the shanghai papers

T H E S H A N G H A I PA P E R S
The Shanghai Papers
A N N E T T E W. B A L K E M A , X I A N G L I P I N G ( E D I TO R S )
Hatje Cantz Publishers
Editors
P R E FAC E
7
The Netherlands
TIONG ANG
Brazil
RICARDO BASBAUM
GUY BEN-NER
WA N G Q I N G S O N G
15
L AW R E N C E W E I N E R
China
China
YA N G S H A O B I N
Mexico
MARIANA CASTILLO DEBALL
China
China
CHEN ZHIGUANG
29
Turkey / Germany
Turkey
INCI EVINER
27
Germany
JÜRGEN DRESCHER
AY S E E R K M E N
Slovakia
RAINER GANAHL
Austria / U.S.A.
HE WENJUE
Israel
China
JIN SHI
China
China
52
MIKE KELLEY
U.S.A.
54
SANGGIL KIM
K orea
LIU MING
LIU YE
LU HAO
55
Japan / G ermany
Taiwan China
China / France
China
60
61
62
63
China
65
China
MA BAOZHONG
Germany
KL AUS METTIG
OTOLITH GROUP
U.K. / India
Germany
ULRIKE OTTINGER
Germany
S O N K U K GYO N
HITO STEYERL
68
69
Czech Republic
ROMAN ONDAK
THOMAS RUFF
66
Germany
ANGELIKA MANTZ
SU XINPING
47
48
JING SHIJIAN
LIN CHUANCHU
74
80
83
Japan /G ermany
TA N G M AO H O N G
71
North K orea/Chi na
China
117
China
118
ZHU JIA
46
51
S U C H A N K I N O S H I TA
China
YU HUA
Z H O U TAO
Taiwan China
China
JIA ZHANGKE
Y U FA N
84
85
93
China
95
L O N N I E VA N B R U M M E L E N & S I E B R E N D E H A A N
M I E K E VA N D E V O O R T
J E A N N E VA N H E E S W I J K
China
China
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
98
100
The Netherlands
96
120
122
China
1 24
China
ZHANG WEIJIE
41
Wales / France / Germany
BETHAN HUWS
113
117
ZHANG QING
40
44
HUANG HSINCHIEN
Ko r ea
China
ZHANG ENLI
38
109
111
YIN XIUZHEN
ZENG HAO
33
China
YA N G A H H A M
YUE MINJUN
31
H A R U N FA R O C K I
ZVI GOLDSTEIN
23
26
China
China
China
106
U.S.A.
China
W U M I N GZ H O N G
18
21
128
130
Germany
104
China
14
Switzerland
BIG DIPPER GROUP
CHEN YUN
China
WA N G Q I A N G
Israel / Germany
URSULA BIEMANN
BU HUA
CLEMENS VON WEDEMEYER
9
12
125
126
108
103
Preface
A N N E T T E W. B A L K E M A A N D X I A N G L I P I N G — E D I TO R S
The Shanghai Papers is a collection of texts written by the artists
participating in Translocalmotion, the Shanghai Biennale 2008.
Why would one ask artists to produce their own texts? Hasn’t that
been for decades the domain of specialists such as art historians,
art critics, and other theorists in the field of visual culture? True.
However, in the 21st century, artists started contextualizing their
own work; they started participating in (artistic) research programs and discussions; they started to become artists – and professors of a novel generation of artists – accompanied by blogs
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and websites filled with all kinds of data and information on their
own work and ideas.
A s a consequence, artists have created a particular, theoretical
–
audience interested in an artistic type of abstract ideas, data
information, and a layered form of perspectives. Part of that audience simply enjoys such reading as a form of general inspiration.
Another part of that audience, however, needs the information
artists develop in their writings as a tool for further reflection; as a
means of shifting both thought and perspective in the process of
theorizing in the visual domain and its related fields.
T he three curators of the Shanghai Biennale 2008 Translocal–
motion, Julian Heynen, Henk Slager, and Zhang Qing, deliberately
departed from those topical phenomena when selecting their
artists. The atmosphere of reflection during their meetings and
decisions indeed reverberates in various layers of the artists’
texts.
S ome texts in The Shanghai Papers are composed against the
–
background of a series of questions. Those questions produced a
the subject of the question. Other texts speak of specific works,
of the context of working for an immense global exhibition, of
poetic and theoretical reflections produced by the work, by Translocalmotion, or by both. Some texts assume the form of interviews, some deal with the process of the work. But all the texts
speak in some way or another of the contemporary topics of
mobility, of migration, of urbanity, of public space, of public art, of
dreams for the future, of globalization. Aren’t those the topics
that connect people all over the world today?
EDITORS
fascinating amalgam of responses. The headings in the texts mark
Models for (the) People
TIONG ANG
My name is Tiong Ang and I was born in Indonesia from ethnic
Chinese parents. Due to political turmoil in 1960s Indonesia, our
family fled the country when I was a young boy and consequently I
was raised and educated in the Netherlands, where I still live and
work. Although some expect me to do so, I do not speak Chinese,
nor do I speak Indonesian anymore.
L et me begin with an observation. These days, with a background
–
(and a physical appearance, and a name) like mine, I don’t have
much choice of how to categorize myself. It comes as an inevitable
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and irreversible fact that almost everyone wants to see me as a
‘post-colonial subject’, as an ‘immigré-artist’, as a representative
of ‘otherness’. I have been assigned a uniform, a flag was planted
in my garden, whether I liked it or not. But I remember a time
when it really did not matter.
M y work blends the conceptual approach of process-based media
–
art and the solitary, pictorial practice of painting to address issues
of perception, collective memory, social and cultural estrangement, the human experience, all embedded in an ever-changing
field of contradictions and contexts.
I strive to maintain a practice
–
that includes different kinds
of approaches towards human
endeavor and behavior. The
core of my exercise is to always
question authenticity and the
permanence of visual imagery
and storytelling. After having
installation artist for a number
of years, concerned with matters
like voyeurism, the physicality
of ideas, things and images and the persistence of painting as a
slow medium amidst current media streams, I changed my practice in 1995. I started using video in a number of performance
projects and collaborations, in which process and communication
were crucial.
V ideo enabled me to generate images outside a studio environ–
ment. I think this was the main issue then: I had to go out of the
studio, just to take a breath of fresh air and assess new conditions
for being an artist. In the process, I discovered the immediacy of
TIONG ANG
been a studio-based painter and
T I O N G A N G • M O D E L S F O R (T H E )
PEOPLE • VIDEO • 2008
the camera and the necessity of communicating with others. I was
especially during the Biennale, the museum should be regarded as
not pursuing those aspects; these were things that came to me. In
a condensation of public space.
a process of playing and role-playing I still use and recycle images
B ut I perceive it as a contradictory public space, where once
–
horses were kept. The work cannot be launched from a nostalgic
and objects, so as to give them new life.
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I n the installation Models for ( the ) People, specially developed
–
and produced for the Shanghai Biennale, my aim is to evoke a
viewpoint, but horses lived in this building; the Shanghai Art
distinctive gaze of dislocation. I am referring to a blankness that
confusion, embarrassment, lamentation, contamination, historic
allows the individual to rethink one’s state of belonging and
devaluation. That is a horse’s ass.
alienation within our global sphere. In order to reach this vacuum,
this momentum of carelessness, I lead myself through a stream of
T he slogan ‘Buy African Goods’ ( Gou Mai Fei Zhou Shang Ping )
–
came as an afterthought, and usually these are eventually left
imaginary situations. Examining the visionary potential of
out, but this time I kept it in. Because I mean it, and it seemed
Shanghai’s old and new history within the social, economic, politi-
legitimate that in light of the promotional aspect an event like
cal, ethnic and cultural relationships of our hybrid global reality,
the Biennale conveys, the work would include a counter-scheme.
I have composed a hallucinatory, visual narrative along different
African presence in China is still extremely limited, and the
tracks of transformation, questioning the credibility and persist-
introduction of an African man dressed in traditional costume
ence of its origins and bearings.
walking on the streets of Shanghai appears to call for more
M odels for ( the ) People is a range of disparate images juxtaposed
–
in both sequential and spatial environments. Video images, paint-
consideration of alternative viewpoints other than the axiomatic
ings, objects, songs and words in three languages are united in
a display that generates a ‘contradictory space’, where differentia-
I want to end with the lyrics of a song to accompany the images,
–
which came up as a reminder of a time not so long ago when
tion and mutual contestation rule. All these images carry with
Western values were scarcely permitted in China. It sounds like a
them both the moment of desire and that of opportunity. The work
simple lovesong, but somehow defines Shanghai’s relationship
alludes to cinematic estrangement, the collisions of cultures and
with the rest of the world quite well. The question is, who is the
trades, the alienating impact of exoticism, and its parallels with our
groupie, and who is the idol?
Museum once housed the British Jockey Club. The work offers
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discourse between China and the West.
multifaceted society as a succession of displacements.
T he work stems from refusal. We have to refuse the cliché, we
–
have to refuse all expectations. That is, the expected public face
Superstar
(written by Leon Russell & Bonnie Bramlett /
performed by the Carpenters, 1971 )
we have to display when we wrap ourselves in national flags,
when we bury our minds in the fetish of commodification, in the
Long ago and oh so far away
codified adaptation to the so-called globalized world. Then we
I fell in love with you
can embrace new models, just because we have to. To prove that
before the second show
T he work continues with a lie, a good lie, a whole range of good
–
lies. (Who told me it is better to tell a good lie than a bad excuse? )
Your guitar, it sounds so sweet and clear
The boots are not African, they are made in China. The cut is
It’s just the radio
But you’re not really here
French, or British. Fluorescent yellow is a difficult color to use as
a backdrop; all photographers tell me that everyone will appear
Don’t you remember you told me you loved me baby
dark in front of it. Shanghai girls wearing blonde wigs in itself is a
You said you’d be coming back this way again baby
very good lie. The African intellectual, the poet, the magician
Baby, baby, baby, baby, oh, baby, I love you I really do
carrying a box of equestrian boots. African sculpture is hugely
popular on the Chinese art market.
Loneliness is such a sad affair
A s the differential modes of presentation intertwine, I am curious
–
to see whether the installation manages to liberate the audience’s
And I can hardly wait
perception of the museum building and its function. After all,
to be with you again
TIONG ANG
TIONG ANG
everything is related.
What to say to make you come again
is taken as if it should only produce the necessary tools for the
Come back to me again
others’ actions and gestures – the art displayed would rest empty
And play your sad guitar
in the exhibition, accomplishing something only when activated
by the presence of ‘you’ as an active agent.
You said you’d be coming back this way again baby
T here is, therefore, an inversion of the so-called figure/ground
–
organization, and the artwork (which usually stands as the figure )
Baby, baby, baby, baby, oh, baby, I love you I really do
shifts to the background leaving foreground space to what is
Don’t you remember you told me you loved me baby
barely present there ( but usually stands as the ground ) to provide
hidden and passive contextualization: be it the public, the architecture, the institutional features, etc. These elements are activated and brought forward to become the main actors or characters
of the scenario proposed by the installation. The art piece exists
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minimally as a visual device, in the sense that it refuses to
RICARDO BASBAUM
take place.
The work I am presenting at the 7th Shanghai Biennale seeks to
T he kind of intervention proposed by me-you + system-cinema +
–
passageway ( NBP ) posits a dynamic space permeated by a public
continue and extend some of the topics I have been researching
condition, where the differences of the real world (out there...)
recently: the relationship between ‘me’ and ‘you’ via choreogra-
are not annihilated by any aesthetic universalism. The installation
phies, games and exercises; the proposition of architectonic-
space proposes an experience which can only be held by subjects
sculptural structures where the visitor is invited to develop com-
– and this is a proper effect of the artwork – who accept position-
pulsory performances through the use of doors, passageways and
ing themselves in the realm of a transformative process (a promise
stands; the presence of CCTV systems which produce live images
from any art piece, but that only a few are interested in providing).
in real time as a sort of cinema; the use of diagrams that emphasize the presence of discursive layers that function together with
M y NBP – New Bases for Personality project ( 1990 ) started under
–
such a program and continues to emphasize and problematize it
the sensory and affective components. The decision to develop
under various circumstances. Several strategies of the work (plas-
the work as several ‘series’ that evolve independently, but can be
tic, sensorial, discursive) have been contributing to the production
combined together or even explored in isolation, was made as a
of a sort of reduced communicative particle – a virus in itself – that
way of setting up a sort of structure requiring permanent updating
is meant to spread through contamination at the installation and
and actualization. My intent is to be always able to have the pro-
its contact zones. Then we have to talk about membranes – which
posals establishing strong and intensive links with the very local
mediate all the encounters to which the artworks are submitted –
sites and contexts where they are installed and exhibited.
“the installation as a meeting point”. They instate a local exchange
R I C A R D O B A S B A U M • ME - Y O U +
S Y S T E M - C I N E M A + P A S S A G E W AY ( N B P) •
M U LT I M E D I A I N S T A L L A T I O N • 2 0 0 8
where the games, exercises and choreographies (from anyone)
A ctually, for a long time I have
–
been working with the aim of
field with the help of organic lines (Lygia Clark) and active sur-
getting the visitors ( term that I
prefer instead of public, which
A t the membranes, the borders become active. With the help of
–
membranes, the installation is able to negotiate its presence at the
sounds more imprecise in terms
event, guaranteeing it will function as part of a larger system with-
of connecting one to the art-
out losing its specific autonomy. That is, membranes help in
work ) closer to my propositions,
opening up not only connections inside /outside, but other forms
carefully building up what can
of links from which different entities can emerge. They also pro-
be seen as an operation to move
vide specific areas of resistance.
them forward. Some expectation
A s a sort of arena, the installation promotes encounters and
–
confrontations: to pass through doors and passageways, to sit at
is thus projected and the artwork
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gleam by itself, preferring to remain there as a sort of landscape
faces, as their main devices.
RICARDO BASBAUM
RICARDO BASBAUM
Me-you + System-Cinema +
Passageway ( N B P )
benches – all gestures where you acknowledge the presence of
ideas of private property, stealing, and the family as a piggy bank –
someone else with you (‘me & you’). Duplicate images of yourself
a social structure built in order to “keep property from leaking out”.
may appear at the video monitors, emphasizing the extraction
The sitcom family is played by a real family. The apartment looks
of one from oneself – there is no erasure, but multiplication of one
like a TV set. As a family photo album it inhabits one sole contra-
times the other. Therefore, mixtures are expected and will be
diction: it is very private, yet the same for everybody everywhere.
process of getting closer and closer to the art piece is an approxi-
B ut if in the classical American
–
sitcom the economy is separated
mation maneuver that necessarily proceeds at different speeds
from the show – the commercial
and is not resolved all at once.
break – as the great repressed
T he several aspects of the me-you + system-cinema + passage–
way ( NBP ) installation contribute to make the operation a complex
image of that genre, here the
one with various speeds related to different areas and installation
cause the two spheres to col-
parts. What is striking here is the attempt to effectively fold each
lapse into a single one.
of the series that compose the work into each other – and then
S ince we did not ask for per–
mission to shoot the movie in the
enacted, performed. It is very important to comprehend that the
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unfold them into the local context. It does not matter what step
price tags, displayed everywhere,
GUY BEN-NER • STEALING BEAUTY •
VIDEO PROJECTION, SOUND • 2007
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Ikea showrooms, we needed to
comes first, you can begin from any stage or sequence. After all,
find a different store branch each
things have already started somewhere else and we are here to
keep all the parts of the process in motion, hoping to provide new
time we got caught and were asked to leave or stop the shootings.
insights and inflections – this time, next time, etc.
“Being caught”, then, disturbs our movie’s smooth continuity,
I t is always a waste of time trying to figure out what an artist is,
–
since that issue is not an abstract problem, but the result of a col-
but also involves more and more kitchens or living rooms, to take
lective (social, economic) process. A conceptualization of it
should never focus on solo trends and adventures, but precisely
I n this way the film director allows the Ikea staff and workers to
–
interfere, even dictate, the editing of the movie. Since we did
on what is shared by actors investing all their efforts in distancing
not ask for permission everything was shot in secrecy, like an act
from each other while recognizing that they are searching for
of theft. Sound becomes an issue
part in one scene, as a visual catalogue of ideal living spaces.
nothing in common. But some joy can be obtained if the common
search seeks nothing – yes, there are those who share the love for
empty areas and welcome the other (each other) – ‘you’, ‘me’.
Then, as ‘you’ might expect, the final construction can be regularly postponed
Sahara Chronicle
Sahara Chronicle is an art and research project on the systems
Stealing Beauty
GUY BEN-NER
and modalities of migration across North Africa. The Maghreb
region is undergoing major transformations as the steady emigration trends of the last century have evolved into a dynamic of
transit and immigration of citizens from sub-Saharan Africa. Since
A boy comes home from school with a note indicating he was
the fortification of the European outer rim and the pressure on the
caught stealing money from his classmate. His family is confront-
Maghreb countries to stem migration flows from the south, the
ed with the challenge of educating him about the meaning and
Sahara basin has become a contested zone of mobility. Along the
the boundaries separating private property from its “other”.
main transit-migration routes, new economies are revitalizing the
T he movie starts as a TV “family sitcom”, shot without permission
–
in Ikea “show rooms” in three different countries and explores
Sahara; sleepy desert cities in Niger and Algeria are mutating into
continental hubs for West African migrants on their way to the
URSULA BIEMANN
GUY BEN-NER
URSULA BIEMANN
Maghreb and Europe. While media attention is devoted almost
hence the fascination with images of captured illegal migrants.
exclusively to the arrival of migrants on Europe’s heavily guarded
They embody the kind of boundlessness that needs to be con-
southern shores, this project explores the vast activities which
cealed. It has created a disorder in global civil society by pushing
have emerged along the risky Saharan passages, and the modes
an immense liminal zone into a neatly mapped post-colonial order,
in which transit migrants regroup in new locations and recon-
halfway between no longer defined worlds. Imaging the unspeak-
figure their ethnicity across the continent. Highly adaptable, the
able statelessness brings this uncomfortable fact to light.
migratory movements have generated prolific operational networks
involving a system of ghettos, nodes and routes where clandes-
A gadez, at the heart of Niger, is the gateway to the Saharan basin
–
for the main routes coming from West Africa. It is also a major
tine migrants, ex- rebel leaders, crossing agents and border patrols
trans-Saharan trading center, and capital of the nomadic Tuareg
are the key actors.
tribes. It is one of the key sites in the trans-Saharan scheme
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URSULA BIEMANN •
SAHARA CHRONICLE • VIDEO INSTALLATION • 2007
I n the course of two years, I
–
made three field trips to the
since the Tuaregs have always guaranteed the North-South link,
major hubs of the trans-Saharan
of Sahara Chronicle documents the great departure of the
migration network in Morocco,
Exodés across the desert. It is the moment of potentiality where
Niger, and Mauritania, and pro-
everything seems possible; the excitement at the risky adventure
duced an indefinite number of
is virtually in the air. In their common venture of accessing
short video documents. In their
labor markets in the north, they join the growing and highly flexible
loose interconnectedness and
practices of migration, proficient at rerouting, reorganizing or
their expansive geography,
going covert in record time. It is in this guerilla fashion that geog-
Sahara Chronicle mirrors the
raphy has been made productive by those players whom the glob-
migration network itself. The
al capitalist logic defines as immobilized: the poor, the deprived.
project presents the system as
The empowered vision of organized migration is one in which
acting as a hyphen between Maghreb and Sahel. 1 The first video
geopolitics is not a term strictly reserved to powerful nations wish-
ports, logistic centers – which take on a particular importance both
ing to dominate a region for its resources, but instead a strategy
in the striving for migratory autonomy and in the attempts made
that can equally apply to a large movement of exiles or migrant
by diverse authorities to contain and manage these movements.
workers who target another territory for more economic plenitude.
No authorial voice or other narrative device is used to tie these
The focus is on the unrepresented, rebellious and obstinate local
video documents together. There is no intent to construct a
practices of space, which resist and circumvent any attempts at
homogenous, overarching, contemporary narrative of a phenome-
disciplining.
non with deep roots in colonial Africa and extremely diverse
and fragile in its present social and human experience. The prime
C omplementing the news media, which frame migration as a
–
crisis event, art can provide an in-depth view on the human condi-
mode of representation here is fragmentation and disassembly.
tion and has the potential to offer what we could call “sustainable
The full structure of the network comes together solely in the mind
representation”. Sustainability and migration are two closely
of the viewer, who mentally draws the connecting lines between
linked concepts in the Sahel, where inhabitants have lost a third
the nodes of migratory intensity. It is those interstices which are
of their viable land to desertification over the last few decades.
most invisible to the eye.
But by sustainable representation, I certainly do not mean a back-
I nvisibility is indeed an invaluable resource in the undercover
–
transportation racket. Outlawed migration has gone into hiding
ground report on the economic push factors for migration. The
and become a shadow system. Making images of these proceed-
cal process. What comes to mind are representations with a
ings inevitably brings to light a system that works best when
longer lifespan, more durable images. Images of desert crossers,
invisible; so much so that the imaging of clandestinity also signi-
for instance, that would neither vanish into the mythology of the
fies its symbolic ending. There is a paradox in the social con-
romantic desert life outside real time, nor get hooked on the dram-
sciousness, in that the desire to know about clandestine activities
atized figure of the immobilized stranded refugee. Both narratives
coincides with the anxiety to see these transgressions resolved;
refuse to recognize that deteriorating changes, manifesting their
term should reflect both the object of inquiry and its methodologi-
URSULA BIEMANN
URSULA BIEMANN
an arrangement of pivotal sites – terminals, border checkpoints,
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1
inevitable consequences today, have in fact evolved over a long
of work and opportunities for profit.” Regardless of whether one
period. When observing the preparations for the great desert
considers the closed communications of ancient times or today’s
crossing at the Agadez truck terminal, it became evident that only
global world, immigrants always pose problems for indigenous
through the patient and unexcited recording of this quiet daily
residents. They bring with them different cultural conventions and
routine does the deliberate gesture of migratory self-determination
genes and at the same time they take up resources formerly
fully emerge. Sustainability can no longer be reduced to slowness,
belonging only to the indigenous people. They are able to both build
though. It tells the story about how all we do around the world
and destroy. In ancient times, rulers invented registration systems
is interconnected here and now, i.e. how a Western life style has
which governed the distribution of resources, work and educational
an impact on herdsmen in the Sahel. Images as social relations
opportunities, and even reproduction. On the one hand such sys-
are not excluded from these circuits of mutual responsibility. They
tems limited the outward flow of nationals of a particular state,
reflect the contemporary awareness of how we live our lives
while on the other hand it also controlled immigrants. In a small
M A G H R E B D E N O T E S T H E R E G I O N I N C L U D I N G L I B YA , T U N I S I A , A L G E R I A , M O R O C C O ,
AND MAURITANIA; THE SAHEL ZONE COMPRISES CHAD, NIGER, AND MALI.
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number of countries, such a system is still in use even today.
I n my works, the city is just like a cage of rats that is managed by
–
the rats themselves. Police, city management, traffic patrol
19
officers, cleaners, blood donation vehicles, churches, bookstores,
surveillance cameras, fire hydrants, quarantine networks, lights,
signs, big screens, billboards, and posters represent civilization,
Immigrant City
order, safety, health, religion, laws, institutions and the values
BIG DIPPER GROUP / LIU YUE
imposed upon the rats. The more comfortable the cage and the
more food in the cage, the more visitors to the cage, and the
The topic of this year’s biennale is particularly interesting.
more such visitors will want to settle down in the cage, even to the
Shanghai is modern China’s largest immigrant city, and the prob-
point that international visitors come from far away across the
lems it faces with respect to immigration are representative of
ocean. Even though this cage is made more comfortable and
major cities throughout the world. Thirty years ago, most mainland
open, the rats in the cage are not necessarily all happy or healthy.
Chinese people had seen foreigners only in movies. But now, on
I have raised some rats in my cage, but I never turn the cage
the streets of Shanghai, Beijing and other major Chinese cities,
upside down, never flood the cage, never leave the cage short of
foreign tourists, business men, and cultural ambassadors can be
food or dirty. So they often snore soundly in the palm of my hand
seen everywhere. Chinese society is in the midst of a deep-rooted
and lick me like a dog would. But at times they will bite the cage
change. As a result, during this period of transition and globaliza-
angrily, fight with each other, or beat newly arrived rats because I
tion, immigration-related problems are particularly prominent.
don’t give them freedom or education. What’s more, I keep
BIG DIPPER GROUP: WU LIZHONG,
XU XUBING, LIU YUE •
E X T E N D I N G T R AV E L E R S • M U LT I M E D I A
INSTALLATION • 2008
females separated from the males.
E.H Gombrich said that,
H uman activity is incredibly powerful. In Yinxu, the ancient capital
–
city of China’s Shang Dynasty, which has more than 3000 years
“Compared with people today,
of history, to my astonishment I found that in addition to Mongo-
our ancient ancestors were
lians, there are also stone carvings of Caucasians and Africans. It
much more perseverant and
is hard to believe that in the pre-historical era that they were able
bold. In the event that business-
to travel to China. In order to chase prey and collect food, to gath-
men, craftsmen, folk singers
er resources, to express their own values, and to change their
or puppet troupes suddenly
living environments, humans have scattered all over the world. The
made the decision to travel, they
prisoners of war or slaves buried in the Yinxu tombs, and the
would simply join a caravan
ancient traders lying in the wilderness along the Silk Road, tell us
of business travelers and roam
that there is no such thing as a permanent home; instead there
along the Silk Road, passing through deserts and grasslands on
is only incessant immigration
horseback or on foot for months or even years at a time in pursuit
TRANSLATED BY JASON TOWER WITH ZUOYI ZHANG
B I G D I P P E R G RO U P/ L I U Y U E
B I G D I P P E R G RO U P/ L I U Y U E
I n the Chinese translation of the
–
foreword to the History of Art,
an office building. Walking down the long corridor, we check every
The Relationship between the
City and Immigration
room from left to right, opening every door checking very carefully.
BIG DIPPER GROUP / WU LIZHONG
I t seems to be the original bowl, and the fish seem to be the origi–
nal fish, but in fact, this fish is not that fish, nor is this space that
We understand the relationship between the city and immigration
space. This bowl is full of fresh-water fish surrounded by the
as being like that between a fish bowl and fish – one of depend-
shadow of buildings on all sides. They have gone through a spiral-
ence, for the sake of survival.
ing metamorphosis, their life taking on an entirely new meaning
A school of marine fish swims happily in a glass tank filled with
–
ocean water, their life is full of vigor, and they live a carefree
and their thinking completely changed.
and leisurely life.
20
In the end, we let out a deep breath as we find a bowl of fish in the
window of a modern marine biology research laboratory.
A black striped fish stares right at us; we watch him, and he
–
watches us. As we watch one another, a kind of communication
S uddenly there is a tremendous
–
noise that fills the air that
and understanding takes place. Through the fish’s eyes we can
sounds like a crane and heavy
workers that drift through this city. In this rapidly developing new
machinery operating. At just
city everyone without any exception becomes a guest. Now, are
that moment a perfectly assem-
there still things we can’t see?
bled tower drops down from
TRANSLATED BY JASON TOWER WITH ZUOYI ZHANG
21
see the same boundless eagerness and hope as we find in the
the heavens and with the assistance of the crane is dropped
into the fish bowl.
BIG DIPPER GROUP: WU LIZHONG,
XU XUBING, LIU YUE •
E X T E N D I N G T R AV E L E R S • M U LT I M E D I A
INSTALLATION • 2008
I n the ensuing moments, one
–
building after another is dropped
into the fish bowl, each taking
up part of the space in which the fish survive. Unlike before, the
Responses
BU HUA
bowl is no longer wide and open. After a period of protest, the fish
Globalization
in the big buildings and towers. Soon they find it enjoyable to
has impacted people’s lives all
swim from one building to another, entering from the right and com-
over the world. It is a multi-lay-
ing out on the left, turning from corner to corner, and constantly
ered phenomenon with economic
swimming back and forth.
issues at its center. The fields
G radually we discover that as the number of buildings in the bowl
–
increases, the water level begins to slowly recede. The fish in the
it affects include technology,
bowl can see all kinds of colorful balloon fish flying outside of the
daily life. What happens in art and
economy, values, as well as our
culture is only part of its mani-
water. And what’s more, at nightfall these massive new buildings
emit brilliant light like shining stars in a dark sky.
