展览｜在半个迷宫中 Be in a Half of Maze 开幕现场

05 Jan 展览｜在半个迷宫中 Be in a Half of Maze 开幕现场

在半个迷宫中 / Be in a Half of Maze

——中国美术学院美术馆青年艺术家扶持项目 / Young Artist Project of CAA Art Museum 

开幕 / Opening：2019.12.3 14:00

展期 / Duration: 2019.12.4 – 2020.1.3, 9:00-17:00

地点：杭州市南山路 216 号 中国美术学院美术馆实验展厅（-1F）

Address: Basement of the Gallery, CAA Art Museum, 216 Nanshan Rd., Hangzhou 

艺术家：冯冰伊 唐潮 吴鼎 郑源

Artist: Feng Bingyi, Tang Chao, Wu Ding, Zheng Yuan

策展人：刘畑

Curator:  Liu Tian

展览总监：余旭鸿

Project Director: Yu Xuhong

学术主持：杨福东

Academic Director: Yang Fudong

执行策展人：冯宇纯 冯均桥 陈天琪 黄利红 梅之险

Executive Curator: Feng Yuchun, Feng Junqiao, Chen Tianqi, Huang Lihong, Mei Zhixian

展览统筹：夏商周 蔡可成

Exhibition Coordination: Xia Shangzhou, Cai Kecheng

视觉设计：非白工作室

Visual Design: Transwhite Studio

主办：中国美术学院美术馆

Organizer: CAA Art Museum

协办：中国美术学院跨媒体艺术学院 中国美术学院视觉中国协同创新中心 中国美术学院校友会

Co-Organizer: School of Intermedia Art, The Institute for Collaborative Innovation in Chinese Visual Studies, China Academy of Art Alumni Association

特别资助：新世纪当代艺术基金会 上海河路文化传播有限公司 清影艺术空间

Special Support: New Century Art Foundation, Shanghai HELU Culture Communication, Inna Art Space           

 讲座＋对谈：

吴鼎（12 月 7 日）

唐潮（12 月 14 日）

冯冰伊（12 月 21 日）

郑源（12 月 28 日）

Lecture & Talk:Wu Ding（Dec. 7th）

Tang Chao（ Dec. 14th）

Feng Bingyi（ Dec. 21st）

Zheng Yuan（Dec. 28th）

时间 / Time: 14:00

地点 / Venue：缪斯咖啡 / Muse Coffee（中国美术学院美术馆旁 / Next to the CAA Art Museum）

致力于鼓励、支持年轻的创作者，由中国美术学院美术馆发起的青年艺术家扶持项目·第二回《在半个迷宫中》展览，于2019年12月3日下午在中国美术学院美术馆开幕。

参展的四位青年艺术家冯冰伊、唐潮、吴鼎、郑源，于中国美术学院美术馆实验展厅向公众呈现各自最新阶段的创作成果。本次展览由余旭鸿担任展览总监，由杨福东作为提名人任学术主持，由刘畑策展。

四位艺术家各有长期探索的、独特的感性特质，以及不断生长和变化的创作方法，但同时，又拥有某种言语难以概括的相通气息，这也引发了策展人以一种非常规的“和声”方式，写作了隐微、但却是为了更加准确的“前言”——

《在半个迷宫中》

在半个迷宫中，意味着一场不合理的追踪。

迷宫并不试图完全困住访者，它的本质表现为没有实体内容的部分：道路。但它所容许的行走，让我们面对的始终只是局部。 
 
局部并非意味着不能反映或者遮蔽整体。在目击的发光的碎片中，猜测、追寻，试图合成一个完形。在没有光线的地方，不被光照的气息存在。
 
不管我们是否相信每个碎片都在隐藏也在联系，一些碎片确实折射了另一些碎片。碎片最美妙的地方在于，它留下了多种补白的可能，以供想象完形的不同版本。
 
补白的可能性会叠加：一个碎片所提示的可能性与另一个碎片所提示的和再一个……这无疑是一个极大量级的开放的乘积，并且无法举一隅而反三，只存在无数个微小的起承转合。而恰恰是所有试图逃离与求解的步伐，踩实了迷宫的道路。
 
