Cai Guo-Qiang

de Thomas Krens

"Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe accompanies the most comprehensive exhibition to date of the innovative body of work by Chinese-born artist Cai Guo-Qiang - best known for his spectacular artworks using gunpowder. It presents a chronological and thematic survey that charts the artist's creation of a distinctive visual and conceptual language across four mediums: drawings made from gunpowder fuses and explosive powders laid on paper and ignited; explosion events, documented by videos, photographs, and preparatory drawings; large-scale installations; and social projects, wherein the artist works with local communities to create an art event or exhibitions site, documented by photographs. Featuring works from the 1980s to the present, this volume illuminates Cai's significant formal and conceptual contributions to contemporary international art practices and social activism. Generously illustrated with more than 230 images, this volume includes essays by Alexandra Munroe, David Joselit, Miwon Kwon, and Wang Hui - along with 54 documented plate entries. It is the defining scholarly publication of the artist thus far."--Jacket.