B ut when we wake up one morning, we are astonished to discover
–
that there is no water in the bowl, but instead only densely
Globalization
B U H U A • S A VA G E G R O W T H • C O M P U T E R
SOFTWARE • 2008
festations. We are living in it, and
there is no way to escape. In
other words, we don’t really have
packed buildings and towers left behind. Where are the fish? They
a choice! Our life consists of everyday activities, but I cannot real-
are gone. A bowl full of marine fish has entirely vanished without
ly think about anything around me which has not been affected by
a trace!
globalization. Do I have any choices?
A s the alarm rings, we begin to search frantically through this new
–
city that has sprung up in the fish bowl. Passing across the towers,
Urbanity
and traveling through the buildings, we jump through a window into
is the result of globalization as well as urbanization that happens
Big cities have changed a great deal in China today. It
BU HUA
B I G D I P P E R G RO U P/ W U L I Z H O N G
quickly calm down, and they begin to play hide-and-seek happily
on a local level. Urbanization means the movement of rural
that they can make something derived from the origin of art and
populations. In my parents’ time, people in the city came to the
life, and people can see more really interesting and touching
countryside, that is, the re-education of young intellectuals.
things
After the Reform, tens of millions of people have moved from
rural areas to cities. The city closely records our changing
times. People in the city may not know what globalization is, but
they can feel its impact. Similarly, the average urban dwellers
may not know what urbanization is, but they can feel its impact
on their life.
Entropology
MARIANA CASTILLO DEBALL
F l u i d M o v e m e n t o f P e o p l e ’s M o b i l i t y i n F o r m s o f M i g r a t i o n
22
Karl Marx states that all phenomena related to population are
Moon dust. “I wish I could send you some,” says Apollo 17
determined by economic development. Therefore, large-scale
astronaut Gene Cernan. Just a thimbleful scooped fresh off the
movement of population is determined by economic develop-
lunar surface. “It’s amazing stuff.’ Feel it— it’s soft like snow, yet
ment. People’s constant migration shapes the cityscape and its
strangely abrasive. Taste it— “Not bad,” according to Apollo 16
cultural character. The form of the modern city is always related
astronaut John Young. Sniff it— “It smells like spent gunpowder,”
to migration. The animated film Savage Growth is relevant to
says Cernan.
the theme of migration and mobility. First, in terms of historical
background, it contains the metaphor that developed nations
H ow do you sniff moon dust? Every Apollo astronaut did it. They
–
could not touch their noses to the lunar surface, but after every
are in a privileged position in the distribution of resources ( as
moonwalk they would tramp the stuff back inside the lunar lander.
the latter half of the film in which two tycoons clap their hands
Moon dust was incredibly clingy, sticking to boots, gloves and
suggests ). Second, driven by globalization, large groups of peo-
other exposed surfaces.
Aware of both the advantages and disadvantages of globaliza-
D id moon dust remain hidden in
–
the most intricate corners of
tion, everybody is making their small personal choices under the
the travelers and their objects
big driving force of globalization. Instability will be the norm.
making its way clandestinely
ple are moving back and forth. The major driving force is profit.
23
back to Earth? That is hard to
Despising Most in Contemporar y Art
say, but it is known that during
Personally, I hope that the
bottom line of making art is sincerity and the ability to ask the
the six Apollo surface excur-
question of why do we make art. If there is no such discipline as
sions, the astronauts collected
2,415 samples of moon rocks,
art, no interests in art or art-related practical issues, no such
what you are doing now? I think that in the first place we are living as humans rather than “artists” in society and the world.
MARIANA CASTILLO DEBALL •
ENTROPOLOGY • VIDEO • 2008
which constitute the lunar arsenal
on Earth. Lunar samples are considered a limited national
As humans, we have questions and feelings in life. If we want to
resource and future heritage released only for approved applica-
express them, we must acquire some necessary skills. So we
tions in research, education, and public display.
make a few works, which interest and satisfy us. Then we continue making some more. After a while, people call us artists. But
T he severe regulations for the use and distribution of extraterres–
trial samples is quite different from the destiny of objects brought
this is just a by-product rather than the initial goal of making art.
to space by humans. Instead of measuring progress through tech-
This is my own principle. If I do not follow it, I will lose interest
nological achievements, the scope of human development could
in making art. I will despise myself and feel very bad.
be determined by observing how far human debris is drifting. The
image of an astronaut in slow motion walking on the quiet, deso-
Dreams for the Art of the Future
From the point of view of the
“maker”, I hope that all of the “makers” can live a natural life, so
late tract of the lunar surface while his footprint, with a different
gravitational force, perhaps with a lighter impact, leaves its unique
MARIANA CASTILLO DEBALL
BU HUA
categories as oil painting, images, and animation, will you still do
24
pline dedicated to study the process of disintegration in its more
Throughout the different expeditions and scientific experiments,
complex manifestations. 1
hundreds of artificial objects are brought to the Moon’s surface by
humans, including exploration vehicles, parts of rockets, and sev-
E ntropology could be described as a fight against time, a battle
–
that in some cases tries to stop it, accelerate it or even reverse it.
eral commemorative or personal objects left by astronauts.
The ambition to go backwards in time, to a moment before human
L unar debris is not the only trace of humans in space; there are
–
space waste objects in orbit around Earth no longer serving any
life, before the Earth and even the Universe existed, is represented
useful purpose: from entire spent rocket stages and defunct satel-
experiment aims to discover what the universe is made of and how
lites to explosion fragments, paint flakes, dust, and slag from
it all began.
solid rocket motors, deliberate insertion of small needles, and
other small particles. The number of objects in orbit is so big that
T he Large Hadron Collider at Cern in Geneva, switches on after
–
20 years of preparation, generating in a microscopic region where
it has surpassed a critical spatial density, especially because
beams of particles collide, a concentration of energy that has
objects in orbit collide with each other, creating even more debris.
never been achieved before “a concentration that mimics, in micro-
T he image of hundreds of useless objects orbiting around the Earth
–
tells something about what might be left at the end from human
cosm, the conditions that prevailed in the universe during the first
attempts to transform their surroundings and expand their horizons.
Progress and civilization might not be so efficient; we are probably
C ould this experiment be defined as reverse engineering? Reverse
–
engineering is often done when the documentation for a particular
just reaching a zero point, a moment when expectations are incom-
device has been lost ( or was never written ), and the person
patible with possibilities. Nevertheless we carry on.
who built the device is no longer available. The difference with the
F rench anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss defined himself as a
–
traveler, an archeologist in space, vainly trying to restore exoticism
Hadron Collider experiment is that the event to be recreated is
with the help of particles and fragments. Levi-Strauss never went
to the Moon, but throughout his exploration of human nature in
I n his short story “The Trouble with Bubbles”, Philip Dick imag–
ines a future where mankind has attempted to reach other intelli-
remote parts of the world, we could see through his magnifying
gent forms through space exploration, but has found nothing.
glass the human tendency to reach a zero point. Human knowledge
In light of this yearning to connect with other life forms, people
attempts to divide and fragment reality in order to understand it,
can buy a plastic bubble known as the Worldcraft, whose tag
whereas words, concepts, mentalities, and disciplines constantly
of reads, “Own your own world!” The owner of the Worldcraft is
collide with each other creating smaller and smaller particles, like
able to create a whole universe, controlling all the variables. In
moon dust.
the story there is a contest to create the best Worldcraft universe.
F or Levi-Strauss, human beings have continually opposed univer–
sal decay. They appear as machines, one perhaps more perfect
People spend months and even years perfecting their pocket-
than the others, working to disassemble an original order and pre-
the winner of the best Worldcraft, after receiving the prize would
cipitating organized matter into a state of disorder. Since the
smash the bubble into pieces as a sort of cathartic action, and
beginning of mankind, until the invention of the first thermonuclear
afterwards, in the same manner, the rest of the participants would
and atomic instruments, human beings have done nothing but
follow suit.
happily dissociate millions of structures and reduce them to a state
where they cannot be integrated. Without doubt human beings
“All around the room other owners were smashing their worlds,
–
stepping on them, grinding the delicate control mechanisms
have built cities and have cultivated fields; but when thinking about
underfoot. Men and women in a frenzy of abandon, quivering in
it, these achievements are machines destined to produce disorder
an orgy of Dionysian lust. Crushing and breaking their carefully
with a rhythm and proportion infinitely more elevated than the
constructed worlds, one after another.
organization they imply. So, civilization, taken as a whole, can be
described as a very complex mechanism busy in fabricating what
T he bubbles seemed a good idea, initially. We cannot leave the
–
earth so we built our own worlds right here as subatomic worlds
scientists call entropy or disorder. For Levi-Strauss, instead of
in controlled containers. We create life embarking on a subatomic
‘anthropology’ we should write ‘entropology’, a name for a disci-
world, feed problems to it and make it evolve, trying to raise its
clearly by an experiment that will be performed this summer. The
trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.”
25
2
the beginning of the universe.
sized universe. After a couple of years, a strange habit emerges;
MARIANA CASTILLO DEBALL
MARIANA CASTILLO DEBALL
trace is far away; the lunar landscape is no longer a deserted land.
level higher and higher. It certainly is a creative pastime, but not
the humans attracted by her charm who struggle to survive
comparable to other pastimes such as watching television. In
under tremendous pressure. In order to subsist, people shuttle
fact, world-building is the ultimate art form. It takes the place of
from this city to that city as if trying to make a decision. After
all entertainment, all passive sports, it even surpasses music
they make a choice, sacrifice, adjustment and adaptation follow.
and painting.
From newness and novelty to indifference to disappointment and
B ut something went wrong with the Worldcraft bubble and world–
building. People smashed their creations to bits. Because of a
loneliness, all emotions can be found within the bosom of the
sense of power? Because of a sense of disappointment that our
one change after another.
city, and everyone grows with the city, tasting and experiencing
A t present, the forms of art are more
–
diversified, the concept of art is richer, and
planet is the only habitable planet in the extraterrestrial system?
Let’s keep in mind that the worlds we create ourselves are like toy
boats in a bath tub. They are surrogates, not the real thing.”
1
2
26
3
3
the so-called boundaries of the art world
are more and more intangible. Scientific and
FREE TRANSLATION OF CLAUDE-LEVI STRAUSS, TRISTES TROPIQUES, (1955).
T H E G U A R D I A N O N L I N E E D I T I O N : H T T P : / / W W W. G U A R D I A N . C O . U K . /
THEGUARDIAN/2008/JUN/30/THEBIGBANGMACHINE/CERN
(ACCESSED JUNE 28, 2008).
P H I L I P K . D I C K , “ T H E T R O U B L E W I T H B U B B L E S ”, I N T H E C O L L E C T E D S T O R I E S ,
VOL 2), (NEW YORK, 2002).
technological development have revolution-
27
ized the shapes and forms in which art manifests itself, these forms continuously
expanding in the hands of artists, as they
find better ways to produce artistic creations
and achieve self-expression. As a young
man in the process of artistic creation, it is
My Language
CHEN YUN
hoped that innovation, experimentation and
CHEN YUN •
THE MOVING SPIRIT
OF THE CITY •
2008
the uncertainty stemming from basic human
instincts will help to bring new beauty, a new
language, and new and youthful reflections
on the reality of society.
The city can be compared to a developing organism, a matrix
which works constantly to temper the human body and soul.
T he city is a carrier of unlimited desires. Although it limits the free–
dom of the soul in a practical sense, its inexplicable charm still
A s for the possibility of the future of art, the answer is definite:
–
nothing is impossible in the world of art
TRANSLATED BY JASON TOWER
attracts swarms of people seeking to realize extraordinary dreams.
This massive influx of people causes the city to swell with human
energy, creating a magnificent and vibrant scene. Such powerful
magnetism attracts more and more people to come and go, shutto realize their dreams.
Responses
T he city is at the same time dazzling and grand, lonely and exag–
gerated. She is saturated and gorgeous but also cold and gray.
CHEN ZHIGUANG
M y memory of and feelings for Shanghai were formed at birth. I
–
like using “she” to describe the city because in my eyes her swift
Globalization
changes are just like the sensitive emotions of a woman: in con-
science and technology, and actually in almost all other fields. In
stant flux, abundant and contradictory. Her high speed is embod-
this environment, where information is shared and communicated
ied in everything about her, especially the spirituality of her
globally, I become more open-minded, and more receptive to cul-
residents.
tural and artistic influences. My previous nationalistic and ideo-
S he is developing constantly, the only thing not changing being
–
her bright and dazzling appearance and mysterious demeanor.
logical concerns become less important in my reflection on current
Concealed by her outward appearance is the miserable history of
I n addition, as an artist, I find that in the process of global infor–
To me, the globalization process today is bringing
many more possibilities in the fields of art, politics, economics,
social issues and artistic creation.
CHEN ZHIGUANG
CHEN YUN
tling from city to city, constantly changing their identity in order
mation sharing, the advanced science and technology and
certain distance, people’s stories, feelings, and figures in many
cutting-edge ideas open up new possibilities in artistic creation.
spaces become vague. What remain there are images and concepts that reflect the essence of humans. In this series, each ant
T h e F l u i d M o v e m e n t o f P e o p l e ’s M o b i l i t y i n F o r m s o f M i g r a t i o n
is different. But from the distance we usually watch the ants, they
The concept of migration is very broad; all things in the universe
all look very similar. From certain point of view, humans and ants
are migrating in various times and places. From this perspective,
are always migrating, appearing in different places in a similar way.
the human being is just one of the species that are constantly
28
moving in time and space. In this sense, the idea of privileging
Public Art
humans recalls those “smart” people who often show off things
all public art should give the pub-
without knowing that all other people are actually doing the
lic some direct experiences,
same thing.
psychological or physical. I think
T hinkers, politicians or artists often tend to overemphasize their
–
humanistic concerns within their own specific political, social,
public art should not be some
and religious territories. Throughout the ages, every nation or
spaces. Public art needs to
state has many stories and traditions to tell to others. In today’s
create the most enjoyable audio-
isolated works placed in public
I t is often not easy to express a personal point of view compre–
hensively, especially in this information age when individualism is
29
visual experiences for the public.
world of globalization, shall we emphasize all sorts of strong
nationalistic feelings less?
I think that first of
CHEN ZHIGUANG • MIGRATION TIMES:
ANT PARADISE • S TA I N L E S S S T E E L
FORGING • 2008
The space of public art should
be diverse, for example, public
media television, the Internet
and other things
much valued. This is the reason why I chose ants as the component of my work. They resemble humans in many ways. I think that
perhaps since all species are living in their self-centered world
in nature, it is almost impossible for one species to think critically
from another’s position. My series attempts to explore the idea
of changing perspectives.
A n ant is just an ant. Although one ant might be distinguished
–
according to its age, sex, facial features, or even spiritual life, its
Public Space as Weightless Space
J Ü R G E N D R E S C H E R / R A I M A R S TA N G E
individual identities are totally lost in a sea of ants. These humble
The current sculptural oeuvre of
and building something magnificent everywhere. Recognizing their
the Berlin-based artist Jürgen
identity, they look for food, patrol, migrate, and reproduce. Their
Drescher may be divided into two
life lasts and extends. This is the “religion of ants”. Perhaps this
types, at least in terms of the
very Zen idea is the principle of ants’ existence.
way the work is produced. On the
T eam spirit has been fundamental to ants’ existence for millions
–
of years. This is very familiar to humans. We are amazed by the
one hand there are casts, every-
strength and resilience of these small ants. We learned about this
like the ladders, cushions and
day objects cast 1:1 in aluminum,
moving boxes, and casts of emo-
spirit in the story of Yugong, the great man who led his descendents to remove a big mountain. Yugong, literally meaning “the
Silly Master”, received his name for this extraordinary stamina.
Perhaps, with a similar dignity and stamina, ants move towards
JÜRGEN DRESCHER • CORRIDOR •
C A R P E T, W O O D , A L U M I N I U M , E N A M E L
PA I N T • 2 0 0 8
tionally charged objects such as
paintings, also done in aluminum.
On the other hand there are
their future and their destiny like an energetic and organized army.
the sculptures he models, such as a half life-sized mountain gorilla,
The series entitled The Age of Migration is originally inspired by
and Dian Fossey, the legendary animal rights activist – both
ants; many ants stay quietly in various living spaces. In the same
sculptures are based on (photographic) images.
space, people move and create various stories. Viewed from a
T o start with a few thoughts on the casts: they begin as banal
–
J Ü RG E N D R E SC H E R / R A I M A R STA N G E
CHEN ZHIGUANG
creatures, however, are capable of creating their own territories
30
everyday objects and are transformed, by the casting technique,
works on paper: “With fewer people the earth will become
into art objects with considerable metaphorical weight. The cush-
paradise” (2000 ). Perhaps he is right!
ion, for example, is not only used for lying down and sleeping,
but also on a psychoanalyst’s couch, becomes a non-utilitarian
F inally, last but not least, a few words on Jürgen Drescher’s art–
work for the Shanghai Biennale 2008, The Corner (2002/ 2007).
object, which is now only valuable in the art market. There it
In this interactive installation, three cameras film a floor area that
takes its place as a sculpture in the tradition of the objet trouvé,
visitors to the exhibition can walk on. As two of the cameras are
minimalist sculpture in the tradition of arte povera. Above all, it
upside down, the people who walk across this floor area are also
is Jürgen Drescher’s defamiliarization of the material that creates
shown wrong way up. The higher the cameras are hung the larger
this far-reaching transmutation.
the filmed area becomes – the “public” space that Drescher’s
With the casts of paintings the artist goes a step further. Here
–
different art genres (painting and sculpture) enter into an aesthetic
cameras turn into a seemingly “weightless space,” thus producing
dialogue. Yet this is a dialogue that immediately asks to be disrupted. The casting technique does not entirely eliminate the texture
D rescher already attempted this kind of truly utopian exercise
–
in his earlier installation, Room Corner (1994 ), by using an illusion
of the painting, but a cast “mountain panorama” leaves nothing
to fake spatial depth. This approach in Jürgen Drescher’s work
remaining of the former landscape motif. All that remains is the size
represents a dialectic shift in relation to earlier works, such as the
and shape of the pictures, and the crude materiality of the sand
wall piece Corridor (1984). In this work, the red-green flooring
cast; – as well as the “invisible” image of the painted landscape.
from his apartment at the time was turned vertically and hung on
A few words on Jürgen Drescher’s realistically modeled sculp–
tures, which operate both as critical monuments and as lapidary
the wall, and thus became a sculptural image, which – among other
three-dimensional documents. The motifs are easily recognizable,
In this location, time and space were still inscribed multiply, as
and at first glance they almost seem grotesque, whereas on closer
by the traces that remain of the visitors of the time. This has now
inspection they prove admonishing, almost moralizing works of
changed fundamentally in the Corner installation. Analogous to
memory. The mountain gorilla, for example, is one of the large ani-
Paul Virilio’s analysis of a new global high-speed space of virtual
mals in danger of extinction, and it was Dian Fossey who devoted
media, here the categories of time and space have been con-
her life to protecting these primates, from the late 1960s onward.
sciously switched off for a brief moment, and the individual moves
In December 1985 Dian Fossey was found beaten to death in the
around with no point of reference or context in a place that has
Karisoke Research Center; she is a tragic figure who stands for
been created by cameras. A place, which – in free association with
the problems we face from the devastating consequences of the
the Frankfurt School philosopher Theodor W. Adorno – can be
growth of our civilization, and for a natural environment that
seen as an exemplary “negative utopia,” standing for the increas-
was once thought to be “paradise.” The Fossey /Mountain Gorilla
ingly synthetic location of neo-liberal globalization in the early
group of sculptures also alludes to the dramatization of the rela-
21st century
a simulation of walking on your head.
31
things – addressed the concrete location of hitherto private space.
AY S E E R K M E N
J Ü RG E N D R E SC H E R / R A I M A R STA N G E
tionship between man and ape in Hollywood movies – the enormous animal and the small, fragile woman. This representation has
long become part of our “imaginary museum” and thus romanticizes real threats that exist at the onset of the twenty-first century.
I t is also interesting to consider Jürgen Drescher’s two groups of
–
works together; Drescher works both on a conceptual and sensory
Urban Life*
level, and his works can be intertwined to form complex and criti-
AY S E E R K M E N
cal narratives. Here, briefly, one suggestion: The moving box, as a
container for our personal belongings and our personal aspirations
In my view, public space is related to the outside, to the metropo-
to ownership, is a symbol of our post-capitalist society, which
lis, to urban life. A metropolis always wants to show itself in a
shares the responsibility for climate and biological change damn-
manifold of layers. Therefore, I like to create works evoking the
ing our environment to a slow death (which is what the mountain
city’s crowds; works connecting with the problems, and the ener-
gorillas represent ). Or, as Jürgen Drescher wrote on one of his
gy of the metropolis. Consequently, my works of art sometimes
literally wander along the urban streets. For example, for an exhibi-
sculpture, occurred when I bought the plastic toys.
tion in Nisantasi, I distributed an image of a pyramid cake printed
on paper as a homage to the neighborhood and the generosity I
I ndeed, globalization and immigration has greatly changed the
–
visual world in recent years. In 1998, in the Iskorpit exhibition curat-
had experienced as a child there. That was a personal and roman-
ed by René Block, all participating artists were based in Istanbul.
tic, and slightly melancholic work. In a second exhibition, in
In my work Emre & Dario, a young boy named Emre dances in front
Karaköy, I wanted to relate to the political problems of the city. So,
of a white, abstract background while you hear Dario sing a French
I had leaflets with the image of fish sandwiches distributed, since
song where the word Istanbul is repeated over and over. The origi-
the sale of fish sandwiches in the area had been banned. I believe
nal song Istanbul is from the American singer Eartha Kitt, but in my
it is good to expand as an artist into the city and become part of
video Dario Moreno, from Izmir but of Italian origins, is the per-
the city’s urban and public complexities.
former. So, in Emre & Dario, languages, countries, and places have
32
AY S E E R K M E N • I S T A N B U L , D U B A I ,
S I N G A P O R E /S H A N G H A I • V I D E O • 2 0 0 8
I n the Shanghai Biennale 2008,
–
my work is dealing with urbanity
merged. But also the frequent repetition of the word Istanbul
and urban life in many different
that song in the work. My statement was: You want an Istanbul
aspects. The work is a film made
exhibition? Here you have Istanbul !
on a Singapore Airlines flight
going from Istanbul to Dubai
F or a project in Frankfurt in 2001 I departed from the city. Frankfurt
–
am Main is situated on both sides of the river Main. That reminded
showing the flight entertainment
me of the Defterdar, the ship I enjoy immensely during my trips from
program called China Fast
Bebek to Hisar in Istanbul. I proposed to have scheduled services
Forward. The entertainment pro-
on the river Main with the Defterdar and two other ships: one from
gram shows the urban life of
far away and one from Europe. So, Defterdar from Istanbul, a
Shanghai, such as the clubbing
vaporetto from Venice, and a small ship from Japan were all shipped
scene, connecting with associa-
to Rotterdam on larger ships, then to the Rhine, and next to the
throughout the song was an important criterion for me to include
Main. That was why the project was called Shipped Ships. For one
with several different places and urban environments, but still
month, the three ships carried the people from Frankfurt from one
we are somewhere in the in-between. We are on the move in public
side of the river Main to the other in scheduled services and with
space, but at the same time we encounter urban environments,
their own crews. The project also implied a sort of reversal of the
we connect metropolises in the air.
concept of guest worker or, in German, Gastarbeiter. The crews
I n the context of art and artistic research, I would like to claim
–
that visual art is the most complex of all cultural fields. At the same
worked on their own ships, but with work permits for the time they
time it addresses only a small percentage of the population. In
to the people of Frankfurt. So, the crew worked in another country
that sense, I see an analogy between art and science, the latter
without being immigrants. And the shipped ships were comfortable
being the field of research par excellence. In both cases, you have
and as natural as if they had always sailed in Frankfurt
to carry out research without a real starting point, without expecta-
worked in Frankfurt. But they were not really guests, rather hosts
*
T H I S S TAT E M E N T I S B A S E D O N VA R I O U S T E X T S S U B M I T T E D B Y T H E A R T I S T
tions, and most of the times you are dealing with a topic only a
limited number of people is interested in. Abstraction in art could
be one of those topics. I believe an abstract work does not have to
be a work produced in an abstract manner. Abstraction is a factor
that could function as a tool to analyze any multilayered structure.
Works of art always conceal things, and could possess answers
that will never be detected. Abstract forms could emerge from very
Uncanny Surfaces
visual material. As an artist my background is in academic sculptor
INCI EVINER
training. I have created a series of sculptures based on plastic toy
landscapes with a very simple formula. The first step of abstraction
Both political and cultural globalization are problematic develop-
in that process of artistic research, in that process of creating
ments. While the global economy has a convergent effect on the
INCI EVINER
AY S E E R K M E N
tions you might already have about Shanghai. In the work, we deal
33
34
circulation of capital, it is culturally divergent. It is obvious that
the needs of daily life and the unaesthetic decorative sense of
globalization has been unsuccessful in terms of an idealized har-
local municipalities. Therefore, for me, the city is a group of
monizing of intellectual property, through self-segregation.
uncanny surfaces, with its continuously changing billboards and
INCI EVINER • BROKEN ALEGORI •
A C R Y L I C K A N D S I L K S C R E E N O N C A N VA S ,
D I G I TA L P R I N T - O U T, D R AW I N G S O N
PA P E R , F O L I O • 2 0 0 5 - 2 0 0 8
W hen I observed the lives of
–
immigrant workers in the sub-
illuminated historical buildings, transformed into a picture of
urbs of Paris, I saw that they
ally impose their own wild laws. It leaves you with a new code
constructed their private spaces
system each and every minute. This situation, which is difficult to
and public spaces within their
explain in Western terms, could only be experienced in the ‘here’
houses, while small mosques
and ‘now’.
were converted into meeting
places where they strengthened
F or me, public space is still a dubious concept. Any kind of ideo–
logical discussion is about the visibility of women in public space.
their community relationships.
The feminist-Islamic discourse creates space for freedom by
Religious solidarity has
using the arguments of Western feminists to defend their desire
increased, dangerously, as a
to exist in public space wearing veils. This discourse, which
form of solidarity that could pro-
looks quite democratic at first glance, is actually an indicator of
lights and images that seem open to any kind of change, but actu-
how patriarchal society and liberal politics instrumentalize the
of the immigrant workers in the Paris suburbs were full of images,
feminist discourse.
icons, symbols and carpets which definitely reflected a ‘Horror
Vacui’; a psychological fear of empty spaces. What Westerners
T his partly explains why my public space projects, still only in the
–
design phase, were suspended. Yes, art is still the sole and final
call decoration is here a kind of counter-defense.
outpost of freedom left on the earth, but discussing what freedom
T he only link among people living in a closed community within a
–
globalization context is the numerous local Turkish television
is has gradually become more difficult. As a woman, I would want
channels. A similar situation may be observed in Istanbul. People
ed. Yet it seems impossible for me now.
who emigrated from Anatolia cover their entire houses, walls
and floors with ornaments. You can see a village and any kind of
A fluid movement, which could open up new frontiers for art, can
–
lead to very severe and tragic experiences in life. Of course, art is
dream related to it reflected in these ornaments.
not expected to find solutions to all problems, but while the con-
S ince 2000, I have been dealing with ornaments as a tool for sur–
vival, in the things they hide and reflect, which connects with my
cepts we use open up one door, they close another. It seems that
wall installations. For me, space is a slippery surface; a surface as
countries. As for the artists, they must leave the mission of repre-
a field where Western art icons clash with the ones out of control,
senting the disadvantaged communities aside and keep them-
the ones off-center. The failure of globalization is hidden in the
selves alert to the constantly changing face of the governments
fragments and ornaments of cultural differences which appear as
with underlying agendas, asking themselves whether it is really
the resurgence of the suppressed in European working class
possible to construct a utopia.
ghettos and houses in Istanbul.
