Breaking the Waves [group]

chi K11 art museum, Shanghai

Jul. 17–Oct. 17, 2021

Venue: chi K11 art museum (K11 Art Mall – B3, no 300, Huaihai, Middle Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai)
Curation: ArtReview
URL: https://artreview.com/k11-art-foundation-x-artreview-breaking-the-waves/

Curated by ArtReview and presented by K11 Art Foundation, ‘Breaking the Waves’ is a group exhibition that reflects on art as dialogue and collaboration as we emerge from times of isolation

Breaking the Waves is a touring exhibition featuring the work of 14 artists and artist collectives from around the world, including Larry Achiampong, Chim↑Pom, Ripon Chowdhury with Ho Tzu Nyen, Adriano Costa, Eisa Jocson, Michael Joo, Jac Leirner, Yuko Mohri and David Horvitz, Laure Prouvost, Slime Engine, Wolfgang Tillmans and Zheng Bo. The exhibition will be on show from 17 July to 17 October 2021 at the Shanghai Chi K11 Art Space, before travelling to K11 Art Foundation’s venues in Guangzhou and Hong Kong where it will be on show at dates to be announced soon.

As we begin to emerge from a time of solitude and isolation, Breaking the Waves focuses on discussion and dialogue as a cornerstone of contemporary art, highlighting the role of conversation and sociability in contemporary practice. Moreover, it explores the various ways in which art develops communication and connectivity at a time when both seem in short supply.

The title refers to both persistence, and the endlessly repeating climax of waves breaking on ashore, and to the act of swimming against the tide, coming up for air. In the current moment it also seeks to convey optimism about the latent potentials for renewal as we slowly begin to reenter a world reshaped following COVID-19 outbreaks. A celebration of art’s propensity for thinking differently and going against the grain, the exhibition seeks to speak to community, solidarity and the inspiring, sometimes challenging visions of new futures and new possibilities that art is uniquely placed to offer.

Balancing between the poles of work and play, the art on show tackles relationships between humans and nature, conditions of migration and mobility, exploitation and cooperation, the potentials of new technologies and the ways in which artists collaborate or enter into dialogue with the work of their peers, however separated they may be by chronology or geography.

More than anything, however, it examines the many ways in which art allows us to view the world and locate ourselves within it through a fresh or alternative lens. Featuring a mixture of both static and interactive works, the exhibition treats the audience as ‘fellow travellers’ on a journey that is staged to highlight both the development of individual points of view and the operations of a shared vision or a collective social consciousness. Cumulatively it teases out the ways in which the personal becomes public and the ways in which art allows the individual to adopt the perspective of the other. The very basis around which equitable social dialogue is founded. Across generations and cultures, linking, contrasting and exploring new or renewed waves of creativity.

“SOLO,” Courtesy Project Fulfill Art Space

Breaking the Waves [group]