策展人语&艺术家自述 | 关系——2021中国当代艺术邀请展

从“背景”到“前景”

From“Background”to“Foreground”

文/ 游江

Author/You Jiang

一颗种子蕴藏着宇宙，而浩瀚的宇宙又有多少互为关系的尘埃？当代艺术家的实践，有些时候就是要打破人们习以为常的认知和经验，提供一种新的思考框架，艺术家通过对一定对象的艺术化处理，将那些文化和精神的承载物通过“有意味的形式”串联起来，展现出一种观察世界的视角。

As a seed has a universe in it, how many dusts are there in the vast universe that are closely interrelated? The practices of contemporary artists sometimes have to break the perception and experience that people are used to and take for granted, so that they can provide a new frame of thinking. Through the artistic modification to objects, artists have the objects carrying our cultures and spirits linked up in a meaningful way, and present us with a perceptive for us to observe the world.

“历史并不重复，但总在押韵”（马克·吐温）。我们看世界，“世界”看我们。世界的变化有时候取决于一些慢变量，它们的作用往往让人视而不见，但是在历史的长河中却缓慢而坚定的朝向一个方向进行变化，从小溪汇聚成河。今天，我们不能孤立的看待某一事件和现象，也不能用某种二元论般的腔调、静止的不变的思路去对待现实发生的各种变化，我们需要需要时刻保持更新并搭建自身的认知系统，超越表象和理性的局限，把个体、事件或者说要素还原到一个动态复杂系统当中，看到要素之间的影响、碰撞与化学反应，而依托于一定“现成品”的当代艺术则从一定程度上打开了一扇我们理解自身与世界关系的窗口。

History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. (Mark Twain) When we are watching the world, it is watching us too. Changes to the world sometimes depends on some slow variables. We usually turn blind eyes to their roles, however there is an undoubted law that the world is changing in its way slowly but unswervingly, and the subtle changes will grow over time from quiet brooks to raging rivers. Today, we cannot blindly take any event or phenomenon as an isolated one, nor can we examine the changes in our physical world using the dualist approach or by taking them as still and unchanging. We need to keep updated all the time and build our perception systems, dig deeper than the surface and go beyond the limitation of reasoning. We should put the individuals, events or elements into a dynamic and complicated system, see the influence conflicts and chemical reactions between various elements. The contemporary arts that are based on “readymade” to certain extent have opened a window for us to understand our relationship with the world.

在中国当代艺术的创作中，我们看到很多艺术家大量使用现成品进行创作，而他们与现代派以来的艺术家不同是，出于视觉性呈现的局限性，当下对于现成品的使用不再是要持续探讨艺术边界的问题，亦或是“技艺”与“观念”之间博弈的问题，艺术家也不是通过艺术作品简单的描绘和反映社会，而是在全球化的语境中，面对不息变动的世界，将自己作为方法，依靠真实的行为与过程，通过“被看见”和“意义化”的现成品，将艺术的意义最终凝结在材料之中。而这些来自于日常的材料，在艺术家的转译下，不仅超越其自身的物性，而且强化了其自身在当代社会语境中的独特性，艺术家让这些积淀着真实的本土经验的“材料”，从“背景”转向了“前景”，让原本不可见的经验获得了一种“可见性”，成为可感知的审美对象。

During the creation of contemporary art in China, we can see that many artists are using many readymade. Unlike the modern artists, because of the limitation on visual presentation, the artists today are not arguing about the boundary of arts or arguing about “Skills” and “Concepts”. On the other hand, artists are not reflecting the society by simple painting on the artwork, but they use themselves as a method in the context of globalization when facing the constantly changing world. Through their real actions and process and by using the readymade that are “Seen” and “Signified”, the artists finally put the meaning of arts into the materials. Through the translation by artists, the materials that are daily and common are given a meaning beyond their purpose as a material, besides they become unique in a social context. It is the artists that push the “materials” with local experiences from the “Background” to “Foreground”, so that the experience that was once “Invisible” becomes “Seen” now. They become targets with perceptible beauty.

点线面是艺术构成的要素，也是认知世界的一个系统。通过创造性的转换，艺术家在作品中让“物”与人、“物”与空间"、“物"与材料之间进行对话并传递出丰富的意义。从凝结着经验、情感和精神的一个一个碎片化的“点”，一定历史阶段具有趋势和线索意义的“线”，再到不断迭代的世界图景和景观社会的“面”，当代艺术家从“关系”的视角，向我们呈现了对于世界的审视、认知和思考。

Dots and lines are not only basic elements in art, but also a system for us to understand this world. Through creative transformation, artists launch a conversation between “Objects” and human, “Objects” and space, and “Objects” and materials, out of which significance is created and given out. From the broken “Dots” that carry the experiences, feelings and spirits, though the “Lines” that travels over time and carry trends and clues, to the “Faces” that are constantly iterating world images and spectacles, the contemporary artists are presenting us their unique observation, perception and reflection of the world from the viewpoint of “Beyond the Perspective”.

关系——你，我，世界

Beyond The Perspective – You, Me, And the World

文/孙粹

Author/Sun Cui

2020年一场突如其来的新冠疫情打破了熟悉的格局、改变了世界的进程，在焦虑、迟疑和等待中，我们迎来了后疫情时代：社交距离和抗疫已然进入了我们的日常。在我们还没来得及反应时，你 我，世界已经发生了悄然的变化。

In 2020, an unexpected coronavirus epidemic broke our comfortable patterns and changed the world. With some anxiety, hesitation and expectation, we came to the post-epidemic age: social distancing and anti-epidemic measures have become our new normal. You, me, and the entire world have changed quietly before we take any action.

