Exhibition pits modern art against the game of go

Go, a board game similar to chess that originated in China, is a significant expression of Chinese culture and philosophy.

An exhibition, 2023 China-The Netherlands-Japan Invitation Exhibition in Shanghai, currently underway at Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum, explores the theme of "Game Art vs Go Culture."

The exhibition runs until the end of July.

It includes over 40 artworks by 17 artists from China, the Netherlands and Japan that address a variety of topics such as go culture, cutting-edge technology and modern art.

Marcel Duchamp's muse is the "Queen" of chess, whereas the game of go, with its intangible and limitless sequence, has become geometric figures of minimalism, the energy and grace of expressionism, a "language of images" following conceptual art's dematerialization.

"In fact, the changes in the two-dimensional plane correspond to the beauty of the movements of the black-and-white pieces in a game of go," the exhibition's curator, Tu Ningning, said.

"The artists in this exhibition use various media as a metaphor for the 'impermanence of the world,' which can also be viewed as the game's serendipity."

The exhibition's centerpiece is an installation by Chinese artist Ma Yun.

Visitors are encouraged to interact with the piece on specially designed chess boards inside a water tank. In contrast to the traditional game of go, the pieces do not move to the desired position due to the floating power, revealing the concept of serendipity.

The artists' interpretations of color balance, ink volume, and the relationships between hues are mirrored through "Minimalism," "Conceptual Art" and "Expressionism."

"The game of go completes the visual language narrative with black and white, as well as yin (阴) and yang (阳)," Tu said.

"There are no chess rankings or personifications here, but it represents the apex of chess competitions by exhibiting the endless permutations of mathematical chance, and hence became the aim of AI to conquer."

The famous "Move 78" is also part of the exhibition. Lee Sedol, a top go player from South Korea, competed against AlphaGo, a Google DeepMind go program, in a five-game match in Seoul in March 2016. After losing three straight games, Lee beat AlphaGo with his 78th move, forcing AlphaGo into a series of mistakes before retiring on Move 180. Move 78 has since been hailed a "divine move" by the Go community.

"The system failed to respond, resulting in a timeout, and it surrendered after a few moves. Given the probability built upon logical deduction and the unparalleled computational power, would this position still be the same if a human chess player made the moves," Tu wondered.

The prospect of winning or losing is what she finds most appealing about playing games. However, the game's conclusion does not represent everything, and the "gambling" process may serve as a technique to test and comprehend the opponent's means.

"Go and art are cultural languages that a small number of people master and use, but the vast majority admire and find difficult to approach. As a result, making visitors resonate with specialised cultures is a difficulty for this exhibition."

The exhibition does not title any of the artworks, allowing viewers to focus solely on the art and go culture itself.

Exhibition info:

Date: Through July 21, 10am-6pm

Venue: Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

Address: 6/F, 27 Zhongshan Rd E1

中山东一路27号6楼