Head-On is created by Cai Guo –Qiang for his solo exhibition of the same name at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. Although the Berlin Wall is long gone, and former East Germany and West Germany have reunified, there remain deep and intractable historical issues between the two sides. The 99 life-sized wolves are leaping en masse towards an unseen wall, with those at the front falling from striking the wall while those bringing up the rear continuing surging forward, undeterred.
Seen from afar, the leaping wolf pack forms an arc full of force and power, their fierce courage and spirit of warrior camaraderie seemingly serving as a reminder to people: humanity is easily blinded by a kind of collective mentality and action and is destined to repeat such error to an almost unbelievable degree. The crux of this installation lies just before the glass wall, as the artist reminds people: invisible walls are the hardest to dismantle. The second and third parts of this colossal installation – Illusion II and Vortex – will also be exhibited.
About Cai Guo-Qiang
Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China. Cai was awarded the Golden Lion at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, the Seventh Hiroshima Art Prize in 2007, and the 20th Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2009. He was also Director of Visual and Special Effects for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In 2008, he was a retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. He has lived in New York since 1995.
Venue Exhibition Gallery 2, Basement
Date FRI 2 JUL 2010 – TUE 31 AUG 2010 10:00am – 6:00pm
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