A ‘Most Un-Chinese’ China Pavilion

Re-Rui
China Pavilion, Venice Biennale
11.05.19 – 24.11.19

Translated by Duncan Hewitt

In the more than century-long history of the Venice Art Biennale, the participation of the China Pavilion in the world’s most important international art event only covers a period of less than twenty years. Throughout the past decade of the China Pavilion’s participation in the Venice Biennale, not only has traditional Chinese culture not become antithetical to contemporary art, it has actually become the inspiration, the meaning, the medium and the material of the artworks on display. China’s rich folk art and traditional culture have helped artists create works with distinctive cultural characteristics. However, the China Pavilion has, as a result, also found it hard to escape criticism that it has become ‘stereotypical’ and ‘standardised’. And so everyone has been extremely surprised at just how ‘different’ the China Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale is. Indeed, as one member of the international media put it, it’s a ‘most un-Chinese’ China Pavilion.

May you live in China’s most interesting times

One doesn’t really know whether to laugh or cry at the fact that the title of this year’s Biennale, May You Live in Interesting Times, stems from a misreading of a traditional Chinese proverb. It may be understood as an example of sarcasm – a phrase that sounds like you are wishing someone well, when in fact you are cursing them and taunting them with the idea that they are trapped in an era of turbulence.

No one questioned this ‘Chinese proverb’ nor researched its derivation – and the China Pavilion could only make the best of the situation. For Chinese people, explaining this ‘proverb’ that had been misinterpreted by foreigners became a not insignificant challenge. In response to the Biennale’s title, the curator Wu Hongliang chose Re-Rui as the title of this year’s China Pavilion. He explained that Re is a prefix that appears frequently in words in many Western languages, with the sense of ‘back’ or ‘to go back’ – implying an impetus to return to the roots of the word or suffix that follows. In Chinese there is a character with a similar sound: Rui, meaning ‘wisdom’. Thus Re-Rui suggests the idea of being wise, because Re ( returning ) is also a strand of thought in contemporary art.

The works in this year’s Biennale display the artists’ exploration of the concept of Re in three different dimensions: a shared understanding of culture; the everyday; and self-perception. At first glance this seems similar in form to China Pavilions of previous years, apparently seeking inspiration in traditional Chinese art and culture. Yet this time, curator Wu Hongliang has freed himself from the restrictions of traditional thinking, to bring us a groundbreaking China Pavilion exhibition.

A China Pavilion that goes beyond the limits

The Venice Biennale may well turn each national pavilion into a venue for promoting national spirit, yet at the same time it also provides a perfect opportunity to help foreign art lovers learn about Chinese art. Chinese art tends to consist of works created by Chinese artists under the influence of China’s cultural and social background. But the complex rhetoric, veiled meanings and multiple allusions so common in Chinese culture mean that, in a foreign context, it inevitably loses some of its resonance. What’s more, once the texts explaining the works are processed for a second time, by being translated into English, they become like a gourmet meal reheated in the microwave, unable to retain the full flavour of the original.

This cultural gap has become an obstacle to Western understanding of Chinese art. How, in a Western context, to help foreigners interpret artworks steeped in a Chinese cultural background has become a major problem that artists must overcome. Against this backdrop, the curator has cleverly elected to make use of ‘emotional common ground’, and on this basis has managed to eliminate the sense of separation that this cultural gap commonly causes in art exhibitions.

The Name of Gold is a multi-screen video and installation work by the artist Geng Xue. When you walk into the centre of the China Pavilion, Geng Xue’s world is on display for all to see on a giant screen. This is a world of images in black and white, where everything, from people to scenery, has been sculpted in clay by the artist – just as young children all over the world create their own kingdoms out of mud. In front of the video wall lie a number of gold installation pieces in the shape of umbilical cords. Underneath these ‘cords’, the artist has installed various video works: on the screen, the little clay figures roll over and over; to the viewers standing around the umbilical cords watching the videos, it’s as though they are observing a life being born through the cords. In cultures around the world, sayings comparing soil and living things are ubiquitous. Soil is often linked with the beginning of life, and the end of life too: The Name of Gold borrows this idea, to reveal the cycle of life to which we are destined.

