In a week that has seen much activity for the Chinese Contemporary Art Award in Beijing, Dong Bingfeng has been announced as the winning critic for 2013—his entry being the proposal for a book entitled Cinema of Exhibition: Film in Contemporary Chinese Art. To quote the announcement speech delivered by Hans Ulrich Obrist, the book is projected “to trace a range of developments in the evolution of the moving image as one of the central motifs in Chinese contemporary art. From the debates that arose in the 1980s for terms like ‘video art’ and also ‘independent cinema’ to the growth of installation methods producing interdisciplinary genres of moving-image work in the 1990s, to the prevalence of Chinese film and video in biennials and public discourse following China’s semi-official sanction of contemporary art in 2000.” The jury—comprised of Obrist, Chen Danqing, Uli Sigg, Gao Shiming and Kevin McGarry—felt the proposal “[g]ives due attention to a medium that has represented the political realities of twenty-first-century life in China to audiences domestically and abroad—a medium that has burgeoned despite an art market that tends to ignore the value of time-based practices.” Dong Bingfeng explained that the book will give him the chance to express his personal opinions about a medium he is very familiar with. He will be given 80,000 RMB to support the publishing of his book.

Originally from Xinzhou, Shanxi, Dong Bingfeng worked at UCCA from 2006–7, and was in charge of the magazine section of the now-defunct Iberia Centre for Contemporary Art, being the managing editor of Contemporary Art and Investment as well as Art and Investment, among others (all since closed due the the financial scandals surrounding Iberia).

Cui Cancan, a noteworthy curator, received an honorable mention for his proposal, for which the English title was given as Rebuilding Order in the All-round Confrontation: New Methods in Chinese Contemporary Art after 2008.

Also part of today’s conference was the book launch for The Grey Carnival by last year’s CCAA winner, Zhu Zhu. The previous day saw the official opening of the CCAA Cube. In conjunction with the 15th anniversary of the award, the CCAA Cube Beijing office (located in Shunyi district) will provide a platform for the organization of the award, its archives and research activities.