Making waves in the sand

Cai Guoqiang, curator of the Doha exhibition. [Photos by Hu Disheng and Courtesy of Cai Studio/For China Daily]

An exhibition from the mainland showcasing each artist's unique artistic language and methodology is currently on in Doha, as part of the Qatar China 2016 Year of Culture. Lin Qi reports.

New York-based Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang says that he used to be often confused by a question raised by international curators and journalists.

"After talking a lot about my work and Chinese art, they ask: 'So, what about art?'

"It (the question) used to leave me puzzled because I used to think that we had been discussing art," the 58-year-old says.

But Cai says that he later realized that what they had been asking about was the individuality of Chinese contemporary artists－their true identities that were hidden behind things like politics and market phenomena.

"The Chinese coats", as he puts it, had led to attention being focused on other matters instead of the artists' creativity.

So, now he has posed same question in his latest project, What About the Art? Contemporary Art from China.

The project includes an exhibition currently on at the Qatar Museums' Gallery Alriwaq in Doha, a book of his interactions with 16 artists, including a duo featured in the exhibition, and a film documenting the work done by Cai and his team to put the show together over three years beginning in 2013.