Three Shadows Photography Art Centre received two real-name tip-offs, reporting some of Mate’s (real name Wang, Ling) works exhibited on 2019 (11th) TSPA were not filmed by herself, but by a foreign male artist named Austel Matthias Horst.
We were shocked and greatly concerned. We promptly initiated investigation and sought lawyers’ intervention. Until the release of this open letter, we have found that,
1. some of Mate’s exhibited works, namely, the Concrete Dream and Forbidden Tradition: Kiss Me Love Her, are identical to works published on LOFTER in 2014, by someone signed “Qiu Ye”.
2. Some of Mate’s exhibited works, namely, Ink Horizion, Tiger Daughter and Tiamen Gate of Heavenly Peace were signed “MATE” and published in a collection, whose author is a foreign male.
By exploiting and exhibiting works of a foreign artist, Mate breached the copyright provisions stipulated in the Exhibition Contract entered into between Mate and Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, broke the TSPA rule that “open to Chinese artists only”, and violates the very essential purpose of TSPA to “support for emerging artists and to promote the sound development of contemporary photography in China.” Given the aforesaid, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre decides to disqualify Mate’s candidacy, and condemns her acts.
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
July 10th 2020