Tao Hua Tan 6th International Artist Residency Project
In August 2023, I saw the following call on the Transartists website on which I expressed my interest shortly before the deadline: We have the pleasure to inform you that the international artists retreat and painting residence workshop will take place in Tao Hua Tan, Anhui Province, China, from October 12th through October 31st, 2023. The participating artists will be selected by the curators: Gordan Novak owner of Novak Graphics Inc. printmaking studio and publisher from Admiral, Saskatchewan, Canada; Liu Jian, artist, art consultant and curator from Toronto, Canada and Beijing China; or proposed by the art-world professionals (art critics, galleries, museum curators, university lecturers).
Participants are free and independent in their choice of subject, style and technique of their work during their stay at the location. During the residency, they are proposed to produce three works destined for the permanent collection of the future World Art Museum of the organizers. Soon after my application, I received an official invitation from the organization to participate, including the necessary data and documents for a visa application.
Tao Hua Tan Peach Blossom Arts and Holiday Resort
On October 12, I arrived early in the morning at Shanghai Pudong Airport where the first meeting point was for a large group of invited artists. After a bus journey of about five hours, we arrive late at night at the Tao Hua Tan Peach Blossom Arts and Holiday Resort, the central location for the upcoming residency, located in a small village in Anhui province. That place turns out to be a luxuriously Chinese-style building with salons, reception rooms and dining rooms where the group of artists is enthusiastically welcomed. The Peach Blossom Resort is a vast parkland along a fast-flowing river where there are small houses in which each of the invited artists is assigned a room.
Introduction
The group of artists appears to consist of about 65 participants from all parts of the world. I appear to be the only one from the Netherlands. The first day there will be a visit to the locations where we can work in the coming weeks, where everyone can choose their workplace. These workplaces, a 15-minute walk from the resort, consist of a large central hall that also serves as a material collection point. In addition, an ‘artist village’ with small studio houses situated around a central square. And thirdly, the ‘greenhouse’, a huge space covered with transparent fabric, like a greenhouse, where I eventually reserve my workplace. In the evening there is an extensive welcome dinner and extensive introduction to many fellow artists who will form a working family together for the next three weeks.
Working process
In the morning, after breakfast together in the dining room at the resort, I walk through a mostly sun-drenched landscape to my workplace in the ‘greenhouse’ where I have now been able to place two work tables. I selected three stretched canvases and a number of tubes of Chinese acrylic and oil paint that I plan to use in the near future. In our greenhouse there are about ten participants with a spacious place to work for everyone. Every now and then we visit each other and sometimes there are visits from groups of curious residents from the nearby village who are amazed. Curators Gordan Novak and Liu Jian or their assistants Lucky and Katri Ikavalko are usually there. A meeting room for coffee and conversation has been set up in the artist village. At noon back to the resort for an extensive lunch.
Artist talk
For the evening programme, artists are asked to give a twenty-minute ‘artist talk’ about their work. My ‘artist talk’, which I had carefully prepared and available on a USB stick, will take place on October 19th. In my presentation, I mainly refer to my acquaintance with China in 2018 and its effect on my work in the years that followed, so the Chinese Lobby, Mao Greets You and Vincent in China paintings were discussed, among others. Present that evening was the prominent American art critic John Yau, who is friends with the organizers, whom I will speak to at length later and who turns out to be very enthusiastic about my work. I then give him my recently published book LABYRINTH, of which I have a number of copies available for those who are interested.
Artworks
A condition for participation in the project from the organization consisted of the assignment to the artists to produce three works during their stay that will benefit the collection of a future World Art Museum to be founded. Artists signed a contract to this effect. My work process around the development of new images is generally more reflective and slower. So it was a task that I had prepared for before leaving for China. Starting from a number of existing works, I made suggestions for new versions of these works. With that at my disposal, I still have the opportunity to make choices on the spot, and to accelerate implementation. Three new paintings were created during the residency, more or less as new versions of or variations on earlier works.
1. Chinese Chair, acrylics and oil on canvas, 60 x 40 cm, (2023)
2. NoNoNoNo (Eyes Wide Open), oil on canvas, 60 x 40 cm, (2023)
3. Vincent Comes and Goes, oil on canvas, 50 x 50 cm, (2023)
Special mention should be made of my participation in a performance Alice in Wonderland as Chinese Opera, the project of the Istanbul artist Suzan Batu, for which she engaged a large number of the artists for specific roles to participate in her performance in front of many spectators on the central square of the artist village.
Excursions
As part of its objectives, the organization expresses its intention to strengthen Tao Hua Tan’s international reputation, emphasizing the importance of meaningful and layered cultural exchange. In addition to facilities for work and work process, they provide a number of excursions for a more extensive acquaintance with specific aspects of Chinese culture and landscape. These included a visit to a traditional paper mill where traditional Xuanshan paper is made by hand, a demonstration of Chinese calligraphy and a visit to Mt. Huanshang, the Yellow Mountains.