I n my work, in response to the fragments created by my memory
–
and imagination, images ready to resist them – mostly an unneces-
H ow do we define urbanity today? If we mean a tendency towards
–
the major world cities, that is inevitable. However, Istanbul has
to work this out and still believe that a public space can be creat-
artistic freedom has been guaranteed by Western, developed
sary and unscarred part of a Western narrative – are temporarily
resisted the laws of ideal, planned urbanity throughout history.
attached to the wall in their own disordered order. These all-over
Looking at what has been happening lately in Turkey, we can say
installations can be moved everywhere, they can scatter, splash
that social engineers and the Turkish elite, which withstood the
on you or construct themselves in another place. Broken Allegory
Republic period, had to acknowledge their failure. The hunger for
addresses the present day, when narrative is fragmented and
a better quality of life and the reality of squatter houses expand-
tragedy is unacceptable; however, it only babbles. This group of
ing untrammeled once again breaks the faith in big discourses.
images and symbols also carries the traces of the fury towards big
Istanbul, where class distinctions are very openly reflected in the
narratives and progressive ideologies. I am furious because I do
architecture, continuously reshapes itself like an organism, with
not have an exact or open answer for all these. I can only invade
INCI EVINER
INCI EVINER
tect people from negative effects of globalization. The houses
35
36
and turn the place I inhabit into a battlefield.
ing the aesthetic codes I am involved in and defeating them at
R ecently public art has begun to represent many conflicting mean–
ings and realities. Currently, we struggle to define public space.
the same time. At this point, I feel I am getting closer to Derrida;
Shopping centers are still the most active public spaces. These
and courage to mark what is impossible to define and what is
environments, constituted by images, are places where collective
incomplete.
sharing and experience occur. They obliterate any foreign element involved in their structure by absorbing it with their specific
F or me, Beauty can only exist within the Beast. The concept of
–
Beauty, which I consider to be feminine, the problematic of “how a
vacuuming system. Art, which operates within society, tries to
civilized woman can exist without excluding the other” ignored
develop a dialogue with social paradoxes simultaneously and in
by feminist critical theory, and the reflection of class divisions on
real space. Taking art out of the spaces framed by experts has
daily life are especially ingrained in the subconscious of middle-
brought new concepts and experiences to both the artist and the
class women in the society I live. This has interested me deeply
deconstruction used by many artists gives me the opportunity
and brought me to the concept of the BEAST .
of knowledge and communication. On the other hand, however,
the fields, which we call public space, are the fields conquered by
I n constructing my own vocabulary, I had to get even with Western
–
art. This was possible only by following the traces of the magnifi-
liberal politics, which is the dominant ideology. In conclusion,
cent examples of Western art in my memory, which I learnt
if the new opportunities provided to the artist are left unexplored,
through reproductions during my education, in other words, by fol-
public space has to be redefined conceptually.
lowing the image of the image... The West is like an unfaithful
I believe there should be a language for the disadvantaged,
–
but this has almost become impossible. All Shanghai Biennale
lover you always try to reach but the more you approach, the fur-
2008 concepts such as transfer, connectivity, encounter, and
which completed its democratic processes and where happy
social and economic change show us that art can serve as a plat-
people lived, since it justifies everything through art. As in every
form for the social impasses that surround us. I think an integral
nation state, a history written with blood and the universal values
narrative is impossible today, or might only exist temporarily in
gained give me the freedom to create and say what I believe as
this dissolved, fragmented language. My wall installations aim to
an off-center artist, smearing me with this blood at the same time.
allow viewers to live temporarily the uncanny experience of an
uncontrollable world of images. Therefore, the concepts in ques-
M y forms of artistic research involve many subjects and traces:
–
French Orientalist painters and Ottoman orientalist painters;
tion are related to the works I produce. In other words, constant
attempts to create a national aesthetic within the Westernization
flux and movement result in a world where national and social
movement in the Republican period in Turkey; tragicomic stories,
identities are never fixed.
rumors and examples concerning this issue; the great passion of
I would like to engage the viewer in a simultaneously emotional
–
and mental conflict. My aesthetic sense has always been a trap for
the French culture for illustrating the world ! Researching new
me. Aesthetic attractiveness turns into a game which also
and egocentric critiques and developments associated with it;
includes the expectations of the professional art consumer. The
fragments which have always surprised me in life and are reflected
perpetual curiosity for the new and different serve to further
in my patterns; the sentences which women who do not look like
instrumentalize the artwork. While the work of art defeats its own
me construct while expressing their disadvantaged position; any
aura, reconstructs the aura with the viewer on a certain level and
kind of feminine gossip; the hatred Turkish women living in the
space, within this context, pulling the viewer into the artwork and
ghettos of Paris have for Arabic women; news stories and how we
sharing the experience is crucial for me. Therefore, my viewers
continue living after each murder; lies and the subconscious of the
are those who voluntarily play the hunter and the hunted. In other
civilized woman; critical discourses on segregation and Jacques
words, the educated or uneducated, who believe the uncanny is
Derrida, Luce Irigaray, Edward Said, etc.
still possible.
W hat I despise most in contemporary art: neon works, futuristic
–
works, images of heroes, the Naives, the authentic, unlimited
T he aesthetically pleasing feeling you get from my works at first
–
glance reveals its ulterior motive on closer examination. Violating
the border between decoration and art is possible, by construct-
37
ther it recedes. From my perspective, the West looked like a place
Feminist criticism, the European Community and the narcissistic
sexual fantasies, teenage art. Extremely creative and generous
curators, the latest Documenta Exhibition, choosing easy ways
INCI EVINER
INCI EVINER
work of art. Art has acquired a new capacity as a different form
under the name of relational aesthetics. Bad paintings that are
those conditions and to address people who would not come to
correctly interpreted conceptually.
a space where my work is usually shown, I feel uncomfortable.
D o I have any dreams for the art of the future? Have a nice dream !
–
There is already too much music in public space – and you cannot
close your ears. Soon more advertising and also art will congest
public space. Some detonations will be needed to clean it up.
Mobility and Migration
Only once, with my work In-formation,
have I directly commented on that issue. Because capital and
Responses
goods are more mobile than humans, it is more difficult for work-
H A R U N FA R O C K I
ers and employees, whether in rich or poor countries, to defend
their social position. Over the last twenty years, the struggle
Globalization
38
Globalization is a
became harder and submissive behavior returned. I made a film on
new term; a global exchange of
people who learn how to “sell themselves”, how to apply to a
goods and ideas is not new.
company. Kafka has described how finding a job is the equivalent
Some twenty years ago, when I
of finding a way to heaven. That was in the early days of capital-
learned about the work of Vilém
ism. We are heading back to those days.
39
Flusser, who had published
HARUN FAROCKI • IN-FORMATION •
VIDEO • 2005
books in Brazil before publish-
Public Art
ing in Europe, I thought that
without architects” – how languages or customs are collectively
an author had to publish in the
developed. Though it probably means more art which is accessible
US or Europe to find recognition
to the public. In general I do not want to decree that art should
there and elsewhere. This has
be ‘public’. The amount of public knowledge increases, but few
not yet changed – but will soon.
people understand Mallarmé or Einstein. By the way, I think that
Public art could be the equivalent of “architecture
In recent years, cultural exchange has dramatically increased.
poetry and art should be partially inaccessible, because they have
We experience interesting films from countries with no tradition of
morphed into a kind of religious belief. But in my work I stick
filmmaking – and some of them even find an international audience.
to the rules of cinema; what I do has to be open to public understanding. It may be that a huge majority of people are not in the
Urbanity
Only once, in a film on shopping centers, did I comment
habit of watching my films. If they do – perhaps by mistake – it will
on urbanity. When producing “The Creators of Shopping Worlds”
be understandable. You do not have to go to school to learn how
(2001) I learned that today’s planner/architects fear that a building
to ‘read’ the films I make. But you have to practice watching films
without a shop window will be depressing, and that the city should
– also listening to jazz or watching operas takes practice.
that, a street would resemble an empty TV screen.
Art Spaces and Film
Recently film/videos have moved into art
spaces. The art space is a kind of asylum. There are few places
Public Space
Last year I was invited to make a video for public
left where you can show or see an independent film, with the
space, for a tram station in Zurich. A flat screen has been installed
exception of festivals perhaps. The museums and galleries can
and people waiting for their tram have the opportunity to watch.
also become a ghetto.
The idea is to be present when people have to kill time – ads take
into account this same kind of time budget calculation. Because
O ften a film of 90 minutes is shown in a museum /gallery on a
–
monitor. Even a public library would be a more suitable place to
most people travel the same route every day, the question of
watch. I think many films are included in exhibitions out of pure
length and structure arises.
symbolism. This is in a weird sense conceptual art.
I made a work with a lot of repetition, with three sets where the
–
main theme is varied. I think a person watches one part one day,
Artistic Research
and another part another day. Although it is fun to work under
if one can speak of such a thing. Film has to become more discur-
My main project is to develop film ‘language’,
H A RU N FA RO C K I
H A RU N FA RO C K I
have a program consisting of views, shops, restaurants – without
sive. I think that a social scientist like Foucault continued to do
and Italian, an absurdity since the city has only waterways and
with language what modern poets had done before him. Thomas
walkways interrupted by thousands of bridges.
Mann wrote discursive literature and Foucault did the same; he
just left out the characters. Film should not repeat what has been
F or the Shanghai Biennale, I have been crossing the 36 km long
–
Hangzhou Bay Bridge, one of the longest trans-oceanic bridges in
done with texts. It should be a particular kind of theory. Film
the world, a couple of weeks before it opened to the public. My
as theory.
initial idea was to cross it solely by bicycle, which I wasn’t allowed
to by the bridge management due to “security reasons.” Hence I
Dreams for art of the future
40
My dreams are very modest. Till
was riding the bicycle for 25 minutes onto the bridge and then
now, a TV station has always been a bureaucracy or a business.
continued for about another 25 minutes in a car. I videotaped the
Publishing houses, theaters, magazines of interest are all based
crossing and made it into a two-channel video – one by bike,
on a group of people who share a common outlook. That is sorely
one by car. While on the bridge, only a few construction-related
needed to create a platform for interesting new films; a TV
vehicles passed by, which gave me this liberating sense of
station as a platform run by people who can create a profile
absolute freedom and loneliness – feelings also expressed in the
41
romantic images of the German painter Caspar David Friedrich,
who places his subjects often on high mountains or on sea shores
contemplating the sublime. Thus this bike ride was a pure romantic experience of an individual surrounded by the eternal sea,
Supreme Driving Machine
RAINER GANAHL
challenged by this gigantic construction effort dedicated from now
on only to the millions and millions of cars that will cross it. There
is no space anymore for a bicycle, nor for this sublime emphatic
liberating loneliness I was allowed to experience.
bicycle and for over almost a
T he bicycle for me is not only a supreme driving machine that
–
allows for true self-sustaining auto-mobility, but it is also a mod-
decade it is part of my art work.
ern machine that never loses its utopian qualities
All my life I have been using the
I have made numerous videos,
in which I ride – without holding
the handle-bars – recklessly in
the middle of the street against
the oncoming traffic, challeng-
The Peripheral Man
traffic laws. While doing so, I
ZVI GOLDSTEIN
film the oncoming cars with a
hand-held video camera. For
I met The Peripheral Man in one of the smallest, tucked-away
these rides I select symbolic stretches that mark important parts
rooms during a visit to a big European city museum. The man had
of the city or allow for other significant associations. For example,
a small black coffin,and many shiny stars on his head. A large
I was riding from the Vatican to the Piazza della Republica in
moustache ornamented his face.Blue electronic streaks were pul-
Rome, which represent two different forms of government, or from
sating from his head. Red flashes of plasma were radiating to
Karl Marx Allee through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, remem-
the universe. His thin body was entirely nude, levitating horizontal-
bering the changes in Germany in 1989. I also bicycled in New
ly in the exhibition space. Little round magnets, spaced five cen-
Orleans after the Hurricane Katrina and crossed the decommis-
timeters apart, were symmetrically placed on the walls, floor and
sioned old Hong Kong Airport following all the demarcations on
ceiling. The newspapers’ cultural reviews had only commented
the still partially existing runways. For an exhibition at the Venice
generally about his deviancy. Stories had circulated about his
Biennale in 2005, I covered a mooring post for Vaporetti – the
mysterious origins, jumping out from an ornate box carried to this
local taxi boats – with a banner saying “Use a bicycle” in English
exhibition space by an immigrant. Nobody had any precise knowl-
ZVI GOLDSTEIN
RAINER GANAHL
RAINER GANAHL • CROSSING THE
H A N G Z H O U B AY B R I D G E –
CONTEMPLATING WITH CASPAR DAVID
FRIEDRICH • VIDEO • 2008
ing logical street behavior and
42
edge of this Peripheral Man’s significance. Nor did the museum
the individual and of minority groups?
people have a precise interpretation for those pulsed and plasma
radiations from his head to the universe. In fact, many people
D uring a recent international symposium held at the Bezalel
–
Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, where I teach, I attempt-
did not consider it as a work of art at all, nor did they see it as a
ed to defend specificity, this time formulated as the right for a
Western contemporary art related object. The levitation of his
voice to be heard from outside.
body looked to many like a superfluous, unnecessary effort for a
visual art exhibition. While for the others...hmm...it was scan-
I do not live in Europe or the States. Not even in, I said at that
–
symposiu clearing my throat. Not even in a Mediterranean
dalous to present an object of unknown origin in a museum space.
city such as Tel Aviv, I continued, but in a more troubled, Middle
B y way of free association, it was with those words that I
–
described The Peripheral Man, 1995 – the sculpture exhibited at
Eastern one – in Jerusalem, I situate myself.
the Shanghai Biennale, in my book On Paper, pages 202 and 203,
F or years I used to measure the mileage of my body, traveling
–
from here, following my crated art works to be installed on the
published by Walther König, Cologne, 2004. This was my attempt
walls of Kassel’s Documenta, Venice and elsewhere; the Sydney,
to convey in words my understanding of this piece – representing
Sao Paulo, Istanbul Biennials, like a traveling salesman with his
the thinking of people outside the flow of novelty, of people
own bag of ideas, dreaming of another contemporary art, of a
“bumped” into the traumatic NEW – the actual globalized world.
multi- contextual world and of a living art exhibition to brings the
I was thinking of people coming from villages, from peripheries of
–
all kinds, to the big cities, hybridized by migration, shocked by
visitors to the artists wherever they live in the Third World.
new electronic means of communication, by extended technologies
To transform those mega, universal shows into travel agencies for
–
the public, I stretch the limits. I dream of inviting the world to
and by the rapidly expanding market economy; a global model
my studio, the public to see my working context, the emergency
characterizing contemporary China and proposed as an essay for
society in which I live, the dust accumulating on my crated art
this Translocalmotion Shanghai Biennale.
works, the crumbling plaster falling from the ceiling. I dream for
43
once, at least, to see the visitors as inspired travelers, disoriented,
Is your work related to a form
somehow, out of the White Cube trap. Adventurously yearning
of artistic research?
for the other’s art, as it is, for real, out of the comfortable West.
(Question no. 9 for contributors
to The Shanghai Papers).
F or years – clearing my throat – for years, I used to see my art
–
work i those big, universal shows, de-contextualized, falsified in
I can answer frankly – yes !
their intention and meaning, interpreted and manipulated in the
shadow of a solo Western art criterion. I wish, at least once, for
the world to come to me ! To be embraced by its openness, to
research based on syntactic
see the visitor’s face illuminated by our conversation in my studio.
interrelations – conceptual and
There are no distinctions in my artistic work between different
visual complexity, too hermetic
Modernist categories:
for some, by language. Yet,
this in order to oppose quick-
FA N TA S Y A N D T H E O R Y
ness – deformed interpretation of my aesthetics.
CONCEPT AND AESTHETICS
I n the absence of avant garde traditions in the part of the world
–
where I live, I write theoretical texts (since 1978 ) – contextual
CONTEXT AND ONTOLOGY
statements for my art objects.
BETWEEN BEING CENTRAL
O ften, I ask myself whether the very sublime, the core of all art,
–
hasn’t been replaced today by the commonplace. Have the
A N D G E O G R A P H I C A L LY P E R I P H E R A L
multiple specificities of art not been transformed into an almost
What is your understanding of the concept of public art?
direct communication tool? Have our artistic Gordian minds not
( Question no. 5 for contributors to The Shanghai Papers ).
tumbled down the slippery slopes of the mass media, reducing the
Personally, I dislike art focused on satisfying immediate public
diversity of species, the contextual multiplicity, the autonomy of
demands, as I dislike art serving as embellishments for a newly
BIOGRAPHY AND IDEOLOGY
ZVI GOLDSTEIN
ZVI GOLDSTEIN
ZVI GOLDSTEIN • THE PERIPHERAL
MAN • MIXED MATERIALS • 200 x 250 x
100 CM • 1995
I see my artistic activity as
affluent social class. The concept of public art necessarily involves
important to focus on the content of the work and its yi jing, the
an all too common denominator, convenient for politicians, pro-
idea, state or realm. Since my films are already three-dimensional,
viding greater volume for their jargon. If, by the concept of public
it is very important to explore the connection between works of
art, we mean the healing quality of the visual itself; if the trauma,
art and filmic language in a specific display space.
the migration’s wounds, the afflictions of transfer and the shock of
44
this third type of encounter with the NEW can be cured by art, or
The Fluid Movement of People’s Mobility in Forms of Migration
indeed, by this Shanghai Biennale – then, why not?
Migration is a major issue in the process of urbanization. The
B ut the most urgent issues for art’s future, as I see it, will be the
–
need to protect the individual’s imagination from false governmen-
theme of this biennale precisely touches upon the major theme of
tal, public and corporate solidarity.
can see the development of Chinese film as well as changes in
A rt has always been a two-edged sword; revealing by presenting,
–
yet at the same time, creating new areas of mystery: black holes in
cities and people’s life in China.
our time. My works deal with Chinese cinema. In my works, one
the established consciousness – an unusual and unpopular aim in
Public Art
this age of globalization
ment. I think that the development of new art will definitely broaden
Public art is a form that is connected to the environ-
45
the notion of public art. It will not just include sculpture and installation. Painting and other two-dimensional forms, when connected
to space and the environment, can be viewed as public art as well.
Biennale’s Concepts of Transfer, Connectivity, Encounter, and
Responses
Social and Economic Change
HE WENJUE
The Biennale pays close attention
to tendencies in the development and transformation of art and
artistic practices. At the same time, it needs to grasp the most
Globalization
Globalization offers Chinese artists both opportu-
important characteristics of our time, and to develop an appropri-
nities and challenges. In the context of globalization, artists are
ate and feasible theme for the exhibition. Therefore, the artists
being known and recognized in the West, which offers artists good
and their works included in the Biennale should be able to reflect,
opportunities to gain more resources for their artistic creation. At
express and interpret the theme.
the same time, under the impact of globalization, artists, to some
extent, can easily lose their own cultural tradition. Therefore,
Medium-specificity
under these circumstances, good artists should be able to hold on
when artists begin to use a variety of new media. Although my
to their native identity while enjoying the fruits of globalization.
works still use the traditional medium of painting, there are break-
They should be more thoughtful.
throughs in terms of language and content, which brings new
The question of medium-specificity arises
The city is a subject
that artists love to explore.
autonomy. It is a necessary step in the process of innovation
and development.
To put it this way, urbanization
is the most important issue
Despising Most in Contemporar y Art
in China today. So I hope that
kind of art that has no personality or uniqueness.
What I despise most is the
through my filmic narratives
and expressions, I can trace the
Artistic Research
major trajectory of China’s
in the two-dimensional form of painting.
I explore how to create new ways of making art
urbanization process.
HE WENJUE • THE SHANGHAI TRIAD • OIL
O N C A N VA S • 2 0 0 8
Dreams for the Art of the Future
Public Space
I think in order to
connect painting to space, it is
I hope that Chinese contempo-
rary artists will be able to find more things unique, and to achieve
real success by developing those unique features.
HE WENJUE
HE WENJUE
possibilities and flexibility to the medium itself. This reflects art’s
Urbanity
Shanghai, Shall We Dance?
HUANG HSINCHIEN
level, and often enhance stereotypical images. Globalization, however, is unavoidable. It represents humanity’s ideal of coming
together. In order to realize this ideal, we need more people with
humanistic concerns to participate in this process. In my view,
46
In my view, the city in terms of population is a highly condensed,
artists should be not only critical thinkers, but also active partici-
compact sphere. Humanity and civilization are drastically trans-
pants in the process of globalization.
formed there, due to this density and its resultant extreme situations. To me, the goal of contemporary art is to help people
P ublic art was born in urban space. As the city sprawls, the stiff
–
and cold urban landscape needs to be softened by public art.
to maintain their own mind, feelings and thoughts in this envi-
Public art, however, is often an elitist art form, although part of the
ronment.
urban construction budget is allocated for public art. The selec-
M y work for the Biennale is entitled Shanghai, Can I Invite You to
–
Dance? Its story happens in the public space of the art museum; it
tion of artists and artworks is often made by a small group of
transforms an elitist art space into a social space, where common
citizens. The public can only choose whether to participate in
citizens can relax and enjoy themselves. Visitors are able to
artists’ interactive projects. Public art is something rather ridicu-
dance with ease in a place somewhat resembling a dance club in
lous; it is named “public”, but it is not created through a demo-
Shanghai’s colorful nightlife. The interactivity in the work trans-
cratic process. As modern society pays more attention to cities
forms the “hard” high-rising buildings into the “soft” images in
and communities, public art becomes closely related to locality or
which people dance. The architecture will change as visitors move
site. To allow the local citizens to decide where and when to cre-
their bodies. Previously people followed the rules set by the archi-
ate what kind of public art in their neighborhood is an important
tectural division of space. My work questions and reverses this
issue to be dealt with in the future.
relationship between people and architecture by asking visitors to
reconsider the causal relation between their activities and the
I am an artist using interactive technologies. The nature of the
–
interactive art medium is to use technologies to make the public’s
urban space based on their own experience.
ideas and participation the central part of art. Therefore, in the
experts consisting of jury members and artists rather than local
T he British-style building of the
–
Shanghai Art Museum was built
field of public art, the approach that involves interactivity and tech-
in the 1930s as the Jockey Club
that truly belong to the people
47
nologies promises countless possibilities; it will create artworks
where horse races were held for
the enjoyment of the rich from
foreign concessions. Entry was
prohibited for Chinese. It is a
site laden with historical significance. Later, it became the
Responses
Shanghai Art Museum, a place
BETHAN HUWS
everybody can visit. As part
of the People’s Square, the
Public Space
My work comments on certain features of the urban
building reflects a marvelous transformation in history. The work
environment. For example, I insert the sentence “I’ll have a fruit
Shanghai, Can I Invite You to Dance? is displayed in a place
salad” in a very arid, urban environment. A public space, all built-
filled with moving visitors and historical resonance. The lifeless
up without much greenery and a square meter price so high there
building, symbolic of colonial domination, “dances” as visitors
is hardly any public space left whatsoever. I worked in that type
move.
of site in Dublin’s docklands redevelopment area. However, the
A s an artist, I am rather pessimistic about the phenomenon of
–
globalization. The initial stage of globalization primarily involves
project I finally chose there was “I’ve forgotten to feed the cat”,
colonial movement in economic and cultural domains. Cultural
on the other side of the bridge, the side going out to sea, – “I
exchanges as ancillary activities are often conducted on a surface
haven’t got a cat”. Here, the audience is the Dubliners and their
written on one side of the bridge – the side that faces Dublin – and
BETHAN HUWS
HUANG HSINCHIEN
HUANG HSINCHIEN • SHANGHAI,
SHALL WE DANCE? • INTERACTIVE
INSTALLATION • 2008
particular sense of humor and the tourists that are taken up and
have always been the backdrop for my work, and urbanization is
down the Liffey on sight seeing tours.
one of the most important themes of this background. Take for
example, the work that I have entered into this year’s Shanghai
People’s Mobility
48
BETHAN HUWS • UNE OEUVRE
D’ART DOIT ÊTRE SIGNIFICATIVE •
INSTALLATION • 2008
I usually
Biennale, a movie that I shot in 2006 called Sanxiu Hao Ren.
relate to the people who either
This movie documents the one million people being relocated to
pass through, work in, live
Liaoning province and Shanghai as a result of the Three River
around, spend some time in or
Gorges project. Every member of this huge population of immi-
even live in public space. If I do
grants is passive; the structure of the land changes, villages and
not know anything about these
communities must be moved, and they move in turn. These
people, I try to inform myself by
immigrants are much different from the traditional flow of laborers
talking, usually, to the curatorial
into Chongqing, who move to the major cities of Southern China,
team, and work from there.
of their own volition, to meet a need for labor.
Public Art
T his former kind of immigration
–
followed the disappearance
Any work that is
of hometowns, a disappearance
put in, or made for, a public (not
private) space (other than the museum). The museum is also a
which implies the entire redevel-
public space, but there are certain ways of behaving there, and it is
opment of social relations. The
where we expect to find artworks. Even before we enter the muse-
stable personal relationships
um, we are already thinking of the work of art. In a truly public
and the family structure based
space, there are no such expectations and the real life context for
on blood ties must be entirely
reworked as a result of the elimi-
the artist is inexhaustible.
The Shanghai Biennale Concepts
49
To take, intellectually, a work
JIA ZHANGKE • STILL LIFE • MOVIE •
2006
nation of these towns and
villages.
where in Shanghai is the connective; that the Shanghai residents
W orking against this background,
–
one gets the sense that immigration represents the driving force of
(and others ) now read it is the encounter, and all of this inevitably
the entire economy. The economic movement appears to be estab-
causes social and economic change (exchange).
lishing a market economy, but in reality it carries with it the strong
from Paris and Berlin to Shanghai is the transfer; to install it some-
scent of the planned economy, as the entire project is a product
Globalization
The artist’s ego has been changed by globalization.
of a plan. In China, urbanization is pushed by public policy, and as
a result its speed is astonishing, but it is also extremely destruc-
Dr eams
My sole dream is that the audience (specialized and
tive. At the same time though, it is highly efficient. Faced with
these types of rapid changes, how should a director react?
For me, public space is very important, in fact it is my belief that it
–
is almost impossible for the camera to enter into the private life
of the home and explore its secrets. Through public space on the
other hand, it is possible to observe the universal and common
New Media, New Problems
JIA ZHANGKE
characteristics of human life, and in this space traces of everyone’s actions can be recorded. For example, in the Three Gorges
area and in Feng Jie I watched the entire two- year process of
a township being demolished. The striking extermination of public
I started making movies in 1997, and over the past ten years, my
space brought me to recognize the destructive nature of modern
work has continuously followed two types of changes. The first
China’s development, and how powerfully surreal it can be.
change is the second round of reforms that China began in 1998
I n my view, the demolition of an entire public space is not some–
thing that can be caused by human action alone. Logically speak-
which sped the process of its development. China’s rapid changes
JIA ZHANGKE
JIA ZHANGKE
otherwise) will learn to read the artwork, justly
ing, such ruins should only be caused by extraterrestrial attack, or
perhaps by a nuclear explosion. But in this case they really were
Responses
caused by deliberate human acts. This type of public space pro-
JIN SHI
vides us with a bounty of information about human behavior.
T he second change deals with films as a medium, which are con–
stantly facing threats from new forms of media. Beginning around
Globalization
On the one hand, globalization has enriched our
life on an unprecedented level. The interaction and clash between
1996 and 1997, satellite TV became universal in China, and it
various cultures, economic forms and values have created many
began to compete with movies for its audience. The home theater
possibilities. On the other hand, globalization has changed our
systems that later became popular provided another opportunity to
concept of time and space; the distance between us has shrunken
watch movies at home. To follow, new forms of media continued
greatly. My attention to self expands to the life around me.
to become available, including digital technology and the Internet,
50
which caused a trend towards declining movie-going audiences.
Urbanity
The concept of collectively watching a movie in the theater as a
reflect the changes on a certain
ceremonial activity has gradually been deconstructed.
aspect of urban life by exploring
S o many young people download and watch movies from the
–
Internet, and at most they watch movies in groups of four or five.
migrant workers’ private spaces.
The collective consciousness and common public consciousness
the one hand, the contribution of
created by viewing as a collectivity is gradually disappearing. New
migrant workers has accelerated
forms of media are incessantly encouraging the separation of view-
the process of urban develop-
public consciousness, which was crucial in terms of helping people
51
Every picture has two sides. On
ment. On the other, their life and
ers, and directors working with these forms of media should be
cautious. The traditional form of viewing movies worked to create a
My work attempts to
J I N S H I • 1 /2 L I F E •
MIXED MATERIALS • 2008
status in the city are still to be
improved.
face issues together, or in terms of helping people react to the
human predicament. These things can only be created through col-
Public Art
lective forms of movie viewing.
work corresponds to the public experience, the more public
N ow people often talk about mobile phone movies, and I even once
–
participated in the shooting of a phone-based movie. But there is
his /her art becomes.
a large discrepancy between my view of movies and these forms of
Contemporar y Art
movies. The traditional silver screen is a type of art that expands
sincerity of the artist and his / her attention to our life and
human nature and, through this process of enlargement, generates
society today.
