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Tong Wenmin

  • About
  • Biography
  • Exhibitions
    • Solo Exhibition
    • Group Exhibition
    • How Art Museum
  • Artworks
    • Video
    • Performing Arts
  • Articles
  • Tong Wenmin
  • Birthdate: 1989
    Birthplace: China | Chongqing
    Gender: Female
    Lives and Works in: China | Chongqing
    About:
    Tong Wenmin's work often focuses on the intersection between individual perception and the external environment, stimulating visual poetry and inspiring action through behaviors that at first seem counter-intuitive. Through often simplified or regulated movements, her work hints at the allegorical character of the body and action within a semantically rich context.
    TONG Wenmin (b. 1989, Chongqing, China) received her BFA at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2012. TONG has recent solo / duo shows at Essence Contemporary Art Museum, Chongqing; OCT Boxes Art Museum, Foshan; WHITE SPACE, Beijing; Thousand Plateau Art Space, Chengdu; Organ Haus Art Space, Chongqing, and recent group shows / art festival at Lillehammer Art Museum, Lillehammer; HE ART MUSEUM, Foshan; OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen; By Art Matters, Hangzhou; G Museum, Nanjing; Power Station of Art, Shanghai; Koganecho Area Management Center, Yokohama; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; HOW Art Museum, Shanghai; NCAF, Beijing; A4 Art Museum, Chengdu; House of Egorn, Berlin; BARRAK, Okinawa; Responding: International Performance Art Festival and Meeting 2018, Tokyo & Fukushima; Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide; Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Tel Aviv. She won the Grand Jury Prize of Huayu Youth Award in 2018, the First Prize of the 8th New Star Art Award by Deji Art Museum in 2018, Nomination Prize of The 5th Contemporary Sculpture Award in 2017, the Accolade Artist by Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art in 2016. She has also been selected for The Swiss Arts Council Artists Residency, Switzerland (2021); Offshore Residency, Dinawan Island (2019) and other residencies project. TONG currently works and lives in Chongqing.
    Education:
    2012    BFA at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute
  • Biography

  • Solo / Duo Exhibitions

    2025 What is A Real Life, HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, China

    2022

    From South to North, Macalline Art Center, Beijing, China

    Dormant Landscape: Yang Xinguang and Tong Wenmin's Exhibition, Essence Contemporary Art Museum, Chongqing,

    China

    2021

    As if Gone from the World, OCT Boxes Art Museum, Foshan, China 2019

    Emerald, WHITE SPACE BEIJING, Beijing, China

    Escape from Discipline, Thousand Plateau Art Space, Chengdu, China

    Stone, Organ Haus Art Space, Chongqing, China 2018

    Castle, Dimensions Art Center, Chongqing, China

    Yang Jian und Tong Wenmin, Atelier am Eck, Dusseldorf, Germany 2017

    Above The Tree, Organ Haus Art Space, Chongqing, China 2016

    Stars on the Earth, Rebel Art Space, Bangkok, Thailand

    Fly the Wind, Xining Contemporary Art Space, Xining, China

    Group Exhibitions / Performances

    2022

    Being Theoria: 4th Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China

    Participating Sculptures: Memories from the OCAT Biennale, OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China

    The Peak of Vision: A Research Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Photography, Chengdu Art Museum, Chengdu, China Long Men Zhen, Lansing Art Center, Shenzhen, China

    Stepping Out! Female Identities in Chinese Contemporary Art, Gamle Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Stepping Out! Female Identities in Chinese Contemporary Art, Lillehammer Art Museum, Lillehammer, Norway

    Shape the Future: The Eighth Shanghai Duolun Youth Art Exhibition, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China

    Water Forming Chengdu: Ecological Art since 1990S, China Culture Centre in Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    The Situationist Intermedia Art Exhibition, Chongqing Times Art Museum, Chongqing, China

    The Intimate Revolt, Goethe-lnstitut (China), Beijing, China

    Secret Daily Life, Chengdu Art Academy, Chengdu, China

    Material Girrrl: All that Shine, China Culture Centre in Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Metaphor and Gaze: Female Art in the Post-pandemic, LA VIE Material Life Art Center

    ON | OFF 2021: Carousel of Progress, HE ART MUSEUM, Foshan, China 2021

    Guangzhou Contemporary Art Fair, Poly World Trade Center Exhibition Hall, Guangzhou, China

