At present, Cantocore.com is an archive of the two shows, Cantocore Free On Board in San Francisco, and Cantocore: Import/Export in Guangzhou, China. Please contact us if you have any questions about the projects or doing future projects.
As the grotto posted, Cantocore Free On Board in SFO is closing on April 18, 2009. That means you still have 18 days to see the show, write reviews, and get into the whole project. Here is more from the announcement:
CANTOCORE: FREE ON BOARD AT MISSION 17 CLOSING PARTY APRIL 18
Cantocore: Free On Board is the second installment of a collaborative project, exploring the globalized conditions of contemporary culture, through an exchange specifically between artists from the San Francisco Bay Area and Guangzhou, China.
The collaboration takes its inspiration and its name, “Cantocore,”from the rapid economic, social, and cultural changes currently taking place in Canton province. Hip Hop is thriving, heavy metal music is blasting, and the art market is booming. Over the last 20 years, cities such as Guangzhou, the capital of Canton, have changed from having a uniquely Chinese culture into global cities influenced and informed by diverse forms of representation. During the same period, Chinese artists also have exerted a growing influence on culture across the globe – and perhaps nowhere more than here on the Pacific rim of California, where Chinese Americans have played a central role since its inception. Art and culture is no longer defined by merely national boundaries – if it ever was – and yet cultural differences persist, providing productive tensions, rich with critical and creative possibilities.
Cantocore works to explore these globalized conditions of contemporary culture and the possibilities they present, by cultivating the dialogue specifically between the Bay Area and Guangzhou. Artists involved in the project include, among others, Americans with roots in China, Chinese who have come to study and work in San Francisco, and Americans who have emigrated to China. The first installment of the project, titled Cantocore: Import / Export, took place in September 2008 at the Ping Pong Space in Guangzhou. Cantocore: Free On Board provides the follow-up response.
What common concerns inform these artists work? How does their art nevertheless read differently across the globe? How do the histories and environments of each city inform the aesthetics of the work produced and presented there; and how does the work transcend its geographic origins, drawing aesthetic and conceptual influence from elsewhere?
This exhibition is a collaboration with The Garage Biennale, The Fabricatorz, and Ping Pong Gallery, China. Participating Artists:JD Beltran, Deer Fang, Wang Ge, Misako Inaoka, David O. Johnson, Guy Overfelt, Jon Phillips, Lin Fang Suo, Zhou Tao, Katherine Worel, Huang Xiaopeng.. Curated by Deer Fang, Justin Hoover, Jon Phillips.
Through April 18. Closing party Saturday, April 18, 5 – 7 pm. 2111 Mission Street, Suite 401, San Francisco 94110. Telephone: 415.861.3144. For more information, see http://www.cantocore.com and http://mission17.org/exhibits/upcoming.htm
Come this Saturday, February 28, 4-6pm to Mission17 and join us for drinks and conversation! This program is free and open to the public.
Artists JD Beltran, David Johnson, Guy Overfelt, Jon Phillips, and Kathrine Worel will discuss contemporary art production in the decentralized global economy, with specific emphasis on connections to the conceptual framwork, Cantocore. The discussion will be moderated by curator/artist Justin Hoover.
Please RSVP on the facebook event page.
We are on the eve of announcing Cantocore in San Francisco. Until then, check out this video Justin made showing proposed artwork in a special location in San Francisco’s mission district:
Cantocore Home Concert Preview is coming up next Wednesday July 23rd. Right now our RSVP deadline for this event is extended to Monday, July 21st. And tickets are on sale right now for $50 USD! All money goes to the production of the Cantocore exhibition in Guangzhou and San Francisco. And, all contributions will be rewarded with praise, promotion in printed materials and on this website.
This event is a preview of the coming exhibitions, and also a home concert featuring Chinese traditional instrument musician Ma Jie and electronic musician Christopher Willits.
To reserve your tickets please do one of the following:
Call Justin at 415-425-1647
Email: jhoover.charles@gmail.com
Or use Paypal option
“硬核广州”预展：预定时间延长并且入场券在售中！
硬核广州预展音乐会在下周三即7月23日就要到来了。现在我们这次预展音乐会的预定截止时间已经延伸至周一即7月21日。并且从现在开始出售入场券，价格为50美元。所有收入都将用来制作这次在广州和旧金山的硬核广州展览。并且，所有的捐款、贡献将通过印刷品以及本网站予以感谢及发扬。
这场音乐会是即将来临的展览会的一个预展，同时也是由中国传统乐器音乐家Ma Jie及电子音乐家Christopher Willits为主的一场本土音乐会。
您可以通过以下任一方式预定入场券：
电话至Justin: 415-425-1647
邮件至: jhoover.charles@gmail.com
或者通过Paypal支付
Cantocore; an international exhibition of contemporary Chinese and U.S. art, opening in Guangzhou and San Francisco, fall 2008.
On Art, War, and Dialogue
Lebbeus Woods, the internationally renowned architect is known to have said that Architecture is War. By this he means that in life art and architecture can be understood as a process of making ideas become actual, upsetting the balance, destroying certitude, and reconfiguring power. In terms of architecture, the tangibility of this concept is palpable. Monuments create history, building express philosophies, and nations judges other nations according to their level of development.
More abstractly however, in the arts, the structures of life that undergo reconfiguration are oftentimes much less evident. In this way artists seek to reassert a voice to alternative viewpoints and philosophies, often times on an intimate scale, or on a microscopic level. Together the simplest gestures or ideas can equate to a movement, a revolution. In this way, Cantocore seeks to foment an exchange of new ideas between China and the United States. Specifically, we are targeting San Francisco, due to its cultural and spatial proximity to China, and Guangzhou, due to its emergence as one of the many new Asian art poles. This series of collaborations known as CANTOCORE Signifies the building of a bridge between two distinct yet intertwined worlds. Together this intercultural dialogical bridge will bring the seeds of abstract and alternative thought to their fullest manifestations.
– Justin Hoover – Thoughts on peace, war, and intercultural dialogue
欢迎来到“硬核广州”
硬核广州，一个关于当代中国和美国艺术的国际性展览，于2008年秋季开幕于广州及旧金山。
关于艺术、战争与对话
Lebbeus Woods这位国际著名建筑家因为曾说过建筑是战争而闻名。因此他认为生活中艺术与建筑可以被理解为一个将理想变为现实的过程，这一过程打破着平衡、破坏着真实并且重新配置着权力。就建筑而言，这一理念的确实性是极其明了的。纪念性建筑物引发着历史来历，房屋建筑传达着哲学态度，并且一个民族因为其发展水平而对另外一些民族具有裁判权。
然而更为抽象地，在艺术方面，遭受重配置的生命结构经常是不明显的。在这种情况下，艺术家们对于可选择的观点及哲学，寻求重新主张一种声音。同时最简单的比画或者思想可以等同于一场运动、一场革命。在这种情况下，“硬核广州”尝试、寻求去促进中国与美国间新兴理念交流的可能。具体地我们将目标选定在旧金山是因为其在文化以及空间上接近中国，同时我们选择广州是因为其渐渐已成为众多亚洲新兴艺术区之一。这一系列被称作是“硬核广州”的合作开展，将意味着是这两个不同但却交织在一起的世界间桥梁的建起。同时，这一不同文化间的对话桥梁将使得抽象理论的或者其他可供选择的想法之种子完满盛开。
– Justin Hoover – 关于和平、战争以及不同文化间对话的思考