In 2011, the artist Chen Tong created “cantonbon” (meaning “Canton Gang, Canton Good”) by combining his two spaces Libreria Borges (1993-) and Libreria Borges Institut d’Art Contemporain (2007-). Through an assemblage of artworks, interviews and archives, Twelve o’clock introduces CANTONBON and Tong’s distinct model of institutional practice to New York, a different location and time-zone, where two specific local art contexts encounter each together so as to contest their globalized spatio-temporal frame.
Archival materials relate CANTONBON to the emergent role of Cantonese contemporary art during a period of increased internationalization of Contemporary Chinese art from the 1990s onwards. Interviews with Tong, Claire Montgomery (Director of Location One, New York) and art collector Marieluise Hessel indirectly draw CANTONBON into debates on cultural diversity, curatorial transparency and the contested terms of “alternative” art scenes, institutions and modes of practice across different geographical territories.
Selected artworks flesh out a representation of networked relationships between three institutions’ practices. The exhibition juxtaposes twenty-four ink on paper works from the Marieluise Hessel Collection with Tong’s Chinese ink paintings and video works together with additional artworks by Cantonese artists Xu Tan, Zhou Tao and Lin Yilin. During the opening, Tong will also realize a series of his “Chinese paintings”, the mode of artistic production he employs to financially support and sustain CANTONBON – the genre of paintings most capitalized upon by the Guangzhou traditional Chinese art market.
