14.1.2022: Darker Side of Contemporary Art in China Explored – Using theories of media and postcolonialism from the perspectives of market, politics and gender (Wang)

(Chinese) Contemporary art is the medium is the message of (de)coloniality. This thesis statement as research result provides a comprehensive observation, timely and crucial as well to the non-Western traditions like in Southeast Asia, the Middle East or Africa, facing globalisation or neo-colonisation.
Shuchen Wang
Published
14.1.2022

Between the opening-up policy and the Road and Belt Initiative, the development of Chinese contemporary art crystallises the robust growth of the country from an agriculture-based society into the world’s factory and a global powerhouse. During this period, the institutional voids and the changing social paradigms from a planned economy to state capitalism have yielded great opportunities for the ‘darker side (of modernity)’ and/or the ‘dark (deep) world of contemporary art’ to take shape.

From the global viewpoint of entangled history in the Sinosphere, this research takes a postcolonialist approach applying the cultural criticism of Mignolo and the media theory of McLuhan to investigate the three key dimensions in the making of art history – market, politics and gender (social relevance) – with five independent but mutually related sub-studies, focusing on (1) the actor-agent network of foreign (in)direct investments in the Chinese contemporary ‘art game’ based on the ‘Saatchi model’, (2) the process of valorisation – value proposition, value added and value chain – in the ecosystem of art industry, (3) the relationship between various systems of political economy and the use of (contemporary) art, (4) the colonial way of seeing the arts and culture of the Other, and (5) the representation of women in the art history of modern China.

TaT Shuchen Wang defends her doctoral dissertation in Art History “The Darker Side of Contemporary Art in China: Market, Politics, Gender” 14.1.2022, at 12. Opponent is Dr. Projektleiter Marius Meinhof (Universität Bielefeld) and custos is professor Heikki Hanka (Ģֱ). The event is held in English.

The audience can follow the event online, the link is .

If a member of the audience wants to ask questions at the end of the public examination, it is possible to call the Custos. The phone number of the Custos is +358 400 247417.

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Shuchen Wang has a DA in digital heritage, a DEA in museology of natural and human sciences and a MA in exhibition mediation. This thesis is largely based on her empirical knowledge gathered while working in the art industry in Beijing.

Further information:

Shuchen Wang, shuchencyrus@gmail.com, +358 408679200