MI MI KE, Yao Jui-Chung (姚瑞中)

10 September 2022 - 7 October 2022

We are pleased to announce a solo exhibition with Taiwanese artist Yao Jui-chung 姚瑞中 at the occasion of the open art in Munich 2022. A long-planned project that is finally coming to fruition. Born in 1969 in Taipei/Taiwan, Yao Jui-chung is now internationally recognized as one of the most innovative Chinese-speaking artists of his generation. He has exhibited worldwide. In 1997 and 2022, he represented Taiwan at the Venice Biennale. He has participated in the Yokohama Contemporary Art Triennale, Asia Pacific Brisbane Triennale, Taipei Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, Beijing Photo Biennale, Venice Architecture Biennale, Media City Seoul Biennale, Asia Triennial Manchester, Asia Biennale, Krasnoyarsk Museum Biennale, Jakarta Biennale, and Sydney Biennale.

Yao specializes in photography, installation and painting. The subjects of his works are varied, but they all explore the absurdity of human existence on an everyday, spiritual or political level.

He says: "The 3-month residency here at Villa Waldberta / Munich Art Residence gives me peace, strength and new inspiration. My ideas bubble up, so that here for the exhibition in the Apartment of Art / Apartment of Art a whole new series of paintings has been created, which incorporates Western legends, everyday scurrilities, Shang-hai Jing (Chinese mythology about 2500 years ago) and historical ornamentation.“

Typical of his painting is the use of Western and traditional Eastern elements, often touching on religious and spiritual themes, but also, as in the series created for the Apartment of Art, drawing inspiration from everyday experiences and creating a world of mythical creatures, oddities, spiritual hybrid beings and spiritual demons.

Thus a surrealistic, partly ironically humorous to the grotesque leading wonderland of local current impressions and experiences and ancient Chinese mysticism.

The title of the exhibition Mi Mi Ke refers onomatopoeically from the Chinese to the English pronunciation for Munich and means mysticism in Chinese.

A happy coincidence this year also meant that Yao Jui-Chung and I, at the invitation of the Cremebach Collective, were given the opportunity at Documenta 15 to talk about our 25 years of shared experience of joint work, our international cultural exchange and the spirit from which it arose.

Yao Jui-Chung's works are in renowned institutions and private collections, including Taipei Fine Arts Museum; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Collection, Cornell University, USA; Bibliothèque National de France, Paris, France; Art Museum of Seoul, Seoul, South Korea.

Yao Jui-Chung is currently a guest in the artist-in-residence program of the City of Munich at Villa Waldberta, our collaborative partner for this project, and will be present for the opening.

P.s.: On this occasion we will also show documental (not in the form of the original installation) Yao's video "Tank Man", which deals with the Tien An Men massacre in 1989 on Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Lars Koepsel

姚瑞中2022年德國慕尼黑駐村作品「秘密客」明細

YAO Jui-chung New Works

因受德國藝術家Lars Koepsel創辦的「藝術公寓」(AOA)之邀,在疫情與烏俄戰爭期間前往慕尼黑藝術村創作三個月,德國南部大城慕尼黑自古以來即為修道士之都,駐村地點位居市區南邊史坦伯格(Starnberger See)湖旁的飛它方(Feldafing),環境清幽怡人,聽說泰王也居住附近豪宅,住在悠久古蹟內每天遙望阿爾卑斯山喝著印度紅茶,每天幾乎騎著腳踏車採買或偶爾在湖中飄浮游泳,有時進城參觀各式美術館頗受衝擊,晚上怪夢頗多,雜音、搖床、雷暴、熱浪一陣一陣,不禁思緒飛噴、靈感泉湧,突發奇想展開一系列結合山海經、西方神話、浮世繪與歷史圖騰的幽默畫作,以當地所購手工圓形棉紙與德國著名Faber-Castell彩筆,貼上廟宇金箔入畫,試圖創作中西合璧、跨越古今、幽默嘲諷、詭異造型、配色活潑…之畫風,延續十五年前在蘇格蘭高地Glenfiddich威士忌酒廠駐村展開的繪畫創作,進一步聚焦在神話、傳說、仙人、妖魔、鬼怪、怪咖…等超越經驗界之奇想世界,並結合在此生活特殊體驗入畫,因慕尼黑München英文發音頗似中文「秘密客」(Mysticism)頗與此系列呼應,遂以此標題作為系列名稱,呼應今年太陽系超怪的六星連珠與一連串天災戰禍、群魔亂舞,在此五濁惡世之際,盼世人皆除一切心魔、護一切善法、生一切種智矣。

Artists