Pain & Rebirth, exhibition, Kurame Art Gallery, Hefei
Pain & Rebirth Show
On Sunday, October 29, a farewell party was organized in the party center belonging to the Peach Blossom resort, including karaoke and Chinese fireworks. The artworks have now been collected and are on their way to the city of Hefei, where the closing exhibition will open tomorrow. Early Monday morning we leave by bus to the large city of Hefei, 500 km away, for the opening and viewing of the exhibition in which at least one work by each of the participants is included. At 2 p.m. the opening of the exhibition Pain & Rebirth will take place. Title referring to the fact that the project was possible again for the first time since the corona restrictions of 2019. Speeches will be given by, among others, Mr. Guoping Wei, the founder of Tao Hua Tan Resort, who is also an artist himself, and curators Gordan Novak and Liu Jian.
Tao Hua Tan conclusions
In 2018 I visited China for the first time. I found the country, the rich culture, the complex history fascinating. After returning to Dordrecht, I started to delve further, read Chinese literature, saw Chinese films and documentaries about history and culture. These include literature by Chinese writers such as Lu Xun and Mo Yan, essays about Chinese politics and culture, films by Chinese directors and reflections on the country by Dutch correspondents. And of course I recently visited the exhibition of Ai Weiwei in the Kunsthal close to my home town in Rotterdam (NL). Reflections on China based on my own experiences were already a theme in my work, more or less similar to the way in which previous projects in Leipzig, Berlin and Zimbabwe influenced the development of my work. Tao Hua Tan has been a very special experience that I look back on with great appreciation for the organization and much pleasure. Before it I already had the intention to do an a.i.r. project in China. Corona outbreak however made visits to China complicated until recently. And next to that I am aware of different points of view on democracy between West and China, causing Western mistrust in China’s current political course. On the other hand these questions can contribute to the content and development of my work itself. Shortly before Tao Hua Tan’s deadline, I decided to express my interest and in the end I am most happy that I was invited.
The organization itself writes: ‘The Tao Hua Tan a.i.r. project emphasizes the importance of meaningful and layered exchange and introduction to another culture. Connections between traditional and contemporary aspects are explored. The beautiful river landscape where Peach Blossom Resort is located is a place of great cultural significance to China. One of the greatest Chinese classical poets, Li Bai (701-761), lived and worked as a poet in residence in Tao Hua Tan’.
There were no restrictions on freedoms from the organization. A critical curator was able to give a lecture on the development of contemporary art in China. The project was organized around cultural exchange and introduction to Chinese culture, with a lot of attention, care and excellent facilities for the invited artists. As a tangible result, an international network of artists from all over the world will undoubtedly continue to exist. Artists from China, Mongolia, Japan, India, Ghana, Brazil, Columbia, Canada, USA, Russia, Finland, England, Wales, Italy, Spain, Germany and others participated in the project and formed a special working community for the duration of three weeks. Knowledge and experience were shared between the participants and the organization. I will keep in touch with many, including the New York art critic John Yao. The renewed encounter with China will lead to further deepening of the theme in my work. Three paintings that I made on the spot are included in a museum collection in China. Reflections on this specific China project will be featured in new works to be developed and in my upcoming exhibitions. Many thanks are due to the curators Gordon Novak and Liu Jian for the invitation to participate and to mr. and mrs. Guoping Wei initiators of the resort for the hospitality and excellent care at the Tao Hua Tan Peach Blossom Arts and Holiday Resort.
February 2024, Ton Kraayeveld
Tao Hua Tan artists: André Luiz Rigatti, Bolortuya Munkhjargal, Das Debasree, Katie Barbarie Stewart, Lori Goldberg, Luciana Rago Ferron, Natalia Magdalena Żuk, Nelli, Prajjwal Choudhury, Sara Willet, Tuvdendorj Nurmaajav, Yao Wang, Yulia Shtern, Kaushik Gupta, Kun Fang, Andrew smith, Jayne Anita Smith, Ismael Jesus Rodriguez Fernandez, Phoebe Josephine Price, Ton Kraayeveld, Tobias Edward Fergus Lennox-Hilton, Gabriela Paz Martínez Castellano, Hannah Blumas, Jaakov Blumas, Kachlíková Barbora, Amir Shingerai, Marijke Bontinck, Suzan Batu, Mattia Papp, Thomas Chun-Bon Chung, Sarah Black, Max Kong, Kristina Paidieva, Midzuki Shibata, Kalla Amit, Larry Muñoz, Laura Mora Osorio, Nidhi Agarwal, Jasmin Genzel, Adéla Součková, Antonio Pauciulo, Giampaolo Parrilla, Valiantsin Yarsh, Vladimir Leben, Angela Lourdes Navarro López, Larissa Mattwich, Mila Liudmila Dayan, Vrgoč Kruno, Richard Lee, Lina Vonti, Anna Ditscherlein, Kseniya Proydisvet