Art field Nanhai Guangdong

Art field Nanhai Guangdong, a top-level international cultural festival, will open in Nanhai, Foshan on November 18. About 70 art projects from 15 countries and regions will be invited to participate in this festival, including China, Russia, France, Israel, Japan, Spain, the United States, Australia, India and Cameroon. The main venue is located in Xiqiao Town, Nanhai, Foshan, covering an area of 176 square kilometers. At the same time, there are 8 art sub-venues in Xiqiao Mountain, Tingyin Lake, Pingsha Island, Taiping Hui, Songtang Village, Ruxi Village, and Huanggang Village.

A true-to-life reproduction of the typical convenience store in China, XUZHEN Supermarket displays a dazzling array of daily consumer goods for sale at regular prices. On a closer look, however, one finds all the commodities bereft of substance. The anomaly of inviting viewers to purchase empty containers reveals the exchange-value crisis of global capitalism. Under the aesthetic disguise of product packaging, the emptiness of commodities points to the displacement of exchange and use values under the commercial hegemony. 

In his supermarket, Xu Zhen® constructs a space that parodies the rampant global consumerism. He simultaneously creates the simulacrum of commodities and of artworks alike, thus arriving at a simulacrum of contemporary life. As Baudrillard sees it, it is not an object but a sign, a concept that is consumed in capitalism, whereas simulacrums, without having any signified, become the only reality in a postmodern society. In this sense, once it enters the capitalist system, art turns into a sign or concept that is being consumed, a form of design or packaging; it has nothing to do with the artwork itself. This explains why the artist removes the goods while retaining only their packaging.