    The Exhibition of Annual of Contemporary Art of China Shanghai 2020, Duolun Museum of Museum Art, Shanghai, China Art Nova 100 Annual Exhibition, Guardian Art Center, Beijing, China

    BOOMERANG-OCAT Biennale 2021, OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China

    2021

    Research-based Curatorial Project Shortlist Exhibition, OCAT Institute, Beijing, China

    Variations: Anren Biennale, Anren Culture Center, Chengdu, China

    Tangle of Revolution and Political Soul, SGA Shanghai, Shanghai, China

    A Show About Nothing, By Art Matters, Hangzhou, China

    Hyper_Connection, 751 International Design Festival, Beijing 751 Art District, Beijing, China

    Super Fusion: 2021 Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu Tianfu Art Park, Chengdu, China

    Coordinate System • Sky Box, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, Beijing, China

    Flesh to Body to Object, zapbeijing, Beijing, China

    In the Midst of It All, G Museum, Nanjing, China

    To Be the Better One—The Methodology of the New Generation: New Work, New Identity, New Direction, New Life, Wind H Art Center, Beijing, China

    Stroll - from community to nature, Cloud Art Museum, Shenzhen, China

    Wisdom of Everyday Life-Contemporary Art Invitation Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art

    Yinchuan, Yinchuan, China

    Gallery Weekend Beijing 2021 Public Sector, Gallery Weekend Beijing, Beijing, China 2020

    2020

    A4 Artist in Residence International Exchange Program Exhibition: People Nearby, A4 Art Museum, Chengdu, China A Tale of Two Cities: Chengdu & Chongqing, Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum, Chengdu, China

    Twelve Years: The Archives of Scene, UP-ON International Live Art Festival 2008-2020, Luxehills Art Museum, Chengdu, China

    *A* Wet Run Rehearsal, The 13th Shanghai Biennale "Bodies of Water", Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China Koganecho Bazaar 2020 Vol.2, Koganecho Area Management Center, Yokohama, Japan

    LI Family House Fortune Exhibition, Haofangtianji, Shenzhen, China

    From the Mundane World: Launch Exhibition of He Art Museum, He Art Museum, Shunde, China

    After Hope: Videos of Resistance, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA

    Interruped Meals, HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), Shanghai, China

    Loading , 2020 Art Power 100, Kuntai Jiarui Culture Center, Beijing, China

    Temporary Syndrome, The Galaxy Museum of Contemporary Art, Chongqing, China

    Homecoming Islet, Yuan Art Museum, Chongqing, China

    Innovation and Regeneration, Art Museum of Sichuan Fine Arts Institue, Chongqing, China

    Etude, Aranya Art Center, Beidaihe, China

    Embodied Mirror: Performances in Chinese Video Art, NCAF Beijing Space, Beijing, China

    Gallery Weekend Beijing 2020 Up&Coming Sector, Gallery Weekend Beijing, Beijing, China

    From Streets to Methodology: Performance Art in Southwest Area of China Since 2008, A4 Art Museum, Chengdu, China

    2019

    From Streets to Methodology: Performance Art in Southwest Area of China, A4 Art Museum, Chengdu, China

    Concept, Form and Daily Life —The 3rd Shenzhen Biennale of Contemporary Art (BCA), Design Society | The Sea World Culture and Arts Centre, Shenzhen, China

    Sunset on a Dead End:The Notorious and Their Inexplicable Modes of Existence, Power Station of Art (PSA), Shanghai, China

    The 7th Up-On International Live Art Festival, Tianfu College of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China

    180 Years of Photograph in China, MoCA Yinchuan, Yinchuan, China

    The Exhibition of Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2018, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, China

    The Curation Workshop, OCT Art & Design Gallery, Shenzhen, China

    A White Space Odyssey, WHITE SPACE BEIJING, Beijing, China

    Longan, House of Egorn, Berlin, Germany

    Disappearing Archives, Mocube, Beijing, China

    2018

    Condition: Huayu Youth Award Finalist Exhibition, Huayu Art Center, Sanya, China

    Unidentified Landscape: Hotel Asia Project 2018, BARRAK, Okinawa, Japan

    Shift: Blue Roof Museum Exchange Exhibition, Wallace Gallery Morrinsvlle, Morrinsvlle, New Zealand The 6th Up-On International Live Art Festival, Blue Roof Museum of Chengdu, Chengdu, China Beyond Time and Space: Video Exhibition, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China Responding: International Performance Art Festival and Meeting 2018, Fukushima, Tokyo Japan 

