Paris Internationale - © Paris Internationale
Magician Space will present Chinese artist Liu Yefu’s project for the new edition of Paris Internationale. Liu Yefu was born in 1986 in Beijing. As the son of a staff member at the U.S. Embassy in China, Liu was one of the few young people who was able to travel abroad before China joined the WTO. In 2001, he traveled to New York to consider the possibility of pursuing the American dream with his parents. However, shortly after his return to Beijing, the 911 incident shocked the world. Liu witnessed the World Trade Center he visited a few days ago reduced to rubble on TV. This shock later on became a significant foundation for his subsequent creative work. The project includes videos, sculptures and paintings created by the artist during his travels between China and the United States between 2014 to 2024. He narrates his experiences of globalization, seeking to transcend the ideological constraints of both the left and the right, and to capture a spiritual portrayal of contemporary society through appropriation and adaptation of political discourse. - © courtesy of the artist and Magician Space, Paris Internationale
Magician Space

LIU YEFU: NO EASY SYMBOLISM

In the late summer of 2001, 15-year-old Liu Yefu visited New York City, where he toured one of its iconic landmarks, the World Trade Center. Just days later, back in Beijing, he witnessed the twin tower collapse unfold live on TV.
The 9/11 attacks were a significant blow to America’s efforts to impose global order, ushering in an era where terrorism became a common threat worldwide. However, this event also marked a turning point in U.S.-China relations, laying the groundwork for China’s rapid rise. Liu Yefu, by a twist of fate, experienced both sides of this momentous event, shaping his deeply skeptical and increasingly nihilistic worldview.

Magician Space is proud to present Liu Yefu’s solo exhibition, “NO EASY SYMBOLISM,” at Paris Internationale, featuring works created between 2014 and 2023 across China and the United States. Spanning themes from China’s foreign policy shift from “hide our capabilities and bide our time” to the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, from 9/11 to the Russo-Ukrainian war, and from Elon Musk to a Northern Chinese farmer. The exhibition critiques ideologies that promise utopian futures. Liu holds particular disdain for cosmopolitanism, which he sees as thinly disguised expansionism under the pretext of humanitarianism. His work, laced with black humor, juxtaposes good and evil through provocative montages, exposing the storm of political intrigue and public discourse swirling beneath the surface.
“NO EASY SYMBOLISM” seeks to expose the stubbornness of ideology and the inherent complexity of human nature, especially how violence often transcends these ideological frameworks. Liu Yefu once believed that artists were as radical as they claimed, but now he acknowledges that more perilous forces have taken their place. In response, his focus in recent years has shifted toward the study of Oriental aesthetics, particularly traditional cultural views that see aesthetics as a path to transcendence. This philosophy suggests that by redirecting personal desires into spiritual and aesthetic cultivation, the conquest of the self can replace outward acts of violent expansion.

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