Three on a theme, this time round: a triptych of exhibitions at three of the city’s best German art spaces, showcasing photo objects from Belarus, a Cameroonian’s take on the Last Supper, and a China invasion at Goethe Institute… ***

Do Not Take It, Do Not Eat It,
This Is Not My Body @ stage候台BACK

gallery over at Moganshan Lu’s M50 hosts the China debut of France-based Cameroonian artist Bili Bidjocka, with solo show Do Not Take It, Do Not Eat It, This Is Not My Body. As the exhibition’s mouthful of a title suggests, the show references the Biblical account of the Last Supper. It’s a scenario imagined by artists for centuries, Leonardo’s being the most well known, but here, Bidjocka paints a rather different picture: his repast is a wholly secular affair. Two central works -– a glass-beaded curtain, borrowing the empty table of da Vinci’s masterpiece; and a deserted, wooden table backed by 13 empty chairs –- succinctly describe two assertions of Christianity, or indeed, any religion you’d care to mention. Firstly, spirituality is as much about the divine as it is the mortal; and secondly that holiness relies wholly on absent concepts, a void that we do or don’t fill. Presented alongside is a film of the performance piece that opened the show, featuring the gallery’s lovely but by no means godly director, Susanne Junker, and 12 topless men. All muted colors and slow motion, it’s somehow the memory we might ascribe to the empty objects that surround. Existential and a little bit baffling, it’s well worth a look.

Alternatives to Ritual @ Goethe Institute

Shanghai’s Goethe Institute has long hosted cultural happenings –- mainly of the film screening variety -– but new project Alternatives to Ritual, sees a total rethink of the space, its function, and indeed, the very idea of an art gallery. It’s curated by Biljana Ciric, who’s invited four Chinese artists to transform the normally sedate offices into a museum for a period of six months. Rather than a fixed exhibition, artists will occupy the center’s main space for four weeks each, inbetween times setting up smaller-scale “artists’ museums” in staff offices. Until October 27, the focus solo show comes courtesy of Gao Ming Yan’s What Else Can I Do. Comprising three distinct components –- a sculptural mass of found objects; video works; and performance –- it (literally) raises questions around art’s role in society, nicely tying in with the exhibition’s wider theme of challenging art systems, conventions and means of engagement. Without wishing to give too much away, it’s interactive and very, very thought-provoking: go see it before it ends. As Gao takes center stage, fellow creatives Hu Yun, Li Ran and Song Ta inject surrounding offices with their own works, all presented alongside archive pieces from an exhibition that took place as part of Germany’s Documenta 5, also asking questions as to what a museum could be… Peering over the heads of endlessly patient Goethe Institute staff feels just a little awkward, but then again, maybe that’s the point…

Reconstruction No.1 @ kunst.licht

Finally, teeny-tiny German photography gallery kunst.licht hosts a really rather beautiful show by Minsk-based collective Concept/Art/Confession Group. Artworks on display take the form of Alexy Shlyk's close-up portraits and nudes, printed onto roughly hewn panels of wood. There's a lot of very overt gender symbolism going on here –- a woman holding two eggs in the area of her ovaries; another pouring glasses of milk in front of naked breasts – as well as more subtle imagery. I especially loved a triptych of an old man, the middle image focusing on a pair of wrinkled, prune-like feet. It's imperfections like these that make the works all the more intriguing: combined with the texture, grains and knots of the wood, they become central to our gaze and seemingly nostalgic, thanks to their warm, sepia hue. Where the works' presentation and size may be evocative of traditional, religious icons, Shlyk's photo-objects are physical, forthright, even carnal, celebrating the ordinary and elevating the simple beauty of the human body. Founded in 2009, Concept/Art/Confession Group work to combine various media -– sculpture, painting, installation and so on -– and are pretty well-known in Belarus and Russia. Worth a visit. *** For all upcoming exhibition listings check the art calendar, here. For a list of ongoing art exhibitions in Beijing please visit SmartBeijing.com