Qin Yufen: Leben Kat. Schwartzsche Villa Berlin-Steglitz

Qin Yufen (*1954 in Shandong, lives in Beijing and Berlin) is one of the leading Chinese ­artists of her generation. In her large-scale instal­lations, she works with barbed wire, bamboo, silk and clothes hangers—a collection of materials that has since come to be her trademark. In her work she often ­reflects on political and social concerns yet not in a conspicuous way. In her earlier instal­lations, she preferred to focus on the cultural past of China and, against this background, her own ­influ­ences and identity, today she is primarily concerned with the global increase of ­vic­timization. This ­catalog presents for the first time a concise ­insight into her artistic de­velopment over the past 25 years, with the main focus on the two ­installations ­realized in 2018 for the exhi­bition at Schwartzsche Villa in ­Berlin. The spaces and the works enter into a compo­sitional relationship that may be ­described as an aesthetic state of tension between emptiness and intervention. The ­result are »images« of a reality in which, to name just two of the materials used, the ­contrast of silk and barbed wire represent the contradictions that tend to determine modern life.

Exhibition:
Schwartzsche Villa, Berlin-Steglitz, 29/6– 26/8/2018

Qin Yufen, born 1954 in Shandong, lives in Beijing and Berlin. She is one of the leading Chinese artists of her generation. She made herself a name with installations of barbed wire and balloons in 1996 at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, and in 2001 at Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, drying racks in 1994 at Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, barbed wire and silk in 2006 at Sydney Biennial, and participates in group shows such as Hello World 2018 at Hamburger Bahnhof.