Artist: Jiajia Zhang
Exhibition title: You Left Something Behind
Curated by: Melanie Bühler
Venue: Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland
Date: April 22 – August 27, 2023
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Kunstmuseum St. Gallen
The first solo museum exhibition by Jiajia Zhang (*1981 Hefei, China) focuses on the relationship between private and public space, which is being redefined by social media such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The line between what is deemed “public” and “private” has blurred in unprecedented ways, leading to the emergence of what the artist describes as an “intimate public.” Zhang translates this notion into a spatial setting for her exhibition.
Next to three existing video works, the show brings together new video, sculpture, photography and drawing, all made exclusively for the show, within a scenography created for the specific architecture of the sublevel gallery of Kunstmuseum St.Gallen. The artist uses the lack of daylight, the crude materiality of concrete and artificial stone, and the long corridors to create a setting reminiscent of urban non-places such as underpasses or parking garages. Zhang punctuates this setting with moments of domesticity and warmth.
Social Gifts, 2023, the new video Zhang created for the exhibition, shows footage from public, urban space: people taking pictures of themselves in front of landmarks; teenagers meeting. In addition to the people who populate this space and their movements and gestures, Zhang’s camera also registers the infrastructure of this space. In the light of the Christmas season, the scenery appears stage-like. Zhang is interested not only in public space as we see it in the video’s images, but also in the “new public space” created by the Internet and social media – Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. She asks what kind of new, expanded public sphere is being created by these digital media and how they make public what we have traditionally viewed as private. This renegotiation is the theme of the exhibition. The artist’s sculptures, drawings, photographs, and videos relate to it. Selected artworks from the museum’s collection are also part of Zhang’s presentation. On view are works by David Bürkler (*1936-2016, St.Gallen), Ayşe Erkmen (*1949, Istanbul, Turkey), Sylvie Fleury (*1961, Geneva), Rita McBride (*1960, Des Moines, Iowa, USA), Pablo Picasso (*Malaga, Spain 1881-1973 Mougins, France), Michael E. Smith (*1977 Detroit, MI, USA), and Andreas Schulze (*1955 Hannover, Germany).
Jiajia Zhang lives and works in Zürich. She studied architecture at ETH, Zürich, and photography at the International Center of Photography, New York, and completed her Master of Fine Arts at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in 2020. Her work has been part of numerous exhibitions, including at Fluentum, Berlin; Swiss Art Awards, Basel; FriArt, Fribourg; and Fondation d’entreprise Pernod Ricard, Paris. She had her first solo exhibition at Coalmine, Winterthur in 2021.
Jiajia Zhang, Window (Script), 2023, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Window (Script), 2023, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Window (Script), 2023, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, You Left Something Behind, installation view, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Chore (1-5: care, compassion, courage, communication, commitment), 2023, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Chore (1-5: care, compassion, courage, communication, commitment), 2023, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, You Left Something Behind, installation view, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, You Left Something Behind, installation view, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, You Left Something Behind, installation view, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Safe Crash, 2023, Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Screen, 2023, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Screen, 2023, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, You Left Something Behind, installation view, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, You Left Something Behind, installation view, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Social Gifts, 2023, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Social Gifts, 2023, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Cast (She You She I We She They You I We), 2023, Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Untitled (After Love), 2021, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Untitled (After Love), 2021, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, You Left Something Behind, installation view, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, ma, da, ah, oh, no, 2023, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Between the Acts, 2022, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, You Left Something Behind, installation view, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, You Left Something Behind, installation view, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, You Left Something Behind, installation view, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, Best Haul, 2023, Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler
Jiajia Zhang, You Left Something Behind, 2023, Edition 10 + 2 AP, Kunstverein St.Gallen, Photo: Sebastian Stadler