Tang Ping, the name of this exhibition, refers to a movement that originated recently in China and translates as “lying flat”. However, it can be seen as a global phenomenon that expresses a rejection of societal pressures to overwork and overachieve in an endless rat race.
What keeps us moving at a frenetic pace? Wealth? Power? Prestige? Image? Is there no way out? Are we simply trapped and condemned to continue like this? Does our happiness depend only on what we have in our pockets?
Why can lying down be almost embarrassing? Tang Ping does this openly and, in doing so, invites us to rethink how we can end up living in a depersonalized way, losing interiority and hijacking our own subjectivity. Lying down represents, in this context, passive resistance and a way of empowering oneself, far from surveillance.
At Arthall, “Tang Ping” becomes polyphonic art. In this exhibition, four artists express, in different ways and mediums, their concern about time, dirty competition, being trapped, kneeling down, losing autonomy, etc. And the need for the horizontal position to reconsider what is being served and see, if perhaps, we are being forced fed. To lie down is always an invitation to ruminate and delve into the dangerous unconscious mind, where the claws of control can not reach—or not for now—and where we stop being available.
Opening Hours:
Monday & Tuesday closed
Wednesday - Saturday 10:00 - 13:00; 17:00 - 19:00
Sunday 10:00 - 12:00