Liu Ding, Transition Products, 2006, Vista dell’allestimento negli spazi della Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino.

Jiang Zhi, Rainbow No.4, C-Print 2005-2006, 120X180 cm.

Yang Yong, The cruel diary of youth – The dusk of gods, 2000, Photograph, 115x76 cm.

Xu Zhen, In Just a Blink of an Eye, 2007, co-presented by PERFORMA and Long March Project, at James Cohan Gallery as part of PERFORMA07.

Lee Hyungkoo, Felis Catus Animatus, 2006, Mus Animatus, 2006, Vista dell’allestimento negli spazi della Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino.

Teppei Kaneuji, Tower, 2006.

Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
Via Modane 16
10141 Torino
+39-011-3797616
Alllooksame? / Tutttoguale? —
Art from China, Japan and Korea
November 8, 2006-
February 11, 2007

Alllooksame? / Tutttuguale? is an exhibition aimed at emphasizing the complexity of the art scene in China, Japan and Korea from a Western point of view. Such an approach shows how difficult it can be for a non-Asian curator to set aside his prejudices and find a thread across the different identities of the three countries, which are already intertwined on a historical and linguistic level, but completely different, or even opposed, in terms of culture and creativity. The title, Alllooksame? / Tutttuguale?, was borrowed from an Internet site that was created by a young Japanese — partly as a joke, partly to celebrate the stereotype of “diversity at any cost” while underlining the significant difference between prejudice and racism.

The purpose of this show is not to overcome prejudices - on the contrary, it is aimed at emphasizing how the West continues to be influenced by prejudices and common sense. The artists shown here are the opposite of what the title claims — yet, at the same time, their work is often untranslatable in terms of contemporary Western art. What they all share is the complete autonomy of their language, both from the West and from each other. Nevertheless, one cannot but look at them within the framework we Westerners view as the chaotic, terrifying Asian development. While the Western look focuses on the singularity of the work of art, on its uniqueness, the artists from these three nations/geographic areas reaffirm their look on the world as something completely different - they are interested in capturing the landscape in its entirety rather than its details. What is exemplary here is the constant change in Chinese culture that is reflected in contemporary art, or the linguistic simplification typical of Korean art, while Japan’s art looks at the gap between tradition and the contemporary world.

As a curator, I did not aim at creating a harmonious picture, nor at taking stock of the situation of art in these three countries, but tried to let these three languages collide, mingle and reveal themselves just the way they are, without trying to erase their incomprehensibility to the Western eye. In shaping this project, I tried to suspend my qualitative judgment, and followed other criteria. The Asian subject, in particular the subjects living in these three environments that have been reunited in this exhibition, sees the world as a circle, while the Westerner sees it as a line. So Alllooksame? / Tutttuguale? is an attempt, or better an experiment, at reading a circle through a line, or putting a line across a circle. Also, in thinking about this exhibition, I borrowed one of the techniques of Chinese literary criticism, “painting dragon pupils”, i.e. trying, as risky as it may be, to extract what to me looked like the important elements of a new generation of artists.

— Francesco Bonami, 2007

The exhibition, curated by Francesco Bonami, unites 40 artists with Asian roots, seemingly bound together by history and language yet culturally and creatively frequently at variance from one another.

The title of the exhibition has been borrowed from the web site www.alllooksame.com, set up by a youngster in Japan, partly as a joke and partly to rejoice the stereotype of diversity at any cost, while also inevitably highlighting the contrasting characteristics of prejudice and racism. Alllooksame? / Tutttuguale? humors the way Westerners may have difficulty in distinguishing the features, traditions and lifestyles of Chinese, Japanese and Korean people. Contrary to its title, the exhibition attempts to break through the generalist lines of thought about these countries and reveal new, multiple visions of three countries that have seen and are still seeing breathtaking change and development both socially and politically.

The show aims to illustrate the contrasting and experimental sides of Asia and, especially in the light of the many exhibitions about China in recent years, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo hopes to provide a more complete picture of contemporary art in Asia through bodies of work by the new generation of artists from China, Japan and Korea — none of whom will have grown up with a feeling of inferiority towards the Western world that would have affected the people of these countries in the past. Together, the artists from these three countries are able to offer multiple views of the entire landscape in which they live, rather than a detailed one-sided one.

The works in the show range in media and include artists / works such as Korean artist Lee Yong Baek’s Angel Soldiers video with images of rich, colorful flowerbeds, out of which soldiers slowly emerge wearing flower print camouflage uniforms, while fellow Korean Lee Hyungkoo’s presents marionette-like sculptures of the skeletons of Western cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny and Wiley Coyote. The Chinese artist Shi Yong presents a series of light boxes that offer a nocturnal view of the tips of some of Shanghai’s towering skyscrapers and the photographs of the Chinese artist Hu Yang illustrate the extremely rich or extremely modest interiors of private homes in Shanghai. Japanese artist Sayaka Akiyama, who is presenting a site specific piece for the show, carefully embroiders routes and landscapes on road maps with brightly coloured thread. Another Japanese artist, Aida Makoto, presents a video of a comical and highly improbable Bin Laden.

The façade of the Fondazione’s centre in Turin will be part covered with a giant photograph, by Chinese artist Jiang Zhi, of people on a beach shadowed by a luminous rainbow made up of brand names and product labels as a symbol of mass consumption. Again, on the exterior walls of the centre, visitors are greeted by a neon ideogram of the words China, Japan and Korea, created by Chinese architect Ma Qingyung. This work has also been accepted as part of the circuit of the renowned international artists’ lights show Luci d’Artista, produced by the City of Turin.

Artists taking part in the show are: Cao Fei, Chen Qiulin, Chen Shaoxiong, Chen Xiaoyun, Hu Yang, Jiang Zhi, Kan Xuan, Li Shurui, Liang Juhui, Liu Ding, Liu Wei, Lu Chunsheng, Qingyun Ma, Shi Yong, Song Tao, Wang Xingwei, Xu Zhen, Yang Yong, Yang Zhenzhong. Coreani: Ayoama Satoru, Baik Hyunjhin, Choi Ho Chul, Gim Hongsok, Im Gook, Kim Beom, Kim Kira, Koo Donghee, Lee Hyungkoo, Lee Yong-Baek, Park Junebum, So Young Choi. Giapponesi: Akiyama Sayaka, Fukaya Etzuko, Kakitani Tomoki, Kaneuji Teppei, Kathy, Manabu Ikeda, Makoto Aida, Mori Chihiro and Shoji Michiko.

Hu Yang, Zhao Jing: Shangongnese Office Clerk, 2006, Set of 100 photographs, 45 x 60 cm, Courtesy the artist and ShanghART Gallery.