Tan Dun’s Organic Music

April 1 – May 25, 2008
Opening: Tuesday, April 1, 2008, 6-8pm
Venue: Chambers Fine Art Beijing
(Red No.1-D, Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100015, China)

Chambers Fine Art Beijing is pleased to announce the opening on April 1, 2008 of Tan Dun’s Organic Music, an exhibition devoted to a site-specific exploration of the composer’s deep attachment to the sounds and materials of the natural world. This will follow the first performance of Tan Dun’s Organic Music Tears of Nature at The National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing on March 31.

Although there has always been a pronounced visual aspect to the performance of Tan Dun’s music, it was only in 2004-5 that he began to conceive of exhibiting installations derived from his performance works in a gallery space. The exhibition Visual Music, one of eighteen one-person exhibitions in the Bunker Museum of Contemporary Art, Kinmen, Taiwan organized by Cai Guo-Qiang in 2004-5 was the first of these.  Audience members lucky enough to attend Tan Dun’s performance in Paul Andreu’s innovative concert hall next to the Great Hall of the People will be able to experience the interplay between the visual aspects of his organic music and the austere geometry of Ai Weiwei’s building for Chambers Fine Art Beijing immediately afterwards.

With this new development in his multi-faceted career, Tan Dun joins the small but distinguished lineage of twentieth century composers who have gravitated towards visual expression at a significant stage in their careers. Arnold Schoenberg painted his haunting series of Expressionist portraits and self-portraits early in his career. John Cage who studied with Schoenberg in the 1930s produced hundreds of prints, drawings and watercolors towards the end of his life. Strongly influenced by John Cage when he arrived in New York in 1985, Tan Dun continues this tradition, not only with the visual beauty and precision of his musical scores but increasingly with installations and their by-products.

The current exhibition comprises three installations, highlighting Tan Dun’s use of sounds derived from paper and water. Paper Quartet, an installation based on Paper Concerto for Paper Percussion and Orchestra (2003) will be on display in the East Gallery. The video room behind the East Gallery will host a new video installation Water Rock’n Roll which utilizes the traditional format of a hanging Chinese scroll as recipient for a dynamic display of water-based imagery rather than the peaceful landscapes that are normally displayed in this manner. Water Passion after St. Matthew (2000) will occupy the West Gallery and is based on the work that was commissioned by the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the death of J.S.Bach.

For more information please contact:
info@chambersfineart.com.cn
Or call  +86-(0)10-51273298