Cai Guo-Qiang, 2010
Gunpowder drawing making process for Travels in the Mediterranean
at the Musée d’Art moderne et d’Art contemporain, Nice, 2010. Photo by Saverio Chiappalone

For the new gunpowder drawing Travels in the Mediterranean, the artist Cai Guo-Qiang will invite a female student from his alma mater, Shanghai Drama Institute, to join him in Nice, France, on a tour of the French Riviera. By experiencing the Mediterranean through the eyes of a young lady 30 years his junior, the artist will collaborate with the Shanghai girl to convey her feelings and experiences from the journey in his gunpowder drawing. The content and themes of the drawing will be of the young lady’s choice.

The French artist and Nice native Yves Klein used the female body as his paint brush in the 60's, whereas here, Cai Guo-Qiang will employ a woman’s sentiments, aesthetic and individual in his creative process. The gunpowder drawing installation of their Mediterranean travels will serve as the product of the event itself, while the actual artwork lies in the entire process of the journey: it is this process brimming with unexpectedness and unpredictability that will allow Cai to engage in his intended dialogue with Klein.

For Yves Klein, the Anthropométries series demonstrated the purpose and formalism of art-making. Yet 50 years later, to Cai Guo-Qiang, inviting an artist from a younger generation to collaborate serves to bring together two artists at different stages in their careers, rendering the spirit of exchange, mutual cooperation, and collaboration into the overall themes of the exhibition Travels in the Mediterranean. The creation of the gunpowder drawing will be an event open to the public and one in which the audience is invited to participate, thus reflecting the theme of collaborative exchange.

Cai Guo-Qiang, 2010
Gunpowder drawing making process for Travels in the Mediterranean
at the Musée d’Art moderne et d’Art contemporain, Nice, 2010. Photo
by Saverio Chiappalone

In the exhibition area a curved wall will be built for the drawing. In the centre of the exhibition area, a reflective pool will be constructed, with the edge of the pool higher than floor level. Several Mediterranean-style toy boats will float on the water, and a small electric fan will blow on the surface of the water, creating ripples. A monitor will be mounted on the wall across the exhibition area, playing video documentation of the gunpowder drawing making.