The show and accompanying program – including a symposium with well-known experts in the field, guided tours and a film series – showcase works by young artists living and working in Beijing and, at the same time, highlight the diverse artistic practices in that city today.

The curatorial team comprises Guo Xiaoyan – one of China’s best known curators, at present at the Minsheng Art Museum and previously Chief Curator at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art – as well as Berlin curators Thomas Eller (former Director of the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin) and Andreas Schmid. Together, they visited over 50 ateliers in Beijing’s 798 Art Zone, Cao Chang Di, Hei Qiao and Song Zhuang to select the works for "The 8 of Paths". The exhibition’s title not only evokes the lucky number 8 in the Chinese tradition, but also their own curatorial journey as they explored the paths of discovery through Beijing’s varied landscape of artistic approaches.

The legendary "China Avantgarde" exhibition held in 1993 in Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt is regarded as the first of its kind in Europe. This exhibition also co-organized by Andreas Schmid, co-curator of "The 8 of Paths", jump started an interest in Chinese contemporary art in the West. Building on that tradition "The 8 of Paths" spotlights leading current positions and profiles a new generation of artists who, thanks in part to the older generation around Ai Weiwei, have acquired quite new possibilities and freedoms over the past years.

Xiaoyun Chen - Colin Chinnery - Lu Fang - Xiao GUAN - Xiangyu He - Qingtai Hu - Xuan Kan - Hui Li - Ran Li - Liu Chuang - Xun SUN - Sishun Wang - Wei WANG - Xing YAN - Junling Yang - Honglei YU - Zhao Zhao - Yu Zhu - Binyuan Li - Wei LIU - Song Lu - [Sun Yuan *1972 & Peng Yu *1973] Sun & Peng - [Deng Dafei & He Hai] Deng & He - Utopia Group -
Curator Andreas Schmid - Thomas Eller - Xiaoyan GUO -

Through a wide range of media from painting, sculpture and video installation, He Xiangyu playfully explores social criticism in his practice, foregrounding a refreshing humor and process-based approach. The artist’s imaginative and bold experimentation allows him to reveal structural vulnerability in today’s cultural development. In Cola Project (2012), He amounts an apocalyptic landscape of boiled residue from 127 tons of Coca Cola, in addition to other alchemic artifacts using the product. Tracing a clichéd analogy of contemporary heritage, He displays an evocative scale of grandeur while maintaining his personal attachment that precedes the narrative.

For his first presentation in Japan, He showcases a selection of works made since 2011, including those exhibited for the first time. Wisdom Tower (2013) brings together a stack of the artist’s wisdom teeth and miniature golden Chinese pagodas – a series He intends to continue with teeth purchased from third persons.

Xiangyu He -