This exhibition is a group show featuring the top 15 artists of the “2024 Untitled Source Youth Art Festival.” After undergoing rigorous selection by expert judges, these artists stood out from hundreds of contestants. While the term “weird“ may seem somewhat old-fashioned, it perfectly aligns with the definition of youth in this era, doesn’t it? It embodies a sense of ambiguity and hesitation, or perhaps reflects a certain undertone of the present age. Of course, this “weirdness“ does not carry its literal meaning; it does not point to the bizarre, the uncanny, or a sensational sense of unrest. Rather, it refers to a synthesis of various “forces“ grounded in perception, shaped by diverse emotional values.

In the present moment, art seems to be entangled in the “problem of modernity.” From the perspective of value judgment, we inevitably find ourselves caught in the “value fortress” of incommensurability among pluralistic values, as proposed by Isaiah Berlin. What constitutes good art? Can contemporary history still provide this generation of young artists with sufficient endorsement? In the current historical context of “digital existence,” beyond the dismantling of a singular value system, individual aesthetic experience has increasingly manifested as homogenized “smoothness.” From reproductive technology to digital technology, from aura and shock experience to smooth experience, the paradigm shift in aesthetic experience reflects transformations in individual modes of existence and perception.

Returning to the exhibition “Young Weird Artists” itself, it features 15 artists, most of whom have yet to enter the marketized phase – or, in other words, have yet to be capitalized. Thus, they are “fortunate” to find themselves in a mysterious stage of creation, one that remains unshaped by the various discursive orders of the industry – a stage of originality. This is intriguing, at the very least offering us an opportunity for observation. The exhibition itself serves as a kind of temporary sample, an impending “rehearsal.”