Who was he? Geng Jianyi—known affectionately by nearly everyone as “Old Geng” because of his demeanor and way of doing things.

In 2017, Geng Jianyi passed away, and the art world mourned the loss of this pioneer of Chinese contemporary art. Following his final wishes, his retrospective exhibition did not open until five years later, in Shanghai. This year, Old Geng’s retrospective has traveled to Beijing, allowing even more people to “meet” him through the exhibition. Some came to remember him, some came to understand him, and some were meeting him for the very first time.

And the way they “met” him was far from ordinary. From the moment visitors first encountered the exhibition, it became clear: this was a portrait drawn from different people’s memories—revealed in a series of old photographs and statistical forms from the past.

“Who Is He? — A Retrospective of Geng Jianyi’s Work,” exhibition view, 2022. Image courtesy of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art. Photo by Sun Shi.

01. The "’85 New Wave" and "Pond Society": Years of Burning Passion

As art critic and curator Karen Smith once said, “Geng Jianyi’s work is a kind of ‘ambiguous art.’ He was one of many pioneering artists who emerged in Chinese contemporary art since the mid-1980s.” When introducing that generation of artists, one must mention the passionate 1980s youth art movement that blossomed in the wake of China’s Reform and Opening-up.

“He Is Who? — Geng Jianyi Retrospective Exhibition” installation view, 2022. Image courtesy of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art. Photo by Sun Shi.

In 1985, the Chinese National Academy of Arts organized a national oil painting art symposium in Jing County, Anhui, commonly known as the "Huangshan Conference." This event brought together critics and the oil painting community, playing a significant role in further liberating the thinking of artists and critics. The central theme of the conference was how to "unshackle" creative thought. Shang Yang vividly recalled the lively scene at the time: "At the Huangshan Conference, we were so excited—we shook hands with each other until they ached, full of energy and burning with passion." In May, the "Forward-moving Chinese Youth Art Exhibition," held at the National Art Museum of China, marked the beginning of the "'85 Art Movement."

Geng Jianyi, Green Space Walkers (from the second event of the "Pool Society"), 1986. Image courtesy of Song Ling.

In 1986, Geng Jianyi, Zhang Peili, and others co-founded Pool Society one of China’s earliest conceptual art collectives. They boldly declared in their Pool Society Manifesto:

"Art is a pool.

“Our survival depends on carbohydrates.

It’s not that we choose to be this way—

we have no choice but to be this way.

......

We long for proper purification.

Our thinking is fluid, ambiguous.

......

Who has ever seen rational impulse?

The moment of ‘immersion’ is intoxicating.

The moment of awakening brings enlightenment.

......

The outcome is secondary—

the seeds keep sprouting."

The "pool" also served as a breeding ground for the young artists’ creative fervor. This casually formed group surged forward as a youthful force, merging passionately into the tidal wave of the ’85 Art Movement.

02. "Look who this is? A group of people."

During the "Huangshan Conference," the then-emerging artist Geng Jianyi, a representative of the Southern avant-garde, was invited to attend by Gao Minglu, then editor of Fine Arts Magazine. Before the conference, Geng mailed each participant what appeared to be a formal questionnaire, requesting personal details. Most attendees dutifully filled it out and returned it—some敏锐地 sensed it was a prank, but the majority remained unaware they were unwittingly participating in an artwork. It wasn’t until the forms, now displaying wildly varied and absurd responses, were exhibited at the conference that the crowd erupted in laughter and realization.

"Who is He? — Geng Jianyi Retrospective" Exhibition View, 2022. Image courtesy of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Photo: Sun Shi.

Today, as we view Forms and Certificates (1985) in the gallery—those yellowed documents and old letters—we encounter familiar names like Hou Hanru, Fei Dawei, Yin Shuangxi, Liu Xiaochun, Sun Ren, Wei Guangqing, Wu Shanzhuan, Shui Tianzhong, Lü Peng, Huang Yongping, and Qiu Zhijie. Reading their earnest (or absurd) responses to questions about "lifestyle and ideological leanings," or their heated epistolary debates over the authorship of an artistic idea, one can’t help but feel this was truly an era defined by a collective.