也是在这种变化中，我们开始停顿下来，总结过往，思考未来。当人们认为特别日常、正常的生活方式、思维习惯变得不可触及亦或抵达之时，我们才发现这个世界开始变得不同，而你我也在不断地与世界、与彼此的距离与撕裂中逐渐地抽离出来。这时，大家开始真正思考“关系”这一语汇的涵义。

Also because of these changes, we began to pause to summarize and reflect about the future. When our ways of living and thinking that were once comfortable and common have become now untouchable and unreachable, we are surprised to find that the world becomes a little different and that the people, like you and me, are being peeled off from one another. At this moment, people begin to truly reflect on the meaning of “looking beyond the perspective”.

人类与自然的关系、人类与环境的关系、人类与城市的关系等等这些到底是怎样的关联，一直以来，这都是人类的终极命题。每一代人有着每代人的使命。但终其原点，从宏观上讲是人类与世界的关系；从微观的角度，是人类与自身的关系：怎样认知自我，又怎样认知世界的问题。如牛津大学社会人类学教授项飚在《把自己作为方法——与项飚对话》一书中所提到：“想清楚究竟我能做什么，我跟世界的关系是什么。我认为世界上所有的人都有这个问题，都得搞清楚自己是谁，否则都会有这种危机，除非完全盲目地被主流裹挟进去。”只有理清这个看似直白的问题，也才能解决根本的“关系”，这在当下尤显重要和迫切。

There has always been an ultimate question what the relations are between human being and the nature, the environment, and the cities. Each generation has a purpose. However, as we go back to the origin, this is about the human relationship with the world from the macro perspective and the human relationship with itself from the micro perspective: how should we perceive the world and ourselves? As Xiang Biao, a professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford, put it in his book Self as Method: In Conversation With Biao Xiang: To figure out what I can do and my relationship with the world is a question that everyone in this world has. People have to find out “who am I”. otherwise they will be in trouble unless they let themselves kidnapped by the mainstream.” The only way to solve our relationship problem is that we have to straighten out the question that seems so plain. This is especially important and urgent today.

科技在后疫情时代发挥着举足轻重的作用，在全球区块链技术兴盛的潮流中，去中心化看似是一种趋势，但去中心化的结果往往是在建构一种新的中心主义。而作为深陷潮流、人类灾难中的我们又该如何应对和自洽？“把自己作为方法”可能是有效的认清自身、认知世界的一种方式，也是了解世界的具体的开始。

Technology is playing a decisive role in the post-epidemic world. In the trend of blockchain technologies, it seems that decentralization is a trend, but the final result of decentralization is usually to build a new center. Then how should we react and remain self-consistent, as we have been deeply trapped in the trends and human catastrophe? “Self As Method” may be an effective way for us to understand ourselves and the world, and also a concrete start for us to understand the world.

本次展览聚焦“关系”这一主题，邀请10位当代艺术家对主题进行回应，从艺术家的个体经验出发，通过选择各自不同的艺术媒介以此表达对世界与自我的认知、以及自身与世界的关系，尤其与所处环境的关系与哲思。同时，他们用创作亦为我们提供了一个认知世界与自我关系的窗口。

The exhibition is focused on the theme of “Beyond The Perspective”, and 10 contemporary artists were invited to give their comments on the basis of their personal experiences. The artists are invited to share their insights and understanding to the world and self as well as their relationship with the world, especially the environment they are in. Also, they provide a window for us to understanding our relationship with the world.

未来虽不可预测，但未来仍将继续处于隐约的“关系”之中。

Though unforeseeable, future will still be there waiting for us to look beyond the perspectives.

余加作品现场

戴耘：我想从中国人认识观察世界的一种重要方式，来阐释一下对这次展览主题“关系—2021中国当代艺术邀请展”的理解认识。"格物致知"是一个汉语成语，意思是探究事物原理，进而从中获得智慧（或从中感悟到某种心得）。出自《礼记·大学》：“致知在格物，物格而后知至。”

I am going to explain my personal understanding to the exhibition theme “Beyond The Perspective – 2021 Chinese Contemporary Art Invitation Exhibition”, following the ways Chinese people observe and understand the world. Ge Wu Zhi Zhi is a Chinese idiom meaning that people have to explore the roots of matters to gain wisdom (or insight). The idiom originated from the Book of Rites · Great Learning: Study the nature of things and knowledge follows.

“六法”出自南朝谢赫的六法论即气韵生动、骨法用笔、应物象形、随类赋彩、经营位置、传移摸写六个方面。其实这六法就是我国艺术前辈们在多年实践、研习、讨论总结出来的一套艺术法则、审美标准、价值取向。那么今天我们在艺术创作中如何运用和体现六法，我以为还是从六法生成的源头来琢磨，不要过于拘泥于成文成典的法则，观察生活、体察物象，探究事物原理即所谓“人与物/物与物/物与人”之间的关系！

The Six Principles were firstly established by Xie He of the Southern Dynasties, specifically: Spirit Resonance, Bone Method, Correspondence to the Object, Suitability to Type, Division and Planning, and Transmission by Copying. The six principles were a set of rules of art, aesthetic criteria, and value orientation. Then, how should we apply and demonstrate the six principles in our art creation? I believe that we have to go back to the origins of the Six Principles and free ourselves from the written codes. We have to look beyond the common perspectives, closely examine the lives and matters around us, discover their underlying principle and reveal the so-called “human-nature” relationship!

姚明峰作品现场

李政德作品现场

王叶子作品现场