2008年8月20日于广州和旧金山发布

今天硬核广州项目和乒乓空间宣布当代艺术展 “硬核广州：进口/出口” 将在2008年9月到10月在广州乒乓空间展出。这个展览主要展出来自旧金山和广州两地当代艺术家的作品，这些作品将围绕进出口的文化和物质关系而创作。 整个展览分为两部份：2008年9月5日－9月26日为“进口”部分，开幕式为9月5日晚上8点；2008年9月21日－10月2日为“出口”部分，开幕式为9月21日晚上8点；晚上10点到11点，还将在乒乓酒吧举行由旧金山MISSION17策划的《星尘》录像作品的放映活动。

“硬核广州 进口/出口”展览通过艺术实践检验联系着广州和旧金山的进出口文化， 并提出这样的问题：你是硬核广州人吗？ 广州是中国第三大人口城市，其省会广东省是主要出口美国纺织品和电子产品的生产地。同时旧金山是主要“进口”中国移民的美国城市。这些移民也主要来自广东地区。中国移民在旧金山建立了北美最大的唐人街。然而，理解“硬核广州”的概念框架不能仅仅局限于地理上的分界，也不应做简单后殖民的分裂模式：东方和西方，或国家主义至上的奥林匹克中的中国对美国，即所谓“非政治化的比赛”。“硬核广州”是生活的现实与人们生活管辖区内理论的对抗。

“硬核广州”展览中的艺术家创作的作品从观念上和物质上探讨进/出口文化。如何通过广州本地制作，或从旧金山进口来实现艺术计划。当代艺术策略中的重做，重混，演绎，翻版，翻译，复制和挪用也充分体验了“硬核广州”的风格。在收到邀请艺术家的计划书后，我们根据作品的实施过程、规模和资源来构成第一次的“硬核广州”对话。

此展览是方鹿，Justin Hoover, Jon Phillips和乒乓空间吴捷的集体协作的成果。展览和出版由Pierre Picard （乒乓空间）设计，文字由蔡影茜（乒乓空间），Jon Phillips和方鹿负责。

展出地点：广州市天河区先烈东横路60号乒乓空间

“硬核广州－进口”
展期： 2008年9月6日－9月26日
开幕：2008年9月5日 （星期五）晚上8点到10点

“硬核广州－出口”
展期：2008年9月22日－ 10月2日
开幕： 2008年9月21日（星期天） 晚上8点到10点

《星尘》展映及交流
2008年9月21日（星期天） 晚上10点到11点
地点：乒乓酒吧

乒乓空间开放时间：星期二到星期天，下午2点到晚上10点
乒乓空间逢周一休息，乒乓酒吧全年无休

List of Artists in Cantocore Import
“硬核广州- 进口”艺术家名单

Deer Fang 方鹿
Justin Hoover
Huang Xiaopeng 黄小鹏
Misako Inaoka
Guy Overfelt
Jon Phillips

List of Artists in Cantocore Export
“硬核广州- 出口”艺术家名单

JD. Beltran
Lin Fang Suo 林芳所
Huang Pu Village Video Group 黄埔村项目小组
Kathrine Worel
Zhou Tao 周滔
David Johnson

Links 链结

Cantocore Exhibition and Research Site
硬核广州展览和研究网站
http://cantocore.com
Ping Pong Space
乒乓空间
Ping Pong Space at www.facebook.com

About Cantocore

Garage Biennale and the Fabricatorz bring you Cantocore, a research project investigating contemporary art and culture between Canton (Guangzhou) and cities around the world. The initial project is a contemporary art exhibition with two different versions of the same show initially in Guangzhou, China and then in San Francisco, USA.

关于硬核广州

一个探讨广州和世界其它城市在当代艺术和文化联系的研究项目，由Garage双年展和制作者工作组共同发起。第一个项目是分别在广州和旧金山举行的同一主题不同版本的两个展览。

http://cantocore.com
http://garagebiennale.com
http://fabricatorz.com

About Ping Pong Space

What is Ping Pong? 乒乓是什么？

一个面向公众，致力艺术与创意文化推广和中西交流的综合艺术空间，充当城市文化的核心推动力和交流平台，探索全球化和本土城市文化蓬勃发展的背景之下，创作者和城市文化消费者、文化艺术活动和观众的全新关系。

A public oriented multifunction space, which aims at promoting art and creative culture while strengthen cultural exchange. It functions as a communication and dynamic platform for urban culture movement, and will explore a new relationship between creators and consumers, artistic events and audiences in the context of globalization and rapid local culture development.

Ping Pong Strategy 乒乓的策略

乒乓的策略是通过从物质到观念的各种创造性形式，以开放性态度容纳并探讨艺术与创意文化的多样类别。（这些跨领域的活动在媒介上体现为：影像、装置、架上、表演艺术、设计、雕塑和出版）。

From material to conception all these creative forms, we accept a wide range categories in art and creative culture with openness. (These events encompass the full spectrum of contemporary media: video and image, installation, contemporary paintings, stage and performance, sculpture and publishing.)

Press Contacts

Guangzhou
Nikita Choi
Ping Pong Space
+86 20 2829 6300
nikitachoi@126.com

San Francisco
Justin Hoover
+1 (415) 425-1647
info@cantocore.com

Press Kit

http://cantocore.com/press

###

Cantocore Guangzhou Press as PDF file

The name for the show, Cantocore, comes from our friend Alex Yeung who founded a band called Say Bok Gwai in San Francisco, California that creates music in the Cantocore style. It is such an apt term to describe the lifestyle of so many. Here is a description of the band Say Bok Gwai:

Say Bok Gwai combines hardcore, metal, punk, thrash music with Cantonese vocals. A unique blend of two cultures, Say Bok Gwai covers a variety of the harder musical genres and has songs about food, differing cultural perspectives, Chinese American pride, white America, mating, metal, politics, and more.

Check out this video made by Danwei TV about Say Bok Gwai:

The Cantocore Home Concert Preview is coming up this WED, JULY 23rd from 7-9 PM as said before. And, no event can be had without also posting it up on facebook and upcoming. Join at the aforementioned links:

If you want to help spread the news about the event, do it with the container image on this post.

加入”硬核广州”预展音乐会

如之前所述，硬核广州预展音乐会将于本周三、7月23日七点至九点举行。请通过之前提及的链接加入到我们中来。如果您有意愿帮助传播这次项目的新闻信息，可以通过这篇布告上的集装箱图片来传播。