03. How to Understand a Person? Grand narratives dissolve—focus on the individual.

Today, visitors to the "Who is He? — Geng Jianyi Retrospective" exhibition have the chance to receive an exhibition-derived "Audience Certificate"—much like the participants of Forms and Certificates (1985). Printed on it is a playful quip: "Eating veggies just ain’t as satisfying as meat." Forms are tools for imposing macro-order; certificates typically signify collective recognition. Yet Geng Jianyi, through conceptual art, transformed these bureaucratic objects into vessels of irony—wryly deconstructing grand narratives in art.

"Who Is He? — Geng Jianyi Retrospective" exhibition view, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, 2023. Photo by Sun Shi.

When Geng Jianyi graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art), he created Two People Under the Light (1985), later hailed as a masterpiece of the '85 New Wave art movement. This work declared that art and painting need not necessarily tell stories or amplify emotions. Represented by Geng, the spotlight of art began to shift onto people themselves—the figures in the painting could be you, me, or anyone around us.

With the precision of a still-life study, he subjected human subjects to rational analysis. He dissected emotions, scrutinized gestures, and investigated the question "Who is he?" in an almost archival manner.

Geng Jianyi, Seven Beats of Dressing, 1991, photocopy collage on wood panel, 122 × 147 cm. Image courtesy of Guan Yi Contemporary Art Archive.

"Who Is He? — Geng Jianyi Retrospective" exhibition view, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, 2023. Photo by Sun Shi.

In Who Is He? (1994), Geng Jianyi adopted an archival approach—using portraits, written descriptions, and material evidence—to gather information about a complete stranger from neighbors, despite having never met the person. This grand "missing person" campaign may have ultimately served as a wry commentary, using external data to humorously "prove" nothing more than the mere existence of a human being.

04. Audience and artist, each accounts for half—a 50% split.

On the right inner page of the souvenir "Audience Certificate," a statement reads: "Through your participation, the artwork achieves its completion. Hence, you shall be recorded as half-artist in art history. This certificate is issued in witness thereof."

Regarding this fusion of artwork and viewer, Geng Jianyi once stated plainly: "I intend to complete half the work, leaving the other half to the audience." This methodology began with Forms and Certificates (1985) and permeated subsequent participatory works like Work Notes, Who Is He?, and Useless. His 1987 proposal Waterworks took audience engagement to its extreme: a labyrinthine installation where visitors, upon entering, would become the artwork itself—constantly oscillating between observer and observed. This vision was finally realized in his 2022 Shanghai retrospective.

Model of the Waterworks Project Exhibition view of "Who Is He? — Geng Jianyi Retrospective", 2022. Image courtesy of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Photo: Sun Shi.

Today, this same interplay can be experienced in On the Ground (1997/2023). Originally created in 1997, the work documented floors from various households—images Geng Jianyi collected and arranged in a grid. For its UCCA restaging, the museum’s staff and trustees contributed photographs of their own floors, reconstructing the gallery’s ground from these intimate fragments. The piece visualizes how we tread across disjointed surfaces in daily life. Here, the “50%” principle manifests as participation, collaboration, even complicity.

"Who Is He? — Geng Jianyi Retrospective" (2022 Exhibition View) Image courtesy of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art / Photo: Sun Shi

Reflecting on Geng Jianyi's artistic "deeds," he persistently sought to rediscover the individual within the collective. By the exhibition's end, it becomes clear that Geng positioned himself at a provocative coordinate on the spectrum between collective and individual—whether through his early collective practices or the posthumous five-year effort by his network to map the "boundaries" of his artistic identity. The individual, ultimately, is always a relational being. "Who is he?" might be rephrased as another question: "If others didn’t exist, how would the self be defined?" This plunges us into Lacanian meditation, where the construction of subjectivity hinges on imagining the self as another, and recognizing the other as oneself.

Text: Phoebe Ng, Larry Z

Image Credits: UCCA Center for Contemporary Art