Chen Zhen is one of the protagonists of our times, whose work, the essential spirit of which is encapsulated in the notion of “transexpérience”, is a fine example of pluralism in art. After training as an artist in the period of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Chen Zhen lived and worked between Shanghai, New York and Paris, moving to the French capital in 1986. Constantly traversing boundaries, he operated in an area between Eastern and Western thought, privileging synergy rather than clear-cut choice and rigid classification.
Read MoreChen Zhen’s art deals with many issues, ranging from international politics to the life of the individual, and in his artistic practice he searched for a visual synthesis which clearly expressed, especially from an aesthetic point of view, the need to be understood in a world with different perspectives from those that had surrounded him as he grew up, and the desire to mix Chinese culture with that of the nations he was becoming familiar with. It was for this reason that Chen Zhen, who was initially oriented towards painting, later began to concentrate on installations. He started to assemble everyday objects like beds, chairs, tables, chamber pots, cots and mattresses, which he rescued from oblivion and reconverted, giving them a new life.
However, in contrast with their original function, the objects were no longer practical for human use. The spirit shaping these works is rooted in ancient Taoist philosophy – where Yin and Yang represent two sides of the same whole -, and he explored the path of Buddhist spirituality without, however, ignoring the scientific and rational culture of the Western world. A key concern in Chen Zhen’s work was also an investigation of the difference between the Eastern and the Western approach to medicine; this emerges in a number of works dealing with the care and treatment of the human body, where the body is viewed as an interior landscape, as an organism that works if its various elements interrelate harmoniously.
Chen Zhen often did projects in unusual places and contexts, seeking the direct involvement of the local population; for instance, he worked with the children of Salvador de Bahia; in the poor, black neighbourhoods of Houston; and with the Shaker community in Maine. Chen Zhen’s work has been exhibited extensively around the world.
