Stranger than Paradise

In the seven panels that make up Stranger than Paradise, Yang Jiechang proposes a humorous vision of heaven where people and animals frolic joyfully in nature. 

Based on the idea that, in a media-dominated world where life has become unreal and imaginary, authenticity has become a rare commodity, Yang Jiechang imagines “a landscape for a return to Nature”, which he locates in Paradise. The artist seeks to eliminate any kind of difference - religious, ideological, ethical and political - which he considers sources of conflict in modern society. Recalling the aesthetic of Chinese folding screens, the work creates a certain distance from the viewer, who finds themselves limited to observing from the outside, like a stranger, this celestial land they will never be able to enter.

The work Stranger Than Paradise, part of the Pinault Collection, was presented at the "Le Monde vous appartient" (“The World Belongs to You”) exhibition (2011-2012) at the Palazzo Grassi.