For his first solo exhibition in China, SUPER CHINA!, Navin Rawanchaikul transforms UCCA’s Nave into a playful zone calling for immediate reflexivity about Chinese contemporary art world and its current values. The project begins with a dialogue to the “past” tale of Old Navin and Curatorman, the two protagonists who fight each other for the value of art in SUPER(M)ART. While SUPER(M)ART is set in the future, SUPER CHINA! is today’s phenomenon.

Bringing together new and recent works, the show’s centerpiece is the SUPER CHINA!, an interactive board game presented under the brand “Survival Art Corp” by Navin Production. Every weekend during the exhibition’s run, visitors can play to win in the high-stakes field of contemporary art. Throughout the show, players’ scores ranked, medals given, and scoreboards featuring each player will be on view. When the exhibition closes, trophies will be given to the players with the highest scores. The game is complimented by SUPER CHINA! (2009), a large-scale painting made especially for the UCCA exhibition that humorously portrays the icons and superstars of Chinese art in a sprawling scene painted in the style of a Bollywood movie poster.

A colorful cast of characters await visitors to SUPER CHINA!, the exhibition also includes a selection of past and recent works by the artist and his band of collaborators. The show is complimented by regular screenings of two of Navin Party’s videos in UCCA’s auditorium, Navins of Bollywood (2006) and Quotations from Comrade Navin (2008).

SUPER CHINA!
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA)
April 18 – June 12, 2009
Curated by David Spalding

Gallery

SUPER CHINA!