Concept 21 (Chinese: 觀念21), arguably the first artist collective of

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, was formed in 1986 in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

by five students —

Sheng Qi Sheng Qi (; born 1965 in Hefei, Anhui Province, China) is a Chinese performance artist and painter. He was one of the original founders of the Chinese performance art group, Concept 21. Sheng Qi graduated from Beijing Academy of Art and Design in ...

(盛奇),

Zheng Yuke Zheng may refer to: *Zheng (surname), Chinese surname (鄭, 郑, ''Zhèng'') *Zheng County, former name of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, China *Guzheng (), a Chinese zither with bridges *Qin Shi Huang (259 BC – 210 BC), emperor of the Qin Dynasty, ...

(鄭玉珂),

Zhao Jianhai Zhao may refer to: * Zhao (surname) (赵), a Chinese surname ** commonly spelled Chao in Taiwan or up until the early 20th century in other regions ** Chiu, from the Cantonese pronunciation ** Cho (Korean surname), represent the Hanja 趙 (Chine ...

(趙建海),

Kang Mu Kang may refer to: Places * Kang Kalan, Punjab * Kang District, Afghanistan * Kang, Botswana, a village * Kang County, Gansu, China * Kang, Isfahan, Iran, a village * Kang, Kerman, Iran, a village * Kang, Razavi Khorasan, Iran, a village * Kha ...

(康木), and

Xi Jianjun Xi may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Xi'' (alternate reality game), a console-based game * Xi, Japanese name for the video game '' Devil Dice'' Language *Xi (letter), a Greek letter * Xi, a Latin digraph used in British English to writ ...

(奚建軍).

Formation

Concept 21 was formed in 1986 in Beijing. The group's inception began with ''52 Hours of Unfolding Action'', a collective performance which was executed on December 23, 1986. At the time, a group of students from

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

organized a spontaneous art festival, and Sheng Qi invited his peers to orchestrate a performance at the campus of the university.

Great Wall Performance

Enacted over the course of two days in May 1988, the collective executed a series of performances at the

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic grou ...

by once again dressing in colourful strips of cloth around their bodies and head, similar to their attire in ''52 Hours of Unfolding Action''. The performance was divided into a number of stages in which the group engaged in various

ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...

-like actions. Shing-Kwan Chan argues that in this performance, the artists' body became at once a radical representation of the injustices of the past and of the contemporary individual grieving the injustices in the present.

References

{{Performance art Living people Chinese performance artists Chinese contemporary artists Year of birth missing (living people)