    Heterotopia on the Route, Galaxy Museum of Contemporary Art, Chongqing, China

    2017

    Forms as Thoughts: The 8th New Star Art Award Shortlisted Artists5 Group Exhibition 2017, Deji Art Museum, Nanjing, China The 5th Up-On International Live Art Festival, JZFZ Art Space, Chengdu, China

    Position and Disposition, The Galaxy Museum of Contemporary Art, Chongqing, China

    Shifting Permanence: Sichuan Performance Art, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide, Australia

    Fourth Round: 100 Kilometers, Liao Liao Arts Dissemination Institution, Chengdu, China

    The Potential Expression: Young Artists Residency Program of Sichuan Fine Art Institute, CAEA Art Museum of Sichuan Fine Art Institute, Chongqing, China

    The 2nd Circle Youth Arts Award Entries Works Exhibition, Circle Art Center, Shenzhen, China

    Rip It Up: The 2nd Changjiang International Photography & Video Biennale, Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art, Chongqing, China

    The 5th Contemporary Sculpture Award Entries and Awarding-Winning Works Exhibition, Luozhongli art Museum, Chongqing, China

    Second Round:100 Kilometers, Liao Liao Arts Dissemination Institution, Chengdu, China

    2016

    The 11th ZAZ International Performance Art Festival, Petach Tikva Museum of Art; Performance Art Platform, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Workshop: HW Factory Project, Hewei Iron Crafts Factory, Chongqing, China

    Thirty Years of Body Art Performance Happening Project Art Documents of China, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, China

    On the Other Side, Organhouse, Chongqing, China

    The 4th Up-On International Live Art Festival, Shuijingtang, Chengdu, China

    Stretching Conceptual Space: State and Method, Blue Roof Museum, Chengdu, China

    How Long Is the Way to The Factory, Organhouse, Chongqing, China

    Vienna-Chongqing International Culture Festival, LP Art Space, Chongqing, China

    Parabiosis: International Contemporary Art Exhibition 2016, Chongqing Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art, Chongqing, China

    Light Art Performance, Arta Contemporary Art Institute, Lorestan, Iran

    Crossing Border - Border Crossing: International Festival of Crossing Media, MOST Alternative Space, JCCAC Art Village, Hong Kong, China 2015

    Links: Locality and Nomadism, The Galaxy Museum of Contemporary Art, Chongqing, China

    Inward Gazes: Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art, Macau Museum of Art, Macau, China

    The 3rd Up-On International Live Art Festival, Sichuan University Art Museum, Chengdu, China

    Transart Communication International Performance Art Encounter, Kassak Centre for Intermedia Creativity, A4, Galeria umenia Ernesta Zmetaka, Budapest, Hungary; Csemadok, Nove Zamky, Slovakia

    XVII-lnternational Art Festival, Interakcje, Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland

    2015

    Golden Field -The Project of Cross-Boarder Fieldwork Methods Practice, LP Art Space, ChongQing, China 2014

    Macau International Performance Art Festival 2014, Ox Warehouse, Macau, China

    Guangzhou Live 5 International Performance Art Festival, Youyou Contemporary Art Center, Guangzhou, china

    Organhaus Young Artists Workshop, Organhaus, Chongqing, China

    Meta-Chongqing Live Chongqing 2014, 501 Xu Space, Chongqing, China

    Pass The Flame-Performance Art Festival 2014, Chongqing, China

    XU-Space Young Artists Experimental Art Promotion Plan 2014, 501 Xu Space, Chongqing, China

    Asiatopia: The International Performance Art Festival 2014, Bangkok Art Culture Center, Bangkok; Chiangmai University Gallery, Chiangmai, Thailand

    Speed Shifting: Shenzhen Performance Project, Misthaus Experiment, Shenzhen, China

    "GUYLT China City International Performance Art Festival The 8th Round, BanPo International Art District, Xi'an, China

