The word “Beyond” being used in The Second Guangzhou Triennial such an noticeable exhibition has extended the creative and inspiring exhibition mode established by Hou Hanru and Hans Ulrich Obrist, City in Motion, that have become an exciting journey of visual art revolution as it went to seven most representative cities in international context around the world in two years, yet it properly connects a local art event with the world, therefore, art has gone beyond the geographical boundary and become a focus.

　　In world wide globalization has developed so rapidly that people are accustomed to ignore the consequences. The complexity of economy, culture, politics, and language occurred with the globalization has forced us to re-evaluate almost every aspect in life, including art. Fredric Jameson believes that globalization is a dual process, a privilege of universality, a generalization of particularity; we must adhere to the confrontation between the two poles and tension relation, limit globalization in a kind of un-totalizable totality, and strengthen the duality in its every part. The duality mentioned here obviously differs from a certain provincialism and particularity large to get together again. At first, it is a relation of confrontation and tension, but not completely repelling each other; each part relies on the other part of duality to restrict itself. Fredric Jameson also foresees that the state of affair represented of globalization will follow us and exist for a long time. The actual relation of intervention and globalization is unanimous with inventing a kind of new culture and new politics; to explain it theoretically is that they must combine society and cultural science, theory and practice, regional and the global, the west and the east together, must put post-modernity and modernity and their possibilities together. During a few years in the future, these will form the view of all theories.

　　During the past 20 years, it is undoubted that the pattern and local politics, culture of the world had gone through a transmutation. Our thinking is already unable staying on self-sustaining national culture, isolated social field, or independent discipline mode; also, we realize more and more clearly that these changes certainly will influence everything, including the structure of personality and cultural entity. Moreover, our thinking can no longer divide into politics, psychology, and art with a clear distinction between good and evil either. On the opposite, we need to develop and create a new thinking model, draw support from these models, so that we can study the phenomenon of pester , interaction, and exceeding mixing together. The era just as we live in, is full of violence, war and racism, constant religious belief conflict, the society, culture and environment are constantly destroyed unavoidably. Art can not break away from such global context, what we are facing right now is how we see this reality and in what way we “resist” such a reality with any positive method. If Chinese artists still wish to truly establish “cultural identity” of Chinese art in the conflict with “connivance”, they have to provide answers to these questions if they do not want their voice unheard in the process of world construction in the present.

　　Beyond: A Particular Space of Modern Experimentation is a exhibit topic, also represents our thinking on how the art museums, where contemporary art exhibition is being held, plays a role in organizing in urban cultural life and how it renovates the art exhibit mode. For a long time contemporary art exhibitions abandon traditional and decorative museum display modes. In times when urbanization and urban life rapidly change art museum in traditional meaning have faced the challenges from the change of quality in urban life. The meaning of museum is no long by tradition, merely provides a quiet location in aesthetic sense for their exhibits. As a realistic yet abstract space how does an art museum become a spot for urban spiritual events, become a space where mind and action are being accepted freely and given some meaning, and functioning in the cultural institutional framework in the city? In contemporary artistic context, the forming of creative energy of an art museum consists of several elements, museum architecture, curators, artists, and artistic activity organization. In here the artists become a creative agent, give new meanings through new interpretations of museum space, open up the space with concepts and art works, by reconstructing different kinds of relations (such as architecture, commonality, and subsistence state) to generate new subsistence state of museums, that is how museums and its cultural activities as a sensitive zone in a complex urban political and economic network function in the modern context. Contemporary art and the realization, judgment, and animadversion that it reflects are expressing the reactions through the exhibit media. Art itself involves with the feeling and judgment towards real life further, and is an immaterialized observation and evaluation to the reality. In these years China has become a country giving most biennial (or triennial) exhibitions, in every city art exhibitions and events are being organized. We all have seen a kind of potential danger – an empty space coexists with artistic utopianism. How to avoid becoming a spot for huge exhibitions quickly and truly produce the spirit of times in the museum space is what we need to consider. What we need more is the “experimental lab” kind of art museums and those collecting the memories of times in the “pre-production” period. The Second Guangzhou Triennial strives for opening up space for the “experiment” of contemporary art in new urban reality by pondering upon this particularly modernized space and cultural context.

　　“Urban awakening” created by Chinese artists began in the 1990’s. Cities in contemporary art activities become a network of constant changing scenes, events, and interactions, a system of exchange and development; art and experiences provided by art have important effects on urban life construction, which offer visual experiences of the modern society, and different visual relations express a free and expressionistic concept of oneself. In such a complex economic and cultural framework, Chinese contemporary art becomes a visual and linguistic arena. The change of artistic environment shows a new artistic logic starting point, also re-open the discussion on Chinese artistic identity. With the opening and penetration of international interactions, after the removal of simple political iron frame being put onto the interpretation of Chinese contemporary art, being a principal part in free cultural communications of how the artists bear the responsibility of acting one in the sense of free communication, how maintain criticism personality and spirit of “he-person’s sex ” identity, and orient themselves after re-adjust to the change of the society, all of the above are the questions that the artists have to consider. If avoiding limiting Chinese contemporary art development with a superficial western way, the artists have to change the narration of western-ism in artistic modernity and form a new understanding through unalloyed cross swords of mind – artists invent this modern environment after different cultural encounters. Identity awakening is what we need to respond such a modern environment and different ways, not just extensively covering the non-western contemporary being marginalized in pre-artistic historical records but to open up a new perspective in entire art history in order to clear up the existing artistic linguistic centralization of power. Only when these fresh perspectives occur through communication not just given some priority ahead of time, we then can say that art history is a global study. It needs us to discover the true nature of localism – it itself eliminates the possibility that a point of view occupies a commanding position. Although to a great extend the art history was written by the west, the judgment and evaluation of the west toward non-western contemporary art can not explain well the origin of non-western art, because rapid change, mixture, and energy coexist at these regions. How do artistic activities begin at these “unordinary” regions? What is their productive system? Such description and research need the active artists, who live here, to finish. They are observers of some cultural scenery also participants helping its development. In the other words, how is contemporary art redefined in such a new urban linguistic environment? How does art become an independent thinking system that intervenes with also goes beyond the one mentioned above? “Delta Experimental Lab” in The Second Guangzhou Triennial concerns more about the artists who cares about the society, pay attentions to the existing issues, and their plans. The current state of the development of Pearl River Delta is a “particular” experiment in the process of modernization, contemporary urban development mode representative of this area is becoming a noticeable example of rapid urban city development in China even Asia. This new urban reality forms during the process of Asian’s universally rapid urbanization, at the same time, it deeply affects the establishment of new urban production and cultural mode in the globe.

