Press Release: Xu Bing

08.15.96

THE INTERNATIONAL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM

NEW WORKS: 96.3

Esko MŠnnikkš OULU, FINLAND

Xu Bing - New York, NEW YORK

Franco Mondini Ruiz - SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

Exhibition: September 13 - October 13

The International Artist-in-Residence Program sponsored by ArtPace, A Foundation
for Contemporary Art | San Antonio presents New Works: 96.3, a series of three
installations by artists living and working at ArtPace. Esko MŠnnikkš, Xu Bing, and
Franco Mondini Ruiz were selected by Maaretta Jaukkuri, Chief Curator of the Museum
of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland, for the annual exhibition at ArtPace organized
by a guest curator.

Xu Bing

Born in 1955 in Chongqing, China, Xu often travels between China and his current home
in New York and many other countries throughout the world. With a background in the
traditional arts of wood block printing and calligraphy, Xu uses language to investigate
the fallibility of cross-cultural communication. In his interactive installation, Square
Words--New English Calligraphy (Beginner), Xu has converted the gallery at
ArtPace into a classroom. Gallery visitors are instructed in the use of a Chinese brush and
ink by a video with English-speaking instructors. Copy books are provided for the
participants to follow along by tracing simulated Chinese ideograms, which are
composed of English letters juxtaposed into a square format. With a little effort, Xu's text
is intelligible to those who read English, but incomprehensible to non-English speakers,
to whom the characters might at first appear to communicate.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org