The more an artist’s personal experience in his /her
I appreciate what an artwork expresses: the
awe towards humanity. For example, the face of the farmer is
Artistic Research
is the expression of humanitarianism. Mobile phone movies, on the
to our life. Life often reveals its artistic aspect. Sometimes you
other hand, are a form of minimalism. On a small screen, the
realize that it is hard to find a more artistic thing than life itself. I
actions of people and their expressions are simply simulations of
explore certain art forms by capturing and expressing these
the real world, the only difference being that their world is manipu-
moments in this artistic life. The scenes in my work are located in
lated and controlled. The audience lacks awe for these people. This
the migrant workers’ most personal and private spaces, which
is a critical issue for contemporary China, as awe for nature, awe
most powerfully reveal the workers’ material and spiritual needs. It
for people and respect among individuals are all so very important.
is very difficult to find any decent things, because most things
I t is difficult to draw a conclusion with respect to how new forms of
–
media affect our lives and art. Nevertheless, we should approach
are temporary, mixed, chaotic, shaky, cheap or crowded. There are
and follow new media carefully, and research its effects on our lives
most distinct feature of their spaces. At the same time, I consider
TRANSLATED BY JASON TOWER AND ZUOYI ZHANG
the idea of rediscovering the material itself. While many people
Globalization has brought many possibilities
some artistic and even anti-art elements. “Small-scale” is the
are exploring new features of a material, we tend to neglect the
JIN SHI
JIA ZHANGKE
enlarged through the big screen and this enlargement in and of itself
fact that in most cases steel is steel, wood is wood, and clothes
critical thinking; money worshippers replace political ideologies.
are clothes rather than other things. I also attempt to view my
These conditions have created a system of contemporary art
works about private spaces as some kind of portrait. Urbanization
which, along with other systems, constitute the environment for
is the result of the accumulation of material wealth, and material
art in our day.
things become important registers to evaluate a person. As a
result, a person becomes an object that can be materialized and
T he hermeneutics of art adopt a “revolutionary” vocabulary.
–
We tend to harshly critique the current situation. We have strong
quantified. From this perspective, the depiction of a personal
desires to tear things down. The goal of revolution, however, is
space is more eloquent than the portrayal of a person.
to build things up. Art should sensitively observe the world and
make wise judgments. If art acts only as an oppositional voice,
Dreams for the Art of the Future
it will not be interesting any more.
The art of the future will be
T he substitution of space, events, time and artistic approach
–
will offer the artist new perspectives and languages. This substi-
affected by changes in our current life more than other things. So
I will continue paying attention to life
tution can be material, as well as intellectual and historical. It
52
53
will create new associations.
I f people are the soul of the city, they constitute the moving city.
–
They live and move in the city, or travel from city to city. There
are two major population movements in China’s urban develop-
An Inescapable Force
ment in the twentieth century. Today, the increased urban
JING SHIJIAN
population has injected new energy into the city. A unique phenomenon in China’s recent urbanization process is the large-
In response to the Henry Louis question about the last note in
scale movement of migrant workers from rural areas to cities. But
the book Writing and Difference, “Here exists a substitution of
the 1960s and 1970s saw the nationwide youth re-education
questions, it indeed forms a system,” Jacques Derrida remarks,
movement. Thousands of young intellectuals moved out of cities
“As a substitution and a substitution of questions, they indeed
to live and work in the countryside with great enthusiasm. These
form a certain system. This system at certain points is what forces
historical events are thought-provoking. They reveal something
it to move. It is an unascertainable source. Your note reminds me
deeper: What made people move in and out of the city with great
of the necessity of absent voids. We know...they are ‘important’ in
enthusiasm? When we juxtapose, compare, and interchange
any text.”
1
art? What is its significance? The only answers will be given
is to be inscribed by history.
Although some contemporary
T he French film critic Serge Daney’s statement that “all forms
–
are faces looking at us” may have revealed the essence of
images seem to have no
the relationship between art and mind. The artist’s wisdom is
connection to tradition, they still
something you can see, but you cannot use words to describe
respond to tradition as its
it. You can hear the image and you can see the voice. In order
addition or as an innovation
to create something personal and intellectually stimulating, con-
based on tradition.
temporary artists face the task of rearranging and integrating
I n the international art arena,
–
there is an interactive and
a multitude of images. In this way, their work becomes a manner
dynamic force which encourages
exchanges and interconnectedness. The source of this interactive
force is our concern about, and sense of, uncertainty about our
past and future expressed as a kind of “breaking away”. Politics
take precedence over individuals; expression replaces and blurs
by the viewer.
of expression
1
J A C Q U E S D E R R I D A , M U LT I P L E P O S I T I O N , T R A N S . S H E B I B I N G ( B E I J I N G , 2 0 0 4 ) ,
P. 3 .
JING SHIJIAN
JING SHIJIAN
JING SHIJIAN • EXPRESS TRAIN •
TRAIN CAR, RAIL, SLEEPERS AND
TELEVISION • 2008
two historical events, what will we discover ? Is this relevant to
T he production of meanings
–
in contemporary art in any form
domes or snow globes, raised up on plinths. Inside the vessels are
Kandor-Con
models of trapped miniature cities, transparent and multi-colored
MIKE KELLEY
skyscraper agglomerations that could almost pass for forests
The videotape Superman Recites Selections from The Bell Jar
domes are projected onto the walls, alongside light-boxes with
and Other Works by Sylvia Plath was originally created as part
three-dimensional, comic-book-style renderings of the same
of Kandor-Con, Mike Kelley’s large ambient installation, which
domes. The ambience is completed by New Age mood sounds
was presented for the first time in the exhibition Zeitwenden at the
murmuring around the space, undermined by a technoid rum-
Kunstmuseum Bonn in 2000. Additional information on the Web
bling, gurgling and hissing. It is a visual and acoustic tour de
tells us that the title Kandor-Con “mimics the term ‘comic-con’”, a
force, a ghostly yet breathtaking spectacle that leaves gallery-
comic book collector’s convention. The piece references displays
goers feeling as though they’ve landed on another planet.”
of dildos. Videos of cyclones and sparks flying around inside the
found at such conventions.
I n the book Mike Kelley, Minor
–
Histories. Statements, Conver-
54
55
sations, Proposals, Mike Kelley
talks about that videotape.
“In Superman Recites Selection
from The Bell Jar and Other
Works by Sylvia Plath, an actor
portrays Superman and does
DATA R OA M _ I N G
add #03
SANGGIL KIM
exactly what the title describes.
MIKE KELLEY • KANDORS • INSTALLATION • 2008
In a dark no-go zone evocative
D m i t r i : For example, you search
of Superman’s own psychic
for the building called A in
‘Fortress of Solitude’, the alien-
Shibuya, Tokyo. Then you can
ated Man of Steel recites those sections of Plath’s writings that
find so many pictures of the
utilize the image of the bell jar. Superman directs these lines to
inside and outside of this build-
Kandor, the bell jar city that represents his own traumatic past, for
ing taken from various angles,
he is the only surviving member of a planet that has been
including the blueprint of the
destroyed. Kandor now sits frozen in time, a perpetual reminder of
building. You slowly scan those
his inability to escape that past, and of his alienated relationship
angles of pictures taken by so
to his present world. For us, Kandor is an image of a time that
as Kelley says.
SANGGIL KIM • MODE_2008 • C-PRINT •
2008
many anonymous souls in your
head. Several months ago,
while inadvertently clicking on
W hat could one expect to see in Mike Kelley’s Gesamtkunstwerk
–
Kandor-Con? In Frieze, issue 112, January-February 2008, Holger
an internet article about the detection of dioxin from Italian moz-
Liebs describes how he viewed Kandor-Con 2000 during its
looks like so many slices of cheese stacked up like a cake. One
exposure in Jablonka Gallery, Berlin. “With a palette ranging from
month after that incident, I really found myself looking for that
garish orange to leafy green to pale violet, it looks as though a
strange building in Ueno Park, Tokyo. According to the data, that
nightclub designer has been unleashed in the gallery to attempt a
building should have been located between the Ueno Park and
visualization of Goethe’s color theory. The rooms are faintly illumi-
a small pond, but there was only a silver officetel building. I asked
nated by a handful of lamps whose lights are diffused by colored
a passer-by who looked like a local resident and he answered
glass panels, and it is so dark that those who enter risk tripping
that the building I was looking for had been torn down a year
over the tubes that weave their way around the entire space, con-
ago, and this officetel had been built in its place. Anyway, I could
necting gas bottles to vessels reminiscent of outsize cheese-plate
never forget what the Chinese guide told me, when I was suffer-
zarella cheese, I came upon a strange image of a building that
SANGGIL KIM
MIKE KELLEY
never was – the utopian city of the future that never came to be”,
ing from a severe depression due to a heavy yellow dust that
Dmitri: While the two initial bacteria that have denied the self-
swept the city for four consecutive days: change always precedes
reproduction process and invented a new process of procreation
planning.
amidst all other bacteria that practice self- reproduction embody
uncertainty in their own bodies, the history of human-kind continu-
Catrina: Is it the same as if he had told you that change is the
ously arrays the nature out there in terms of ‘methods’ and ‘sys-
result of other planning?
tems’, and is quite close to the history of accumulation in which it
is reproduced. Just as two bacteria have renewed themselves
Dmitri: Can’t deny that.
by inventing genitalia, human beings have learnt how to install
‘biological individual’ and ‘historical individual’ at the same time,
56
Catrina: In your interview with Korean Vogue magazine, you said,
in their own bodies, by means of inheritance that transcends
“Imagine that the ‘memory’ of incarceration and the ‘desire’ for
the limit of time. The initial program to practice this inheritance is
renewal became one. That is the very metaphysical explosion.”
none other than the very ‘classification’.
Did you really mean it ? Then what kind of structure is the ‘trans-
A close look at the accumulated layers that have classified
–
things and enabled them to become facts only discloses a univer-
local motion’ that you are thinking of ?
57
sal value devoid of all the uncertainties, which has nothing to do
Dmitri: It is Tetris that Alexey Pajitnov, a Moscow program devel-
with diversity. To living organs, the uncertainty is a method of
oper for voice recognition and computer design, had developed
embodying diversity, but to mankind it is an anomie that has to be
using Soviet Electronica 60 computer in 1985. This program was
abolished. Due to this extreme difference, mankind might have
originally made to enhance children’s spatial perception, but it
to maintain the hallucinatory state of classification. The ideology
is the only program in the history of mankind in which one can
‘if you do not know the name of things, you will lose knowledge
survive only when it does not accumulate. Tokyo was like a trace
about them’ creates excessive necessity. This state of over-infla-
left by a Tetris gamer in his highest level. Already in the maximum
tion obstructs the emergence of other incidents. This over-neces-
biological floor area ratio of Japanese engineers, the style game
sity is overtly violent. By the same token the over-ornamentation
has been overcome. Will it be interesting if we apply this to other
is a form of guilt in itself.
occasions? For example, government office buildings or college
buildings representing a specific academic discipline? But never
A long with the spread of the colonialist policy of Europe, the
–
taxonomy that has longed for universal, invariable knowledge
imagine a program like technopolis, senior complex or a company
grows into a discipline of science. Although it encourages diver-
city. Multiple life efficiently classified? This is an infinite extension
sity, it also eliminates local B for the sake of universal A, as is
of classification.
revealed in its severe conflict with the research method focusing
on individual discipline and localities. This construction yields
hierarchized diversity, which has nothing to do with an objective
description of reality. In Homo Academicus ( 1984 ), Pierre
from the solar system by this definition in August 24, 2006, I came
Bourdieu defines the current university as “a space of struggle
to think that for humans ‘to classify’ was not a means of choice
that classifies the relations of power among various criteria
but an instinct. It is quite strange that Carl von Linne, who suc-
of decision and forces as though they might be objectively cap-
ceeded in scientifically classifying plants and animals by dint of
tured in a given amount of time while maintaining or altering
dichotomy and subordinated science to absolute monarchy in favor
them.” He also defines typology generally used in this type of
of mercantilism and written Systema Naturae, a racist classifica-
construction as “a local and limited anti-pseudo taxonomy.”
tion system filed 125 years ahead of Francis Galton’s eugenics,
Bourdieu’s critical viewpoint about such a typology is connected
is still classified as a botanist. Is the process in which knowledge
to the German entomologist Willy Hennig, who has claimed that
and subject stand out through a struggle for diversity of tax-
there is no direct relationship between the exterior similarity of a
onomies (taxis + nomos ) still legitimate? Why is the classification
living organ and its level within a genealogy. However, regardless
practice incessantly encouraged over the course of history and
of such a critical stance, due to its efficient capacity of deciding
beyond the level of race and class ?
a type in a given amount of time, typology has become fully
SANGGIL KIM
SANGGIL KIM
Catrina: After watching the members of the International Astro-
nauts Union adopt a new definition of planet and exclude Pluto
adopted within the realm of genealogy and the institutions of
social management.
58
T hese solemn moves toward the constructed reality remind us of
–
the self-production theory of the Chilean neurophysiologists
Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela, that “the connec-
Department of Dry Cleaning at California University right after the
through operation.” This theory seems to emphasize a closed
Second World War, countless disciplines of science have emerged.
structure but yields an effect of continuous self-reorganization.
So the professions were subdivided but the class structures
The moves, in which a deeper recognition of the closed structure
became fixed. Just as the division of labor that began with Adam
induces more moves, and the succession of such moves defines
Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth
the space or postpones its closure, bring forth an obstruction to
of the Nations (1776 ) is becoming obsolete in the face of Canon’s
the tradition of inheritance through taxonomy. Paradoxically, as
Cell Manufacturing System, that assembles a color copier of
the science that has created a mechanical order for the sake of a
27,000 parts in just four hours, the emergence of informatics or
universal inheritance endows its process with personality, a
information science well beyond linguistics and archival science
format falls into congestion. As minutely divided points are articu-
renders the cycles of reproduction seen in subdivided disciplines
lated more minutely, the status of the existing linguistics and
of science helpless. Contrary to the Japanese production line
philology that has been ‘connecting’ points to points collapses
system, that maximizes human capacity while abandoning to pre-
and a cryptogram that ‘divides’ points from points rises.
set and arithmetically calculate the human limitation, the exterior
symbol body, that is, physical space and distance, gradually turns
N ow library science, philology and computer science along with
–
Yahoo directory, Google Keyword, Google Earth, Google Street
into a slum. Surely, on the other hand, an architectural method-
Viewer and Page Rank altogether do not guarantee the stable sta-
ology such as DataScapes, which treats the urban space as a
tus of the individual and the supervisor. For, a network made pos-
continuous structure through system analysis, is also applied. This
sible through a database is more akin to ‘chronological explosion’
program, in which massive amounts of data are gathered from a
rather than to circular and linear time. As the memory becomes
certain area, examined and then transformed into a diagram, and
more and more indulged in the present moment rather than being
the abstract data thus transformed are embodied in a concrete
reinforced through an accumulation of data, the temporary over-
architectural style, always faces a heterogeneous adjustment of
whelms the contemporary. In the age of ‘an abstract machine that
‘local speciality + universal unit’. This automatically expands
conceals its inner structure or details of operation and displays
to publicity and historicity as it does not refer to a definition or a
only the inputs and outputs’, that is, in the age of the automata, it
reestablishment of things to be made, but of a landscape to be
is unclear whether the space and things upon which we have
surrounded by them.
endowed names and the names of the streets will remain intact as
B ut when this architectural method of intervention is applied to
–
Asia, it is transformed into a gracious slum. Although a-chronolog-
they are. Is the impossibility to remain intact synonymous with
ical time lag is an object to disappear toward a vanishing point,
it still is important information that helps us to recognize the here
U pon reaching the object-oriented program past the file system,
–
stratified database and network database, one cannot help but
and now. When we try to transform a-chronological layers into a
ponder the difference between the philosophical object that
conceptual landscape, we can consider the usage of the stylistic
supervises knowledge with will, and the encapsulated active pro-
and functional aspect of variability as a method to stop its fermen-
gram that treats all the data as material. For they also have
tation into another kind of monument. Here the boundary between
their own inherent characteristics, as well as the traits of character
the temporary and the contemporary is insignificant. To say this
decided along the lines of cooperation, inheritance, succession
in a more radical manner, we experience the moment in which the
and the division of upper class and lower class. In this respect, the
absolute and indigenous switch their role with the flimsy proba-
biological taxonomy and the taxonomy of information have a lot
bility. When one can no longer recognize the temporary and the
in common. Due to the excessive efficiency created by physical
contemporary in a somatic sensation, it is not ‘forgetfulness’, but
space, the off-line takes over the time that is burdensome and
‘illumination’, in which one begins to notice the abolition of the
excessive. Now we cannot incarcerate this cumbersome time with-
modern concept of time and space.
in the physical space. For the surface of this special time is
tion of generation processes themselves defines a closed space
59
a-historicity?
SANGGIL KIM
SANGGIL KIM
F ordism, the individual discipline of science and the current uni–
versities have a lot in common. Since the inception of the
already contaminated by the physical data and abstract data. Now
of those spectators walking into the scene. You want to play
the time has come when the technology made possible by the
the roles.
grid has to manage the probability of resetting the previous grid.
Of course this counterflow is not included in the programmer’s
You are one of the so called bad players, you are acting; you mis–
take the play for reality. What to expect is the understanding of
plan. This counterflow will intervene, in any way possible, with the
the same event in another dress, the spectacle looking for a part
infinite tradition of circular structure in which knowledge is pro-
between hopes. It dresses up with a constant wish for change.
duced, through an accumulation of ceaseless classification of the
exterior world, and the knowledge embodies a subject and gets
T hese roles were played before sometimes, becoming new
–
because of all the costumes and attributes that have been pre-
connected to a history. One day in the format of the singular, the
pared.
other day, in the format of the state. Through the backdoor
C urating yourself in cities inspired it to hide without disappearing.
–
A nother place at the right moment
–
T H I S E S S AY I S A T H I R D M O D I F I C A T I O N O F T H E T A P E - R E C O R D E D C O N V E R S A T I O N
THAT TOOK PLACE DURING THE LECTURE FOR FLASH CUBE EXHIBITION (2007)
HELD IN SAMSUNG MUSEUM LEEUM.
60
TRANSLATED BY LEE YOUNG JUNE, MACHINE CRITIC
61
Supplier of Cultural Resources
LIN CHUANCHU
Are There Six
S U C H A N K I N O S H I TA
My work places great emphasis on the personal and the inner life.
I am drawn to lasting and universal values. My work is based on
The right place at another moment.
my experience with modern life and nature. It is also a reflection of
T he surroundings seem to describe the difference of what you
–
think you are.
my inner world as well as my understanding of life’s complexity.
Your surroundings could speak to you to let you know what it
–
means to be part of those spectators walking into the scene.
all other artists, I have to face the impact of globalization, I can
Whether you want to know it or not, the actors are present without
think that the best way for an artist to respond to globalization is
really playing their roles. They are so- called bad actors; they
to be a sober observer of “others” while holding on to one’s own
don’t know they are acting. They mistake the reality for the play.
character. I despise those empty, homogeneous, and formal
My work is the sum of my imagination and memories. Although like
still maintain something personal and local in my art and mind. I
works. To sum up, my ultimate role in the process of globalization
same event, the spectacle looking for a
Otherwise, my existence will no longer be meaningful.
is as a supplier of cultural resources rather than as a consumer.
stantly whenever one chooses. The roles
M odern man is always on the
–
move from islands to continents,
have been played before many times,
from the countryside to cities.
but nevertheless it seems new because of
People of different classes and
all the dresses and attributes that were
races leave their homes and trav-
prepared.
el thousands of miles in search
Moving yourself in cities, to disappear with–
out hiding, did inspire it.
of their Utopia or Acadia. I myself
dress. Wishing to change dresses con-
S U C H A N K I N O S H I TA • ARE
THERE SIX • SOUND
INSTALLATION • 2008
T he surroundings seem to think that you
–
are the difference you cannot describe.
Your surroundings know apart from you
–
what it means to let you speak as one
travel frequently for various reasons. Perhaps too much travel
L I N C H U A N C H U • INSTANTANEOUS
MEMORY: PLAN OF SHANGHAI’S RICE
FIELD • PA D D Y • 2 0 0 8
has directed my attention away
from destinations to places of
departure. In this sense, my work
LIN CHUANCHU
S U C H A N K I N O S H I TA
W hat to expect is the misunderstanding
–
between those who hope to be part of the
can be seen as a kind of “searching for roots” after a long journey
only things that distinguish them culturally. Their ways of life and
in life. In other words, my work becomes an autobiography and
religious beliefs are manifested most clearly in Asian grocery stores
genealogy.
and restaurants, which constitute the starting point of my work.
T he migratory population has to forget and be forward-looking.
–
For me, this mentality is rather unreal and self-deceptive. In the
T he series at the Biennale
–
explores the highest level of
swiftly moving time and space, we should seek moments of
migrant culture, that is, their
silence and transcendence. We should establish ourselves through
beliefs. In the work, I use reli-
our own unique memory, life experience and values. Therefore,
gious symbols to explore issues
when my work relates to the city, it is not a direct portrayal of the
of migration and to analyze
current urban conditions, but an indirect reflection of the city,
elements related to our cultural
including its formation, its changing landscape, the origin of the
identity. In stores owned by
Chinese people, one often finds
urban population and their complicated memories. For this
62
reason, when my work enters into urban public space, it communicates with the viewer first at a sensory level. Only after the viewer
LIU MING • IMMIGRATION SERIES •
OIL ON PVC • 2008
a religious corner consisting of
63
an altar, a few fruits and electric
candle lights, and a plastic
experiences the pure beauty, idealized space, and the nostalgic
idyllic scene in the work, will he or she raise intellectual questions,
Buddha. Sometimes, it is not easy to notice such a small space in
such as the urban and rural areas’ changing topography; water,
a crowded store. But this corner is of vital importance to immi-
soil and climate changes; food production and consumption; and
grants. Considering the dominant culture of the place where they
the unconscious separation between modern man and nature.
settle, the corner’s symbolic power is of no small matter.
I grew up in Taiwan in the 1970s. In my view, it is a very special
–
period. I call it a “time and space capsule”. Back then, agriculture
B uddha is one of the religious icons for Asian immigrants. But
–
if we think it over, we will find that Buddha himself was a migrant;
in Taiwan still followed the labor-intensive mode, which had
he was introduced from India to China and other countries.
not changed for thousands of years. Our government (the one that
Buddha travels again with migrants today; the big migrant Buddha
moved to Taiwan after its defeat in the Civil War of 1949 ) pre-
is worshipped by those small migrants in a foreign place.
served the most classical and authentic Chinese culture through
its educational system. In my blood is both rice milk and mercury
P erhaps we hope that Buddha can enhance migrants’ cultural
–
identity as well as counter the Christian world in the West, where
from the ancient alchemy. My background shapes not only my
Jesus Christ is worshipped. Buddha himself was a migrant.
work’s content, but also its form and my use of medium. I think
Wasn’t Jesus Christ in the West a migrant as well?
that the notion of medium-specificity varies from person to person
because it depends on one’s experience, feelings and cultural
background. In other words, my artistic medium is not just an
Responses
LIU YE
Globalization
Globalization has made it possible for us to enjoy
We Are All Migrants
cultural products from all corners of the world. In the meantime,
LIU MING
we face more fierce competition. No matter how challenging it is
for our eyes and brains, we will get used to it one day. Any kind
Migration is a process in which people pack their material belong-
of opposition is useless because globalization has already become
ings (which are kept under twenty kg per passenger according
a “cruel” reality.
to airport regulations), and move to an unfamiliar place. When they
I n fact, I embrace this reality because art goes beyond national
–
and political boundaries. In art we should use international
arrive in a new place, their life style and religious beliefs are the
LIU YE
LIU MING
objective vehicle I use, but part of my flesh and blood
standards; there are no such things as national standards. Also
Medium-specificity
the universal standards depend on each artist’s personal standards.
strengths and limitations. I am fascinated by the traditional
Every kind of medium has its own
medium of painting. When I paint, I feel that I am not
Urbanity
There is no way for me to comment on urbanity in my
work. The city is my source of inspiration, and my work is part of
planting trees in the wilderness but seeking treasures in the
depth of the forest.
the city life.
Despising Most in Contemporar y Art
Public Space
The concept of public space is relative. The People’s
I despise two clowns,
“novelty” and “exoticism”.
Square is a gigantic public space. The coffee shop is a small public
space. I think there are many small public spaces that contain many
Artistic Research
Its form serves my heart and mind.
things. They are amazing.
64
T he large space will be divided into countless small spaces. In the
–
future, the large space will gradually lose its vigor, or its operation
Dreams for the Art of the Future
The great art of the future will
totally meet our spiritual needs
65
will rely on the vitality of small spaces. It is hoped that “bigness”
in the future will become a mere concept, and “smallness” will be
the real driving force. I am more fascinated by the effect that my
works create in small spaces.
The Fluid Movement of People’s
Responses
Mobility in Forms of Migration
LU HAO
The frequent movement of people
characterizes our age. But
Globalization
migration has also been part of our
industrial civilizations. Most developing nations have no choices
tradition. This movement just
but to follow the rules. What I see is the traditional humanistic
becomes more convenient today;
spirit and environment being destroyed !
Globalization is dominated and led by Western
we can easily travel between
L I U Y E • TRAV E L E R • A C R Y L I C O N
C A N VA S • 2 0 0 7
Beijing and Shanghai in one day.
Urbanity
This makes me a little nostalgic. In
society with “extremely abundant commodities”.
My comment on urbanity is: to seek possible beauty in
my maternal grandparents’ time,
they lived far apart; one in Beijing
and the other in Shanghai. Since it was so difficult for them to see
Public Space
I use my work as a way to reflect the current
conditions in public space.
am even a bit envious of them. In the process of making my painting,
The Fluid Movement of People’s
I try to imagine what they looked like, and what their time looked like.
Mobility in Forms of Migration
My work is exactly about people
Public Art
on the move, and all the things
Very private and personal art can be public art, such
as Mona Lisa. Some very personal photos are viewed by millions of
we must face everyday.
people. The line between the private and the public has become
Public Art
blurred.
I think that the word
“public art” seems rather funny
Biennale’s Concepts of Transfer, Connectivity, Encounter, and
Social and Economic Change
Works of art are filled with the
mystery of the unknown. The concept of a work is to be felt rather
than explained.
in “China” today! It is just like
LU HAO • SCENERY SERIES • COLOR ON
SILK • 2008
we see some neatly arranged
trash in the street or in the lobbies of some grand buildings.
LU HAO
LIU YE
each other, they were always filled with expectations and longings. I
Biennale’s Concepts
is like a large window to display the history and reality of
If visitors can understand my works, my
“works” are related to the Biennale’s concepts. Otherwise, it is
Shanghai. It will transport the audience from the gallery to an
not related.
open space where a city develops (this is a public space).
Medium-specificity and Visual Language
T he prosperity of a city is prima–
rily owed to the mobility and
I don’t understand
why the Chinese still have so many problems of communicating
migration of people with various
with each other, since the Chinese language has evolved a
backgrounds. Large cities such
great deal today.
as Shanghai offer classic examples. The form of my work grows
Despising Most in Contemporar y Art
out of this theme. After in-depth
What I despise most is
research into the migrant com-
that sometimes I have to show up in the same gallery with
munity, I first looked at politi-
some “great” artists whom I never know.
66
Artistic Research
It is OK as long as it is not related to qu yi.
1
M A B A O Z H O N G • B L O O M I N G , W I LT I N G
2 0 0 8 . 1 – 8 • O I L O N C A N VA S • 2 0 0 8
cians in Shanghai. What is spe-
67
cial about them is that most of
them are not local, and almost
Dreams for Art of the Future
My dreams for the art of the future
are just like my dreams for Wenchuan.
1
2
2
A TYPE OF CHINESE FOLK PERFORMING ARTS THAT COMBINES STORYTELLING
AND SINGING.
THE REGION HIT BY THE CATASTROPHIC EARTHQUAKE IN CHINA IN 2008.
nobody chooses to become a resident of Shanghai. Instead, they
all move to other places later. These are individuals who play the
most important roles in the city’s transformation. Then I focus on
Shanghai’s artistic and cultural circle. Consisting of stars, writers
and artists, this community contributes greatly to Shanghai’s rich
cultural and artistic life. Similarly, most of them are migrants from
other places. Finally, I place my attention on Shanghai’s current
situation by highlighting new groups of migrants from a variety of
fields, including fashion, sports, economics, politics, avant-garde
literature, and entertainment. In this way, my work attempts to
MA BAOZHONG
M y work employs architectural models to transport something
–
real to a world of imagination. In order to give the work multiple
Globalization has brought many new possibilities and challenges
meanings and to create a complex yet organic mix of the
to the art community. The information technology has enabled
history, the present and the future, I also juxtapose images from
swift distribution of news about changes around the globe. More
all walks of life. In this way, viewers are distanced from things
information becomes accessible to more people. This has broad-
they are not familiar with. At the same time they are able to have
ened the horizon of art. I have been exploring international issues
visual and psychological connections to the things they are
since the 1990s. Things that interest me include the Bosnian
familiar with.
conflict, Gulf War and the anti-terrorist movement.
