Liu Xiaodong. Painting as Shooting

This exhibition will be the first major European show to fully explore Liu Xiaodong‘s (b.1963, Beijing) unique art practice, one which subtly yet forcefully focuses on the deep social and ecological chiasms in our contemporary life. The exhibition is curated by Jérôme Sans and will focus on a specially selected list of projects from the last decade that are dealing with major sociological and environmental issues in the world.

Liu Xiaodong approaches his work with the eyes and the storyboard practice of a filmmaker. Each of the artist’s major works begins with a simple idea from one of his daily diary entries, describing the events he has witnessed, photos he has taken or people he had met, and then transforms them into live characters on his canvas. In a way the artist’s paintings resemble a production set where he acts as a director who collaborates with actors to play, record or recreate a situation, various impressions or the effects thereof. It is hereby that Liu Xioadong embodies the concept of ‘painting as shooting’.