    2013

    Macau International Performance Art Festival 2013, Ox Warehouse, Macau, China

    501 Xu Space International Artist-Residency Project: Soft Blow, XU-Space, Chongqing, China

    Wuzhen Theatre Festival 2013, Wuzhen, china

    "GUYLT China City International Performance Art Festival The 7th Round, BanPo International Art District, Xi'an, China Spring Leaves Failing, XU-Space, Chongqing, China

    Generation and Resonance, 501 Xu Space, Chongqing, China

    2012

    Longing for Homeland - Series of Activities of Migration and Habitation Programme, 501 Xu Space, Chongqing, China

     

    Awards, Residency & Scholarships 

    2021

    The Swiss Arts Council Artists Residency, Switzerland

    2019

    Offshore Residency, No Trace Art Season, Dinawan Island, Malaysia

    2018

    Grand Jury Prize, Huayu Youth Award, Sanya, China

    First Prize, The 8th New Star Art Award, Deji Art Museum, Nanjing, China

    Kulturamt Landeshauptstadt Dusseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germanny

    2017

    Nomination Prize, The 5th Contemporary Sculpture Award, Luozhongli Art Museum, Chongqing, China

    Young Artists Residency program of Sichuan fine art institute, CAEA Art Museum of Sichuan Fine Art Institute, Chongqing, China

    2016

    Inward Gazes: Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art, Macau Museum of Art, Macau, China

    Rebel Art Space, Bangkok, Thailand

    2015

    Awarded, SAYA Embrace Project, Chengdu, China

    Xining Contemporary Art Space, Xining, China


  • Exhibitions
    • What is A Real Life
      What is A Real Life
      Mar 1, 2025 - May 11, 2025
      Opening: Mar 1, 2025 13:00 Saturday
      Curator: Zheng Guo
      Artist: Tong Wenmin
      • Solo Exhibition, How Art Museum
    • You as Me, Hold the Gaze
      You as Me, Hold the Gaze
      Feb 17, 2023 - Oct 12, 2023
      Curator: Xu Tianyi
      Artists: Markus Lüpertz, aaajiao, LLND, Oreet Ashery, Darren Almond, Hu Yun, Carsten Nicolai, Li Binyuan, Lee Yongbaek, Lin Ke, Lin Tianmiao, Liu Wei, Shi Yong, Lu Lei, Tong Wenmin, Tobias Rehberger, Yang Jiecang, Ye Linghan, Yu Ji, Zhang Peili, Zhou Xiaohu, Li Liao, Lee Bul
      • Group Exhibition, How Art Museum
    • Interrupted Meals
      Interrupted Meals
      Aug 8, 2020 - Oct 31, 2020
      Artists: Joseph Beuys, E​​lia Nurvista, Lo Lai Lai Natalie, Tamura Yuiichiro, Tang Han, Shi Qing, Tong Wenmin, Yu Ji, Zhou Xiaopeng, Zheng Bo, Xu Tan, Dunne＆Raby, Lin Yurong, Futurefarmers
      • Group Exhibition, How Art Museum
  • Artworks
  • Articles

    • You as Me, Hold the Gaze

      2023-06-13 By Xu Tianyi

      My age, my beast, who will ever

      Look into your eyes.

      And with his own blood glue together

      The backbones of two centuries?

      Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) wrote down the poem The Age (1923) at the beginning of the 20th century. While expressing his visions and hopes for the age, it also shed light on the conflicts between "poet and his time". In another poem he wrote later, it read: "No, I am no one's contemporary". (1924)

      The Age as quoted in Giorgio Agamben's What Is the Contemporary? and Alain Badiou's The Century . In What Is the Contemporary?, Agamben explained "The contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness. All eras, for those who experience contemporariness, are obscure." Badiou, when quoting the poem at the end of the 20th century, pointed out that Mandelstam's "beast" as a newborn and fragile presence was doomed to be transient. What Badiou was trying to break was exactly this "backbone". 

      It is widely acknowledged that the 20th century was a century of division. And to gain insights into such "division" takes not only knowledge of what happened in this century, but also of what the people of this century were thinking. If we merely label things that happened without probing into what the people of the century were thinking, we can neither get to truly know the present nor prevent things from repeating themselves. In this same logic, this century would have nothing to with the "future" since its very beginning. 