T he inclusion of people from various walks of life and periods of
–
time in my work is a device to create connections between the
T he development of the modern city is the result of the city’s
–
openness as well as migration. The keywords of my works on
create a stimulating, multi-dimensional space that combines the
history, the present and the future of the city.
work and viewers who are familiar with those people. The juxta-
urbanity are: large-scale, velocity, height, and noise. These words
posed and contrasting figures in the work reflect not only the
reflect a developing country’s definition of a prosperous city; it
changing times, but also how societal and economic development
needs to be big and noisy with a large population, heavy traffic,
is changing the city and the urbanites
and vertical cityscape.
M y work tries to include multiple dimensions and the largest pos–
sible amount of information. Placed in the art museum, the piece
MA BAOZHONG
MA BAOZHONG
Globalization / City/ Migrant /
Kuaike / Change
I wish that art (clothes ) may transform the truth of our feelings,
Truthmove
68
opinions and cognition into a matter of communication.
ANGELIKA MANTZ
T o wear Truthmove clothes is a statement about our human condi–
tion. We have to live with the permanent sense of worldwide dis-
From the start, my art production has focused on the investigation
asters. Media are perpetually confronting us with the suffering of
of the borders between art and the everyday. I perceive works
other human beings. We are no longer able to limit compassion to
of art as rooms to freely display individual feelings, opinions and
problems concerning our families or our direct friends. Humankind
cognition – each room surrounded by truths forcing rules on its
on the whole becomes – whether we want it or not – our “family”.
inhabitants or visitors. For me to walk along the borders of the art
room – with a tendency to step a bit off the mark – means to
Maybe at breakfast I see the crying face of a poor baby trauma–
tized by a disaster in Istanbul while I slept. To live with the per-
endure contradictions and to accept the challenge to balance
manent sense of suffering demands a change in behavior. If we are
them. To broaden the concept of art also means to take a breath
able to become active and help somebody, our souls become
in a no man’s land. In developing the work Truthmove I was
balanced. If we are not able to help, we start trying to forget about
padding along several borders which crossed each other like
the problem: “not my problem”. But humanness cannot be
intergalactic highways.
switched off like a radio. That is why now in China – as in other
69
places – people start to find rituals to express their compassion.
ANGELIKA MANTZ • TRUTHMOVE •
INSTALLATION • 2008
At one border she was fanned
One possibility is to “talk about our perception of clothes”.
by the wisdom of Chinese
This is what the Truthmove clothes could be for: to show our inner
calligraphy – its gorgeous world
feelings in order to share them with others and balance our souls.
of light and dark formed from
carbon and cellulose. Another
H allway racks hung with Truthmove clothes can be regarded as art
–
pennants. During an exhibition they indicate the final outpost of
one was glittered with the
the conquered land. These clothes in the status standby are wear-
knowledge of the Schieles,
able art dresses and art shirts to be imagined as worn in everyday
Kollwitzes and Runges. They
life; they are carriers of my idea to broaden the concept of art into
murmured comments like:
the everyday.
not finished!, ephemeral drawings ! At another border, she
T ruthmovie shows three women wearing Truthmove clothes while
–
they perform their everyday duties such as cooking, taking the
had to zigzag through the ocean
bus, etc. The viewer hears what they hear: news about disasters.
of logos and traffic signs. Then she was on her way by foot. Two
drawings, which had dissolved themselves from their exhibition
wall, jumped on her dress. Now the textile industry started flaunt-
T he film tells more.
–
A rtists find answers to their own questions and the problems
–
exhaled
KLAUS METTIG
ANGELIKA MANTZ
ing: no rapport! And: Art-can-only-be-consumed-as-thousandfold-VanGoghs-or-Harings ! “That is really remarkable,” Alice
thought, “The drawings show what I saw in the evening news yesterday and my dress looks much better now.” She walked on.
Catastrophes are statements about our human condition. They are
Responses
the transformed awareness of disasters which are happening and
KL AUS METTIG
being broadcast somewhere each hour.
T ruthmove Clothes: I transfer the drawings to clothes in order to
–
extend their exhibition mode to the everyday. Clothes are every-
1: I conceive my images as diagrams of the movements of the
body’s nearest projection screen. I look upon them as three-
developments have subjected to ongoing transformation.
dimensional canvases. In addition, to compensate for the climate,
I deploy photography as a means of clarifying these changes:
–
The Technorama interface becomes a surface on which to project
we use clothes to profile our social status and ideas of beauty.
Real – I chronicle the different cultural spaces that macroeconomic
the illusion we call reality.The wide, wall-spanning format presents
ing universalism and any hierarchy in authorship.
moments of extreme participation in zones at the periphery of
globalization. Landscapes and architectures and their inhabitants
8: The dependency of market compatibility.
develop and unfold across these cinerama /photorama /panorama
70
formats, and they record the regime of the macroeconomies of
9: Yes, it is related to experimentation and reality-based
globalism – photography makes the regime visible.
experience.
2: What is occurring is a permanent process of extroversion.
1 0 : Artistic praxis and artistic research should impart profound
T he center sprawls out to the edges of the social void’s epicenter –
–
where is the center of globalism? In Asia – in the Orient – in the
ideas opposing the brutality of globalism for profit, the abuse
USA?
cultural and ethnic differences alive, and should respect global
T here is no global power center – this is why each of my photo–
graphic protocols seeks to formulate as broadly as possible the
survival.
of power, and the suppression of the individual. They should keep
dimensions of its critique of urbanism.
S ometimes I dream that in the future – or even in the present –
–
artists everywhere in the world will be, or already are, free to do
3: I am attempting to articulate a sum of public spaces:
TRANSLATED BY BEN LETZLER
71
work and share this work with their audiences
f or me, each panorama I have recorded is a “public space,” and
–
can be understood as a “public-space statement in public.”
4: “ D O N ’ T B E L E F T B E H I N D ” is the title of this complex group of
works.
T his slogan, taken from an advertising billboard in Dubai, expresses
–
quite clearly how migrations are caused – how the unleashing
Email Conversation
of global trade, the struggle for resources, lead to recolonialization,
R O M A N O N DA K & A N N E T T E W. B A L K E M A
poverty, the destruction of the environment, war, social apartheid
A W B : Your work in the Shanghai
and displacement.
Biennale, Measuring the
5: P U B L I C A R T – is an important matter if you can articulate socio-
Universe, is “a work in progress”
cultural and political statements publicly.
that will produce a “swarming”
graphic web on a white wall,
while the height, first name and
connectivity and encounter.
date of biennale visitors will be
listed on that wall.
M y artistic interests involve a
–
deep commitment to the questions of social and economic
change. I am very interested in
experiencing possibilities for
ROMAN ONDAK • MEASURING THE
UNIVERSE • PERFORMANCE •
2007-2008
H ow do you refer to the work? Is
–
it a performance? Is it a wall
installation? Is it a participatory
work referring to forms of partici-
stabilizing the balance of ecolog-
pation once started by new media art? Is it a form of photography
ical, economic and cultural
referring to the somewhat melancholy sense of the presence/
potentials/organisms.
absence – a frozen moment – of someone who once was there? Or
do you have an entirely different concept in mind connected to
KLAUS METTIG • DON’T BE LEFT BEHIND
2 0 0 5 – 0 6 • O . T. • 2 0 0 6
7: What interests me most is “the
issues the viewer could not detect directly in the work?
capacity for change.”
I am committed to deconstruct–
RO : I’m interested in the potentials of everyday situations, which
RO M A N O N DA K & A N N E T T E W. B A L K E M A
KLAUS METTIG
6: I’m really looking forward to exploring the issues of transfer,
72
go unnoticed since we often perceive them as obvious compo-
names, and dates. That form of serial repetition, including
nents of our basic activities. In most of my works, my own contri-
transformations, reminds me of the French philosopher Gilles
bution to a depicted situation is minimal. To a certain extent I only
Deleuze, who addressed that specific issue in Repetition and
shift the roles of people or objects which happen to appear in
Difference – repetition always includes difference. “Measuring the
such constellations. When I select a certain situation, with an aim
Universe” appeared in D A A D gallery Berlin. Now it will reappear in
of decontextualizing it from the real – and use it in the context of
the Shanghai Biennale 2008. Are you interested in the differences,
an exhibition – for a moment I can work with it like with a sculp-
that on one level are of course the connotations of first names,
ture: modify it, play with its volume, with its reference to memory
different heights, different dates. Yet, on another level, the trans-
and the space it used to occupy and will then occupy in its new,
formation of the work is a different form of graphic swarming.
reworked form.
How do these issues appeal to you?
T hat is also the case with Measuring the Universe, in which a
–
certain behavioral experience, perhaps one each of us had as
R O : That’s a good example. The ‘model’, based on repetition of
children, is the focus of attention. By measuring and marking chil-
measurements and names, fills the space according to a number
dren’s heights over several years at the same place, like on a
of people visiting the room and not having objections to being
doorframe, grown-ups create a particular database of information.
measured, and the speed of time passing. Then there is another
It is documentation, but it is not photography. Rather it competes
step in repetition, when the result ends at one point and restarts
with photography with its imperfect, nearly primitive form of cap-
somewhere else. An awareness of differences is then perceptible
turing someone’s presence at a specific point in space and time.
even when at first glance new architectural conditions, in which
W hen considering that, in ‘measuring children’, several years are
–
simply compressed into a small place by a mere few lines and
it intervenes, will respond to the work in a different way than at a
dates, I realized that this form could be used to build the whole
place. And specific marks, names and dates appearing at a partic-
exhibition. It can simply refer to an exhibition as an activity, a
ular place refer at one time to that very real moment. They can
movement of people in space, a time, any exhibition is framed in
never reappear in such a unique constellation of names and dates
terms of its duration. Almost everything, except for black felt-tip
again. It is like On Kawara’s paintings – once the day is over he
pens, already existed in this constellation: exhibition attendants,
cannot paint the painting portraying that day again.
73
prior place. People’s behavior or customs also vary from place to
walls and visitors. I only changed the roles of those involved: the
A W B : You mention the architectural conditions in which Measuring
volunteers to be measured by them. They simply mark a short line
the Universe intervenes and to which it responds every time it
at head level, add the person’s first name and a date when meas-
starts or restarts in the public space of the exhibition building. In
urement was taken. It does not commemorate the melancholy
that sense, the work seems to comment in a sculptural way on
sense of that moment, but rather brings a viewer into a ‘me, here
public space and also, it seems, it relates to forms of urbanity in
and now’ situation because nothing remains of this activity once
its massive listing of people’s names and in how people freely
the exhibition ends. In the end, the walls are repainted, the work
give their names to the guards and thus partake in the work. Could
disappears and can re-appear somewhere else by starting over
one also claim that Measuring the Universe in its serial repetition
again with the first measurement. In a formal sense, this work can
portrays a form of “Translocalmotion”?
never be fully finished. It gives a sense of continuous measuring,
which is interrupted by time gaps during breaks when the work is
R O : You are right. The work, although not explicitly containing
not shown, while its short presentations absorb time into it, being
three-dimensional elements, has features of a sculpture. It absorbs
documented on the walls by gallery attendants.
the empty spaces in which it is performed, as well as simply
demonstrating that over the course of time there is a movement of
A W B : When the work disappears – stops for a moment – after being
people in these spaces. So, it creates a volume. Although this
erased by a new layer of white paint on the wall after the exhibi-
volume is intangible, every visitor becomes part of it, regardless
tion, it seems to move “underground” but then it reappears again
of whether they are measured or not. Just as any pedestrian
in another setting with different measurements of heights, first
becomes a part of an urban space in which he or she simply moves
RO M A N O N DA K & A N N E T T E W. B A L K E M A
RO M A N O N DA K & A N N E T T E W. B A L K E M A
guards, while monitoring the exhibition, are also requesting
– either by taking part in its daily activities, or not, intervening, or
en ha nce 57 19
negating it – everyone plays a role and forms a volume of a certain
17:00
One idea that informed Nervus Rerum
in-betweenness. Any physical presence in space we occupy is
17:00
was the proposition that the steadicam moves through the
temporal, and what we in fact do is only a sequence of many short-
space of the camp but does not render it perceivable
er or longer occupations of various spaces. We depend on memory
17:01
and imagination in how to put them together. So perhaps in their
turn away from the inspection of the camera
common reference to motion of people we can find a strong affinity
17:02
in order to produce an opacity
between an idea of ‘Translocalmotion’ and an idea of Measuring
17:02
that prevents the viewer from producing knowledge from
the Universe
images
17:03
Simultaneously people turn their backs on the camera; they
The film does not offer an ethnographic shortcut to empathy
Anjalika
74
A Trialogue on Nervus Rerum
17:04
It is anti-empathic
17:05
It is wary of the idea of the other speaking for themselves
17:05
either from a state of victimhood or a state of defiance
75
OTOLITH GROUP
en ha nce 57 19
gardy77
17:06
16:55
The starting point in my work on Godard
to power
16:55
is the conundrum of ‘representing’ Palestine
17:06
16:56
which is predicated upon territorial absence
power
16:56
Nervus Rerum focuses upon the non-space that has
I would say that in Nervus Rerum the idea of speaking truth
is suspended in favor of the idea of turning one’s back on
become the urban condition for Palestinians:
Anjalika
16:56
the non-space of the refugee camp
17:06
Yes, we did not want any testimonies
16:57
Your new work is miles away from current documentary
17:07
We wanted to ask, hypothetically, what might happen if one
representations of the Palestinian ordeal
turned one’s back on power
16:57
17:07
which I think are ineffective -to the extent that some of it
In order to ignore its operations?
has been termed ‘Pallywood’, especially the media coverage
en ha nce 57 19
enhance5719
17:07
16:58
film by Reece
I’ve never heard that
Auguiste of Black Audio Film Collective
17:07
A film called Mysteries of July from 1991
Anjalika
17:08
concerning a number of unsolved deaths in police custody
16:58
in North London in the 1980s
I know; nor have I
17:09
OTOLITH GROUP: ANALIKA SAGAR,
KODWO ESHUN • NERVUS RERUM •
VIDEO • 2008
We wanted to know what might happen if we mobilized that
gardy77
notion
16:58
It was coined around
17:10
the controversy surround-
victimhood, both of which tend to center the image around the
16:58
ing the video recording of the
so as to open up a space neither of defiance nor of
occupying forces, as absent presence
death of Mohammad al Durah,
16:59
a 12 year old Gazan caught between crossfire and shot by
gardy77
the Israeli Defence Force in 2000
17:10
16:59
What is the refugee camp if it is not that?
which some people thought was staged
And yet, life in Palestine is centered around occupation.
OTOLITH GROUP
OTOLITH GROUP
expression: Pallywood
That phrase ‘turning one’s back on power’ comes from a
enhance5719
gardy77
17:10
17:20
That scene of a man in the film playing the flute
help but yield the texture of life lived under occupation
17:20
touched me immensely but not empathically because he is
17:10
other, foreign, opaque
Given that condition, any evocation of the quotidian cannot
What if the saturation of the spatial and the psychic by
occupation relieved us of the necessity to name it?
en ha nce 57 19
gardy77
17:21
I would distinguish foreignness from opacity
17:11
17:21
We could say that opacity is more like a condition of
Then the camera would become charged non-discursively
with the space conditioned by occupation
intimacy without transparency
17:11
17:22
Could we think of eloquence in this case as having the
A nearness that is neither a transparency nor a difference
grounds to speak or bear witness?
gardy77
76
enhance5719
17:23
17:11
In this case, however, eloquence would entail not speaking
foreignness?
but instead turning away
en ha nce 57 19
But how would you then distinguish difference from
77
back
17:11
gardy77
17:12
17:23
Foreignness is difference rendered transparent
17:24
in order to extract a value from an image
The eloquence of Nervus Rerum is located in the juxta-
positions of images with voice-over
gardy77
17:12
17:24
So difference is rendered as a kind of “surplus value”
Zacharia’s image with that of Arafat
17:25
Nervus Rerum’s mobilization of opacity made me very
17:12
anxious
One of these juxtapositions that haunts me is that of
where Arafat is ‘performing’ the official functions of a
politician
17:12
laying a first stone, greeting the people
Anjalika
17:13
The juxtaposition conveys the status of the Palestinian
17:25
It is important to formulate an opacity
17:25
in order to complicate normative modes of address
struggle today – the nature of the leadership in terms of the
resistance
gardy77
gardy77
17:26
17:13
since the late 1970s,
and the legacy of Arafat embedded in the figure of Zacharia
that have proved to be so ineffective
Anjalika
17:14
Zacharia admires Arafat – he believes that Palestine has no
hope after his demise
Anjalika
17:26
In this film, the camera has a haunting and invasive quality,
does it not?
enhance5719
17:27
It creeps around looking at people
17:15
The testimonial address to camera is withdrawn
17:27
like a tired drunk ghost of the camp
17:16
We know that Zacharia is saying something thoughtful but
the signified is muted
gardy77
17:17
There is an opacity
17:28
17:18
in the sense suggested by Edouard Glissant
realizing there is nothing to see
17:19
where opacity is understood as the right to a singularity that
17:28
The camera is somehow hunting for signs
17:28
lingering on the graffiti
displaces the demand of difference for transparency
As a viewer, I felt invasively haunted by the images while
OTOLITH GROUP
OTOLITH GROUP
17:26
To displace the ethics of bearing witness that has prevailed
17:29
The anxiety has to do with the slow parcours of the camera,
17:39
that have no image to outlive them except those that
its inexorable movement throughout the camp
circulate in the public spaces as posters, created for Palestinian
17:30
viewership
It haunts the traces of visual culture there – the posters
of martyrs
17:40
And this is very different to the ways in which Palestinians
show their martyrs to the rest of the world
enhance5719
17:30
78
17:40
on their death beds in processions
Yes, some critics have suggested that we should have
translated those graffiti but that would have made for a very
en ha nce 57 19
different work
17:41
Willie Doherty’s recent video Ghost Story
17:41
evokes the spectral aftermath of the Irish struggles
gardy77
17:41
It is a near-continuous steadicam sequence gliding down
17:30
an empty road bordered by hedges
The interest here is not in rendering the camp transparent,
is it?
17:42
The non-human weightlessness of the steadicam,
17:43
that inquisitive video-eye was important for us
79
Anjalika
17:31
No. For example, the scene in which Zacharia stands by
gardy77
the gravestone of the Shahid. Zacharia is with a mother whose sons
17:44
were all martyrs and they are not showing but talking about the
Rerum is that you cannot identify with the camera
photographs of her sons
17:44
17:32
Shahid means the Martyrs
below eyelevel
17:32
But that is deliberately not made clear
17:45
I was unable to localize myself in the frame
17:32
It is not made transparent
17:45
the coordinates are everchanging and I felt I had to ‘duck’
One thing that results from the mechanized eye in Nervus
because of the floating effect and because it is operating
to see!
gardy77
17:33
And it is at that point in the film that we hear about the after-
images of great men
en ha nce 57 19
17:46
The labor of looking is returned to you: ‘Here, this is your
job, you do the looking’
enhance5719
17:34
Yes, we hear the Genet text that thinks through the ways in
gardy77
which an image becomes exemplary
17:47
This is not only uncomfortable; it is disorienting
17:35
17:48
At the very beginning of Nervus Rerum, you have the
For Genet, it is the image that cannot be emulated that
camera focusing on dead commodities, washing machines, then it
17:36
Genet is interested in how an image lives on
lingers on the back of a truck, on three men who are oblivious to
17:37
in the afterlife of iconography
the camera and then we think it will take us to another
17:49
site in the camp but it returns to the dead commodities
Anjalika
17:50
and then we realize that we are not given something to look
17:38
at; that desire is frustrated;
Before we started filming, Zacharia actually said that the only
art that is made in a place such as this are these images of death
17:51
This scene contrasts with the scene shot from the cable
car where you see the vastness of the land, the land out there
gardy77
17:39
17:52
which is unreachable
Yes – and when this text is juxtaposed with the tomb of the
Shahid, it puts the question of Palestinian martyrdom in very
Anjalika
interesting terms. Shahid literally means witness
17:52
17:39
forcibly absented
They die as heroes but they are more like witnesses
Yes, the holy land from which Palestinians have been
OTOLITH GROUP
OTOLITH GROUP
becomes heroic through the universalization of its singularity
17: 53
In such a context, people do not settle
time of winter with its deprivations and bitter cold. In the summer,
17:54
On the contrary, they are perpetually thinking about returning
epic tales were told out of joy at being together and the abun-
17:54
to their villages
dance of life, and in winter in order to ease the burden of the hard
times. These epic tales follow the laws of a very cleverly thought
gardy77
out and yet amazingly simple dramaturgy. It has a structural
17:54
They do not settle
skeleton that can be filled with the past: the history of the group,
17:55
and yet there is this sense of stillness, of being stuck, of
known to all; the future: the desires, hopes, and fears; and the
there being no future
present. All current joyful or disturbing experiences are worked out
in this way and find their form.
Anjalika
17:56
It is hard to articulate this but
T his narrative skeleton is wide–
spread among all cultures. It
17:56
it feels as if they will never return
has a lot to do with techniques of
memory. We know the wooden
80
Anjalika Sagar
panels on which stones of differ-
Kodwo Eshun
ent colors and sizes, shells,
I r mgar d E mmel hai nz
sticks, small bones and other
81
materials are affixed in particular
16 / 0 7 / 2008
17 / 0 7 / 2008
order. Each piece stands for
ULRIKE OTTINGER • EXILE SHANGHAI
FILM • 1996
certain persons / ancestors, an
occurrence, a location. These
early memory boards exist in a
END
variety of techniques: woven works with complicated patterns,
THE OTOLITH GROUP WAS FOUNDED IN 2000 BY ANJALIKA SAGAR AND KODWO
ESHUN WHO LIVE IN LONDON. THE GROUP WORKS WITH HISTORIES OF FUTURITY
AND THE MEDIA ARCHIVES OF NON-ALIGNMENT AND TRICONTINENTALISM.
IRMGARD EMMELHAINZ (UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO) IS COMPLETING A PH.D. DISSERTATION ON GODARD’S ICI ET AILLEURS (1969–74) AND NOTRE MUSIQUE (2004).
arrangements of stones and bones. They are at the same time
global and cosmic models.
Polynesian navigation models operate according to this
–
memory principle. These aids are an attempt at remembering;
they serve to provide orientation and lend ideas form, a highly
condensed, abstract form. The distinction between reality and the
process of lending form to this reality, that is, making art, is a
Stations of Cinema
very conscious one.
I often ask myself: what is this like today ? Our main mnemonic
–
device is the computer, which allows us access to large databanks,
ULRIKE OTTINGER
archives, libraries, personal websites and above all else – whether
intentionally or unintentionally – to an endless garbage heap of
What is it that we like so much about telling stories? What is this
advertising. Is this garbage heap a fate we have brought on our-
unquenchable desire for seeing the (same) story over and over
selves, or is it the mountain of slop we have to gobble our way
clothed in new forms, in new images?
through to get to the land of milk and honey? Is the new “computer
O ne of the oldest forms of dramaturgy is that of stations. It is
–
deeply connected with the early experiences of mankind. The
pixel” the image that leads from the artistically uninteresting
nomads followed their herds through grassland, forests, moun-
tion, to abstraction?
tains, gorges, steppes, deserts, lakes, rivers, tundra and taiga. Yet
it was not only the landscapes and the very different challenges
W e open the Internet like the little flaps of an Advent calendar;
–
only that which has been previously typed in is there. Neither the
they posed that changed, but the seasons, as well. There was the
stories nor the images are new.
“fat” time with its celebrations and pleasures, and the long, dark
W hy do science fiction and fantasy films always situate themselves
–
reproduction of natural imitation back to stylization, to condensa-
ULRIKE OTTINGER
ULRIKE OTTINGER
A Short Tale about Storytelling in Free Images
along genres such as Westerns, war films, and especially knight
that allows for even the most complex looks back and ahead. At
films – and why do they always look that way?
the same time, it is a cinema that makes the ordering and anarchy
W hy can’t we imagine anything else?
–
W hy don’t we want to see how constant our worlds of ideas, our
–
images really are?
of images possible
TRANSLATED BY ANDREA SCRIMA
A dvertising uses this old image mine more than anything else. It
–
evaluates the images as long as it takes for them to lose their
meaning entirely.
A nd so we have to fill the skeleton with new stations and new
–
images.
82
Responses
W hat stations could those be, though, if mankind has surely
–
divided itself into those that continue to live as nomads – the
THOMAS RUFF
refugees and migrant workers who have to make inconceivable
Globalization
efforts to face continuously changing demands and dangers,
trying to analyze the truthfulness in photographs by investigating
who have to utilize their entire intelligence to compensate for their
the different images and genres. I tried to reflect the media as well
disadvantageous position and to live in an unknown, often
as the image world. Due to the increasing influence of the World
hostile environment – and the sedentary, the established ones with
Wide Web, one of the main factors of globalization, the media, the
every advantage on their side, whose intelligence and ability to
distribution and the availability of images has changed. Therefore, I
react is no longer called for, unless they carry the world home and
changed my work, by doing my research on images on the Internet
involve themselves with it directly?
now and not going through magazines and books like I did before.
I am interested in describing how interconnected our narrative
–
forms, our ways of finding images, our (film) arts are with our
Urbanity
experiences, which possess infinite differences beyond the two
environment, and the influence of both on the human being.
Since the very beginning of my career I have been
83
A lot of my work deals with architecture, the everyday
basic models of human existence – the nomadic and the
sedentary.
Public Space
T he nomadic life is a very turbulent one; constant change brings
–
new impulses with it, and the longing is not for peace and quiet –
public spaces or global incidents, which became part of the
Most of the images within my jpeg-series show
collective memory.
it wants to entertain and be entertained. The sedentary has too
much peace and quiet, it wants to turn off, it longs for rest. This is
Public Art
a paradox and can be explained like a dynamo: movement pro-
be visible to everybody.
Public art should reflect the public space and should
duces movement, standstill produces standstill.
Medium-specificity
only a tension that arises; we are also in a position to portray an
according to the artwork. Every
entire world with its extreme opposites and all of the stages in
image needs its own technique
between. Film pounced upon this dramaturgic form for a good
and it is just as important to
reason – it fits like a glove. For film as a medium has the property
find the proper technique as it is
of switching between single image and sequence, between
to develop a demanding image.
The media
should be used appropriately
tableau and narration. For this reason, those films that reflect this
Despising in Contemporar y Art
structural similarity are interesting, that make it a subject of their
narrative and dramaturgy.
T he model of station cinema moves and allows communication
–
from the inside outwards and from the outside inwards, which can
lead to the most astonishing insights and views. It is a model
THOMAS RUFF • JPEG SHA02 • C-PRINT •
188 x 282 CM • 2008
The pure imitation of form and
content of popular artworks without going beyond the original
idea
THOMAS RUFF
ULRIKE OTTINGER
T hus, the skeleton has to be filled with turbulent and quiet sta–
tions, with the nomadic and the sedentary. In this way, it is not
Dreams for the Art of the Future
Responses
I hope that art will continue
bringing us peace and love
S O N K U K GYO N
Globalization
Globalization has given me a richer picture of art.
At the same time, it has taken me away from my inner world, a
world that needs silence and solitude.
Urbanity
Mission Imbpossible
All cities in China are more or less the same, and they
are getting bigger and bigger. In the past ten years, I haven’t made
an interview about the project “DeriVeD” with Jon Solomon.
HITO STEYERL
any works on urbanity. It might be a subconscious choice. I think
“DeriVeD” is based on a
this reflects my true feeling about the city.
psychogeographical mapping of
84
Public Space
85
People’s Square in Shanghai
I always try to include public space as part of my
work. At the moment when my work and public space are con-
according to the DVD s acquired
nected, the work itself begins to grow and expand.
in the surrounding neighborhoods. As in many places in
The Fluid Movement of People’s Mobility in Forms of Migration
Chinese cities, DVD s can be
Migration is both about building something new and leaving some-
accessed quite easily and take
on surprising and unpredictable
thing behind. I re-create a memory of Shanghai and the experience of moving. Then I wrap this fleeting and melting memory with
something sweet and easy to melt -sugar.