　　In many places in the world, especially in the “non-west” area ( such as pan-pacific area), people are trying to give new interpretation and model to so-called modernity, that is the possibility of experimenting “unique modernity”; it also provides a most positive and active platform for social creativity. Art activities – encouraging the cooperation in different areas – are developing into an appealing power of social change. Besides, in the process of negotiation and consultation with this urgent state lacking of traditional system structure, the art circle inclines to experiment some more flexible, more self-sufficiency stressed, and more creative ideas, through “self-organization” to create new context groups. In the article Barricades, Big Tail Elephants Working Group written by Hou Hanru for Big Tail Elephants Working Group exhibition in Swiss, Mr. Ho analyzes the characteristic local culture, politics, and economy, and gives unique examples of modern development represented by the Pearl River Delta, concept of “post-urbanization”, responding to Rem Koolhaas’s Cities of Exacerbated Difference. This area represents the characters of city reconstruction in post-capitalism era. There are scattered things, things with ability to scatter, homogeneity things and the ones with homogeneity ability, things being mixed together and make people feel unbelievable… Any imaginable things all appear in this “super city” that is already a shadow, yet real and reliable matters are difficult to find. Under such a background the artistic and cultural activities related to urban transformation are taken to a brand new area. The artists, intellectuals, and cultural workers form a group or in the name of themselves to make some plans, actions and art works that are able to negotiate with this reality. In this process new concepts and art works are constantly produced, of which open up a imaginative and creative space, also construct key elements that re-define contemporary art, culture, knowledge, and life mode. As in the middle of 1990’s, young artist Zheng Guogu from Yangjiang, Guangdong, led “the Yangjiang youth” to make art in a brand new way, thereof attracted the attention of the nation and the joy at work was to search a breakthrough in freedom and restrain. “Allow imaginary reality to strike the real reality in order to reveal the falsehood in the reality, all the despite of stereotypes, ignorance, even violation. Contemporary art should not have any limitation, anybody, any kinds of material, any concepts, and any method shall be brought into the field of contemporary as long as they are challenging at some degree.” (Chen Tong) These art experiments echo with the different confrontation and developing strategies suggested by “marginal” groups under the global pressure. On this understanding, the exhibition plan of Beyond: A Particular Space of Modern Experimentation focuses on representing current art experiments and creations – especially those artists who are active in non-western area – trend in art strategies and actions; meanwhile, the exhibit will introduce similar experiences from Europe and other regions to indicate the global necessity of these different strategies.

　　Beyond - put forward an unordinary strategy from time and space these two angles to confront more and more familiar and globalized artistic reality. From the perspective of space, it is a different angle of entire Peal River Delta; from the perspective of time, through the continuity of time of cultural events and differentiation we emphasize the understanding on globalization in the process of being globalized. In the working environment of which artists from the nation and the world all come together, some art plans are made, that are international, global, multi-formed, and local. This is a solution and a mode with an positive attitude to face globalization.

　　Beyond – pays attention to how current global communication and interaction affect the forming of personality and entity, and artistic communication and interaction have gone beyond the boundary of nation, culture, ethic, or religion; how history leaves a trace in the process in which “creator”, “follower” and their descendants obtain their personal identity, cultural identity, ethic identity, and group identity.

　　Beyond – also examine how “cultural creation and memories” being taken into the cultural inheritance thereof being passed on by individuals, groups and the country in the process of forming an identity. In the unusual linguistic environment of China, rethinking the globalization in the 1990’s is the same as rethinking the modern narration in 1980’s as they all have the similarity in logic. In the 1980’s, the theory on modernity used to be the leading context controlling China’s humanistic and social scientists. This theory’s expression on ideology is “reform and opening-up”. In the 1990’s, joining and entering world competition, connecting with the world, and the efforts to join WTO, are all the further promotion of reform and opening-up of the eighties of China. In this kind of timeliness that can not be isolated, the identity question of culture is not merely a question that admits, it also includes the question of re-construction, that is how to realize the progress of culture and modernity transition under the new historical background, to negotiate entering the new world – it needs a new strategy – to have art, urban study, literature, movie and action connected with each other. This creative experimentation will collect art exhibit spaces ( biennial and triennial exhibitions) and create an “utopian reality” through creative ideas and generosity.

　　In an “extra-urbanized chaining” that restricts each other and inter-depending more and more, the question that art gives is representative and modernistic. Beyond: A Particular Space of Modern Experimentation such an exhibit topic is more like a artistic metaphor.