Such Art Today

Artist’s statement and diary

Performance: Such Art Today. Content: living and working as usual. Duration: 24 hours, from 00:00 to 24:00 on 4 June 2009. Location: from Qiming Liu’s studio in Beijing’s 318 International Art Zone to Ai Weiwei’s studio in Caochangdi. Performer: Qiming Liu.

Performance plan:

1. These are the actual contents of twenty-four hours of my everyday life. No intervention or event has been deliberately arranged for this performance.

2. No dedicated videographer or photographer will be appointed. Everything will arise by chance, so there may be no photographic or video record.

3. After the performance, I will write notes recording what I was doing, where and at what time, throughout the process.

4. These notes will include text, photographs or video should they happen to arise, online activity, exchanges by text message or telephone, and the people and events encountered during the performance, including conversations.

5. The locations follow from the fact that I live at my studio in the 318 International Art Zone and plan to go to Ai Weiwei’s studio in Caochangdi today to continue earlier unfinished work: checking the list of students who died in the 12 May earthquake.

Diary, 4 June 2009, 00:00–24:00.

00:00–01:50: After chatting with Lao Jiang at Gui Yu’s studio about tea, art and life, the three of us went to Yi Xuan’s studio to continue the conversation.

01:50–01:53: Returned to my own studio and began work.

01:53–05:12: Edited the documentary, browsed blogs and sought information through online chats.

01:53–03:48: Chatted with GL on MSN about translation.

03:51: Posted “A Sleepless Night” on my Sina blog. Content: as the title says.

03:51–05:12: Browsed Artintern and read Wang Lin and Lü Peng’s discussion of the “thoroughgoing legitimacy of contemporary art.”

05:15–08:40: Slept. The computer kept working, rendering my documentary.

08:40–14:28: Took stills from the documentary, posted blog entries and painted.

09:13: Posted “The Documentary 512: The Case of Xinjian Primary School Is Complete” on my Sina, Artintern and Artron Art blogs. Content: see the blogs.

09:38: Posted “What Is Different About Today? All Days Are One Day!” on my Sina blog. Content: see the blog.

10:00: Began painting.

14:28–14:48: Began sending text messages announcing my performance Such Art Today.

14:52–15:06: Drove to Caochangdi while sending text messages announcing the performance.

15:06–18:05: Arrived at Ai Weiwei’s studio and began work, listening to recordings. Today’s recording had been made on a mobile phone: a disaster survivor spoke about the tragic experiences that followed the disaster. Replied to text messages engaging with the work and returned telephone calls. During this time, the artist Qi Yutian called, asking to come and photograph the performance. I declined: I did not want to take photographs merely for the sake of documentation.

18:05–18:40: The artist Shen Jingdong invited me to dinner. I left Ai Weiwei’s studio for Xidian 300, arriving five minutes before him.

18:45–21:30: Shen Jingdong hosted dinner. Those present were the curator Jiang Zaiming and the artists Chen Yun, Chang Zhou and Xie Bei. Partway through the meal, the curator Gao Ling joined us. We again discussed Wang Lin and Lü Peng’s debate over the “thoroughgoing legitimacy of contemporary art.”

21:30–22:33: Posted detailed information about the performance on my blogs. Posted “My Such Art Today” on my Sina, Artintern and Artron Art blogs. Content: see the blogs.

23:22–24:00: The computer finished rendering my first documentary, 512: The Case of Xinjian Primary School.