H I T O S T E Y E R L • D E R I V E D • M U LT I MEDIA INSTALLATION, 4 FLAT
S C R E E N S , 3 P E R S O N A L D V D P L AY E R S
3 LIGHT-BOXES, POSTER • 2008
forms. “DeriVeD” presents a
mapping of the flows of images
and sounds, of desires and dra-
Public Art
Public art should
mas, which circulate in the context of global conflicts concerning
show artists’ wisdom, as well as
intellectual property. The DVD s move on a stage of globalization
resonate with its surroundings.
which is characterized by moving images and sounds, by errant
It should not be a redundant
desires, structural misunderstandings and meandering meanings.
ornament in the urban space.
The installation combines texts and images of the DVD covers,
and includes posters of non-existing films, as well as text quotes
Medium-specificity
ranging from fake licenses to damming tag lines, stupefying
medium has its inherent sym-
blurbs and misattributed credits. The different mappings of
bolic meanings. My use of white
“DeriVeD” address the question of fake and original, of piracy,
sugar has something to do
pastiche, copy and also of derivative translation. The imaginative
with its inner meanings. In other
uses of English on these covers do not refer to some language
words, I get its meanings when
deficiency, though, but to the tensions to which language is sub-
I use it. To pick a particular medium and turn it into a work of art
jected in the context of global culture industries, mobile work-
is to use and extend its original meaning while challenging its
forces and new forms of class composition. In this case, transla-
original function. Every medium will eventually become an estab-
tion is an acute expression of political contradictions, of shifting
lished thing in our visual tradition. So it is possible that it will
social frameworks and the irrevocable entanglement of global
be challenged again.
and local imaginaries. The following interview with the theorist of
translation and Assistant Professor in the Department of Futures
Artistic Research
I always try to visualize the concept of time. At
the same time I associate the melting sugar to the passing time.
Studies at Tamkang University, Jon Solomon, tries to unravel
some of these dynamics.
HITO STEYERL
S O N KU K GYO N
SON KUK GYON • HELLO, SHANGHAI: THE
SUGAR BURIED IN OUR MEMORIES •
PICTURES, SUGAR, FURNITURE • 2008
Every
86
HS: The English text production on some Chinese DVD covers is
of a historically meaningful “world” cannot be thought of neither in
quite extraordinary. Let me give you just one example from the
terms of a return to the “worlds” pre-existing the creation of the
cover of “The Departed” (Martin Scorsese): “British pubs are jazz
single one we know through the event of colonial discovery and
singer, she is sexy, vibrant untamed beauty of naturally lively bold.
encounter, nor by the embrace of what he calls a “somnambulistic
She was to get rid of countless man. United states and Britain
Platonism” whereby words are simply equated with things – and
have never been on the eyes of men, at best, is a „Call to come“
advertising tells the philosophical truth of the age (a spectacular
that is able to play „only a doll“. However there is a perfect man –
rather than somnambulistic Platonism, I’d say ). I suppose that one
hyun a day completely changed the debauchery Britain unable
of the reasons you are drawn to these DVD s from the People’s
to resist his charm. He ignored all into the embrace. Wit the peo-
Republic of China, Hito, is because you, too, see in their excess of
ple’s.” Directors credits are attributed to Nonzee Nimibutr.
meaning the condensation of the contradictions that characterize
Taglines: The set have blood. Contain fleshy war epic. Must risk
our age: 1) that there is only a single world (yet we still do not
everyt-
know what that means), and 2) that we cannot yet think this single
O r, even shorter, the DVD title: Mission Imbpossible
–
world without falling back upon the narratives of return.
T h e q u e s t i o n i s : how does one make sense of this excess of
T ruly a “Mission Imbpossible”: even as the introduction of the “b”
–
turns the word “impossible” into unequivocal nonsense, how can
creative translation, reattribution and detournement? Which
we not see in it a performative realization of impossibility (the
economic, social, political and creative dynamics intersect in this
simultaneous disappearance and excess of context )? It might be
type of text production?
fanciful but not without a certain basis to see “Mission
87
Imbpossible” as an epigram for the ontological poetics of “incomJS: I assume that the reason this particular form of excess holds a
possibility” in today’s world.
certain attraction today is because of the opacity of its context.
HS: You are making a very important point here. Certainly, this
here, too, the English text is also supposed to be a form of con-
new English-based language is a symptom of a deficiency which
textualization. So it is a question of contextualization in a global
indicates backwardness and has to be overcome, but this
context.
deficiency and backwardness is not its author’s, but our own. I
T he question of sense and non-sense is of course a central one,
–
not just for translation studies, which have always had to deal with
understand this language as a language from the future, which we
this issue, but also for any attempt to think about the relation
contains very important messages about contemporary social ten-
between meaning and world in our particular historical conjunc-
sions. By failing to understand it, we fail to come into our present.
ture. How can the operation of contextualization be viable in a
I understand this text production as belonging to a language under
situation in which the necessary fiction of exteriority suggested by
duress. It expresses the tensions of multiple globalization, the
the notion of context no longer functions in a simple way? Or
struggle over Intellectual Property, the confusion of a post-
again, how much longer will we continue to think of McDonald’s as
Euclidian geography, which creates topological spaces transcend-
“American fast food” when worldwide records for customers
ing the binary divisions of inside and outside, of center and
served in a day are continually held by franchises in Taipei, Hong
periphery.
Kong and Beijing?
T he complex locations of this language are precisely described in
–
a congenial phrase from another DVD cover: “She is from outside
W hen Jean-Luc Nancy speaks of the “end of the sense of the
–
world” and the “end of the world of sense” as one and the same,
unfortunately fail to fully comprehend yet, but which already
the extrication”. The languages spoken “outside the extrication” –
he is calling attention to the way in which a certain conception
in the corridors, exclaves, free trade zones, protectorates, at the
of exteriority – virtually eliminated by the most current wave of
checkpoints and in the cordons sanitaires of globalization, in the
globalization – has been fundamental to the construction of both
faultlines between states and corporations – are the outcome of
“world” and “meaning” since the very idea of world history first
truly common efforts. We see a foreshadowing of the commons of
became meaningful. Yet he is also asking us to recognize the ways
the future in the new Englishes around the world. A pale glimpse
in which the determination of whatever will replace the category
of this future language of globalization is also depicted in Michael
HITO STEYERL
HITO STEYERL
This is not accidental or external to the items in question because
Winterbottom’s ( unfortunately rather lame ) “Code 2046”, which
tastes of a national or imperial bourgeoisie, but anything that has
uses Shanghai as a backdrop of a future global city, haunted by
acquired the status of exchange value.
the fear of illicit reproduction and incestual cloning. However, the
neo-English in the movie is much too timid and compliant with
H ow is one to judge the aesthetics of English copy on Chinese
–
DVD s as a form of unauthentic culture, given the success of “cell
dominant standards to compete in relevance with the real existing
phone novellas” recently popularized in Japan and spreading
English idioms there.
to other East Asian countries? Whether actually written on cell-
T hose languages-in-becoming are irrevocably broken languages.
–
They are called broken languages precisely because there is so
phones or not, this genre – written in a putatively “native”
much pressure on them that they break like tectonic plates and
guardians of authenticity shake their heads. The stylistic differ-
speaking them is like munching on ruins.
ences are difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce in translation,
language – features a style and grammar designed to make the
although you can imagine the compromises a novella written
88
entirely in the form of SMS might have to make, even in English.
of reading will seem promiscuous. Hence, one will always have to
The Sydney Morning Herald quotes Toru Ishikawa, a professor
contend nowadays with a familiar culturalist reading that would
of Japanese literature at Tokyo’s prestigious Keio University: “The
like to see in such garbled English copy the smug affirmation of a
size of the screen also necessitates that [ authors ] use short,
mimetic, implicitly neo-colonial, relation between China and the
simple sentences with basic words. If that’s how you measure the
West. Throughout the Pacific Rim boom of the 1980s (which pre-
quality of literature, then yes, the prevalence of writing like this
ceded the continental boom starting in the 1990s ), a periodical
will water down Japanese literature... But it could also encourage
of no less repute than the Far Eastern Economic Review carried a
writers to be inventive with language in new ways. Language
regular column devoted to the supposed hilarity of non-standard
must always evolve.”
English usage in East Asia.
T he remarkable “excess” seen in these DVD s is a faithful
–
reproduction in one very real sense in that it reflects the actual
H S : On the other hand, I remember a certain Japanese copy pro-
aesthetics of English reception in Chinese society today. The
duction in the 1980s, which had developed its own peculiar style
effects of the “English tsunami” inundating social relations at all
of using English to express a certain lifestyle-obsessed vacuous-
levels cannot be overestimated. My sense is that the quotidian
ness, which was (in my mind ) clearly connected to the bubble
guise of English is intrinsically excessive for highly mobile popula-
economy of the period. In those times of fantasmatic speculation,
tions (such as Chinese labor) subjected to a new form of social
just as exchange value loses any relation to a material referent,
segmentation partly based on English-language dominance at the
language also seems to lose its contact with anything outside itself
global level.
and flattens in a reiteration of brand names. Thus I assume that
there are several locally specific dynamics involved in the creation
T his raises one of the fundamental points about translation: those
–
for whom the translation is necessary will have absolutely no
of Far Eastern Englishes. But you are completely right; many
way to verify first-hand the authenticity of a translation. Under the
mainstream English speakers regard these phenomena with a late
conditions of actual production in the translation industries today,
colonial complacency, which I really doubt they can afford.
where there is a gross asymmetry between languages such as
89
1
Chinese and English, this means that monolingual English speakers
JS: Evelyn Ch’ien’s Weird English (Harvard University Press,
face a relative disadvantage. While most Chinese in urban cen-
2004 ) provides a good antidote to this kind of hubris by showing
ters today will have some familiarity with English, the same cannot
how non-standard usage has become an important source of
be said of English-speakers outside of China vis-a-vis Chinese.
creativity, if not a genre in its own right. Yet the complete lack of
parity between the circulation of a major English weekly news
HS: This applies to English speakers, who read Chinese DVD
periodical and an academic monograph, even a popular one, hints
covers. How about the Chinese public, which most probably con-
at what the “somnambulistic Platonists” are really trying to get us
stitutes the overwhelming portion of the market. What are their
to sleep through by mocking non-standard English among the
expectations with respect to these covers? Are they supposed to
natives; what passes for culture today is no longer the hegemonic
look „foreign“?
HITO STEYERL
HITO STEYERL
JS: Of course, for the neo-Platonists among us, even this type
JS: Yes, they are supposed to look foreign, just as McDonald’s
seen in some pirated editions of foreign films, released with an
in China is supposed to be foreign, too. But these categories are
attention to detail and presentation that rivals the official versions,
obviously inadequate. Inadequate in the first instance because
and, in the case of classic films which are no longer easily avail-
what we are dealing with is not just a neat correlation between lin-
able except in pirated form, surpasses them.
guistic and spatial differences, such that the differences between
90
HS: I specifically liked the detourned logo of the Video Packaging
onto spatial differences between different nations or civilizations.
Review Committee on an otherwise impeccable fake Artificial
As we have already noted, English is becoming progressively
Eye arthouse film DVD cover. It was altered to spell: Video Fack
implicated in the constitution of social and class differences within
Acino Revier Comitke. It is this attention to detail which is so
China. At the same time, the very notion of class, which in order
compelling – the logo is tiny and virtually invisible; everything else
to be effective as a tool of social analysis traditionally had to refer
was perfect. But this tiny logo was clearly self-referential, like a
to differences within a single nation, is now dilating to include a
tag which a graffiti artist would spray on a wall, or an artists sig-
new, global level.
nature. But there seem to be several approaches to cover art
O f course, an older generation of Chinese is still marked by the
–
historical experience of “de-linking” (from the world economy )
and translation of English texts; some are made in complete look-
under Maoism, and for this generation, English will always be the
plots to conform to Confucian-socialist morals or historical-mate-
sign of absolute exteriority. But there is no question that the actu-
rialist sensibilities; others copy Wikipedia entries, or simply
al situation has irrevocably evolved. Given that Chinese labor is
use Google Tran to create their blurbs. But most interesting is the
the world’s largest migrant labor force subjected to the policies of
tongue-in-cheek approach of many cover artists, who do not
a single State, its position vis-a-vis Capital is potentially explo-
back away from putting extremely unflattering tag lines from
sive. Normally, one would think that the unprecedented concen-
invented critics and magazines on the cover. This attitude
tration of capital investment combined with such enormous levels
reminds me of some European medieval copyists, who would
of migration would produce a revolutionary situation, but such is
write in the margins of their beautifully crafted scripture illumi-
not the case. Hence, we have a situation in which obviously inade-
nations, “I am bored to death”. Can you name a few of the
quate categories (such as “foreign” and “native”) are still being
conditions which frame these different approaches to this pro-
relied upon, perhaps more than ever.
duction of text and image?
T he picture I am painting, thus, is one in which culture – an
–
amalgam of images about language and ethnicity – is the ideology
JS: First, there is an economy in the division of labor. The separate
through which Capital maintains hegemony in spite of acute
tasks of copy editing and layout design are, in this kind of pirate
social contradictions. Behind the culture-image industry’s look of
operation, usually combined. Although the work might not be paid
authenticity lies a thoroughly transnational regime of production.
at a piece rate, there is surely the same pressure here as in other
“Chinese” are not the only ones responsible for the creation of
parts of the translation industry to produce at a definite rate of
“Chineseness” or “Chinese culture” as a globally-recognized fig-
output. Second, the division of labor is gendered. Although I can-
ure of anthropological difference; by the same token, the pro-
not cite any figures, I would wager that over 90% of the designer/
91
a-like English; other earnestly translate some weirdo action film
duction of “the West”, as seen in these DVD s, is not in the hands
copy editors who actually produce these DVD covers are educated
of “the West” alone. The truth of this situation is clearly grasped
urban women who are literate – but not necessarily professionally
by Hollywood, which increasingly markets products like Geisha
trained – in both desktop publishing software and English. Third,
designed to confirm expectations among Asian audiences of
the market for these DVD s faces stiff competition from P2P
Western Orientalism.
downloading. Packaging (and ease of obtaining the discs without
a trace) is an important source of the value-added attraction of
HS: You also mentioned, that in many cases the DVD covers are
these products.
not only twisting the original, but improving upon it.
Today, the transnational nature of the culture-image industry is
–
increasingly articulated to IPR (intellectual property rights )
JS: There is a certain market logic at work in the professionalism
regimes. How long before the trend toward increasing privatization
HITO STEYERL
HITO STEYERL
“Chinese” and “English” text could be unproblematically mapped
of creative work in the public domain converges with the asym-
languages almost inadvertently. This space is a site of conflict as
metrical relations of the global translation industry, accelerating
well as of the creation of commonality, a space for shared contra-
the privatization of culture, if not entire nationalized languages?
dictions. Or as one cover triumphantly explains, “The virtuous
space worries together”
As the condescending jocularity of jokes about Asian English in the
1980s turns into aggressive assertions of proprietary rights in the
new millennium, a struggle for the appropriation and privatization
1
ONLINE EDITION SYDNEY MORNING HERALD,
H T T P : / / W W W. S M H . C O M . A U / N E W S / M O B I L E S - - H A N D H E L D S / I N - J A PA N - C E L L U L A R STORYTELLING-IS-ALL-THE-RAGE/2007/12/03/1196530522543.HTML
( A C C E S S E D D E C E M B E R 7, 2 0 0 7 ) .
of collective knowledge looms ahead.
HS:
We already live in a period in which piracy is routinely associ-
ated with terrorism and countries with large pirate markets are
labeled as rogue states. The case of Jack Valenti, former head of
the MPAA (American Motion Pictures Association ), is very interest92
ing in that respect. He claimed that piracy funded international
Responses
terrorists. Others named Hezbollah, Chechen separatists, Kosovar
SU XINPING
93
extremists and the IRA as potential benefactors of such operations, thus linking illicit reproduction with extreme violence and
The Fluid Movement of People’s Mobility in Forms of Migration
firmly anchoring it in the field of the absolute Other.
In the early 1990s, I moved from the central part of Beijing
Valenti had already been at the forefront of a copy scare in the
–
1980s. He became notorious for his vociferous attacks on the Sony
( Wangfujing area ) to the suburbs. For almost twenty years, I have
Betamax video recorder, and told a congressional panel in 1982,
urban development and the impact of urbanization on people. I
“I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the
also saw the role of migration and mobility in the city’s economic
American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home
and cultural development.
been commuting everyday. I witnessed and experienced the swift
reproduction were racialized in the image of Asian industry espi-
Based on my personal experience,
–
I have created the Landscape
onage and mindless copying of Western products. Now similar
series and the Bottoms Up series
claims are strategically embedded into a “war against terror” rhet-
in recent years. In the latter, I
oric, which is supposed to scare away and criminalize P2P users
depict symbolically some happy
and torrential downloaders. On the other hand, pirates themselves
gatherings, where people with
are often active agents within violent privatization and expropria-
different backgrounds are holding
tion. Numerous cases in which illegal immigrants were forced to
their wine glasses. My work is
alone.” Obviously even at that time, the anxieties about illicit
also trying to raise many issues
sell pirated goods for criminal gangs prove that the pirate is not
but also a privileged actor in the ruthless privatization of everything, because he is even less restrained by the rule of law than
S U X I N P I N G • CHEERS • O I L PA I N T I N G •
2006
in the changing environment,
including the accelerating urban
development, increasing migra-
are other actors.
tion, and rising living standards. My work questions people’s
Maybe the broken language on the DVD covers expresses the
–
amalgam of all these contradictions. Nowadays the distinction
sumptuous, wasteful lifestyle as well as the environmental issues
between the Haves and the Have-Nots as a major difference
art can raise questions and express my feelings, experiences and
between people is supported by another one: the “Knows” and
thoughts. I also hope that through my art I can participate in the
the “Know-nots”. The broken languages might reflect struggles for
process of social development and urbanization.
behind these celebratory “bottoms up” scenes. I hope that my
control over symbolic production and reproduction. On the other
hand, they may as well represent the efforts of creating a common
Despising Most in Contemporar y Art
(language) beyond nations and corporations. They may sketch
most in contemporary art is the commodification of art and the
out an unbounded space of cover art virtuosos, who invent new
vulgarization of art criticism. The commodification of art means
I would say what I despise
SU XINPING
HITO STEYERL
necessarily a noble figure ( as in the imagination of many leftists ),
that artists in general abandon the idea of making art as a
creative act. They turn artistic creation into a repetitive thing in
Responses
pursuit of profit. They degrade themselves to the status of
TA N G M AO H O N G
commodity producers. To me, self-degradation is a matter of
personal choice. But if those people still term themselves
Globalization
artists, it is no longer a personal thing; the audience will get
issue of globalization. Globalization is a big power game that is all
confused and the entire art community will be harmed.
about “survival” and “extinction.” The winners and losers were
T he vulgarization of art criticism refers to the critics’ pursuit of
–
money and power in the name of scholarly research. They
decided at the beginning of the game, so I find it to be completely
Actually, I am very happy to play dumb on the
meaningless.
readily abandon their scholarly research and aspirations as well
94
as their intellectual principles and perspectives. In order to gain
Urbanity
discursive power, they knit a close network and employ crony-
parable space for reproduction, a thriving and vigorous perpetual-
ism. As a result, their judgments are no longer scholarly and
motion machine and an end in and of itself. I wonder what drives
transparent. The vulgarization of criticism is even more harmful
the people in it. What is so valuable that people spend a whole life
than the commodification of art because the former is detri-
seeking? It is a mystery to me.
In many descriptions, the city is regarded as an incom-
95
mental not only to the critics, but also to art research and the
audience. It distorts Chinese contemporary art and hinders
Public Space
its progress.
art gallery to create a new public space. This is a physical space,
I try to use the settings in the exhibition hall of the
while a mental space is established through the moving shadows
Artistic Research
The Bottom Up series reflects a phase in my
exploration of the painting language in recent years. More
in my works. This way the viewer may obtain a mix of experiences
from seeing my work.
specifically, I explore the possibility of combining print and oil
painting in method and expression.
Urban Flow
P rintmaking is an indirect way of painting, because a print is
–
executed in a complex process that involves preparing blocks or
familiar traffic lights to transmit
plates and printing. As a printmaker for many years, I am used
an alternative traffic scene. This
to the process in which one treats the design as a whole. The
provides a temporary space for
features and constraints of printmaking force the artist to use a
the viewer to observe. The ani-
limited range of colors and tonalities. For example, black and
mation links subtly with the
white are often the major elements in prints; gray tones are used
mentality of the audience, and
animations that intend to create
less frequently. The language of printmaking is simple and
reasons why I love printmaking. I engage in oil painting not
resonates with the different
T A N G M A O H O N G • O N T H E W AY •
M U LT I M E D I A I N S T A L L A T I O N • 2 0 0 8
kinds of choices that the floating
population must make in the city.
because I am interested in the traditional way of painting, but
because of its painterly nature and directness. For this reason,
Public Art
I do not look at the oil painting tradition for inspiration. Instead,
than “art.” What is really “public”? Who is entitled to define the
I find my own language in printmaking, such as the rational
properties of this space? Who has this authority? Here, is art not
process of design, flattened space, and the use of a simple
only a selective tool?
It is more meaningful here to discuss “public” rather
palette consisting of black, white and gray tones. I hope
that through my research in this direction I can find a personal
Biennale’s Concepts
and unique language
visual outcomes of transition, affiliation, linkages, encounters
The form and content of the works are the
and social and economic changes, which represent a combination
of images familiar to people. It was produced under such circumstances and it will similarly disappear under them.
TA N G M AO H O N G
SU XINPING
pure due to these features and limitations. These are exactly the
My work uses
Medium-specificity
Undoubtedly, medium-specificity will bring
Ruse, dividing Turkey and Bulgaria. This was shortly after Bulgaria
in some of the concepts and vocabulary of traditional art, but
had joined the European Union, and as such become the guardian
its view has also developed some new concepts. At the same time,
of Europe’s easternmost border. We had a trunk filled with old,
some concepts of traditional visual art have been expanded
heavy camera gear, a load we have schlepped around with us for
during this process.
years and which often causes delays at border crossings. At the
first window, we received a memory-stick labeled supertalent.
Most Despicable in Contemporar y Art
From the perspective of
Somewhat baffled, we thanked the border guard for this odd wel-
the “despicable,” it seems that nothing in particular in contem-
come present. Had the Bulgarians already immediately adopted
porary art stands out when compared with other fields. However,
the European migration morality, ‘Only allow knowledge migrants
why do people not give it the same respect as sciences?
in” and proclaimed it as their motto? At the next checkpoint,
though, we had to turn in our little gadget again. It seemed to
Hope for the Future of Art
96
With increasingly blurry boundaries,
function as a wireless network in the border area, so that those
artistic creation is no longer professional, nor does it depend
crossing the border were responsible for transmitting their own
any longer on a professional system, including art galleries, grant
transport information. During the control procedures, which took
funds, private galleries, Biennials, art expositions, professional
hours, at nine different checkpoints, the customs agents barely
curators, collectors, or art critics.
paid us any notice as passengers, or examined our vehicle, or its
I am more interested in finding out about how artistic creation
–
manifests itself in North Korea, Brunei Darussalam, the Kingdom
contents, as they were preoccupied with loading and opening
of Nepal, the Islamic State of Afghanistan, the State of Kuwait,
with counterforces that actually thwart their completion. It is
the Republic of Yemen, the State of Palestine, the Federal
the same with us, in our export-oriented country, known for many
Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Socialist People’s Libyan
decades as a leading proponent of international cooperation
Arab Jamahiriya, the Republic of Chad, the Republic of Liberia,
and a multicultural safe haven, now seeing a recent resurgence of
the Republic of Ghana, the Republic of Cameroon, the Republic
political parties dedicated to stemming the migrant tide and main-
of the Congo, the Republic of Uganda, the Republic of Zambia,
taining a national identity as “spearhead” policy.
97
the virtual data. Transgression processes often go hand in hand
A s artists in a time of spectacle
–
and homeland security, with
the Republic of Zimbabwe, and the Kingdom of Tonga!!
TRANSLATED BY JASON TOWER
silent movies we grope along the
changing institutional border
landscapes in which we operate.
We observe supervised boundaries as a staged act in itself, the
A Border-crossing Cinema-eye
act of looking back. We explore
where there may be possible
L O N N I E VA N B R U M M E L E N &
SIEBREN DE HAAN • MONUMENT OF
SUGAR • INSTALLATION • 2007
L O N N I E VA N B R U M M E L E N & S I E B R E N D E H A A N
passage-ways, and how barriers
may be surmounted. In an
attempt to counteract the manic
fixation on the here-and-now, we often choose to adopt a land“I use the camera as a cinema-eye more perfect than the
scape focus, open-field perspectives, from which one may look
human eye for exploring the chaos of visual phenomena filling
beyond borders and reveal how the various territories in spatial
the universe. I am a cinema eye – I am a mechanical eye. I
constellations are situated in their relevant context to one another.
am a machine, I show you a world such as only I can see....”
In production storyboards, we sketch out the detours and byways
Dziga Vertov, Kino Pravda ( Film Truth ) – 1925
through which we had to flee, offering new vistas, whether or not
they led to the next obstacle.
Several weeks ago, we crossed the border between Edirne and
C reating silent landscape movies is a minimalist event. The
–
VA N B R U M M E L E N & D E H A A N
VA N B R U M M E L E N & D E H A A N
The Movie Camera as Exhibition
Object
arises when the film transport must be started up so that the
I mporting the movie camera as exhibition object involves shipping
–
the camera-eye in a sealed sea container. To overcome the
light-sensitive material passes through the self-opening and clos-
temporary blindness of our camera-eye, we will need a drifting
ing film gate with regular pulses, and is exposed to impressions.
practice of private eyes first
camera chooses a cutout. After a waiting period, the moment
In a continuation of the futurist poetry seen in ‘The Man with the
Movie Camera’, we unite ourselves with the object, the camera.
There is no separation between subject and object. No renting of
equipment and personnel. Division of labor is not our style. To
keep it simple, we perform all aspects of filmmaking ourselves. We
have worked with an Arriflex 35 for years, with its noisy rattling,
Kial vi ne skribas min plu?
suitable only for recording images. In the twilight of the silent
M I E K E VA N D E V O O R T
movie era, this type of camera was developed as one of the first
98
portable successors to heavy studio equipment. This field cam-
In the early 1920s, a man traveled by train and boat from
era, including lenses and tripod, is easily transported and operat-
Amsterdam to Shanghai. There he embarked upon a journey
ed by the two of us, as we trade off the different duties which
through China. He was on a secret mission, the details of
must be performed.
which were written on a piece of cloth that he carried on his body.
I n an effort to escape from a matter-of-course production shoot
–
for the exhibition apparatus, we rarely produce work on assign-
His task was to investigate local circumstances and explore the
ment. The invitation from the Shanghai Biennale to create a new
change into motion.
best strategies to mobilize a movement that could set irreversible
first time that this biennale will allow non-Chinese artists the
I n Kial vi ne skribas min plu?
–
a protagonist sets out to follow
opportunity to create work in China. Such stretching of the usual
the same route eighty-seven
rules appeals to us. Then there is also the theme of the biennale
years later. The ensuing trave-
itself: ‘the fluid movement of people’ expressed in the portman-
logue is narrated by an account
teau word ‘Translocalmotion’. It seems expedient to address
of moving and still images,
processes of opening and closing.
and a spoken exchange between
C hina’s blue river flows from its origins in the Tibetan plateau
–
thousands of miles to its mouth, emptying out into the East China
a Dutch woman and a Chinese
piece in China, however, is one we could not refuse. This is the
Sea near Shanghai. Seafaring ships may enter the river and sail
more than a thousand kilometers into the Chinese hinterlands. The
idea for a flood-control dam in the Yangtze dates back to shortly
man. They communicate in
M I E K E VA N D E V O O R T • KIAL VI NE
SKRIBAS MIN PLU – A TRAVELOGUE •
INSTALLATION • 2008
Esperanto, the only language
they have in common, and
attempt to reconstruct the
secret traveler’s movements and experiences.
Mao fantasized, in a poem entitled ‘Swimming’, about surprising
the goddess Wu with a huge man-made lake in between the steep
T he choreography of my movements in China, and of the work,
–
was driven and shaped by research. A quest for local Esperantists
gorges. Several years ago, this huge flow was tamed. In five
at first gained very little result; most of the organizations and ini-
enormous steps, a sluice spans the 130-meter height differential
tiatives seemed to have vanished. Once an entrance into the
created by the construction of the dam. Gates subsequently lock
Esperanto landscape was found, a rapidly shrinking community of
and unlock, regulating and controlling the flow. We propose an
individuals faithful to the modernist dream of its founder emerged.
unbiased filming of this Two-Sided Five-Step Shiplock in operation.
