Xu Bing
Born in Chongqing in 1955, Xu Bing studied at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing before setting up a studio in Brooklyn, New York in 1990. An artist of global renown, principally concerned with language and communication, he was appointed Vice President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in March 2008.
For Wallspace* he has chosen to show an ongoing project he’s working on called ‘Book From The Ground’. In 1999 Xu Bing began collecting airline safety manuals and then in 2003, icons from wherever he could find them around the world. His studio organized these icons into parts of words and catalogued them into a lexicon. The signs and symbols were then used to make a program that allows speakers of different languages to chat in icons across any language. Xu Bing is also working on a novel made completely of these signs, which he plans to publish simultaneously in multiple continents without translation.
Other curators
- Kinder Aggugini
- The Campana brothers
- David Shrigley
- Arik Levy
- Alfredo Häberli
- Sam Roddick
- Yann Debelle de Montby
- Han Feng
- Paul Smith
- Erik Kessels