Chang Sun

I am an artist organizing events and programs. I grew up in China and am currently based in Amsterdam. As a person trained as an artist from a young age, I studied and worked in the art fields in Beijing, London, New York, Amsterdam, Leipzig and Athens. I also have experienced different fine arts discourses through a variety of educational and financial systems shaped by different social, political and economical structures. To me, in a context where contemporary art is dominated by consumption-based capitalism and propelled by a geopolitical based cultural colonialism, the question of “where to present” and “why to present” is more urgent than any other. At the same time, despite making art with a financial aim, it is a media that can condense and frame the valuable content or moment into a final result, to share and communicate further with others. The value of art is defined by the receivers according to their own perspective, turning it into emotional, social or political impact. The existence of art is a rare thing, which could be itself without the filter of a market definition in a social-capital system, but it is interpreted differently by specific personal acknowledgements.

I keep on trying to remove the reproductive and consumptive characteristics of art from the contemporary art system and market. By tracing back the value of art itself, exploring what kind of interpretations could be perceived and what it could do elsewhere. In the recent years, I was mainly focus on: using art spaces as a springboard (relocation), growing art in-situ which is defined by the people related to the location (redefinition), exploring the social fabric through art in order to connect people together (social relations), and embedding the re-defined value in the current context (social impact).

Often, my practice takes the shape of time-based programs and made through collaborations. The detailed examples are shown in the “magic” section.