The Must-See Art Show Where You Can Find 10,000 Artists
OCT 21, 2017 – NOV 18, 2017
de Sarthe Beijing, China
The Must-See Art Show Where You Can Find 10,000 Artists is comprised of multiple interactive, site-specific installations in which Wang Xin challenges the status of the artist as well as the art world’s current ecosystem. In particular, Wang’s most ambitious installation encourages participation as soon as audiences walk into the gallery. Upon entering, visitors are asked to purchase a ticket imprinted with a QR code at reception. The symbolic act of purchasing a ticket is part of Wang’s ongoing “No Starving Artists” project, in which she reaffirms the significance of artists’ work, as their labor is often undervalued. Subsequently, viewers scan their tickets at a turnstile to enter the installation. Once inside audiences follow a carpeted path lined with headsets that leads to a ball pit filled with more than 10,000 rose pink balls, a VR environment, an artist agency office, and a large advertising board.
As the exhibition title suggests, 10,000 unknown artists’ contact information are stored in the balls. The purchased ticket entitles audiences to take (and keep) one of the rose pink balls, open it, and unravel an unknown artist’s information. In the middle of the ball pit lies a virtual experience, A Virtual Land Where Stored an Artist’s Past, Present and Future Artworks and Related Information, where ticket holders can view all of Wang Xin’s past artwork strown and in decay across a deserted landscape. Adjacent to the pool of pink balls is an office stationed in a corner. This is the Unknown Artists Agency where agents continue to search for more unknown artists. Once more information on unknown artists has been gathered, the new pink balls are carried over to a playful miniature slide that is used to transport the balls from the agency office to the ball pit. The slide emerges from a large LED board advertising the “Unknown Artists Agency.”
