Fleeting Memories and Written Notes

During the 2016 winter season, Capsule Shanghai hosts “Fleeting Memories and Written Notes”. Showcasing Qin Jin and Chen Dandizi, the gallery collects and presents to the public works made by two of the most talented and genuine Chinese contemporary artists known for subverting dominating social structures. In a diaristic style, they destroy the monolithic idea of the Self to bring women’s many-sided personality back.

It is undeniable: often stereotyped by the contemporary art system, women artists have often been subordinated to the necessity of reinforcing, perpetrating and consuming what has always been considered historically fabricated, socially fair and traditionally accepted. Fighting these apparently unchangeable models and types, though, the younger generations here represented by Jin and Dandizi persevere a different path — a path which leads to an overturning of expectation about gender and gender roles. Not male nor female, this new space of debate describes the woman as a human being rather than a social construct.

Cherished by male artists who hope for a more inclusive future as well, this site of mediation blends a microscopic dimension with notions and misconceptions of factual and fictional aspects of the female reality. Sharing a commitment to written word and confronting their intimacy and their own memories, these two artists create and legitimise a new kind of knowledge that opens up a dialogue which shows that nothing is how it seems. Mixing art and life, Jin and Dandizie finally re-write the patriarchal paradigm developing an artistic vocabulary that moves towards equality and universal needs.