EVAW ART EXHIBITION
The Crossroads Centre is a Chinese non-profit organization based in Beijing. Since its foundation, the Crossroads Centre has
focused its work on the use of culture and art as a means to raise awareness on
social issues related to marginalized and discriminated groups. It works
towards the improvement of women’s rights, LGBT rights, ethnic minorities,
AIDS, the disabled, and more. Nowadays, women still cope with inequality, conventional perceptions and lack of sexual education with all the linked consequences, domestic violence and others.
We believe that kind of initiatives could have a positive impact and make the difference. Our team has already succeeded in organizing such events ;
« The China Women's Film Festival », by winning the 2nd prize of the Intercultural Achievement Award assigned by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2014, increased the scope of awareness and made the following editions even more successful.
![]()
Our latter event, the "Mojo Love condom project" which encouraged the prevention of unplanned pregnancies and sexual transmitted diseases by the sale of condoms and intervention of two speakers, gathered enough money to start the first Feminist Library of Beijing.
The « EVAW art exhibition » aims to raise awareness of women's issues in China and to give the artists a platform to display engaged contemporary art.
The exhibition will
take place between 24th November and 4th December 2015. The Austrian embassy in Beijing will host the closing ceremony of the
exhibition.
The artists are free in their choice of topic and their preferred medium, as long as their works stand in a context with contemporary women's rights issues in China (domestic violence, workplace abuse, LGBT related issues, etc). The line up of artists will be mixed (half female and the other half male) and various. More than 20 artists will participate in the event, including famous ones.
Some of the following pictures illustrate the former works of the confirmed artists.
![]()
Li Xinmo got her master’s degree from Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in 2008
and is now based in Beijing. Her works, based on a variety of media, including
performance, painting, video, photography, installations, have been exhibited
in some important art museums in Sweden, France, Germany, Canada, the U.S. In
particular, she has a profound understanding of the Chinese calligraphic
tradition.
![]()
Chen Xingwei was born in 1963, Sichuan. He graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine arts in 1990 and later attended the Central Academy of Fine Art, where he was part of the mural department's 2003 advanced studies creative research class. He now lives and works as a professional artist in Beijing. He was involved in various exhibitions, for example the Beijing MEIPU "Birth - In the framework of sound (experimental art) exhibition, the "Salvation of a soul" performance on the Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican and the Venezuela and China contemporary Oil Painting Exhibition. He also exhibited works at EMHAUSART in London and on touring exhibitions in New York.
Born in Beijing in 1982, he is now a professional artist. He graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Tsinghua University and won twice the second place Tsinghua University scholarship, "Tsinghua Friends - Zheng Ge Ru Scholarship" as well as first prize for Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts research paper award.
Zhong Yuan
![]()
In 1987, Zhong Yuan was born in Changchun, Jilin Province. In 2013, she obtained a double master’s degree from Northeastern University, China and Wolverhampton University, England. She held the exhibitions “Animal Farm”, “Life Tree”, and others in Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Eagles Gallery and more. Currently, she's studying a doctorate at Northeastern University.
Wang Yuanyun was born in 1991 in Yichang, Hubei Province. In 2009, she entered the visual department at Renmin University of China, but withdraw from Renmin in 2011. Her exhibitions include “Who am I”, “Quotes”, “Body User Guide” and “Eye-Catching Billboards” at the Shanghai Lucky Elephant Gallery. She also published “Su Zi Zi Diary”, “I am Su Zi Zi”.
![]()
Wi Du is a photographer, born in the 70s in Heilongjiang. In 2011, he ended a ten-year career in management and began as an artist. His works cover a wide range, especially in video, installation and performance art. Hybrid artworks are his specialty, with a diverse creative method. His artworks address current social hot spot problems and represent them in a vivid mixture of image and art. Beginning in 2012, Wu Di’s works burst into both domestic and international media, continuously holding popular solo exhibitions in Europe and America.
-
Zheng Anquan & Zheng Ruoxing
Zheng Anquan is a Chinese traditional wood artist born in 1957. Since childhood he has learnt traditional wood art, and has over 30 years of woodwork experience. Due to age and indirectly because of family background, he went into another career, working at factories for several years before quitting to start a trade. After retiring, he picked up art as a hobby, mainly studying ancient Chinese furniture and working to continue inherited skills of traditional wood art. Currently is writing a collection of books on Chinese traditional wood art.
His daughter, Zheng Ruoxing, was born in 1986 and graduated from the department of film and television at Hong Kong Baptist University. Her artworks were nominated for the Warsaw Youth Film Festival, The 15th Poland International Film and Television School Festival and the following year at the Hong Kong International Film Festival screenings. The following year, she obtained a master’s degree in international journalism from the same school. In 2012, she received Hong Kong Arts Development Office funding and released first prose anthology, entitled “Nonlinear Life”.
The artist and novelist, Ya Liang, was born in 1980. She later moved to Beijing where she now lives and works. In 2011, she held a solo exhibition called"Gaze Gaze" in the Vision Art space inside Beijing's 798 art district. Earlier exhibitions include displays together with the British artist Helen Marshall, for instance "You and Me" in the Reflex Gallery in Paris as well as the exhibition "The Secret Garden" in the Gao Brothers Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.She also took part in various group exhibitions such as the Hongyi University Art Museum's "Made in Beijing" exhibition in Korea, the Macro Museums "[Un]forbidden City" exhibition in Rome and the "Dragon's Transformation" display in New York.
This exhibition will also trigger a long-term project with the goal of creating a network for Chinese artists with work involving human and social rights.
Besides facilitating exhibitions, we plan to introduce Western artists' approach to human rights and social issues in their respective society to the artist community in China (through the innovation of Western artists to Beijing, art workshops, art information on social media platforms, etc).
The Crossroads Centre would need 3,000 $ in order to properly organize this event by;
-
Promoting the event : the printing of postcards and others materials in order to spread out the event (200 dollars)
-
Creating a network : we invited famous artists to expose and specialized critics to report the event. This initiative will involve some transportation and publication fees (800 dollars)
-
Reporting the event : the printing of 500 EVAW books that report the artworks exposed (2000 dollars)
We need your help !
In China, some difficulties remain to collect funding for that kind of event. Even though our work proved many times its efficiency, it is still not enough. We need to bring awareness in China about the difficulties which women still cope with such as domestic violence, discrimination at the workplace, school, and more. The " EVAW art exhibition " will raise debate and create a room for discussion. All kind of support will be appreciated i.e. donations, advices, and promotion : let people know about us! Don't forget to use Indiegogo's tool for sharing.
For more information about the subject :
"Eliminating Violence Against Women" - UN Women