Cai Guo-Qiang at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

2022/12/17

Cai Guo-Qiang's works are exhibited in the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo's collection exhibition.

■MOT Collection:
Rewinding the Collection 2nd

Thu. 03 Nov, 2022 - Sun. 19 Feb, 2023
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en/exhibitions/mot-collection-221103/

photo: CAI Guo-Qiang
"Fetus Movement Ⅱ: Project for Extraterrestrials No.9" 1991

Project for Extraterrestrials No.8, Reviving The Ancient Signal Towers and "Project for Extraterrestrials No.9, Fetus Movement II" have been both presented in Cai's 1991 one-man show as future projects. In these works, gunpowder was burned upon the paper to create traces of fire, and explanations about each project was written in india ink over these traces. The title of the series, "Project for Extraterrestrials," indicates that these works have been conceived as messages for extraterrestrials and are to be realized in huge, cosmic scales. At the same time, in choosing the materials of gunpowder and india ink, both invented in ancient China, the artist asserts his own origin. "Reviving The Ancient Signal Towers" is a project that involves lighting fire upon the signal towers, the communication system of ancient China, and confirming the lighted fire from satellites, the communication system to embody the latest technologies. In "Fetus Movement II", the artist is to set gunpowder in a circle and, sitting at its center, ignite it. Machines are to record the changes in the artist's pulse and the tremors in the ground that would be caused by the explosion. The light produced in either of these works is oniy momentary, but the signals would travel away from the earth infinitely. In these works, the artist cleverly combines Eastern elements and advanced technologies. The project "Fetus Movement II" was actually carried out at "the Kassel International Art Exhibition" in 1992.rnrnrn