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Movement
From Hi Art,
August 2007
The concept
of “movement” inspires much emotion today, especially those born in the
1970s and 1980s.
For most
people, “movement” means sport - maybe buying Adidas or Nike gear,
wearing Jordon or Li Ning outfits, or rollerblading, skateboarding, or
other sociable physical actions. A young sports fan will don the team
shirt of Real Madrid, and shout loudly at the TV in anguish that he
cannot be the one to score that goal after receiving that pass from
Beckham. That same fan will regret that he himself will not race against
Schumacher in the fast lane.
There is
another meaning to the word “movement”, though: campaign. Today, nobody
would think about the social campaigns of the past that once held such a
strong place in peoples’ hearts. Gone are the days when people would
consider taking up a campaign as a key part of their day-to-day work. In
former times, choose at random a few pretty girls in the street
(certainly, choose the prettiest ones), and ask them for the names of
the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee,
and most could come up with seven or eight names, including alternate
members.
Nowadays,
young ladies are as lovely in days of old. But while they may also blurt
out a dozen names when asked, it is likely that most will be names of
foreign brands, with the occasional Chinese brand thrown in by accident.
One student I know is very interested in sports cars - Porsche, Ferrari,
Aston Martin, Lotus, Maserati. She knows every brand inside out, from
the exhaust volume, acceleration, and oil consumption through to
individual handmade elements and year of manufacture. She can
distinguish brand from listening to the engine ticking over. She never
asks her parents for money, but supports herself on the earnings from
vacations spent working in Nike stores. And so, I feel, society has been
advancing.
In the almost
60 years since Liberation in 1949, ordinary people have gone through
numerous campaigns, big and small. Even in the fine arts sphere,
campaigns have been numerous: the 1985 Art Movement, New Wave, Post-89,
Cynical Realists, Gaudy Art, Post-70, Minimum and Maximum, and
Post-1980, as well as crazes for biennales and auctions. It is as if
life cannot continue without movements - as if people would not know how
to live without making something sensational.
What would be
left after auction fever? Nobody in China’s art world seems to have even
considered the possibility. It drives a feeling that seeing into minds
of ordinary Chinese people is made all the more difficult by the fervor
to launch movements. Even today, as the market economy moves forward,
slogans slip out with apparent ease, launched into the public blindly
one after another.
All movements
are colored with a hint of the radical - of shock and irrationality. But
ask yourself this: Can one or two days really be enough to learn from
the spirit of Lei Feng? Can reforestation be completed in one or two
years? Will we see the result of carrying out the “Five Standards and
Four Virtues” movement within 50 or 100 years? Can the struggle against
bourgeois liberalization yield fruit in ten or fifteen days? And can a
morally upright family live a normal life by launching endless
campaigns”? Surely they must be sick and tired of it. Just look at how
much industrial waste was left behind after the Great Leap Forward, and
what a difficult three-year period of natural disasters we suffered as a
result.
I have a
weakness: no matter what I may be doing, I cannot give my best when
working in chaotic surroundings. I can neither paint well before crowds,
nor pee with someone standing nearby.
In recent
years, an unprecedented amount of Chinese publicity has followed the
Venice Biennale, the Kassel Documenta, and Art Basel. I have attended
for many years, and there were fewer pieces by contemporary Chinese
artists this year than in recent years, despite this elevated interest
from the Chinese media. My old friend Cheng Xindong, at the France
Gallery brought no Chinese artists to this year’s show. The established
J. Bastien Gallery from Belgium showed no interested in participating.
The status of
contemporary Chinese art as a small-time episode in the
Western-dominated mainstream remains unchanged. Some sophisticated
artists have decided to steer clear of the art phenomenon that have been
the talk of the town, and found themselves a new niche by shifting the
focus of their work to a deeper level.
Artistic
creation has always been a question explored by artists, whether ancient
or modern, in China and abroad. Even the simplest artist would not
change their creative direction or means of deriving pleasure for the
sake of a couple of Biennales. Once artistic creation becomes a thing
for public display, then artists have descended into a realm lacking in
value and importance. Nobody would listen to a fucking word they’d say,
or a fucking struggle he’d launch. The artist would become a nobody,
lower on the scale than the slice of cake served at the opening party.