The shared experience that the artist He Xiangyu brings visitors is more intuitive. After passing through an archway, you find yourself in a completely pink space created by him. The design of this space is unique – even the feeling you get underfoot has been altered, in an attempt to draw spectators into his singular artistic vision. The artist has taken tactile perceptions of the human body as his inspiration for Everything We Create is Not Ourselves. He depicts the inside of the human mouth as this large pink space, and invites the audience to walk into it and experience ‘the inside of the human body’ from a different perspective. Here, the inside of the mouth is not just visualised: visitors can also gain a more profound sense of the human body as their hands and feet come into contact with the artwork.

The spirit of Asian art in the Western context

In an exhibition such as the Venice Biennale, where contemporary Western art is the mainstream, if we want to help the audience to come to an understanding of Chinese art, we can’t gamble on deserting China’s inherent artistic spirit, nor put our hopes on mainstream Western values: this would amount to abandoning the nature of contemporary Chinese art, and would struggle to embody the true unique characteristics of Asian art.

The work in this year’s China Pavilion that was most popular among Western art lovers, Chen Qi’s The Born and Expansion of 2012, is in fact the work with the closest ties to Chinese culture. It’s a huge printmaking piece: Chen Qi has used the traditional Chinese technique of watermark woodcut printing to present visitors with an enlarged black and white image of the surface of water, with surging, gleaming waves. The work, which is 4 metres high and more than 20 metres long, zigzags through the space like a classical Chinese folding screen, creating an enhanced sense of visual perspective.

The curator has intentionally cut off the work with a wall – so visitors can either observe The Born and Expansion of 2012 through a ‘window’ in the wall, or walk through the archway into the space that houses the work. The relatively small space given to the piece makes it easier for the viewer to become immersed in the seascape of black and white waves, producing a visual experience separated from reality. This sombre, large-scale, tranquil depiction of waves profoundly conveys the boundless, turbulent energy of water; and, via the aesthetics and techniques of Chinese culture, it puts China’s world view – which since ancient times has been steady and humble, yet also lofty and magnificent – on display to the world.

In contrast to previous China Pavilions, where the exhibition space was arranged in an open fashion, many of this year’s works are separated by walls, and the entire space resembles a maze. Wu Hongliang has consciously introduced the imagery of traditional Chinese gardens, guiding visitors to experience the entire pavilion as though ‘strolling in a garden’. In Western concepts of architecture and design, functionality often takes precedence over ‘practicality’, but in Asian concepts of construction, the primary consideration is the relationship between humans and space, and the coexistence of landscape and objects, rather than how landscape and objects can be used by humans.

Wu has opened a round hole in the wall dividing the exhibition space, and so we have a window; he used the narrow, corridor-like work Elsewhere by Chen Qi to connect two exhibition spaces, and so we have a ‘colonnade’; under the staircase he designed an arch-shaped opening, and thus we are drawn into the imagery of the space underneath a bridge. All the spaces are both divided up and interlinked by the garden design concept ‘I am in you, and you are in me.’ This is both a space steeped in the philosophical significance of traditional Chinese gardens and a space for playing – visitors can experience the whole pavilion in different ways, while the pavilion itself implicitly demonstrates the thinking inherent in contemporary Chinese art.

To describe the China Pavilion as ‘most un-Chinese’ by no means implies that it has renounced those aspects of traditional culture that may puzzle the West. But this is the first time that the works in the China Pavilion do not highlight the divergence of Chinese art from the context of the contemporary Western art world. Western art is clearly influencing the attitudes of a new generation of young Chinese people towards their domestic art. Every year we hear plenty of criticism of the China Pavilion for being complacent and conservative. This year’s Venice Biennale, however, has given everyone a fresh perspective on the China Pavilion – and this may be a good start.

