Liu Wei “Nudità”
White Cube – Until 05 Sep 2021 London (Bermondsey Street) UK
White Cube is pleased to present “Nudità”. An exhibition of new works by Liu Wei. Taking its title from an essay by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. Liu sees the exhibition as a summary of investigations into the state of society at this particular and pivotal moment in history. Presenting new installations, sculptures and paintings made over the past year. The exhibition spans the artist’s recent solo exhibition at the Long Museum in Shanghai. It responds to the global emergency generated by the pandemic.
The void of the urban landscape.
The exhibition asks the question: “Considering the current state of the world, what possibilities could exist for human beings to live together as a collective body?”. Using this question to frame his own thoughts on the pandemic, Liu links Agamben’s theories of ‘nudity’ to the current state of the cityscape void. To our increased physical estrangement from each other. In his new work. , Liu sees this as a moment of transformation of perception. Modes of being, and as a specific state of existence akin to an “absence of veil.” Deserted streets. Empty buildings and public squares have lost their function as sites of community life. For Liu, these sites have rather become “a series of objects / motifs / intermediaries between the abstract and the concrete”, “stripping the forms” with “an openness and a mystery”.
White Cube→ Bermondsey Street 144-152 London, UK SE1 3TQ
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