Conversations with Chen Shaoxiong and Qian Weikang

The following conversations with the artists Chen Shaoxiong and Qian Weikang were conducted by Liu Ding, Carol Yinghua Lu and Su Wei as part of their research as curators of the 7th Shenzhen Biennale, ‘Accidental Message: Art is Not a System, not a World’, which was staged in 2012. The interviews were originally published in Mandarin Chinese in Individual Experience: Conversations and Narratives of Contemporary Art Practice in China from 1989 to 2000, a collection of conversations Liu, Lu and Su conducted with artists and curators active in China from 1989 to 2000. Chen Shaoxiong is a founding member of the art groups the Southern Artists Salon and the Big Tail Elephant Group, both of which were formed in Guangzhou – the former in 1986 and the latter in 1990. Qian Weikang was active as a conceptual artist in China during the early to mid-1990s. Both interviews explore the concerns of artists in China during the 1990s as well as the socio-economic, cultural and political circumstances surrounding their practice at the time.