Chen Zhen, a Chinese artist who settled in France in 1986, died from a rare form of anemia on december 13th 2000 in Paris aged 45. Chen Zhen, born in Shanghai in 1955, was a passionate artist who had made classical studies in the fields of applied arts and the theatre. He taught for a while in his hometown before leaving China for Paris where he frequented the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and in 1989 the Institut des Hautes Etudes en Arts Plastiques headed by Pontus Hulten.
Known internationally, he had his first important exhibition at the Centre d'Art Contemporain in Grenoble in 1992.
Much influenced by Joseph Beuys he produced works with scrapped objects with Taoist texts producing spectacular installations.
Chen Zhen strove to associate the images of traditional life with those of modern life in the Far East and in the Western world such as with his “Daily Incantation” visual and sound installation of 1996 made of 101 framed wood chamber-pots found in Shanghai hanging at the end of ropes, which was like a huge musical instrument accompanied by a globe covered with radios delivering bribes of information.
He also produced an installation with round tables and chairs of various dimensions suggesting human relations or their absence as well as others linked to music and traditional Chinese or foreign medicines.
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