Secret Love - A New Look at Love in China
Meet several of the participating Chinese artists as well as Museum Director Karl Magnusson and Exhibition Curator Si Han. Refreshments will be provided!
Thursday 25 april at 10.00 THE MUSEUM OF WORLD CULTURE, Gothenburg
Registration: marie.nilsson@varldskulturmuseerna.se, +46 76-9425575
Taboo love in China. The internationally renowned exhibition Secret Love is coming to Gothenburg
and the National Museum of World Cultures. On 27 April, we open our doors at Korsvägen to an
exhibition showing 28 participating artists and around 150 pieces of work, all of which communicating
the theme of identity, sexuality and norms. Secret Love is the world’s first contemporary art
exhibition from China on this theme and as such, a new chapter in the country’s history of art.
With Secret Love, the National Museum of World Cultures wants to show the power of the changes
taking place in the Chinese society and the significance of these changes for the individual. Internationally
renowned Chinese names such as Gao Brothers, Chi Peng, Ma Liuming and Zhang Yuan
present photographs, video installations and paintings about taboo love.
The Chinese society is changing very rapidly and with it, the perception of sexuality and identity.
This change is especially noticeable in the LGBTQ community. Homosexuality was decriminalised
in 1997 and is since 2001 no longer regarded as a mental illness. There are still many taboos,
however, but the Internet and a more open society are contributing to an increasing awareness of
individual rights. Meet modern China where art and visual power lead the way in the debate against
taboos and prejudice and towards a better understanding and awareness.
The world premier of Secret Love took place last autumn at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities.
At the National Museum of World Cultures, the exhibition is further enhanced with the important
addition of the female artist Li Xinmo who, among other things, is participating with photographs
and performances. Most of the artists participating in Secret Love are of a younger generation born
after the introduction of the one-child policy in 1980. Exhibition Curator Si Han from the National
Museum of World Cultures has devoted many years to extensive research, the result of which is
an exciting meeting with Chinese contemporary art on the theme of taboo love on a scale that has
never been seen before.
Presscontact: Marie Nilsson Email: marie.nilsson@varldskulturmuseerna.se Phone: 076-942 55 75
The Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg is one of four Museums of World Culture. The other three are the Museum of Ethnography, the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities, and the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm. Annual number of visitors are about one million.
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