于是有些人放弃了，或者保持于漫游。又由于这种状态，在面对迷宫的时候，它愈发成为了永恒的半个。
 
这种永恒的观看姿态经过处处风景，没有中心，没有出口，没有完形。但并不混乱。困难之处恰恰在于，它往往仅呈现为一个个正常的房间。
 
如果你有能力俯视一个迷宫，会很自然发现它确实是半个。但即便来自天空的视角让它一览无余，当你望向平面图时，已经再次陷入。
 
这一次，你将看到精准的几何规划师，拼合历史残骸的搜救员，你将看到遗书与火山在游戏或梦境中相互点亮，你将看到在迷宫中长大最后又吞下迷宫的人。
 
这还是那个古老的隐喻，世界是半个迷宫，观众和行者分有另外半个。
 
所以或许从不存在完整的迷宫，迷宫总是半个的。正如无穷大无法成为一个确定的数值。将无穷裁掉一半后，依然是无穷，而大脑内的困惑令它倍增后，也依然是。
 
每个人或强或弱都假设自己是世界的中心之王，这证明了世界的无限。身在局中人，唯有坚信自己是独特的出走者，事实上，却是终归无名的建造者之一。
 
在脑中，在眼中，在手中，在行走中，在半个迷宫中。无解的缠绕和疏导，是艺术家的咒语也是谜底。迷恋是赖以前进但又需要克服的症候群。一如弓与琴有着通用的弦。正如这并非前言，而是一份和声。
 
曾有朋友蘸水写下即逝的赠语：开放迷宫，将军引弓，厌倦山中，好风相从。
 
文/刘畑

Be in a Half of Maze

Be in a Half of Maze means a improbable chase.

A maze is not really trying completely strand the visitor. Its essence manifests itself as parts in an intangible substance: Roads. Nevertheless, by the walking it allows, we can always face only part of it.

Parts do not mean that it can not reflect or shield the whole. Among the glowing fragments witnessed: guessing, searching, trying to synthesize a gestalt. Where there is no light there exists unilluminated breath.

Does not matter whether or not we believe that each fragment is connected while hidden, some fragments do reflect others. The most wonderful thing about fragment is that it leaves a variety of filler possibilities, to imagine different versions of the whole.

There will be the superposition of possibilities: the possibility from one fragment leavesversus that of another one and another… This is no doubt an open product of enormous magnitude, from which no other inferences can be drawn, only means just countless tiny twists and turns. It is precisely all attempts of escaping and solving that pave the path of the maze.

Therefore some give up, some stay roaming. Owing to this state, when facing the maze, it becomes more and more of an eternal half.

This eternal gesture of viewing comes through sceneries. It has no center, no exitand no perfection. However, it is not confusing. The difficulty is precisely that the maze tends to appear as a number of common rooms.

If you are able to look down at a maze, you will naturally find it is indeed a half. But even if the perspective from the sky makes it clear, when you look at the ground plan, you are already trapped by it again.

This time, you’ll meet geometric planners of preciseness, the researcher rescuing forhistorical debris, you’ll see suicide notes and volcanoes lighting up each other in games or dreams, and will see people who grow up in a maze and in the end devour it.

It is still the ancient metaphor. The world is half a maze, the viewers and walkers participate in the other.

So there may not be a complete maze at all; the maze is always half, just as infinity cannot be a certain value. When infinity is halved, it is still infinite; and even after the perplexity in the mind doubles it, it’s still the same.

Everyone, whether strong or weak, assumes he/she to be the King at the center of the world, which proves the infinity of the world. An insider can only believe that he/she is a unique running away one; in fact, ends up to be one of the anonymous constructors.

In the brain, in the eyes, in the hands, in walking, in half a maze. The unsolvable intertwinement and disentanglement are spells and keys of artists. Obsession is a symptom that rely on but need to overcome. Just like bows and lyres share the same strings. