Asian Landmark — Toyota Art Project

Iberia Center for Contemporary Art in collaboration with Beijing CN Management Consulting Company will launch a brave new initiative “Asian Landmark — Toyota Art Project” in the first month of 2010.

The formation of economic and cultural modernity in China has entered a stage of restructuring and reform. Comparing with the occidental countries, the time-span for individuals and corporations in China to accumulate wealth is relatively shorter and it happens in a more drastic way. The failure of the construction of the ethics of wealth to catch up with the accumulation of wealth results in a psychological rupture in Chinese society. In contrast with the rapid growth of individual wealth, the new Chinese rich failed to engage with the social responsibilities and cultural obligations; the fortune makers - entrepreneurs always find themselves in a moral conflict between the profit-making and sentimental concerns, and between the private and public interests. The obstruction blocking the wealth redistribution channels in the overall social institutions creates difficulty for many companies to build a compatible corporate concept and culture.

what we need is the balance between the growth of economy and the development of culture and a connection bringing together both the constructive force of private capital and the redemptive power of contemporary art so as to build a healthy market environment for culture and complete the construction of a self-contented art institution. In return, culture provides coordinate efforts for the renewal of corporate concept and image in favor of a more humanitarian management model and spirit. This is the intention of the present initiative “Toyota Art project”. We might as well consider this program as a tentative effort to make possible communication and interaction between corporate and culture.

The group exhibition showcases paintings, sculptures, videos and installations by twenty artists: Cui Jie, Dong Wensheng, Fei Jun, Han Lei, Hung Tunglu, Huang Wenhai, Jiang Chongwu, Li Hui, Li Qing, Qi Jiaming, Qin Yufen, Shi Jinsong, Su Wenxiang, Laurens Tan, Wang Luyan, Wu Xiaojun, Wang Yaqiang, Yu Bogong, Zhu Jinshi and Zheng Lu. This program is deemed to be an adventure, yet the message deeply embedded is our hope for a new future.