CHINA/AUSTRALIA CULTURAL EXCHANGE 2010-12

VENUE 1
16.10.10 – 14.11.10
IBERIA CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, BEIJING, CHINA

VENUE 2
03.02.12 – 10.03.12
GERTRUDE CONTEMPORARY, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

No-Name Station was an innovative China/Australia exchange exhibition launched to coincide with 'Imagine Australia: The Year of Australian Culture,' a program of cultural events which showcased Australian art and culture in China in 2010.

A collaborative endeavour between Gertrude Contemporary (Melbourne), Iberia Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing), and Warmun Arts Centre (Warmun, WA), this multi-faceted project encompassed exhibitions, a group residency, a major publication and public programs across several locations in China and Australia.

No-Name Station began with the idea of cross-cultural contact and its impact on individual histories. Accordingly, the project was launched in June 2010 with a moment of encounter: a residency that gathered together 22 Chinese and Australian artists, curators and writers for one week at Warmun Art Centre, located in the Indigenous community of Warmun in the east Kimberley region of Western Australia. This creative encounter provided a catalyst for the subsequent publication and the exhibition in Beijing, which took place at Iberia Center for Contemporary art in October 2010.

The exhibition included contributions by Chinese artists Gao Shiqiang, Liang Shuo, Wang Wei and Zhao Zhao; Australian artists Brook Andrew (Wiradjuri, Melbourne), Sally Smart (Melbourne) and Newell Harry (Sydney), alongside work by artists from the Gija community of Warmun, Western Australia: Mabel Juli, Rusty Peters, Rammey Ramsey, Marika and Marissa Patrick, and Gabriel Nodea.

The exhibition presented Aboriginal art from a remote community alongside work by urban practitioners from Australia and China, in an attempt to deploy an alternative way of exhibiting Aboriginal art in an international context. No-Name Station formed part of 'Imagine Australia: The Year of Australian Culture in China', with the support of the Australian Embassy, Beijing.

The No-Name Station exhibition and publication was launched in Beijing on 16 October 2010 at the prestigious art space Iberia Center for Contemporary Art. The exhibition was reconfigured for its second iteration at Gertrude Contemporary from 16 March - 7 April 2012.

No-Name Station was supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council of the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body; and through the Australia International Cultural Council, an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The project has also received support from the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria, and the Western Australian Government, through the Department of Culture and the Arts. The No-Name Station publication was made possible through the generous assistance of the Gordon Darling Foundation, Jason Yeap, and Fabio Ongarato Design.