“最不中国” 的中国馆

Re-睿
威尼斯双年展中国馆,威尼斯
2019年5月11日-2019年11月24日

在威尼斯艺术双年展百余年的历史中,中国馆加入这全世界最重要的国际性艺术盛会,也仅仅占据了二十年不到的时间。纵观近十年中国馆参与威尼斯双年展的过程中,中国传统文化不仅没有成为当代艺术的对立面,反而成为了艺术作品的灵感、内涵、媒介和材料。中国丰富的民间艺术和传统文化帮助艺术家们创作出了各具文化特色的艺术作品,但也最终让中国馆难逃“定式思维”和“标签化”的看法。因此,2019年威尼斯双年展的中国馆,它的“不一样”则给大家带来了无限的惊喜,也正如国外媒体人所说的,这是一届“最不中国”的中国馆。

愿你生活在中国有趣的时代

令人啼笑皆非的是,今年威尼斯双年展的主题“愿你生活在一个有趣的时代”,来源于一句中国谚语的误读。它可以理解为是一种反讽,一句看似祝福的话语实则是一句诅咒,嘲讽人们无法脱离动荡时代的境遇。

没有人向这句“中国谚语”提出质疑,也没有人考究这句“谚语”的源头—中国馆只能将错就错,由中国人自己来诠释这句被外国人误读的谚语,则成为了一个不小的挑战。策展人吴洪亮将本届中国馆主题定为“Re-睿”,来呼应本届双年展的主题,策展人解释说,“Re”是西方多种语言词汇中出现频率较高的前缀,有“回、向后”之意,给后缀的词汇构成一个向前回溯的动势。中文里有一个相似读音的字:睿,意为智慧。那么“Re-睿”就代表了因为“Re”,所以“睿”的概念,也是当代艺术思考的一种方式。

Chen Qi, The Born and Expansion of 2012. Installation view, China Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2019. Photo: Shi Yue. 《2012生成与弥撒》,装置,中国馆,2019威尼斯双年展,摄影:施越。

Chen Qi, The Born and Expansion of 2012. Installation view, China Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2019. Photo: Shi Yue. 《2012生成与弥撒》,装置,中国馆,2019威尼斯双年展,摄影:施越。

本次双年展作品分别从文明的共识、生活的日常、自身的感知这三个维度呈现了艺术家们对“Re”的探索,乍一看似乎和往年双年展中国馆的形式一样,是在回溯中国的传统艺术和文化,策展人吴洪亮这一次却跳脱了传统意识的约束,为大家带来了一场别开生面的中国馆展览。

走出局限的中国馆

威尼斯双年展或许会让各个国家馆成为一种传播国家意志的场所,但同时也是帮助外国艺术爱好者了解中国艺术的最佳契机。许多中国艺术,都是基于中国艺术家在中华文化和社会背景的感染之下所创造出来的作品,但中国文化中复杂的辞藻、含蓄的意义及千回百转的指代性,在外国语境中出现总让人觉得变了一个味;再者,解释作品的文字一旦通过英文翻译二次加工了以后,如一道微波炉加热后的美食—无法再保持原汁原味的意思了。

文化隔阂正成为了西方了解中国艺术的一种障碍。如何在西方语境下,帮助外国人解读带有中国文化背景的艺术品,便成了艺术家们需要攻克的一大难题。在这样的情况下,策展人巧妙地选择利用“情感的共通点”,以此概念为基础,消解了艺术展汇中文化割裂的隔阂。

《金色之名》是艺术家耿雪创作的多屏摄像及装置艺术。走进中国馆中央,一幅巨大的屏幕正向大众呈现了耿雪的世界。这是一个以黑白色为基调的影像世界,从人物到景象,艺术家用泥土塑造了一切—正如全世界的幼儿在童年时期用泥土制造自己的帝国一样。在影像幕墙前方,还散落了许多“脐带”造型的金色装置。在“脐带”底部,艺术家镶嵌了许多影像作品,屏幕中,泥塑小人们翻滚着,对围着脐带观看视频的观众们来说,就像是在透过脐带关注着一种生命的诞生。在世界各地的文化中,都有着将泥土和生命作对比的说法。泥土经常会和生命的开始,以及生命的结束产生联系,《金色之名》也借用了这一点,揭示了生命轮回的宿命。

