We are excited to present ‘Interest, Disinterest, and the Space Between’, conceived and organised by Weitian Liu, our 2021 PhD Scholar in ‘Advanced Practices’ at Goldsmiths, University of London, an expansive series of screening and reading groups probing the friction between interest and disinterest through the lens of contemporary Chinese art.

‘Only because art has left the sphere of interest to become merely interesting do we welcome it so warmly.’ This provocative statement by Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben is found in the opening pages of The Man without Content (1970), a book that critiques and challenges what he calls ‘the Western aesthetic project’. Agamben is against the idea of art as a disinterested experience; in the same book, he calls for a ‘destruction’ of aesthetics, which he identifies as the root of the split in the experience of art between the artist and the spectator. This leaves us wondering: what might an interested experience of art be like?

But perhaps this isn’t the right question to ask. For it seems the dichotomy between interest and disinterest is set up by Agamben only to be broken down, or at least in anticipation of its eventual collapse. What this public programme attempts to engage with through three reading groups and one screening is precisely the friction between the two spheres—interest and disinterest—as well as the desire to move beyond such a division.

The proposition is to enter the selected texts and works with the following questions in mind: Can we speak of a Chinese experience of art that is distinct from yet inextricably linked to its Western counterpart? And could this experience—not only rooted in the Chinese context but also already inhabited by the contemporary Chinese subject in their encounter with a globalised art world—offer a privileged site for reconsidering the relationship between interest and disinterest in contemporary art?

Each session of this programme is self-contained and loosely interconnected. Participants are welcomed to join one, several, or all sessions.

PROGRAMME SCHEDULE

SCREENING PROGRAMME
2–4PM, 17.05.2025

In February 2013, artist Li Mu opened a library in his home village Qiuzhuang in Jiangsu province, China, and produced copies of works from the collection of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and distributed them among the villagers. This process unfolding constitutes the ‘Qiuzhuang Project’—a deeply layered and thought-provoking work that challenges the raison d'etre of artistic, cultural, curatorial, and institutional practices.

The screening programme features Part I of Li Mu’s four-part documentary Qiuzhuang Log (2015), followed by a conversation between Weitian and Jingsi Wang.

FREE ENTRY, TICKET HERE

READING GROUPS

The reading groups are intended as a space for collective thinking and study, where participants are encouraged to share thoughts, questions, and interpretations with one another. Whether you are familiar with the material or encountering it for the first time, you are warmly welcome to take part. Readings will be shared in advance and upon registration.

Each session is limited to 10 participants to foster an open and productive discussion. To register, email Weitian weitianstill@gmail.com.

READING GROUP I
6.30—8PM, 01.05.2025

This session prompts its participants to read Jacques Rancière’s essay, Good Times, Or, Pleasure at the Barrière, in Staging the People: The Proletarian and His Double (2011), with respect to the Chinese Contemporary context. Rancière’s essay focuses on working-class social and cultural gatherings in 19th-century France, exploring a distinct proletarian political-aesthetic experience within what is often dismissed as mere leisure and entertainment. One can think of, for instance, the cultural and historical shift marked by the supersession of spaces, a shift that leaves its traces in recent films such as Wang Bing’s Youth (Spring) (2023) and Jia Zhangke’s Caught by the Tides (2024).

READING GROUP II
6.30—8PM, 29.05.2025

This session will focus on Trinh T. Minh-ha’s Traveling in the Dark (2023), a publication that evolved from the eponymous exhibition at the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai. Traveling in the Dark expands upon Trinh T. Minh-ha’s film What about China? Instead of offering a direct answer to the film’s titular question, the artist takes us on a journey through 1990s rural China, one that is marked by obscurities, diversions, and unexpected detours.

READING GROUP III
6.30—8PM, 12.06.2025

This session dives into François Jullien’s book, In Praise of Blandness: Proceeding from Chinese Thought and Aesthetics (2007), which raises and explores a seemingly paradoxical question: How can blandness—a quality often associated with lack, and contrasted with the spectacular and extraordinary—offer an experience of profound richness and fullness, ultimately establishing itself as a virtue?

ACCESS INFORMATION

This event takes place on the ground floor with step-free access in our multi-purpose programme space, with a fully accessible, all-gender bathroom.

Please feel free to inquire with info@asymmetryart.org if you would like to discuss any access needs. Please kindly be advised that requests should be made one week in advance of the event, and we will try our best to make accommodations subject to availability.