Winners for Huayu Youth Award 2020 Announced

On December 12 at Beijing’s UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Zheng Yuan and Peng Zuqiang were named the respective winners of the 2020 Huayu Youth Award Jury Prize and Special Jury Prize, for artists under 35 years of age. Zheng and Peng received a cash award of RMB 50,000 (USD 7,600) and RMB30,000 (USD 4,600), respectively.

Zheng was conferred the grand prize for his one-hour video installation The last step of touch down (2020), comprised of a montage of archival clips from 1950 to 1989 depicting foreign political leaders and ambassadors descending from aircrafts during their visits to China. Inspired by American president Richard Nixon’s historical 1972 visit to Beijing, Zheng explores the construction of histories for Chinese political and diplomatic relations, as well as the process of globalization. Born in Lanzhou, Zheng obtained his masters from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015, and works primarily with time-based media such as archival materials and footage.

Peng was recognized for his eight-minute video installation Keep in Touch (2020- ), a still-frame video with full-screen captions and photos examining the literal and figurative concept of touch, such as a pair of hands cutting the nails of another person. A filmmaker and a member of the moving image collective Fish in a Pot, Peng studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and London’s Goldsmiths and his interests focus on China’s political past, such as the country’s revolutionary history.

The 2020 winners were chosen from 15 finalists, including multimedia artists Chen Dandizi, Joey Xia, Hu Wei, Jin Ya’nan, Lo Lai Lai Natalie, Yong Xiang Li, Liu Guoqiang, Liu Yu, Ni Hao, Wing Po So, Su Yu-Xin, Su Yu Hsin. The eighth Huayu Youth Award was chaired by UCCA director Philip Tinari, and comprised artists Cao Fei and Liu Wei; director of OCAT Xi’an, Karen Smith; and scholar and curator Lu Mingjun.

Controversy ensued last year when the 2019 jury, chaired by M+ curator Pi Li, declined to name a winner for the grand prize and instead named two Special Jury Prize winners, claiming that none of the ten finalists deserved the grand prize as they did not fulfill the requirement of establishing new methods and attitudes in their works. One of the winners, Hsu Che-Yu, rejected the award out of skepticism towards the judgment process. Other art makers also voiced their disapproval for the selection process, while an employee from Sanya’s Huayu Art Center, where the 2019 finalist exhibition was held, criticized the center’s substandard installation conditions.

The award was founded in 2013 by the real estate Huayu Group to promote the development of contemporary art in China. The 2020 finalist exhibition, “The Eighth Huayu Youth Award Exhibition: A Long Hello,” will run until February 10, 2021, at UCCA Beijing.

Ruby Fung is an editorial intern of ArtAsiaPacific.

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