      You and I as people of some experience of the contemporary are the minimum unit to constitute the complex and multi-layered veins of time of contemporaneity. Hence we shall not follow linear time to describe the nature of things. The exhibition on view, as celebration of the fifth anniversary of the HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), features over 30 pieces of installations and videos by more than 20 artists both at home and from abroad including Lee Bul, Liu Wei, Zhang Peili, Lin Tianmiao, Markus Lüpertz and Carsten Nicolai. Different from the usual curatorial approach that follows a linear timeline to present the works within museum collection, the exhibition follows the principle of "contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time". Under the title "You as Me", "you" and "I" are the core of the dialogue with the space, to fill up the absence of subject and scene, reflect upon the tragedies of the century, build connections between contemporary events and past reference, define time from a sociological perspective, treat the "contemporary" as a dividing point between the past and the future, disrupt and reverse language on the cultural level through social installation, rethink of the cultural representations beyond the physical body to confront the fragmented digital world, and morph into an organic life form that cannot be written off in this digital world. 

      However, the attempt to construct non-linear histories through creative reassemblages of time is in itself trapped in the modern view of history. The underlying narratives among different works are merely judgements based on information fed to us from the outside. You and I need to firmly hold our gaze so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness.

    [Synopsis] You as Me, Hold the Gaze

    By Xu Tianyi 2023-06-13

    My age, my beast, who will ever

    Look into your eyes.

    And with his own blood glue together

    The backbones of two centuries?

    Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) wrote down the poem The Age (1923) at the beginning of the 20th century. While expressing his visions and hopes for the age, it also shed light on the conflicts between "poet and his time". In another poem he wrote later, it read: "No, I am no one's contemporary". (1924)

    The Age as quoted in Giorgio Agamben's What Is the Contemporary? and Alain Badiou's The Century . In What Is the Contemporary?, Agamben explained "The contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness. All eras, for those who experience contemporariness, are obscure." Badiou, when quoting the poem at the end of the 20th century, pointed out that Mandelstam's "beast" as a newborn and fragile presence was doomed to be transient. What Badiou was trying to break was exactly this "backbone". 

    It is widely acknowledged that the 20th century was a century of division. And to gain insights into such "division" takes not only knowledge of what happened in this century, but also of what the people of this century were thinking. If we merely label things that happened without probing into what the people of the century were thinking, we can neither get to truly know the present nor prevent things from repeating themselves. In this same logic, this century would have nothing to with the "future" since its very beginning. 

    You and I as people of some experience of the contemporary are the minimum unit to constitute the complex and multi-layered veins of time of contemporaneity. Hence we shall not follow linear time to describe the nature of things. The exhibition on view, as celebration of the fifth anniversary of the HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), features over 30 pieces of installations and videos by more than 20 artists both at home and from abroad including Lee Bul, Liu Wei, Zhang Peili, Lin Tianmiao, Markus Lüpertz and Carsten Nicolai. Different from the usual curatorial approach that follows a linear timeline to present the works within museum collection, the exhibition follows the principle of "contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time". Under the title "You as Me", "you" and "I" are the core of the dialogue with the space, to fill up the absence of subject and scene, reflect upon the tragedies of the century, build connections between contemporary events and past reference, define time from a sociological perspective, treat the "contemporary" as a dividing point between the past and the future, disrupt and reverse language on the cultural level through social installation, rethink of the cultural representations beyond the physical body to confront the fragmented digital world, and morph into an organic life form that cannot be written off in this digital world. 

    However, the attempt to construct non-linear histories through creative reassemblages of time is in itself trapped in the modern view of history. The underlying narratives among different works are merely judgements based on information fed to us from the outside. You and I need to firmly hold our gaze so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness.

    Related Artists aaajiao , LLND , Oreet Ashery , Darren Almond , Hu Yun , Lee Bul , Li Liao , Carsten Nicolai , Lee Yongbaek , Li Binyuan , Lin Ke , Lin Tianmiao , Liu Wei , Shi Yong , Markus Lüpertz , Lu Lei , Tong Wenmin , Tobias Rehberger , Yang Jiecang , Zhang Peili , Yu Ji , Ye Linghan , Zhou Wendou , Zhou Xiaohu ,









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