| The City of Hiroshima has selected the winner of the 7th Hiroshima Art Prize, contemporary artist Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang (born 1957 in Fujian Province, China, currently resident in New York). |
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About the Hiroshima Art Prize
The Hiroshima Art Prize, established by the City of Hiroshima in 1989, recognizes the achievements of artists who have contributed to the peace of all humanity in the field of contemporary art, and aims to appeal through contemporary art to the wider world for the spread of the “Spirit of Hiroshima,” which seeks everlasting world peace.
This prize is awarded once in three years. The 1st Hiroshima Art Prize was awarded to Issey Miyake (fashion), the 2nd Hiroshima Art Prize to Robert Rauschenberg (fine art), the 3rd Hiroshima Art Prize to Nancy Spero and Leon Golub (fine art), the 4th Hiroshima Art Prize to Krzysztof Wodiczko (fine art), the 5th Hiroshima Art Prize to Daniel Libeskind (architecture), and the 6th Hiroshima Art Prize to Shirin Neshat (fine art). |
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About Cai Guo-Qiang
Cai Guo-Qiang is a Chinese contemporary artist who is known for his massive projects using explosives.
Born in Fujian Province, China in 1957, Cai studied stage design at the Shanghai Drama Institute and from the latter half of the 1980’s he began creating art projects using gunpowder, which was invented by China. While living in Japan from 1986 to 1995, he developed his large-scale outdoor projects featuring explosions.
In 1994, Cai participated in the Creativity in Asian Art Now exhibition at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art with a piece
entitled The Earth Has Its Black Hole Too that was displayed in Hiroshima Central Park. This large-scale project
used balloons to float rings of fuse wires up to 900 meters in the air
and then ignited them.
Moving to New York in 1995 has allowed Cai to display his work in even more venues all across the globe. In his efforts to develop a variety of creative activities, in addition to his use of gunpowder, he has incorporated facets of traditional Chinese culture, such as traditional Chinese medicine and feng shui, into his pieces, as well as creating participatory pieces such as the one entitled Cultural Melting Bath where the viewing public could actually sit in the bathtub. His international reputation continues to rise due to being awarded such accolades as the Venice Biennial International Golden Lion Prize in 1999.
Additionally, Cai has worked in many other capacities such as providing
artistic direction for the APEC Cityscape Fireworks, (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) held in Shanghai
in 2001, and functions as an artistic director of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
While firmly rooted in a unique Chinese vision of the universe and philosophy, Cai is seeking answers to problems shared by all humanity, and his worldwide recognition is certainly due to his abilities as a contemporary artist who expresses an Asian viewpoint that continues to contrast with western ones. |
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Reasons for awarding the Hiroshima Art Prize
Cai Guo-Qiang has created a great number of pieces that are not only based
on a unique vision of the universe rooted in traditional Chinese culture
and thought but his art offers a penetrating view of human history and
civilization. In his 1994 outdoor project in Hiroshima, both a celebration
of the rebirth of Hiroshima and a requiem, Cai was able to use his personal
methodology of using gunpowder to raise questions regarding not only the
historical significance of Hiroshima but also the physical phenomenon of
the A-bomb. His experience with Hiroshima at that time also led to his
1996 project displayed across the United States entitled The Century with Mushroom Clouds, and has had a large influence in general on Cai’s activities ever since.
Due to this dedication to expressing the “Spirit of Hiroshima” to the world through his creative activities, Cai has therefore been selected as a recipient of the Hiroshima Art Prize.
The Earth Has Its Black Hole Too: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 16
October 1, 1994
Venue: Hiroshima Central Park near the A-Bomb Dome |
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The 7th Hiroshima Art Prize Commemorative Exhibition
During 2008, there will be both an awards ceremony and a commemorative exhibition of Cai Guo-Qiang’s work at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. Holding the commemorative exhibition next year, the same year as the Beijing Olympics for which Cai has been named as an artistic director, will help to increase the worldwide profile of the prize. |
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