艺术家何翔宇给观众带来的共性体验则更为直观。穿过一个拱门,就来到了何翔宇打造的全然粉色的空间。他的作品场地造型与众不同,甚至连脚底的触感也做出了改变,有意将观众拉入一个独立的艺术语境之中。

《我们所创造的一切都不是我们自己》是艺术家以人类身体感知为灵感而创作的作品。他将人体口腔实体化为这个开阔的粉色空间,请观众步入其中,以另一种的视角来感受“人体的内在”。在这里,口腔不但被可视化,观众也可以通过手脚和展品的触碰来更为深刻地感知人体知觉。

Exhibition space, China Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2019. Photo: Shi Yue. 展览空间,中国馆,2019威尼斯双年展,摄影:施越

Exhibition space, China Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2019. Photo: Shi Yue. 展览空间,中国馆,2019威尼斯双年展,摄影:施越

西方语境下的东方艺术精神

在威尼斯双年展这样一个以西方当代艺术为主流的展览,让观众理解中国艺术,并非是要孤注一掷地放弃中国本身的艺术精神,也不能寄生于西方的主流价值观念之中,否则就是放弃了中国当代艺术的本质,很难体现出亚洲艺术的真正特点。

作为本次中国馆最受西方艺术爱好者欢迎的作品,艺术家陈琦的《2012生成与弥撒》恰恰也正是与中国文化联系最为紧密的作品。这是一幅巨大的版画作品,陈琦通过中国传统水印木刻版画技法,将黑白色的、波光涌动的水面在观众面前放大。这幅高四米、宽达二十多米的作品,在空间上像古代折叠屏风一样弯折,从而在视觉上达到了更多的透视效果。策展人有意以墙阻隔作品,观众或通过墙上的圆洞形的“窗”观察作品,或通过拱形门步入《2012生成与弥撒》的空间之中。展品不大的空间进一步帮助观众沉浸于艺术家打造的黑白色波涛景观里,产生了一种与现实分割的视觉体验。这幅庄严的、宏大的、静止的波涛图像,让人深刻地感受到水浩瀚汹涌的能量,用中国文化的审美和技法向大众展示了中国自古以来沉稳、朴素却高宏壮远的世界观。

和往年中国馆开放式的展厅布置不同,本次展品多以墙分割,整个展厅就像是一个迷宫,策展人吴洪亮有意引入中国园林的意象,引领观众以“游园”的方式体验整个中国馆。在西方建筑的观念中,“功能性”往往优先于“实用性”,而在东方建筑的观念中,首先考虑到的则是人与空间的关系,和“景”与“物”共处,而不是将“景”与“物”为人所用。他在分割展区的墙上开了一个圆洞,于是我们便有了扇“窗”;用通道狭窄的作品《别处》连接两个展览空间,于是我们便有了“廊”;在阶梯下设计了一个拱形的孔洞,于是我们便带入了“桥洞”的意象。所有展品空间既被分割,又在园林概念的设计下互相对接,你中有我,我中有你。它既是一个富有园林哲学意义的空间,也是一个游戏的空间,观众可以用不同的方式去体验整个展馆,而整个展馆也在用一种不言而喻的方式展现着中国当代艺术性的思考。

“最不中国”并不意味着中国馆摒弃那些令西方费解的传统文化,而是第一次,中国馆的作品不再强调中国艺术在以西方当代艺术语境下的差异性。很明显,西方艺术也正影响着新一代中国年轻人看待本土艺术的想法,每年都能听到不少批评中国馆“固步自封”的声音。但今年威尼斯双年展却让所有人都对中国馆有了一个新的认识,这或许是一个好的开始。