Why have you stopped writing me? could be said to reflect a
C hina’s Carnet for Temporary Admission is only valid for ‘exhibition
–
pieces’ and not for ‘goods for professional use’. One may not
desire to connect with the unknown /concealed and to grasp the
import a film camera. The question of how we can film a Chinese
and personal intentions in the past.
sluice has morphed into how can we sluice a film camera into
T o participate in an exhibition coincides with making the machine
–
work and reaffirms the mechanics of it. The act of participation is
constellation that the present has formed with certain events
M I E K E VA N D E V O O R T
VA N B R U M M E L E N & D E H A A N
before the establishment of the Republic of China. Even Chairman
China?
99
itself an example of mobility. It involves voluntary displacement
big cities and generally denied the government benefits that city
indicative of a freedom to travel; not out of economic or political
residents receive, it is they who provide the labor that is fuelling
necessity, but through a seemingly unregulated process.
the economic boom.
T his reflection takes place in the context of a biennale. Much
–
has been written about the biennale as phenomenon. The biennale
Chinese experts estimate to be over 80 million strong. They are
machine is itself an agent and a symptom of ‘globalization’, ‘mobility’, ‘rhetorics of late capitalism’ and ‘socio-economic change’ –
I nformality defines the landscape of certain world cities, where
–
street vendors occupy interstitial nodes that were neither antici-
concepts that are all part of the exhibition’s theme. A machine that
pated nor determined by urban designers and city administrators.
celebrates ‘the international’ but does so on the basis of the
The greater tolerance extended to the estimated 50,000 street
national
vendors in Shanghai under a flexible regulation policy passed in
2
They make up a temporary population that
called the floating population or floaters.
early 2007 extended formal permission to vendors operating
without license, allowing an increasingly dense web of informalities that serves the entire city. 3 The tautly rendered facelift of
100
101
state-managed capitalist progress has given the city its postMaoist character, while this floating web of migrant workers
Shanghai Dreaming
etches the lines and shadows in its public face, infusing the city
Holding an Urban Gold Card
with its multilayered personality.
J E A N N E VA N H E E S W I J K
M y interest as an artist lies in the way in which people inhabit the
–
city’s edifice and shape its public domain. Being an active user
When I arrived back in Shanghai last May, after an absence of
of the public space as well as a component in that space’s image
more than 20 years, I was shocked. Since my stay there in 1985
engages you in the process of its creation. To me this is a defini-
as an exchange student I had closely followed China’s rapid eco-
tion of citizenship. I find it intriguing that the combined free
nomic growth in the news and in academic studies. The Chinese
enterprise of this temporary population allowed only restricted cit-
state and intellectuals proactively welcome and embrace economic
izenship should be the city’s shaping force. The migrant workers
globalization as a golden opportunity for China to modernize.
1
who drive such a powerful constellation of innovative business
All the same, nothing could have prepared me for the shock of
endeavors are communally constructing the symbols of progress.
experiencing it for myself.
U sing the bean-scatter distribution method practiced by the
–
urbanist Raoul Bunschoten, which involves the random sampling
C onstruction is going on and up
–
everywhere, filling every possi-
produced by throwing beans onto a map of the city to research
ble space in the city, and every
the emotions and conflicts of dynamic environments, we marked
few minutes new businesses are
34 spots in the city. We visited every spot in search of stories
being set up on every street,
that would illuminate just how these informal business endeavors
selling food, toys and T-shirts,
have come to shape the city that is undergoing such rapid growth,
collecting recyclable paper,
fuelled by the dreams of progress of thousands of migrant work-
cans, wood and textiles. You can
ers. The collective business acumen of migrant workers is produc-
physically feel the city growing,
ing a vast capacity for change. ‘Take a small sample of a city; cut
like the pain of a teenager grow-
a small section out of its flux. Watch the processes that created
ing so quickly that his gangly
the flux and it will show you the human (inter- ) face of the city.’
arms and legs move in weird
Bean 33 landed on a white spot on the map, close to a small
–
canal. On arriving there, one sees a sign that says ‘Ruining Road’,
directions, driven by his hormonally deranged emotions.
5
I n Shanghai, as in all major cities in China, post-Mao reforms
–
resulted in migrant workers streaming in from the countryside in
a bright road so new that the rubble is still stacked in big bags
search of a better life. Every day they arrive in their thousands
stands a woman at a small stall shaded by an umbrella. She
at the railway stations. Though officially denied residence in the
is making dumpling soup in a large kettle on a gas burner for the
alongside. It leads to a large new government building. Midway
J E A N N E VA N H E E S W I J K
J E A N N E VA N H E E S W I J K
J E A N N E VA N H E E S W I J K • SHANGHAI
DREAMING-HOLDING AN URBAN GOLD
CARD • PA P E R , P E N C I L , P H O T O A N D
T-SHIRT • 2008
4
government employees in the new building as well as workers
by to encourage them to follow their personal desire paths. In their
nearby. Some of the construction workers say it is good soup.
daily movements the people wearing the T-shirts become walking
Some years ago she and her husband migrated to the city from the
gold cards, a flow of information on how to make progress. It is
province of Henan, where they had worked in a factory that pro-
a tale of private initiative following its own dreams of progress that
duced glass laboratory tubes. Serving early breakfast and lunch on
will be broadcast in the public space, an image of the city whose
the street they make more money than their combined wages at
face is formed by the collective force of a mobile and adaptable
community
the glass factory. This extra money goes to pay for their daughter’s
high school education back home.
T hey live in the adjoining Lilong which has bright red banners hang–
ing across its alleyways: ‘Let’s contribute our strength to make the
2010 EXPO well! Thank you for understanding and supporting
1
2
3
4
5
the move plan!’ Supporting the move plan could imply leaving your
102
6
Y U N X I A N G YA N , ‘ M A N A G I N G C U LT U R A L C O N F L I C T S : S T A T E P O W E R A N D
A LT E R N A T I V E G L O B A L I Z A T I O N I N C H I N A ’ , P R I N C E C L A U S F U N D J O U R N A L 1 5 ( 2 0 0 8 ) .
DOROTHY J. SOLINGER, CONTESTING CITIZENSHIP IN URBAN CHINA: PEASANT
M I G R A N T S , T H E S T AT E , A N D T H E L O G I C O F T H E M A R K E T ( B E R K E L E Y , 1 9 9 9 ) .
GEETAM TIWARI, ‘INFORMALITY AND ITS DISCONTENTS’,IN THE ENDLESS CITY,
(LONDON, 2007).
F L O R I S - J A N VA N L U Y N , E E N S TAD VAN BOEREN , ( A M S T E R D A M , 2 0 0 4 ) .
CHORA/RAOUL BUNSCHOTEN, URBAN FLOTSAM, (ROTTERDAM, 2001).
T AY L O R D AV I D S O N , ‘ C U T T I N G A D E S I R E PA T H T H R O U G H L I F E ’ , O N L I N E P U B L I C A T I O N : < H T T P : / / W W W. T AY L O R D AV I D S O N . C O M > ( A C C E S S E D M A R C H 2 4 , 2 0 0 8 ) .
house. When asked where they would like to go from here, they
103
reply that they realize having their own hotpot restaurant is an
unrealistic dream, but they would be very happy to be in the same
place in a few years’ time. Even though the work is hard it gives
them a certain freedom. She smiles: ‘I have an open-air restaurant,
no?’ In this case one year making dumpling soup equals one year
of high school education. Dumpling soup is their golden opportuni-
Reflections
ty, in the sense of gold being a stable currency that inspires the
CLEMENS VON WEDEMEYER
fortune-seeker, allowing them to cut a ‘desire path’ through life.
I n landscape architecture a desire path is a non-designed but well–
worn path, created casually by people finding the shortest distance
All art could be public: viewed and judged by a wide audience, not
between two points. It is created by experience, not by explicit
Sure, there must be knowledge and understanding on the side of
design. Desire paths are how people have chosen the best way to
the public. But not all art has to be understood by all people.
just a small group, divided by borders, knowledge, power or money.
we follow. We see the choices people have made, we see the
it through moving images. It
paths, and we follow them. And not just in our walking routes, but
directly interferes with the mind
throughout our lives. Laws, rules, accepted behavioral norms,
of the viewer in a semi-public
societal expectations – all are created by the history of choices of
space such as the cinema – or a
the masses. 6 In an increasingly globalized society these routes
similar place. Watching a movie in
trace out a collective desire for progress.
the cinema, museum or even on
T his collection of migrant workers’ stories will form a map of
–
Shanghai based on a web of mobility by which the fulfillment of
the computer screen can be like a
J E A N N E VA N H E E S W I J K
your dream generates change in the city. Personal symbols of
progress are extracted from these stories to demonstrate the power
CLEMENS VON WEDEMEYER • OTJESD •
VIDEO • 2005
small program changing one’s
conscience. In a way, it is not
important where you watch a
of the productive individual. Symbols of dreams of fortune arising
movie, but the cinema or any other kind of public place seems to
out of migrant workers’ personal initiatives form a new shared lan-
be the right place to start discussions and to watch movies with
guage. These symbols will be printed as black and gold silhouettes
the screen quality the filmmaker or artist would have wanted.
on red T-shirts, for which the ‘Fortune’ brand is being specially
However, the cinema as the only space for watching movies would
established. These T-shirts will be distributed to street vendors who
be boring, just as the artworld would be without the cinema.
sell ‘Gucci’ and ‘Prada’ to take on ‘Fortune’ as an extra brand.
A fter having watched a movie and then leaving the cinema, one
–
adapts slowly to the outside world while still being part of the
Calling out ‘Gucci, Prada, Fortune!’ they sell the T-shirts to passers-
CLEMENS VON WEDEMEYER
wisdom of the masses, they set norms, standardized choices, and
M y work relates to the public/the
–
public space by commenting on
navigate their world. Whether created by an individual or by the
movie. Sometimes a movie is a shock; a shock of an encounter
global economy. Living in this environment, Chinese artists change
with another world, a confronting with another way of thinking,
their way of thinking in response to the economic conditions.
contact with another culture. That is not a passive moment; ears
These changes are reflected in my work: I develop a richer lan-
listen to different sounds, voices, meanings; eyes adapt to other
guage to express my ideas. I can transform the tradition and
colors, new movements. Two realities collide: the reality of the fic-
become both a world citizen and a Chinese who is well versed
tion on the screen and the reality of one’s own experience outside
in tradition.
the projection room. In movies we see places we will never see
104
outside the cinema, we see characters we would not like to meet
Urbanity
on the street. Yet sometimes we look at something on the big
can see most clearly how economic changes
screen that reminds us of ourselves. That is a bizarre moment.
transform our life.
Watching a movie, or looking at a piece of art, is like travel. But do
–
not forget the border between the location where the film was
Public Space
made and where you watch it. Film can cross borders more easily
as example. Clothes in the work appear
than people who want to move around in the world. Some have
more abstract. Conceptually speaking,
to wait to get a transit permit. Some do not get one and try to
clothes, humans, and urban space become
cross an illegal border – if there is no fence. Landscapes and cities
one; each element is an integral part of my
in films create desires. The places in movies invite the viewer to
work. Works in different space are displayed
enter them. These landscapes, though, are often unavailable. Too
differently. The Clothes Series shown in
believe something you cannot see in the outside world with your
Take my work at this Biennale
WANG QIANG • CLOTHES:
MAGNIFICENT TURN ON
THE RACETRACK • MIXED
MATERIALS • 2008
people’s way of living in Shanghai. Visitors
view the work while walking because the
clothes are hanging above the staircases.
own eyes. Moreover, the image on the screen seldom matches
This allows viewers to see clothes in a daily
one’s own imagination and is never similar to the reality where it
context. At the same time, they are able to detach themselves
its production space.
from the everyday setting, so that they can detect a more abstract
F ilms often need a transit permit. Films are judged – they are
–
wanted or excluded, forgotten or dismissed in various states. In
and more precise relationship in the work.
some countries, a cinema program must be ready up to six
The Fluid Movement of People’s Mobility in Forms of Migration
months before the first screening in order to be controlled by state
People in the city are on the move. Clothes have a life only when
censors. Sometimes people fear a different way of thinking, a
people wear them. Clothing and migration are closely related.
different logic entering their own cultural field.
They adopt many forms to meet people’s social and emotional
I t is necessary to project and melt misunderstandings through
–
films or other cultural output, but films, and even a short film on
needs. Shanghai is a place where one can find both prosperity
the Internet, can provoke just an opposite reaction...
about its atmosphere and people’s appearance. Many individuals
and tranquility. We can sense that there is something special
clearly show the multi-faceted nature of the city. Compared
to other cities, there is something personal and human about
Shanghai.
Public Art
In China, the term “qun zhong” (the masses ) is rather
general. But it has little to do with public art.
WA N G Q I A N G
Biennale’s Concepts of Transfer, Connectivity, Encounter, and
Globalization
First of all, the impact of globalization on China’s
development has been revolutionary. We have become part of the
Social and Economic Change
“Clothes” in my work is something
very concrete. Their styles reflect Shanghai’s development as well
WA N G Q I A N G
WA N G Q I A N G
was filmed. The image is split between the film, its history and
Responses
105
the Shanghai Biennale are meant to reflect
many difficulties lie between the cinema and its screen-based
world and the world outside the screen. Thus, you are asked to
The city is the frontier where one
as changes in both the environment and the citizens. The transpar-
Chinese people had to see the Western world, to learn about what
ent material obscures the form of the clothes, and transforms
Westerners eat, what they wear, and what kind of housing they live
them into expressions of certain moods. So they are about trans-
in. This program helped the Chinese people, who had been isolated
fer and connectivity. Images of people today are largely defined
from the rest of the world for decades, to learn about the west and
by those famous and representative images. This is the result of
understand more about the world.
our encounter with economic changes.
T he song “We’ll meet again in twenty years” describes expectations
–
for the future during the 1980s. Twenty years later, China had indeed
Medium-specificity
realized many of these dreams: it was named host country for the
The exploration of medium language is
closely related to the changing values in the economic globalization
2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the 2010 International Expo in
process. It also has something to do with cultural interaction,
Shanghai. With the episode of “Learn with Me” produced in 2003
which alters our visual languages and redefines our visual tradi-
entitled “Let China enter the world, let the world understand China,” I
tions. In general, my attitude toward medium is positive.
essentially realized my dream of being able to speak English fluently.
Despising Most in Contemporar y Art
I n the past I studied oil painting, but as I found that a brush was not
–
able to accurately represent the rapidly changing world, I decided
106
The lack of ideas.
107
to begin to use photography to capture my observations of the conDreams for Art of the Future
Beauty
stantly changing society. I found images taken street side to be
the best at recording urban change. Enormous advertising bulletin
boards line the streets, appearing not unlike the “Large Character
Posters” that were prominent during the Cultural Revolution. Behind
these advertisements, a major commercial war is taking place
between the interests of companies, Chinese and international alike.
Praise for Life
I painted all of the 600 posters making up “Advertisement Battle–
field” using traditional Chinese ink and pens used for modern
WA N G Q I N G S O N G
advertisement art. In total, the piece includes over 2000 advertiseDuring the past thirty years since it began opening up to the
ments for items that range from large aircraft to small items like
world, China has changed from a predominately agrarian country
salt, oil and vinegar.
to an international country. As the rapid process of globalization
and urbanization continues, traditional Chinese culture and values
I n recent years, many of my photographs focus on the changes
–
undergone by cities and people. As the old saying goes, “Move a
collide fiercely with external cultural and value systems. My work
man and he lives, move a tree and it dies.” Urbanization attracts
is based on the source of these tensions and on communications
many visitors to the city, all hungry to find opportunities for self
between China and the rest of the world.
development. Often the streets, city squares, airports, bus stations
and train stations are filled with people entering and leaving Beijing
cational program in the
kinds of trunks, suitcases and other pieces of luggage. All of them
English language. This series
seem determined to become successful business-people, whether
included a total of sixty
it means traveling east or west or going into the mountains or the
episodes, was released over the
countryside.
course of twenty years, and
viewed by more than 10 million
R ecently I began to try using sculpture to express the yearnings
–
of the times. The luggage used by people in different eras varies
people, breaking a Guinness
greatly. For example in the Shanghai of the 1920s and 1930s,
World Record for non-native
leather luggage was predominant, while in the south wicker trunks
speakers of English studying the
were in vogue. Northerners on the other hand used sacks with
language. “Learn with Me”
colorful and flowery patterns, while contemporary travelers use
was the first opportunity most
suitcases on wheels.
carrying plastic bags, oversized backpacks, pull carts and all
WA N G Q I N GSO N G
WA N G Q I N GSO N G
WANG QINGSONG • LUGGAGE • COPPER •
80 x 30 x 50 CM x 27 PCS • 2008
R eleased in 1982, “Learn
–
with Me” was CCTV ’s first edu-
L uggage also demonstrates different social status: for example,
–
migrant workers almost always use bags woven together with
4. The fluid movement of people’s mobility in forms of migration
crude plastic or scraps of cloth, or carry their luggage in fertilizer
work comment on and/or relate to this theme?
bags. Intellectuals on the other hand usually carry a black com-
T H E W O R K I S N O N - M E TA P H O R I C A L . A L L R E L AT I O N S T O O T H E R
puter bag and a rolling carry-on. Businessmen travel with suitcases
C O N F I G U - R AT I O N S A R E D E T E R M I N E D B Y T H E R E C E I V E R
is the main theme of the Shanghai Biennale 2008. How does your
with complex locks and security codes, while members of the military carry neatly packed green duffle bags and students carry all
5. What is your understanding of
kinds of colorful backpacks. These pieces of luggage, all of which
the concept of public art?
reflect characteristics of different times or types of work, actually
M A D E AVA I L A B L E T O A P U B L I C
ART
best reflect the development and sophistication of Chinese society,
108
and the improvement of living conditions in China.
6. How does your work relate to
C onnecting with the theme of the 2008 Shanghai biennale,
–
“Translocalmotion”, I created almost thirty types of luggage (made
the Biennale’s concepts of trans-
of bronze), then used classical brushwork and modern airbrush
and social and economic change?
fer, connectivity, encounter,
painting to sketch out the impressions of the times. I hope that
these bronze sculptures will have the same demeanor as an exhibition in a history museum, and that their ceremonial nature will
109
BY CUSPING
LAWRENCE WEINER • SCATTERED
MA T T E R • L A N G U A G E + T H E M A T E R I A L S
REFERRED TO • 2008
7. How would you evaluate
medium-specificity in today’s art
stimulate our childhood memories and engender our respect for
and admiration of a new time and of new immigrants.
world? Is your work related to that concept? Does that concept
F rom the standpoint of both themes and media employed, over the
–
past several years my art has changed with the developments of
also evolve into traditional visual art notions such as visual
the times. In the future I hope to try working with motion pictures
I T I S M Y J O B T O P R O D U C E W O R K N O T T O E V A L U AT E
language, beauty, and the production of the capacity of change?
to use video to put myself more in step with the times
8. What do you despise most in contemporar y art?
TRANSLATED BY JASON TOWER
DESPISE IS A
PERSUASION I DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO
9. Is your work related to a form of artistic research?
NO. IT IS
A P R E S E N T E D M AT E R I A L F A C T
Answers
10. Do you have any dreams for the art of the future?
L AW R E N C E W E I N E R
N E E D S & A S P I R AT I O N S S U R P R I S E M E
T H AT I T S
artist?
THE ORIGINAL INTENT OF THE WORK & THE REASON
FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF LANGUAGE IS TO MAKE THE
W O R K H A V E T H E P O S S I B I L I T Y O F T R A N S L AT I O N F R O M O N E
C U LT U R E T O A N O T H E R
A Description of my Work
W U M I N GZ H O N G
2. How does your work comment on urbanity?
URBANITY IS THE
R E S U LT O F A F O R M O F E R O S I O N – A L L M AT E R I A L F L O W S
What is it that drives people to surge towards cities? I think it is
TOWARDS A CENTER
desire, all kinds of desire, but most of all material desire. Material
desire is relentless, active, fresh and full of passion. The question
3. How does your work relate to public space?
I N F A C T P U B L I C S PA C E S
A L L S PA C E S A R E
is, where is the human spirit amongst all of this desire? Is it in the
city? How much longer will the process of urbanization continue?
WU MINGZHONG
L AW R E N C E W E I N E R
1. In what respect has globalization changed your outlook as an
Post-urbanization, where will people go? These are the questions
this room were just passing through Shanghai, implying that
that motivate me.
the room has not only seen tremendous historical changes in the
S ince 2002, my work has focused primarily on the themes of real–
ism and on the relationship between humans and material goods.
People’s Square, but also but also changes in the nature of the
As people create grand material goods, they are also controlled by
2. Paintings: Using what the artist refers to as glass painting, Wu
these same goods, and as material desires continue to strengthen,
created twelve paintings of the People’s Square looking out from
humans weaken. Every era can be represented by a particular
twelve windows in room 501 (focused on materialism, gaudiness,
medium, and the present era is perhaps best represented by glass
desire and movement). The dimensions of the paintings are 162 x
– hard, but at the same time fragile.
76 cm. The paintings are exhibited to simulate for the observer the
110
guests.
M y paintings use glass as a
–
medium – glass people
view from room 501, and are spaced out across fifteen meters
filled with wine express the
The paintings take up eighteen meters of exhibition space, and
of wall space, matching the arrangement of windows in room 501.
shape and form of the era,
the background color of the wall is grey.
and express my feelings with
3. Video Images: Pictures of the People’s Square taken from hotel
respect to the fragility of
room 501, express spontaneity and fluidity through the movement
humans in the face of material-
of the wine
ism. Alcohol, especially wine
TRANSLATED BY JASON TOWER WITH ZUOYI ZHANG
111
is physically appealing, sexual,
W U M I N G Z H O N G • PA R K H O T E L 5 0 1 •
INSTALLATION • 2008
alluring, and arousing, all
descriptive characteristics or
hints of our times. Using this
media in my paintings opens new possibilities for artistic creation. My work draws from pictures and online media, and using
Reflections
non-traditional forms of realism and glass like imagery, the
YA N G S H A O B I N
people in these photos and media clippings are turned into glass
on the canvas. Much more than just paintings, these works
In our memory, globalization arrived like a sudden blow; unable
absorb the feelings of sculpture and artistic installations, realizing
to respond to its painful impact, people enthusiastically participat-
in them irreplaceable value.
ed in it without careful consideration of its implications. The only
“ International Hotel 501” is based on room 501 of the International
–
Hotel, and can be broken down into three parts: paintings, instal-
thing that cannot be globalized is ideology, which is our last line of
lations of glass and wine, and images of the People’s Square
of an “ism” or “zation” must have its rationales.
defense for our intellectual freedom. The promotion and reception
A gainst the background of
–
globalization, we can find our
concepts of glass and wine. These three dimensions express my
way and approach only after
understanding and reading of the theme of this year’s biennale.
critiquing our current humanistic
E xplanation of Artwork:
–
1 . On Site Installations: The artist uses room 501 of the
ideals as well as scientific and
International Hotel overlooking the People’s Square as the site
about culture in isolation,
for this exhibition. This room has a total of twelve windows, each
because culture grows out of
cultural practices. We cannot talk
economy and science. Without
overlooking the People’s Square, offering a panoramic view. In
each window a glass container containing wine has been installed,
and through this container, observers can view people and objects
YA N G S H A O B I N • X – B L I N D S P O T •
VIDEO • 2008
economic and scientific foundation, culture will become as
in the People’s Square from the artist’s unique perspective. Over
abstract as philosophy.
the past seventy years, almost all the guests that have stayed in
T he role of art is not as abstruse
–
YA N G S H A O B I N
WU MINGZHONG
of expression represent the main theme of my work – the
viewed through the prism of the floating wine. These three forms
as that of philosophy. Philosophy is about analysis and categoriza-
definition of human life: is it a biological term or is it similar to that
tion. It is not about giving answers. For example, it would be
of an animal? In rapid economic development, migrants constantly
rather difficult to use philosophy to explain political issues such as
shift their identities to realize their maximum value; workers
9 /11 or climate change. But art is able to respond to these issues;
become farmers and vice versa. The grand-scale economy system
artists can use their own life experience and ideas to intervene
is supported by numerous small individuals.
and respond to all sorts of social problems.
M y artistic language is quite personal and idiosyncratic. My artis–
tic practices aim to express my personal feelings and to discover
G lobalization has made it possible for us to get a better under–
standing of the world. We are indeed part of globalization, but we
112
new problems. My fascination with “violence aesthetics”, my
don’t really have a choice. As Edward Said states, nothing in this
humanistic concerns and “red” works constitute my basic research
world exists in isolation. Globalization has made all things in the
topics. My work is about tension and fear. Just like what happens
world connected. The world today operates like our body. If there
in a horrifying surgical operation performed by a hysterical doctor,
is something wrong with certain parts, the entire body will feel
wounded bodies are violently severed in my work. Violence,
uncomfortable.
whether for a good or bad cause, has never disappeared in our
T he movement of population is a social phenomenon caused by
–
people’s dissatisfaction with their environment. Migration in
history – it is common that people resort to it when conflicts
developing nations is a different story. People ( in poverty) move in
History also testifies to its devastating effect.
search of decent basic living conditions. They are seeking the
minimum amount of capital at the maximum cost of their mind and
A nother category of my works was created after 9 /11. Some crit–
ics view them as international political commentaries. They
body. In contrast, migration from developed nations to developing
contain fictional plots, historical and current images, which are
ones is not unlike a form of colonialism in cultural, economic and
mingled with social events and interpersonal interaction. This
political spheres. I attended a conference in Berlin in 2006. On an
association and transfer give my work an unsettling and menacing
informal occasion, a German person said, “In my view, people
quality. When people are in danger, changes in this relationship
in the East don’t need to do anything except grow potatoes and
can be very subtle. The critic Mr. Huang Zhuan remarks that
tomatoes, we will take care of the rest of it.” This biased state-
works in this category often convey a sense of anxiety through
ment may represent the average Westerner’s view of the develop-
their fictional narratives. The temporal dimension of my works
ing world.
would confuse the viewer: has something happened, is it happen-
W idth and Depth: 800 meters, Above the Ground, Underground
–
was shown in Fall 2006 in the Long March Space, Beijing, and the
ing or going to happen? Narratives in these works have a more
113
occur. Violence worked only at a few particular moments in history.
psychological depth
X hou shi mang qu will be on view soon. These pieces were made
in collaboration with the Long March Space. For four years, we
visited major coal mines in China to collect materials related to the
discuss the idea of realism in Chinese contemporary art, because
realism was considered something outdated. But the Long March
Space and I are interested in the reuse of this concept. Our experi-
Responses
ences show that realism in art was powerful; realism has been a
YA N G A H H A M
highly effective critical and educational tool from the Civil War
through the Cultural Revolution in China. Realism is indispensable
Globalization Today, cities of the world are linked more closely
to Chinese art because of current drastic social changes.
than countries. People working in the same field all over the world
We can use Marx’s terms to describe the current situation in con–
temporary art. All established things are gone; the political and
are even more closely connected than people working in different
economic orders established in the Socialist industrial period have
first time, they will experience the contemporary art scene in that
collapsed completely. In the work, I am concerned with the
city in a way similar to their own environment.
meaning of our life and industrial production as well as with the
G lobalization enabled the integration of professional fields world–
fields in the same city. For instance, if artists arrive in a city for the
YA N G A H H A M
YA N G S H A O B I N
theme of production and migration. It may not be appropriate to
wide. There is a convenience in it for sure, but adopting the same
so many houses that exist for us in between. For instance, the
ideas, perspectives and expectations everywhere also causes
small hotel room, where we can rest the body exhausted from a
serious competition.
long trip, becomes one of the houses that we would remember as
I n a non-Western art world, being international once meant
–
identifying with contemporary Western styles. Today, emphasiz-
one of our homes. Our question of identity, the ‘Who am I ?’ does
ing one’s exotic local quality is regarded as a way to participate
with the houses on the road that we experience anew.
not stay in the house we left behind, but continues to change
Western artists to participate in the contemporary art scene as an
T hanks to the development
–
of technology, transportation,
individual artist representing his /her own intelligence and sensi-
new cities and their connec-
tivity without being categorized as a non-Western artist.
tions, and tourism as a modern,
in globalization. In either case, it remains difficult for non-
sophisticated business, it has
Public Space
114
become so much easier for indi-
I often produce works on the street, then public
space transforms into my studio. However, in my understanding,
viduals, groups, and companies
public space does not only imply visible, physical space. Cyber
to cross cities and borders in
order to ‘pursue happiness’
space is regarded as public space too, but there is even more
virtual public space in the mind of human beings. I consider the
human mind as a virtual, public space where others can exist.
