2022 marks the 23rd anniversary of the Chinese European Art Center (CEAC) taking root in Xiamen, and also the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Netherlands. At this significant moment, the Chinese European Art Center, Xiamen Powerlong Art Centerand the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Guangzhou jointly present Rolling Snowball 14 — a Sino-Dutch Contemporary Visual Art Exhibition with the theme of “Ni Hao?” This exhibition will showcase 36 artists from the Netherlands and China who have strong ties with two countries. They have participated in various ways in the practices organized by CEAC in the past few years, including the artist-in-residence program in Xiamen, the solo exhibitions and the traveling exhibitions of the Rolling Snowballseries. The efforts of CEAC throughout the 20 years have contributed to the artistic practice and cultural exchanges between China and the Netherlands, allowing artists to gain rich experience in the exchanges and further develop their own work, and mean while stimulating active dialogues between the two countries in terms of ideas, information, art and artists. Through the this exhibition at Xiamen Powerlong Art Center, we want to share and discuss with the public the past and future exchanges and cooperation between the two countries. Besides, the exhibition is also an important cultural event launched by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Guangzhou to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and China and the Dutch Days Program.

“Ni Hao?” is a polite opening remark for a general meeting. After nearly two years of (international) travel bans and social distancing policy, the artist residency program, which is CEAC’s cornerstone, has been forced to suspend. Taking this exhibition at the Xiamen Powerlong Art Center as a new starting point, we would like to send a long-awaited greeting to all of you, includingthe old friends of CEAC. Is everyone good under the current new social order?

In this exhibition, “Ni Hao?” is not a courtesy. Embodying rich emotions,it will invite the audience to join the narrative to form an interactive and subjective extension of the situation. The essential thing is not the polite reply of “I’m fine, thank you”, but the conversation with old friends and new friends alike, who sit in a circle with “purposeless purposiveness” and are eager to know each other’s current situation after saying hello. As the speaker and questioner, we CEAC looks forward to receiving the audience’s answers from the
bottom of their heart. The exhibition aims to remove the subject’s state analysis
of existing issues by getting rid of the original question frame. It is more of
various connections extending “Ni Hao?” to individuals, groups, related events,
and relational research implying the orientation for the current experience, or
a question/rhetorical question in the present tense.

“Ni Hao?” presents the audience with a visual narrative consisting of five chapters.
The exhibition site is related and interactive with the artworks and the chapters.
Throughout the narrative, the “person” becomes the subject of the greeting. With
“Man and Poetry” as the first chapter, the audience pays attention to the poetic
nature that flows between man and others, and furthermore to the wider world.
We are driven by distant similarity and ask “How are you?” This greeting can either
be an impromptu melody, or the liveliness when passing others. No matter it is as
big as the universe or as small as a roadside stone, it can be equally colorful or dull.

In the second chapter “Artificial and Natural”, we wander around the material basis
that has been recreated. Artificial intervention is already an important part of the
natural landscape that we see; while the photographed wilderness is also selectively
edited, presenting an artificial virtual world for the human spirit to roam, with a
tendency of being regulated by AI. In this sense, our living space is already a blend
of artificial and natural.

To further explore this altered nature, we are about to delve into the third chapter,
namely “Individual and Group,” where groups are regarded as composite and independent
beings that perceive the world around them. Medium, book and texture are the nature
faced by the individual and the trace left by the group.

When the group respond to “How are you?”, the questioner not only gains the information
from the group, but also sees his or her own shadow between the lines of the response.
As the boisterousness fades away, the audience will enter the fourth chapter “Inner Channel”.
Walking through the dark paths, they will see humorous or heavyimages of self and others,
as if in front ofmultiple mirrors, through whichtheywitness the joys and sorrows of “I”
without any emotional changes.

“A few moresteps, and we suddenly became enlightened,” wrote one ancient Chinese essay.
There is more than one way out in our heart, and what we see from each exit will be the
fifth chapter “Me and the World”. There is a realmess, the unspeakable, the vicissitudes
of life, the small household affairs and the fragile, which are diverse, calm, lively,
chaotic and orderly. And all of these constitute the “world” that “I” face.

Ineke Gudmundsson
May Lee
Qianfu Ye
Chinese European Art Center

Participating Artists:
Albert van der Weide｜Arnoud Noordegraaf
Cathelijn van Goor｜Chen Rongxin 陈荣鑫
Danielle Lemaire｜Doina Kraal｜Hester Oerlemans
Huang Shizun 黄仕尊｜Jaring Lokhorst｜Jens Pfeifer
Jia Zhixing 贾志兴｜Jin Jing 金晶｜Kan Xuan 阚萱
Katrin Korfmann｜Lin Meiya 林美雅
Liu Yuanyuan 刘圆圆｜Lova Yu 余立尧&Tycho Hupperets
Marike Schuurman｜Marjan Laaper｜Mica Pan 潘迪
Nick Renshaw｜Pan Feifei 潘菲菲｜Peer Veneman
Persijn Broersen&Margit Lukács｜Oey Tjeng Sit 黄清石
Sarah Mei Herman｜Scarlett Hooft Graafland
Sigurdur Gudmundsson｜Tanja Smit｜Temo Dou 窦笑雨
Voebe de Gruyter｜Wei Na 维娜｜Wu Yanbing 吴妍冰
Yang Jian 杨健｜Yang Zhiqian 阳芷倩｜Ye Qianfu 叶倩甫

Gallery