DSL Magazine: Issue 6

MadeIn Company , Seeing one’s own eyes, 2009, installation, 800 x 800 x 60 cm Courtesy of the artist challenge the West As seen from their angle, the artists of MadeInCompany have noted the persistence of a demand for the exotic and for preconceived ideas on the part of Westerners. For them, and for many artists, Chinese contemporary art is still not understood by Westerners, who project on it many stereotypes and who use it to nourish their own visions. Seeing one’s own eyes (2009) is part of a wider exhibition labelled « Middle East ». It focused on the use of clichés and references such as Arab calligraphy, ceramic shards, or pictures of camels, to create a fake Middle East art, thus showing that a Middle East contemporary art exhibition could very well be “made in China”. This mimics the simplified analytical tools used by the West and the artists’ willing participation in these expectations.