In November 2001, the “first Guangzhou Triennial: Reinterpretation – A decade of experimental Chinese art” was held and had a deep and wide-spread impact in the Chinese cultural world as well as internationally. In regard to the Guangzhou Triennial’s accomplishments and significance, we are not just limited to discussions on the categories of art events or art history, it’s much more likely that we’ll use a practical attitude and a surrealist sentiment to explore the close lateral ties between the events themselves and China’s contemporary society and cultural process, that we will estimate how deep the compositional relation is between the events and cultural history from an “embryology” perspective, we will search for and make a study of the existing possibilities and the real meaning in Chinese society of this type of large scale international modern art exhibition and make an effort to realize the various, highly constructive and surreal cultural visions we have.

　　If we weigh the “marital” relation between the exhibition and the city, the Guangzhou triennial changed the structure of the local cultural ecology, it became a pathway to understand Guangzhou’s present system of culture and thought , a conspicuous case with cultural characteristics that added a very persuasive bargaining chip for Guangzhou’s development, compatibility and it’s pursuit of an improved cultural character. The Guangzhou Triennial created, on an international level between many highly diverse cultures, a profound exchange, dialogue and mutual opportunities. It revealed in a concentrated, vibrant and multi-angled fashion the international contemporary culture and art’s pulse of development, it provided a more meaningful way to organize and accumulate the local experience, as well as first-hand material for reference and adequate archiving for writings on local art history.

　　The aim of“The second Guangzhou Triennial: Beyond: an Extraordinary Space of Experimentation for Modernization”, based on the “beyondness” of contemporary life and culture in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), is to penetrate into the details of life in the region through investigation and study as well as a corresponding and highly productive “expression”, using the artist’s unique methods of work and angle of inquiry to carry out debates on the topic of “highly divergent modernization”. The artists started out from the their own different backgrounds and used their cultural background as a reference system to examine the Pearl River Delta –especially the reality of the modernization in the Pearl River Delta, their viewpoints formed pairs of discrepant and contradicting relations, and at the same time created the internal tension of this Triennial – probing the reality of the modernization of the Pearl River Delta that reveals itself in the artworks and also reveals the reality of the modernization of the artist’s own existential background. The artworks are exactly that kind of “carrier” between these two realities, an harmonious buffer, filled with tension, as well as the completed task of cultural grafting and the transfer of experience..

　　We take note of and fully respect time’s wish to narrate in a linear fashion, the Pearl River Delta’s present existence is actually a natural “accumulative result” of a special region’s modernization development, it’s a result of the logic of the Chinese society’s special region history and this limiting premise determines the innate identity of this kind of modernization. But in regard to describing and interpreting the possibilities of modernization that this region still possesses, it must be processed under that kind of premise to truly materialize the significance of it’s foresightedness and forseeability, and it must effectively become a part of the resource of the global modernization experience that is available for sharing.

　　“Beyond: an Extraordinary Space of Experimentation for Modernization”, burst out from the experimental significance of the modernization of the Pearl River Delta region. From a geographic and spatial perspective, “Pearl River Delta” means “ a rebirth of the land”, “a region full of vitality and instability”; and from the perspective of cultural morphology and time, “Pearl River Delta culture” refers to “emerging culture”, “extraordinary modernization”, “a culture filled with experimental significance”. “The Pearl River Delta culture”, because of geopolitics and the characteristics of cultural propagation, determines the experimental significance that is somewhat “avant-garde”. Thus it can also be said that the “Pearl River Delta” is a cultural symbol that is constantly generating, vibrant yet unstable and full of experimental challenges.

　　In regard to probing and tracking the “Pearl River Delta culture”, which is in itself a constant penetration and accumulation, even a constant process of experiments and challenges, we are even more willing to use this Triennial as a new starting point for research and experimentation. The Pearl River Delta serves as an “experimental laboratory” (Delta Lab) in a spatial sense, it fulfills the new possibility of the modernization theory in Chinese society and embodies it’s “distinctness”. The guided result of the experimental laboratory’s “experimental behaviour” has been introduced into the narrative of the local social history and has also become the organic composition for recalling the sentiment of the times.

　　In the introduction to the “first Guangzhou Triennial”, we put forward these basic ideas for the long term plans of the “Guangzhou Triennial”: “To show concern for culture, to be attentive to history”, and especially mentioned that we should: “Use art’s unique form to record our reactions and thoughts related to the spirit of the times and use a unique method in the participation of the construction of civilization, that is the professional ideal that we should keep firmly in mind.” As the Guangdong Museum of Fine Arts, we maintain that kind of cultural thinking and professional idealism in accepting the challenge of this formidable experimental work.

　　My heartfelt thanks to the curators of this Triennial, Mr. Hou Han Ru, Mr. Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ms. Guo Xiao Yan. Their highly challenging work, their sensitive scholarly angle of view, their deep concern for society and their high respect for the experimental spirit, helped this exhibition surpass the form of established “Biennials” and “Triennials”!

　　Many thanks to all the participants of this “Triennial”, the participating artists and scholars of the “experimental laboratory” plan and the space of “self organization”. Their conscious implementation of individual acts of social responsibility, their use of a broad cultural vision in observing every aspect of the present existential reality, their strict usage of an academic scale in realizing their own artistic ideals and cultural pursuits, their productive, avant-garde work fills people with admiration and is worth great respect.

　　As always, we deeply appreciate the concern shown for the Guangdong Museum of Art’s various projects as well as the support received from friends and people from different walks of society, that support is immensely encouraging for the Guangdong Museum of Art in it’s process of progress. Many thanks to the experts on the Academic committee and the seniors of the art world for the academic support and guidance they gave this Triennial, you strengthened the confidence and determination we had in our work! Many thanks to every employee of the Guangdong Museum of Art that dove into the detailed affairs of the exhibition with rising enthusiasm, your selfless and lofty team spirit is the basic assurance that the exhibitions affairs can be thoroughly advanced in perfect order. The smooth staging of the exhibition embodies our colleagues high level of professionalism and their unaffected faith in work and life.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　November 2005