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Experimental Art, Performance and ‘Publicness’: Repositioning the Critical Mass of Contemporary Chinese Art

ABSTRACT This essay examines the role of ‘criticality’ and ‘publicness’ as part of the development of contemporary art within the People's Republic of China during the latter half of the 1990s. The latter half of that decade saw the production of various forms of ‘experimental’ art, including performance, within the PRC that drew renewed attention to the possibility of a direct critical ‘effect’ (jieguo) on politics and everyday life. Here, the concept of ‘criticality’ will be discussed in relation to the ‘publicness’ of performance art as a way of examining the social relevance of experimental art as a focus for social change within the PRC.