"People ask me why I made this work [Venice’s Rent Collection Courtyard], and I obviously have many reasons. . . . [But] I acted more upon intuition. . . . You have to know when to follow your intuition because it is then that things can become fun and interesting."

Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1957). Venice's Rent Collection Courtyard, 1999. First realized June 1999 at Deposito Polveri, Arsenale, Venice. Artwork not extant. Commissioned by Venice Biennale

As a boy growing up in China, Cai saw the iconic socialist-realist sculpture Rent Collection Courtyard, created in 1965 by members of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. The 1965 version, which still exists in multiples located throughout China, is composed of 114 life-size figures arranged in a series of groupings depicting the mistreatment of peasants at the hands of prerevolutionary landlords. For a decade, it was reproduced and erected in cities throughout China, where it was the most emotionally charged and political image after Mao’s portrait. It was hailed by the central government as a tribute to the great accomplishments of Chinese communism.

Cai’s Venice’s Rent Collection Courtyard was realized for the Aperto Over All exhibition at the 1999 Venice Biennale. He invited ten sculptors to Venice from China, including Long Xu Li, who had worked on the original sculpture, to re-create selected groupings. Cai’s installation was fashioned on site from wire and wood armatures and 60 tons of clay. Perhaps the most compelling encounters with the piece took place during the opening days of the exhibition while the academically trained artists from China were intentionally still hard at work producing the life-size figures as visitors looked on. During the remaining months of the exhibition the unfired clay figures were left to slowly dry and disintegrate, and any that still remained at the close of Aperto Over All were then destroyed.

In Venice the installation was praised for its postmodernist appropriation of the historic icon and won the Venice Biennale’s important Golden Lion award. In China, however, the work was severely criticized. The Chinese press raised the issue of plagiarism, writing about the political controversy raised by the work and the widespread belief that Cai was attacking his homeland. A copyright infringement lawsuit against Cai and the Biennale was filed in China by sculptors who participated in creating the original work, but the courts ultimately dismissed the case.

For the Guggenheim’s exhibition Cai has created a new version of the installation, New York’s Rent Collection Courtyard (2008), this time on the ramp of the museum’s rotunda. Again, Chinese artists have come to replicate the clay figures, and visitors will be able to watch as the work is completed.

• This work is meant to be experienced in person. Imagine yourself walking among these figures as they are being created on the ramps of the Guggenheim Museum. What is your reaction to the work? What would you want to ask the sculptors?
• These figures are crafted from clay. Without being fired in a kiln they begin to crack and deteriorate. Cai has made this deterioration part of the work. How does the fact that they are impermanent affect the meaning of the work?
• Cai remembers seeing Rent Collection Courtyard as a child. He has commented, “I first saw the work as a young person in China and was very moved by it. The work was replicated in every city in China; everyone experienced it and was moved by it. Often people would even cry. At that time I didn’t understand the work’s cultural strategy, or that the intention was propagandistic, but now as a contemporary artist, I notice the techniques that were used to engage with people and make them feel like part of the work.” Look carefully at the work. What “strategies” do you think Cai is referring to? How does this work create empathy? How is it propaganda?

• This work was awarded the Golden Lion at the 1999 Venice Biennale but was also severely criticized in China. Discuss how the same work viewed from different perspectives can evoke different responses and emotions. Debate this issue in your classroom with one group seeing the work from the perspective of the Biennale judges and a second group taking the side of the Chinese journalists.
  Social Studies


• Create a sculpture from unfired clay where the fragility of the work will be part of its meaning.
  Visual Arts


• This work was neither originally conceived of by Cai nor fabricated by him. Cai’s creative act was remembering the strong emotions it had evoked in him as a child and understanding that by re-creating it in another context, he could create a new work, a new dialogue. Sometimes the act of moving something from its usual environment into another setting can change its meaning. Experiment with this idea. Document this process photographically, first showing your subject in its customary environment and then in a new site aimed at transforming its meaning. Discuss your work and its intensions with your classmates.
  Visual Arts


• Although Cai was emotionally moved by this work when he visited it as a child, as an adult he came to see it as political propaganda. Can you think of anything that you experienced as a young child that has changed its meaning for you as you have grown older? A story, object, holiday, film, book, or place and so on? Describe how your thinking has changed.
  English / Language Arts


• Cai recognizes that his early training in stage design has proved useful. “My current work draws a great deal on these years of study. I learned how to read an architectural plan, draw up a budget, get organized, and work in a team. When I make something, I do not only think of myself.” What profession do you aspire to? What skills do you think will be most important to acquire? Interview professionals in that field and ask them which earlier experiences were most important in helping them to prepare for their current work. Make a list of ways that you might be able to gain some of these preparatory skills and experiences.
  Social Studies