CHINA/AUSTRALIA CULTURAL EXCHANGE 2010-11

VENUE 1
16.10.10 – 14.11.10
IBERIA CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, BEIJING, CHINA

VENUE 2
03.02.12 – 10.03.12
GERTRUDE CONTEMPORARY, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

No-Name Station is an innovative China/Australia exchange exhibition launched to coincide with 'Imagine Australia: The Year of Australian Culture,' a program of cultural events which showcases Australian art and culture in China in 2010-11.

No-Name Station encourages a dialogue between Australian and Chinese participants and audiences, with the aim to explore the points of similarity and connection between our two cultures. A collaborative endeavour between Gertrude Contemporary (Melbourne), Iberia Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing), and Warmun Arts Centre (Warmun, WA), this multi-faceted project involves contributions by 13 visual artists, 1 writer, and a curatorium from Australia and China; and will encompass 2 contemporary art exhibitions, a group residency, a major publication and public programs across several locations in China and Australia in 2010-11.

No-Name Station begins with the idea of cross-cultural contact and its impact on individual histories. Central to the project is the belief that a true exchange requires more than the freighting of artworks between two countries. Accordingly, the project was launched in June 2010 with a moment of encounter: a residency that gathered together the 22 Chinese and Australian participants for one week at Warmun Art Centre, located in the Indigenous community of Warmun in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. This creative encounter provided a catalyst for the subsequent publication and exhibitions in China and Australia.

The resulting exhibition includes contributions by Chinese artists Gao Shiqiang, Liang Shuo, Wang Wei and Zhao Zhao.and Australian artists Brook Andrew (Wiradjuri, Melbourne), Sally Smart (Melbourne) and Newell Harry (Sydney), alongside work by artists from the Gija community of Warmun, Western Australia: Mabel Juli, Rusty Peters, Rammey Ramsey, Marika and Marissa Patrick, and Gabriel Nodea.

The No-Name Station exhibition and publication will be launched in Beijing on 16 October 2010 at the prestigious art space Iberia Center for Contemporary Art. The exhibition in Beijing runs from 16 Oct – 14 Nov 2010; and will be shown in Australia at Gertrude Contemporary in Melbourne from 15 Jul – 20 Aug 2011.

The exhibition presents Aboriginal art from a remote community alongside work by urban practitioners from Australia and China, in an attempt to deploy an alternative way of exhibiting Aboriginal art in an international context. No-Name Station forms part of 'Imagine Australia: The Year of Australian Culture in China', with the support of the Australian Embassy, Beijing.

No-Name Station has been supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council of the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body; and through the Australia International Cultural Council, an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The project has also received support from the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria, and the Western Australian Government, through the Department of Culture and the Arts. The No-Name Station publication has been made possible through the generous assistance of the Gordon Darling Foundation, Jason Yeap, and Fabio Ongarato Design.