In 1995, alongside ten other Beijing East-Village artists, Zhang Huan enacted a performance on Miaofeng Mountain on the outskirts of Beijing. By piling up their nude bodies, the artists set about adding exactly one meter of height to the mountain – an artistic evocation of the Chinese proverb “Beyond the mountains, there are higher mountains yet”, a reminder to practice humility. The act was deliberately temporary and futile, a blip against the magnitude of nature.

Despite the performance’s transience, photographs of ‘To Add One Meter to an Unknown Mountain’ have become iconic. This work is perhaps the most important image from the Beijing East-Village movement – an enclave of artists, Huan as a leading figure, who applied postmodernist and conceptual art to Chinese history and culture. In the wake of economic reform and state oppression, these artists sought to “move out of the state-controlled gallery system”, using the body as protest, communicator and medium.

Impressions of this photograph are represented globally at the Tate, Seattle Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has been exhibited and written about extensively, including at the 48th Venice Biennale, with audiences finding new meaning in Huan’s provocation. For some, this work is an embodiment of Daoist philosophy while for others it gives form to political violence. Between layers of flesh lie humour, wisdom, vulnerability and transgression.

For collectors of important contemporary art, photography and Chinese art, it is time to add ‘To Add One Meter to an Unknown Mountain’ to your collection.

Zhang HUAN (1965 - )
'To Add One Meter to an Unknown Mountain' 1995
Chromogenic print on Fuji archival paper
Edition of 5 APs
Image Size: 102 x 152 cm
Dimensions: 105 x 155 x 5 cm
Signed: Signed, dated, numbered and titled in Chinese characters on label attached verso: To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain/ Zhang Huan 1995/ ap 5/5.

Comes with Letter of Provenance
Condition: Excellent
(c) The Artist or Assignee

Provenance:
Barry Friedman, New York
Christies, New York, 25 March 2014, lot 191
Shannon Bennett, Melbourne
Deutscher + Hackett, Melbourne, 10 November 2021, lot 76
Private collection, Melbourne
Menzies, Melbourne, August 2023, lot 21
Private collection Melbourne

Exhibited:
48th Venice Biennale, Venice, 13 June - 17 November 1999 (another example);
Paris-Pekin, Espace Cardin, Paris, 5-28 October 2002 (another example);
Zhang Huan, Kunstverein, Hamburg, 30 November 2002 - 9 February 2003;
Museum Bochum, Germany, 5 April - 15 June 2003 (illus. exhibition catalogue p.53, another example);
The Wall: Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art, Millennium Monument Art Museum, Beijing, 22 July - 21 August 2005;
The Albright Knox Art Gallery and University of Buffalo Art Galleries, New York, 21 October 2005 - 29 January 2006 (illus. exhibition catalogue p.178, another example);
Zhang Huan: Altered States, Asia Society Galleries, New York, 6 September 2007 - 20 January 2008 (illus. exhibition catalogue pp.102-103, another example)

Literature:
Zhijian, Q., Performing Bodies: Zhang Huan, Ma Liuming, and Performance Art in China, Art Journal, New York, 1999, vol.58, no.2, p.60 (illus., another example);
Outeirino, B., Zhang Huan: Pilgrimage to Santiago, Xunta de Galicia, Spain, 2001, p.178 (illus., another example);
Berghuis, T., Performance Art in China, Timezone 8, Hong Kong, 2006, p.26 (illus., another example);
Lu, S., Chinese Modernity and Global Biopolitics: Studies in Literature and Visual Culture, University of Hawaii Press, Hong Kong, 2007, p.81 (illus., another example);
Chiu, M., Chinese Contemporary Art: 7 Things You Should Know, AW Asia, New York, 2008, p.56 (illus. another example);
Mann, S., Gender and Sexuality in Modern Chinese History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011, p.96 (illus., another example).