YA N G A H H A M • O N E D AY E S C A P I N G •
2 CHANNEL VIDEO INSTALLATION •
LOOP • 2005
while hoping that a new environment can satisfy their desires.
However, individuals, groups,
A s urban life forces people to connect /conflict much more than
–
before, the psychological public space has evolved too. Once I
and companies leaving their familiar environment behind face the
participated in the show entitled Publicly Speaking. The concept
challenges of their identities and values. They need to understand
of the show was the interpretation of public space. I made a per-
new realities and communications skills with others in order to
formance project on ‘the gaze’ and ‘being gazed at’ in the streets
survive.
of the three cities, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo. Thus, the perform-
T hrough artist-in-residence programs, I have moved from one
–
place to another and crossed parallel realities that I would not have
ance related to both physical and psychological public space.
115
known or chosen in an optional life. Comparing different societies
Mobility and Migration
My own migratory experience is revealed
through a mind/body experience, I became aware of the violence,
directly or indirectly in my work. I met people while I was on
speed, and spirit of various societies. likely it would not have been
the move or they were on the move or both of us and filmed their
possible to produce many of my works without that basis.
anxiety, dreams, feverishness, and exhaustion rather directly.
Despising Most in Contemporar y Art
tion, such as in Land, Home, City, a film that consists of four
invisible money after a stock market crash.
different fictional stories of people with diverse life styles who
E conomy is regarded as the foundation of modern life and its
–
key words are investment, production, and consumption. These
moved for various reasons.
That art is considered
words are also frequently used in today’s art world. It seems
Public Art
It seems to me that most progressive public art is
that art is at the center of attention, thanks to the booming of the
not material-based or permanent. Most semi-permanent or per-
art market. I am happy to see that finally art has a larger audience.
manent public art seems predicated on the belief that a small
However, much attention focuses on consumption and invest-
percentage of international artists can work within a company
ment, where production is considered a mechanical component
system.
in that economic process. I see that artists are booming because
of consumption, not because of the quality of their artistic pro-
Concepts of Transfer, Connectivity, Encounter, and Social and
duction. I see that artistic productions are boring since they lack
Economic Change.
creativity; I see boring forms of consumption and investments
We are living in the age of multi-migration all
over the world. Today, home exists not as the center of our world,
but as a starting point and a place to return to one day. There are
that lack any sensitivity for contemporary art.
YA N G A H H A M
YA N G A H H A M
Sometimes my experience and thoughts are hidden behind fic-
Artistic Research
I am interested in the individual as the smallest
my creation of art. When dealing with individualism or individual-
My Answer to the Ten Questions
of The Shanghai Papers
ization, I cannot simply rely on my observation or experience, so I
YIN XIUZHEN
yet densest building-block of society. Therefore, I consider
social-psychology, philosophy, and science as fields that assist in
start researching the knowledge achieved in those different fields.
Also, as a media artist, I feel a necessity to keep an eye on the
My works are the responses to
technological development in my field in order to create new forms
these questions above. Maybe
of art.
they can answer these questions
Audience
I admire the communicative ability of my favorite popu-
lar cultural works such as cartoons, animations, SF or detective
116
stories. I wish I could communicate like that with a large audience.
117
However, my work creates a much more specific audience.
P eople say knowing your audience is important. On a certain level,
–
I may agree with that. However, I try not to think about audiences
Y I N X I U Z H E N • FLY I N G M A C H I N E • C L O T H ,
STAINLESS STEEL, PLANKS • 2008
when I attempt to move in new and uncertain directions.
Dreams for the Art of the Future.
That the definition of art
becomes broadened and the role of artists becomes extended.
Responses
That, in a future society, artists participate in all decision-making
Y U FA N
processes.That artists be involved when countries negotiate,
when the United Nations address the current issues in the world.
Globalization
T hat artists participate in mediating conflicts between countries,
–
companies, and organizations; in running schools, hospitals, and
enriched my visual experiences. I can keep up with the latest
prisons, when new cities are planned.
with those by foreign artists. The participation in group exhibitions
A fter all, artist groups involve a large number of people who have
–
at least two capacities out of three relating to intelligence, sensi-
facilitates my direct contact and exchange with foreign artists,
Globalization has broadened my horizons and
developments in the international art arena, and compare my works
which is very helpful to my artistic creation.
C ontemporary artists need to
–
have a thorough understanding of
tivity, and imagination. ( I wonder if a procedure of approval for
each artist is necessary then.)
both concepts: globalization
cannot even dream about what is happening outside of them-
is indispensable.
and the local. Either one of them
selves, their group, or their culture. It is possible that the people
Urbanity
who run the world are too tired to dream
The city is a place
where people live. People are the
most essential things there. I live
Y U FA N • HORSES WITH SILVER MANE •
S P R AY - PA I N T E D F R P • 2 0 0 8
in the Wangjing area in Beijing.
Ten years ago it was still a much
neglected border area between
the city and the countryside. Today it is a middle-class residential
area. It is changing everyday. Compared with the swift changes in
the urban space, artists and art are always a step behind. My comment on the city is that it is a place of change. My work is unable
YIN XIUZHEN
YA N G A H H A M
S pecifically, imagination is the capacity required most in showing
–
a vision for the future. Because of the lack of imagination, people
to make any comments on urbanity because it cannot keep up with
developments in contemporary art. This offers me a new
the changes there.
platform where I can think and make art with fresh resources and
S hanghai is an abstract city. Like a figurative painting, it becomes
–
abstract after being painted over and over again on the same sur-
perspectives. As a result, I no longer look at only books and
face. Shanghai may seem very blurry to people from other places.
art practices from various perspectives. Today art is created by
But to the Shanghaiese, each generation paints their own picture of
the participation of both Eastern and Western artists. Art is able to
the city; their memories of the city are very concrete.
move beyond political, economic and social conflicts. Globaliza-
established art forms for inspiration. I can approach an issue in my
tion is a process in which different ideas become assimilated.
Public Space
When displayed in art museums or galleries, works
of art are already connected to public space. I hope that there
Under this circumstance, how to create something different in his
or her artistic practices is a new challenge to the artist.
will be more such connections. Some of my works are shown out-
118
side the city. Created for non-public space, these works make
Urbanity
their surroundings seem rather strange and different. I hope that
dreams. As more and more people move to
some of the works for the exterior space at this Biennale will be
the city, their ways of working and living
able to create some different space.
as well as their values change a great deal.
The city embodies many people’s
119
Their growing desire and ego result in the
Public Art
depletion of natural resources, interpersonal
To my understanding, public art is something being rec-
ognized and accepted by many people. In China, public art means
conflicts, deteriorating environment, traffic
artworks that are approved by government officials and placed in
jams, worsening living conditions, and high
the public environment. It is hard to define the concept of the pub-
unemployment rate. The tension in urban
lic. I always make art for the public, but I sincerely hope that the
life creates many psychological and social
public will accept them.
problems, for example the increased crime
rate. The feeling of loneliness and isolation
Medium-specificity
My attitude toward medium is rather practical.
YU HUA • MEETING • OIL
O N C A N VA S • 2 0 0 8
In my view, the simpler, the better. Artistic media change as our
goes hand in hand with the swift urbanization process.
bile paints in sculpture offers an example. My attitude toward
I n my work, the city becomes a theme
–
park where people play various games according to various rules.
medium is “to store it in a simple way and to be irreplaceable”.
Some enjoy the games, some study the rules, some are out
aesthetics alter in society. The use of stainless steel and automo-
because they do not follow the rules, and some want to be winArtistic Research
My work is different from traditional figurative
ners. People would laugh at those innocently selfish children and
forgive them. But in reality, selfish acts will hurt many people. I
form. It is a hybrid of the Chinese and the Western, a mix of the tra-
hope that as the city develops in a swift pace, there will be more
ditional and the contemporary. In this sense, my work responds to
kindness, understanding and thoughtfulness among people.
the above-mentioned concept of the local /regional
B i e n n a l e ’s C o n c e p t o f t h e F l u i d M o v e m e n t o f P e o p l e ’s M o b i l i t y
in Forms of Migration
In my work, the city becomes a concept.
One cannot tell which city it is. I turn the colorful city into a theme
park. The fastest and most exciting thing in a park is the roller
Responses
YU HUA
coaster. My work includes many rails or tracks, which are the necessary vehicles for migrants. There are many choices to be made
and wondrous, unknown things happening in the process of
migration. Population movement often concentrates in big cities.
Globalization
First of all, the globalizing art scene allows me to
see more works in a variety of forms. I can keep up with new
Nowadays the world faces serious problems of urbanization, population and the environment. Like a child, I dream that the serious
YU HUA
YU HUA
sculpture. It is rather difficult to categorize my work in terms of
problems in the real world will become beautiful fairy tales. I hope
nature as a totem spirit and become a symbol of Chinese ethos
that I will not lose the paradise in the real world.
and culture.
Public Art
Public art is the kind of art that participates in and
T he ancient emperors referred to themselves as dragon emperors
–
and contemporary Chinese regard themselves as the offspring of
impacts the public life. It moves beyond boundaries and differ-
the dragon, and thus a supernatural divinity has evolved as part of
ences. It also critiques social values and ethics.
the nation’s soul. Even if the city changes, populations migrate
and the world tends towards globalization, the legend of the drag-
Despising Most in Contemporar y Art
Art without an intellectual
dimension, and iconic artworks made purely for commercial
on can still transcend time and space and be harmonious with
daily life across cultural boundaries.
F rom natural discoveries come
–
cultural descriptions, myths and
purposes
legends, which lead to further
exploration of nature and redis-
120
121
covery. From discovery to legend
and then to demonstration, and
The Dragon
finally back to discovery, such a
YUE MINJUN
circular process is the way that
human civilization develops. Even
The dragon is a symbol of Chinese culture, which is a totem spirit
in both mythology and legend. In modern society, as a symbol of
YUE MINJUN • COLORFUL RUNNING
DINOSAURS • STAINLESS STEEL,
COPPER • 2008
from today’s perspective, such a
process is still worthy of high
praise. What a magical concep-
human civilization, it has stepped beyond the industrial age, and
entered into the period of rapid urbane development characterized
tual model of the human being this is ! This conceptual model
by the era of high technology. At the same time, the original ecolo-
stems from the endless flow of history through thousands of years
gy of the Earth is gradually disappearing. Determining how to
or even tens of thousands of years, creating all civilization in front
resuscitate the cultural connotation of this ancient mythical image
of us. This is the power of discovery and the function of culture
in a rapidly developing modern city is the objective of my work
during the development of humanity.
as an artist.
A mong this group of works, I trace the image of the dragon in
–
myth and legend back to the early stage of discovery before the
I t is common knowledge that myth and legend are not groundless
–
fantasies and that the emergence of the dragon can be traced
birth of myth. This group of works can be understood as follows:
culture is transplanted from the ancient civilization to modern
thought that the origin of the Chinese dragon stems from the
urban times with their rapid development, helping us to discover
discovery and excavation of prehistoric dinosaur fossils buried
and create new culture. Meanwhile, the works adopt personifica-
beneath the soil for billions of years. Perhaps the ancient Chinese
tion techniques to endow the natural world with human charac-
who roamed the Earth a few million years ago occasionally dug
teristics, strengthening the meaning of a smile, and adding to the
up dinosaur fossils in the course of their primitive labor and,
enjoyable yet nervous atmosphere. The dimensional layout in
faced with the remains of this unknown creature, they combined
the works narrows the gap between the ancient and the contem-
imagination with knowledge to create the totemic image of the
porary, and both the audience and works become bi-directionally
dragon.
compulsive, so that you have to watch intently over a short time,
T he dragon is endowed with supernatural abilities, on which
–
myths and legends are based. Moreover, myth and legend as well
illuminating the mode of obtaining visual experience in daily
as cultural description inspire humanity’s curiosity and commitment to nature. Consequently the mysteries of nature are explored
T he surface of the works was created using automobile body
–
spray paint, which was applied directly to the surface of the
and discovered so as to conquer nature and promote the
works. This method of coloration demonstrates the characteristics
progress of civilization. The dragon has surpassed its original
of modern industry making people cheerful and pleasant. It
urban life.
YUE MINJUN
YUE MINJUN
back to exploration and discoveries made by early Chinese. It is
implies a sense of speed and revealing an aesthetic trend towards
Public Space, Migration, the Biennale’s Concepts of Transfer,
color, thereby intervening in contemporary urban life and helping
Connectivity, Encounter, and Social and Economic Change
people feel amiable and comfortable. The concept for this type of
works always pay close attention to the relationship between space,
color processing technology is applied to the surface of ancient
people and objects. I try to use a horizontal path in my narratives.
artifacts, imbuing them with a new connotation and generating a
Without specific centers or major characters, the relationships
tension between the past and the present. As a result we are
between objects, between people and objects are rather parallels.
My
face the future
T he work entitled Landscape is
–
about the publicizing tendency in
TRANSLATED BY JASON TOWER
our life, which is eradicating per-
not able to avoid the past, but can only adjust the present, and
sonal things as well as our independence. Like migrating birds,
people live a life on the move,
which has become most charac-
122
Responses
ZENG HAO
Globalization
in big international cities. Our
ZENG HAO • SCENES • MIXED MEDIA
INSTALLATION • 2008
desire for material wealth is the
driving force behind our constant
migration. The desire for swift
Globalization has become an irresistible force in
our life. It assimilates our lifestyles and minimizes environmental
development makes us all move according to a single standard,
and cultural differences. It also suppresses individuality. The
which results in the mindless act of copying cultures and lifestyles.
power (of art ) comes from diversity and difference. Decreased
I n the conception of the piece, Landscape, I use the notions of
–
time and space as my inspiration. Time in my work refers to the
differences mean fewer possibilities.
O n the one hand, the assimilating tendency in terms of artistic
–
language and theme facilitates communication. On the other, this
direction and the span of time. The mentality of “moving forward
tendency distances us from our inner self. In this commodified
clashes in the urbanization and globalization process, and the
society, where people no longer raise fundamental questions
price we pay for them. Space in my work means not only the art
about human existence, conceptual transformation becomes an
museum, but also the ever-changing cityscape of Shanghai as
important issue in art. Artists need to be more self-reflecting,
well as the physical and psychological space between the city and
self-critical and self-confident.
individuals.
Urbanity
T he major part of the Shanghai Art Museum is a British-style build–
ing with rich historical and symbolic meanings. It is also a product
Globalization creates a “catch-up” or competitive
with our time” makes it impossible for people to reflect on the
of cultural migration and transference. Development, transfer, con-
economy, material, desire, and wealth arrive long before people
nectivity, and socio-economic changes happen in Shanghai against
can even make their own judgments. Shanghai boasts its art
the background of globalization in the twenty-first century. This sit-
museums, grand theaters, skyscrapers that outnumber those in
uation has created a sense of uncertainty in the relationship
Manhattan, and the Maglev train faster than the TGV train in
between humans and the environment. Eventually we find ourselves
France. No surprise that the media calls Shanghai “New York on
in a walled, isolated city.
steriods”.
S hanghai is a unique place thanks to its rich history and the injec–
tion of modern capital. We are consuming its past and future. But
we lose sight of our own existence here and now. This is the crux in
single mode of urban development make the city gradually lose its
our debate on globalization.
cultural tradition and sense of history. Modern life is filled with
experiences of reversal and suspension. We can say that the world
T he mixed-media installation Landscape for the Biennale is to be
–
displayed in the central gallery of the Shanghai Art Museum. It will
is everywhere, or the reverse.
create an up-side-down city. I hope that this reversal will distance
ZENG HAO
ZENG HAO
mentality in a city’s modernization process. New things such as
W e see some problems behind the prosperous cityscape: are we
–
pressuring the environment or the reverse? The velocity and the
123
teristic of the social landscape
viewers by challenging their usual way of seeing. I hope that
our close contact with it makes it very human and personal.
viewers will be able to look at the space from new perspectives
Our memories and concept of time are associated with the bed.
and that my work will create new ways of thinking. The sand on
The bed is the past and the beginning. Everybody has certain
the floor can be seen as a metaphor for a starting point and driv-
connections to it.
ing force, or a metaphor for the soil in which the seed of a tree
geminates. As the seedling grows and the environment changes,
T wenty years ago, people living in a city saw grand hotels there
–
as places where foreign visitors stayed. Wai di ren or people from
the constant transference gradually alters our original plans, as
other places usually stayed in simple guesthouses. It was rare
well as ourselves. Our initial aspirations are forgotten.
that wai di ren rented spare apartments or rooms from local citizens. Today we rarely hear the word wai di ren, because there are
Public Art
124
Works qualifying as public art are able to contribute
just too many of them and they have been living and working in
to a city’s cultural and natural environment. They should inspire
every corner of the city. They no longer just visit the city on busi-
people in any given time and place. They are the combination of
ness trips but actually live and work in the city for a period of
art and ideas, the personal and the social. In the contemporary
time, ranging from six months to ten years. They may even stay in
art arena, the public nature of public art is manifested in artists’
the city as permanent residents, if they set their feet firmly on the
open, receptive attitude and their intellectual depth. Public art
ground there. The concepts of rejection and reception become
can be seen as a new perspective, a catalyst and a dynamic force
blurred in the process of urbanization.
stimulating the public
W hile those simple guesthouses still provide accommodation for
–
people visiting Shanghai on business, the majority of people from
125
other places have become our neighbors. For those who seek to
improve themselves and their life, migration has become a way of
life in China today.
Responses
Public Art
ZHANG ENLI
ornament” or “entertainment” in most cases.
Globalization
Communication becomes the primary goal of
making art. Film, television, fiction, newspaper and the Internet
In reality, public art has become a kind of “public
Dreams for the Art of the Future
The future means to keep
thinking and working. Sometimes, the future means looking back
become the media from which we learn about the world. The
average people can browse and comment on anything that happens in the world.
My work is about individuals in the city.
The Fluid Movement of People’s
Tower of Babel
ZHANG QING
Mobility in Forms of Migration
Z H A N G E N L I • BE D /SIMPLE BED •
O I L O N C A N VA S • 2 0 0 8
The bed is not just a place
The mythical Tower of Babel was said to have been built in
where one rests. As a young
Babylon, in the Middle East. The Arabs wanted to build a tower
person who just begins his /her
which would be high enough to allow them to communicate with
career, a bed is perhaps all
God. They built a structure that rose high up into the heavens,
he/she has at home. The bed is
and once God realized that humans wanted to use this tower to
closely connected to our growth
reach him, he became angry – how could God let people commu-
and existence. It also changes
nicate with him however they pleased? In the midst of his wrath,
with our surroundings. The bed
he decided to sabotage the construction of the tower. He created
is our most intimate furniture;
many different languages among the construction workers, and
ZHANG QING
ZHANG ENLI
Urbanity
with so many different tongues, they were no longer able to
communicate with one another. As a result, the Tower of Babel
could not be successfully completed.
S ome Chinese social elites do their utmost to advocate “neo–
nationalist aesthetics,” and they are the agitators of “globalization.” On TV , they sing passionate songs such as “The
T his is a biblical story, but in reality
–
an issue that humans face in daily life. If
Governance of Zhenguan,” and “Kangxi and Qianlong’s Spirit;”
human beings cannot communicate suc-
each new building representing a new success; they plan one cel-
cessfully, they are not able to achieve their
ebration after another, from “Impressions of Liu Sanjie” to
goals and dreams, but nonetheless they
“Impressions of West Lake.” Like dreams, poems and songs – the
continue to chase and fight for them.
desire for the control of power among China’s most talented
Humans are forever coming closer to being
people is amalgamated mysteriously with these exaggerated con-
able to achieve complete and full com-
structions and grand performances, in the hope that China will
munication with one another, but they are
become a strong nation.
they acquire land, resettle residents and build skyscrapers,
T he social elites are committed
–
to the idea of a “Prosperous
never quite able to realize this goal.
126
T he conceptual basis for “Translocal–
motion” is that, in the city, human commuZHANG QING • TOWER OF
BABEL • INSTALLATION •
2008
China,” and hold high the flag of
nications are constantly confronted with
“globalization.” Advocating
difficulties. If everyone were able to com-
undisciplined personal desire and
municate without any problems, there
following basic human instincts,
would be no need for slogans such as “Translocalmotion.” This
they demand that everything be
concept has as its premise the difficulties involved in communica-
turned into an economic advantage and into the exclusive
tion between different peoples. The goal of the builders in this
Biblical story was to build a brilliant tower – the Tower of Babel,
which could bring people to a higher level, and allow them to
achieve a new mentality.
ZHANG WEIJIE • ODE TO JOY •
DOCUMENTARY • 2008
ownership of resources. They
advocate continued development
of social divisions and of a large
T he faults of the Tower of Babel cast light on the difficulty of
–
communication between people, and the problem we continuously
class divide in order to strengthen the position of their own advan-
strive to resolve.
expressions and no hump backed Chinese farmers; there is only
T his is a goal that human beings will never be able to accomplish.
–
Although perfect communication does exist, they will never
the concept of American, and no sweaty, smelly Chinese workers;
be able to find it, but they will continue struggling for it forever
some academic principles, but without the surprise, mystery and
TRANSLATED BY JASON TOWER
sounds of Chinese farms and markets.
tages. In the world that they have created, there are only English
there are tables, notes and indices developed in accordance with
struggled for status and liberation. This time the word “revolution”
has been replaced with “globalization.” Unfortunately, as in previous revolutions, the costs of globalization are once again being
ZHANG WEIJIE
borne by those in the lower echelons of society. In the midst of a
period of transition, China is going through structural changes
in nearly every industry, through ownership reforms, and through
state-owned enterprise reform. The tidal waves created by these
Globalization is an agitating word. Its supporters hope that it
changes have swept away the land and jobs of many average
will bring unprecedented development and prosperity to the world,
Chinese, and these people have been exiled from their own living
while its critics firmly believe that it will bring poverty, war and
and working spaces, losing their identity and status. The loss
even cultural extinction to the developing countries of the world.
of their status and position implies that they have lost political and
ZHANG WEIJIE
ZHANG WEIJIE
T hroughout China’s near modern history, there have been different
–
kinds of revolutions taking place as people at the bottom of society
Results of Globalization
127
128
economic power, as well as their ability to speak as equals. As
about consumption. Well, consumption is the original issue in the
they wander along with their shattered lives, the only thing they
story. But I would move beyond this issue. I will definitely create a
are able to recognize is pain and suffering.
crevice in space. It cannot operate in real time and space. It can-
S uffering is always experienced exclusively by losers, and failure
–
is a permanent part of the story of humanity, particularly for the
not be measured, visualized or even defined.
common people. God built the world without mercy – and every-
T h e B i e n n a l e ’s C o n c e p t s o f Tr a n s f e r, C o n n e c t i v i t y, E n c o u n t e r,
thing should follow nature; when existing amongst the lower
and Social and Economic Change
echelons of society, one lacks the ability to speak for himself. The
employees’ morning gatherings in cities such as Shanghai,
aesthetician Gao Ertai pointed out that powerlessness is a com-
Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Some of these gatherings took place
mon characteristic of the remarkable Oriental social will, and it is
in the interior, some in the street. Those scenes are quite familiar
also part of the permanent psychological experience of the Orient.
to us. These gatherings in everyday settings suggest certain
The “powerlessness” is the so-called loser among losers, one
transformations in a transitional society. The footage was made in
who lives in absolute hardship, and who upon death is silenced
a documentary manner; I just took my video camera and shot
completely by history.
those scenes. But after the footage was cut and edited, one thing
S uffering is the proof of existence, but the precondition is that
–
physical and mental pain be granted a position of respect. That is,
became very clear – it is very stylized. One the one hand, it is
as men experience hardship, they must be identified and recog-
painting, it gives the viewer a “stylized” aesthetic experience.
My work entitled 1234 depicts
129
about the employees’ life in those enterprises. On the other, like a
T ransfer, connectivity, encounter
–
and social-economic changes
nized; otherwise the symbols of voiceless pain are just like lonely
and wild ghosts drifting through the nightmares of our cities.
I n the face of this universal suffering, focusing on the little people
–
at the bottom of society who have lost their right to speak as a
are concepts about certain cur-
result of globalization is the goal of my work. It is also the only path
we often pay attention to these
that I can currently see that will lead to self-salvation.
words. But the artist’s task is
A s Favier said, “Only by sinking to the bottom of the well is there
–
hope of seeing the stars.”
not to describe these relations,
rent social relations. Of course,
but to explore what kind of
artistic questions he or she may
TRANSLATED BY JASON TOWER
ZHOU TAO • 1,2,3,4 • VIDEO • 2008
raise.
Reality is something we know.
–
That is to say, reality is not
just what happens in front of you. A book in a library is a reality.
After we watch a movie, it becomes a reality. Even the air we inhale
Z H O U TAO
is a reality. Making art is often about moving beyond what we
know. The reality an artist pays attention to is not the kind of reality
we usually talk about. The word “attention” implies a process of
selection and transference. Attention also expresses an artistic
Globalization
Globalization is a fact. But people from different
motivation, which grows neither as the result of our intellect nor for
regions and communities respond to it differently. When you pick
the purpose of criticism. Instead, it shows an artist’s energy. I often
up a tree leaf in the street, you see globalization. That is what
feel that the work comes into being when a reality and my inner
interests me.
self meet. It is very direct. I often wonder: does reality encounter
my inner self or does my inner self call for a reality ? This is so
Public Art
To me, the outer world is the public. My world con-
interesting. I still cannot figure it out.
sists of two sides: the inner and the outer. So when I choose
something from the outer world as the inspiration for my artwork, I
Dreams for the Art of the Future
will go beyond those things. For example, I use a story originally
pleasant. How can art be like that? It always wants to hide. When
I think dreams are beautiful and
Z H O U TAO
Z H O U TAO
Responses
you make art, when you walk and look around, you always find
something. It is something not easy to capture, but you always want
to meet and interact with it. Both you and art are like young lovers
Never Take Off
ZHU JIA
A Boeing 747 aircraft is taxiing on the runway, and everyone knows
130
that it is only about 4 seconds from take off, after which the aircraft
will fly up into the sky. But in Never Take Off, the 4 seconds are
prolonged.
A t first glance this is illogical – I
–
have taken a real situation and
marked it as uncivilized, but also
large. When a result without a
result is pushed into one’s field of
vision, it disturbs normal human
perceptual experience, and
results in deep confusion. What
an audience feels and experiZHU JIA • NEVER TAKE OFF • VIDEO •
2008
ences are the complexities of
moods and emotions, from which
expectation, tensions, nervous-
ness, restlessness, and numbness result. One can notice that in
many pedestrians captured on microfilm as they walk through the
streets.
ZHU JIA
I mmigration is not a new word. The city has always been extremely
–
attractive since the distance between illusions and reality cannot be
understood by anyone except for the one who experiences it firsthand. Is it a process filled with expectations, waiting, nervousness,
a lack of peace, numbness and relief?
D uring the course of the process did you expect to fly in the right
–
direction, in the right flight path? Did you compute flying time?
Did you choose your destination? Did you prepare for the wind and
rain during the journey? When you are disappointed do you imagine
there will be another chance to try again? When you are satisfied
do you have a great ambition to create a new journey?
M ight it be that everyone’s heart holds a plane that will never
–
take off?
TRANSLATED BY JASON TOWER
The Shanghai Papers are published in conjunction with the
exhibition 7th Shanghai Biennale, Translocalmotion
September 9 – November 16, 2008
Curators (Editorial Board): J U L I A N H E Y N E N , H E N K S L A G E R ,
ZHANG QING
Editors: A N N E T T E W . B A L K E M A , X I A N G L I P I N G , L I N I N G
Translators: J A S O N T O W E R , W A N G Y I Y O U , Z U O Y I Z H A N G
Language Editing: J E N N I F E R N O L A N , W A N G Y I Y O U
Graphic Design: O F F I C E O F C C , A M S T E R D A M
Typeface: F R A N K L I N G O T H I C , H E LV E T I C A N E U E , N O B E L
P a pe r : X X X X
Binding: X X X X X
Photography: G A O G U O Q I A N G , S U N D A W E I , D A I M O U Y U
Printing: F G B F R E I B U R G E R G R A P H I S C H E B E T R I E B E , F R E I B U R G
This publication was also made possible by the financial support
of the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam.
© 2008 Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern, and authors
© 2008 for the reproduced works by the artist as well as the
artists, photographers, and their legal successors
Published by
Hatje Cantz Verlag
Zeppelinstrasse 32
73760 Ostfildern
Germany
Tel. + 49 711 4405-200
Fax + 49 711 4405-220
www.hatjecantz.com
Hatje Cantz books are available internationally at selected
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please visit our homepage at www.hatjecantz.com.
ISBN 978-3-7757-2322-0
Printed in Germany