Yuan Cai and Jian Jun Xi
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Cai Yuan and Jian Jun Xi are two Chinese-born artists, based in Britain, who work together under the name Mad For Real. They have enacted (unofficial) events at the
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
and the
Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...
, where, in 1999, they jumped onto
Tracey Emin Tracey Karima Emin, CBE, RA (; born 3 July 1963) is a British artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and ...
's ''
My Bed ''My Bed'' is a work by the English artist Tracey Emin. First created in 1998, it was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1999 as one of the shortlisted works for the Turner Prize. It consisted of her bed with bedroom objects in a dishevelled stat ...
'' installation. Originally finding fame as
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 ...
ists specialising in
art intervention Art intervention is an interaction with a previously existing artwork, audience, venue/space or situation. It has the auspice of conceptual art and is commonly a form of performance art. It is associated with the Viennese Actionists, the Dada mov ...
, they have since diversified, engaging in numerous works in both Asia and Europe.


Life

Born in China, Cai Yuan (1956) and JJ Xi (1962), have been based in the UK since the 1980s. Cai Yuan trained in oil painting at Nanjing College of Art, and gained a BA from
Chelsea College of Art and Design Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further education, further ...
in 1989, and his MA from the
Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...
, London in 1991. JJ Xi trained at the Central Academy of Applied Arts in Beijing and later at Goldsmiths College. They started working as a performance duo in 1999 with ''Two Artists Jump on Tracey Emin’s Bed'' (1999).


''Two Naked Men Jump into Tracey's Bed''

At 12.58 p.m. on 25 October 1999, Cai Yuan and Jian Jun Xi jumped on
Tracey Emin Tracey Karima Emin, CBE, RA (; born 3 July 1963) is a British artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and ...
's installation ''My Bed'', a work incorporating memorabilia on and around an unmade bed, in the Turner Prize at
Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
. They called their performance ''Two Naked Men Jump into Tracey's Bed'' (although in fact they kept their trousers on). They had in mind including some "critical sex" as they considered "a sexual act was necessary to fully respond to Tracey's piece", although this part of their intention was not fulfilled. A visitor reported, "Everyone at the exhibition started clapping as they thought it was part of the show. At first, the security people didn't know what to do.""Tate Protesters Wreck Artist's Unmade Bed" The Daily Telegraph
25 October 1999 Retrieved 22 October 2006
It was not clear to some whether the action was part of Emin's display or even a protest against the current visit of Chinese President
Jiang Zemin Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pr ...
. Another visitor commented, "After a few minutes of hopping about and shouting I think they ran out of things to do. If they had tried to wreck it, or stolen the vodka or her knickers, I might have felt differently. It made my weekend.""Satirists Jump into Tracey's Bed", The Guardian
5 October 1999 Retrieved 22 March 2006
The men only had time to start a pillow fight and attempt a swig from one of the empty vodka bottles next to the bed, before they were apprehended. The police and security guards were booed when they took the pair away. Cai and Xi were arrested for their action, but no charges were pressed, since "neither the gallery nor the artist had any desire to bring the matter further". Cai considered that, although Emin's work was strong, it was nevertheless institutionalised and said, "We want to push the idea further. Our action will make the public think about what is good art or bad art. We didn't have time to do a proper performance. I thought I should touch the bed and smell the bed." He had various words written in Chinese and English on his body, such as "Internationalism", "Freedom" and "Idealism". Xi said that the work was not interesting enough and also that he wanted to push it further, increasing its significance and sensationalism. Words written on his body included "Anarchism", "Idealism" and "Optimism". One of the words prominent along the length of Cai's torso was "Anti-Stuckism", although the Stuckists had themselves been critical of Emin's art. However, Cai and Xi's explanation is that they were not anti Emin's type of work (which they merely wanted to "improve"—"We are simply trying to react to the work and the self-promotion implicit in it"), but were opposed to the Stuckists, who are anti-
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 ...
."The Jumping Chinese Gentlemen at It again" Herr von Stuck's Hot Gossip Page
Retrieved 22 March 2006
According to Fiachra Gibbons of ''The Guardian'', the event "will go down in art history as the defining moment of the new and previously unheard of Anti-Stuckist Movement." The Tate's official pronouncement was "The work has now been restored and the exhibition will open to the public as usual at 10 a.m.", but they would not be drawn on the nature of the restoration.


Other performances

In 1997, they erected fake street signs in an attempt to mislead high-profile visitors to the
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
. At
Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...
in London they scattered £1,200 around a room to point to the commercialism and greed of the art market. The audience scrambled on the floor to pick up the money. In spring 2000, the artists returned to the Tatespecifically, to the
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...
in an attempt to urinate into a 1964 artist-authorized replica of
Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
's ''
Fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were ori ...
'', a urinal laid on its back and signed "R. Mutt". The Tate denied that the attempt succeeded."The Turner Prize", University of Glasgow
, retrieved 22 March 2006.
The sculpture is now enclosed in a transparent box.


See also

*
Conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...


References


External links


Official WebsiteRadio Free Asia article on the artists, 2004BBC report on ''My Bed'' performance, including audioThe Stuckist web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cai Yuan and Jian Jun Xi British conceptual artists British contemporary artists Jian, Jun Xi Alumni of the Royal College of Art Chinese contemporary artists