·Yan Lei·Beijing

《Fifth System》
Installation
Shenzhen to Beijing Long March Space C
2007

Fifth System is one of the major works of artist Yan Lei’s oeuvre.The installation was first realized in 2003 at the Fifth Shenzhen International Sculpture Exhibition – “Fifth System,” which examined public art in the post urban planning period.Using his power as an artist, Yan Lei claimed a piece of land held by the exhibition organizer CHINAOCT and declared this land not to be developed for two years.As Yan Lei describes, “My proposal is directed at the issues of power and rights to usage of urban space and resources. The land which I have chosen to encircle is the key starting point for the planning by OCT.It is the highest point and the entire planning and zoning is disrupted by the installation.This work is a type of resistance against the rules of commercialization and development.In this two year period, the work by the artist and the museum to prevent the work from being dismantled, is also working to protect and honor this piece of land.

May 2006, Yan Lei joined the Long March team, traveling to Yan’an.The speed of development in Yan’an led the artist to decide to create a relationship between the open system of Shenzhen and the closed system of Yan’an.The non-artistic materials which were used to protect the land in Shenzhen, having completed their mission, have been transported to the Beijing Long March Space C in 798.This 250 square meters of space will not be used during the period of this exhibition. This non aesthetic and non functional material, which nonetheless seems to still have some relationship to art, contains within a memory of its function in Shenzhen.Its reconstruction at the Long March Space – Yan’an exhibition reminds us of how far an artist’s power extends, as well as an artist’s relationship to identity and the system?Where is Yan’an?The 250 square meters during this exhibition period is a symbolic Yan’an.