Qin Yufen: Leben (Kat. Schwartzsche Villa Berlin-Steglitz) (Miniature Edition)

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