Art Basel Hong Kong 2024, March 30

A Crit Club Performance with Cem A.

What Matters More: Artists or Artworks? 

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Wang Tuo, artist, Blindspot Gallery, 2023 Sigg Prize Winner Kara Chin, artist, Linseed Jitish Kallat, artist, Templon Steph Huang, artist, Public Gallery 
Moderated by Cem. A, artist 
 
 
Crit Club is a contextual performance conceived by Cem A., also known as freeze_magazine, that holds space for playful disagreements by inviting guests to debate impossible art-related questions. Convened in a panel format for the first time, this live-taped edition challenges artists to navigate uncharted territories through roleplay and quick thinking, asking them to take a side on what matters more: the artist or the artwork?&nbsp;
Wang Tuo interweaves Chinese modern history, cultural archives, fiction, and mythology into speculative narratives. Equating his practice to novel writing, he stages an intervention in historical literary texts and cultural archives to formulate stories that blur the boundaries of time and space, reality, and imagination. His work spans film, painting, and drawing, to construct multidimensional chronologies. Wang proposes ‘pan-shamanization’ as an entry point to unravel the suppressed and untreated memories of 20th century China. Wang is the winner of the Sigg Prize 2023. 


Kara Chin’s practices – spanning animation, ceramics, sculpture, and installation ­– attempt to unravel our relationship with technology that has assimilated into every corner of the quotidian life. Working with different materials from the organic to the synthetic or even ‘digital manifestations,’ Chin reexamines perception and deception in the increasingly virtualized world. By interweaving imagined future scenarios with primitive and esoteric events, her work reflects upon the psychology behind biohacking, wellness culture, and transhumanism. With injections of humor delivered through unconventional materials, chaotic compositions, and bizarre fabrications, Chin explores how the present is haunted by the future. 
Jitish Kallat was born in 1974 in Mumbai, where lives and works. His solo exhibitions include the Art Institute of Chicago, Frist Art Museum (Nashville), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney), the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a mid-career survey at National Gallery of Modern Art (New Delhi) in 2017. He has participated in the biennales of Venice, Gwangju and Havana, and the Fukuoka, Guangzhou, and Asia-Pacific triennials, amongst others. Amongst other curatorial projects, he was the curator and artistic director of Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014. 
Steph Huang lives and works in London. Her multidisciplinary practice investigates mass production and commerce, the transcultural and historical dimensions of the food industry, and the implications of such markets on our natural environment; using a variety of manual techniques such as glass blowing and casting, as well as film and sound-based media, Huang transforms everyday spaces and objects, resulting in minimalist sculptures and poetically charged installations. She received her MA in sculpture from the Royal College of Art, 2021. 
Cem A. is an artist with a background in anthropology. He is known for running the art meme Instagram account <a href="https://www.instagram.com/freeze_magazine/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@freeze_magazine</a> and for his site-specific installations. His work explores topics such as survival and alienation in the art world, often through a hyper-reflexive lens and collaborative projects. Cem A.’s selected solo exhibitions and installations include Louisiana Museum, Barbican Centre, Berlinische Galerie and Museum Wiesbaden. His group exhibitions include documenta fifteen, Mudam Luxembourg, Istanbul Modern and 14. Biennial of Young Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje. He has held lectures at Royal College of Art London, HEAD Genève, Universität der Künste and HDK Valand, Gothenburg. The Art Basel Hong Kong 2024 Conversations program is curated by Stephanie Bailey.

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