Next Generation: Asian Contemporary Art at Passage de Retz

Michel Nuridsany curated 'Next Generation/Art contemporain d'Asie' at Passage de Retz in Paris from June 27 to September 9, 2001, featuring about fifty artists from China (including Taiwan), Korea, and Japan. The exhibition aimed to present young Asian art beyond fashion trends, focusing on depth and breadth. Nuridsany traveled extensively across Asia for prospection. The show deliberately avoided well-known names, featuring artists aged 30 to 45 who had not yet established careers. Key themes included body representation, post-pop tendencies (notably Chinese 'gaudy art'), a caustic vein in Chinese painting (e.g., Luo Brothers), and documentary concerns. Media ranged from painting and textiles to video and installation, often used intelligently and sometimes polemically against Western mannerisms. Video works by Wu Wenguang and Du Haiping employed long takes and fixity, contrasting with American image standards. The exhibition highlighted the importance of female creation in traditionally patriarchal societies. Most significantly, it preserved local specificity against globalization, with artists engaging kitsch and popular culture not as critique but as resource. In the catalog, Nuridsany questioned 'export' art shaped by international demand, arguing that such commodified Asian art is an effect of globalization, not the reality of living creation.