Abstract
China's contemporary large group sculpture Rent Collection Courtyard and Cai Guoqiang's Venice's Rent Collection Courtyard were created in a different time, and the relationship between the original and Cai’s work is an issue not merely of cultural industry but more of the symbolic production of history. The original group sculpture is an example of proletarian literature and art, and the tragic derailment of fate is that the object of contestation in the work has now turned into the condition for the exhibition of the work. That is, without the capital invested into the art work, there would not have been the theme park of Rent Collection Courtyard and its byproducts. Art resistance and political revolution functioning as illegitimate view of justice enters the game of desire in the works of Rent Collection Courtyard and Venice Rent Collection Courtyard, while real revolution has never taken place. Art symbols as a substitute of revolution attains temporary satisfaction in the illusion of truth. The Left-wing psychedelics in the contemporary political culture sets the phantom of Rent Collection Courtyard wandering in the capital empire, while the treasure of the revolution can survive in the hands of political multitudes only.
First Page
77
Last Page
83
Recommended Citation
Zhang, Nian. 2013. "The Rent Collection Courtyard: Theme Park as Politics." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 33, (6): pp.77-83. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol33/iss6/22
