Artists

Chen Zuo

Press release

Galerie Urs Meile is pleased to announce Burn for the Day, the first solo exhibition by emerging Chinese artist Chen Zuo (b. 1990, Hunan Province, China) in Europe at its Zurich gallery. The show commences with a compelling statement, “Burn for the Day”. Inspired by the opening line of the poem Ta sha Xing · Yuan Xī (踏莎行-元夕)1 by the Chinese poet Mao Pang (毛滂) , “ Seeking spring through the snow, lighting lamps to keep the day going.” Chen Zuo’s rewriting distinguishes itself from a helpless compromise with the night and obedience to reality. It diverges from a more Apollonian approach characterized by rigor, order, and control. Instead, he acknowledges and embraces the unknowable future symbolized by the night and seeks the birth of a new order through a forceful intervention into the chaos. A violence that can be seen as a reaction against social conditioning and the structural oppression faced by the global South in the process of universal urbanization.