From my point
of view, only a minority will benefit from a movement; the majority will
compromise or just disappear. As the saying goes, “Who else would go to
hell if I had not?”
Zhu Wei
Sunday, July
22, 2007
运动
《Hi艺术》2007年8月号
现在人们一提起运动再也不那么紧张了，特别是七、八十年代出生的孩子们，首先想到的是衣服，是穿阿迪还是耐克，是乔丹还是李宁，是玩滚轴、滑板还是三对三，面点的一头钻家穿着皇马的队服跟着电视喊，只恨自己不能在现场接贝克汉姆一传球，朝大门狠来一脚，只恨自己不能和舒马赫同志赛道上转圈。一般没人能想起运动还有另一层含义，那就是社会运动。当年运动整得也很深入人心，有的都当饭吃，街头随便问几个漂亮姑娘（拣最漂亮的）：政治局六个常委都谁？一般都能答出七八个来，多出一两个回去一查，还是候补的，政治上相当成熟。
现在的小姑娘们也很可爱，一张嘴也能说出十来个，牌子。大部分是国外品牌，有一两个说漏嘴了，可能是国产的。我认识一小姑娘，对跑车有兴趣，从宝时捷、法拉利、阿斯顿马丁、莲花到玛莎拉蒂，每款的排气量、提速、油耗，是手工制造还是生产线、制造年份，无一不晓，一听发动机声音就知道是哪一款的。还从不跟家里要钱，学校放假就找份工作，一般在专卖耐克的店。我觉得社会真的进步了。
打四九年起，六十年不到，老百姓经历的大大小小的运动不计其数，就连小小的美术界也弄出了：八五美术运动、新生代、后八九、泼皮、玩世、艳俗、残酷、七十后、极多极少、八十后、双年展热、拍卖热，好像不搞运动就活不下去，不整点啥就不知道如何过日子。拍卖过后还会有什么？圈里圈外好像从来没人想过，也没人会想到。中国人习惯了搞运动，正常的心态很难找回来，就连现在正常的市场经济也搞得跟运动一样，不停地提口号，不停地一窝蜂，不停地放卫星。
大凡运动，一定带有激进、突击、不理智的色彩。学雷锋，一天两天能行吗？植树造林，一年两年能成吗？五讲四美，五十年一百年能见效果吗？反对资产阶级自由化，十天半个月能出数吗？正经人家，能靠一个接一个的运动过日子吗？不累吗？大跃进后，我们留下了多少工业垃圾，迎来了多么艰难的“三年自然灾害”。
我有一毛病，只要一紧张，周围一乱，不管干啥，正常水平就发挥不出来，当着人面不能画画，边上有人尿不出尿来。眼下热炒的威尼斯双年展、卡塞尔艺术文献展、巴塞尔艺术博览会，年年我都到场，今年因为国内媒体的热炒，好像开天辟地的头一回，以前没这事儿。其实今年中国当代艺术与以往历届相比，少了很多。我的老友程昕东当年效力的法兰西画廊今年就没带中国艺术家来，同时间老牌的比利时J.Bastien画廊也没有兴趣参加这些展览，中国当代艺术家的作品是以西方艺术为主流的展览当中的一个乐子的处境并没有变。一些成熟的艺术家，已经选择避开这个已经成为话题的艺术现象，他们另辟蹊径，选择艺术更深层的内容。艺术创作对古今中外的艺术家、现代当代的艺术家，都是一个永恒的命题。再次的艺术家也不会为了一两个博览会双年展改变自己的创作思路，改变自己的生存趣味。艺术创作一旦成为公众热衷炫耀的事儿，那么艺术家这个时候已经变成了一个三孙子。他的呐喊和挣扎，没人会他妈听，甚至不如OPENING或晚会上的一个小小布丁。
我想真正通过运动受益的人总是少数，大部分人会妥协，或者消失。俗话说：我不入地狱谁入地狱。大家就别让了。
——朱伟
2007年7月22日星期日 |
