Heidelberg Research Architecture GECCA mapped

GECCA mapped is based on the database Group Exhibitions of Contemporary Chinese Art (GECCA). The medium of (group and panoramic) exhibitions has played a fundamental role in creating a global context for Chinese art within and outside of the People's Republic after the end of the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976) and since the political reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978/79. In economic, discursive, aesthetic and institutional terms, the Western reception of these shows was very influential for the establishment of a certain international canon of artworks, artists and curators. This particular canon in fact came to be considered representative of the whole of Chinese artistic production, although it actually tends to exclude large parts of the overall artistic activity such as "national ink painting" (guohua), conventional or conservative academic oil painting, as well as those works involving political or consumption oriented subject matter, including mass-produced decorative and popular artworks.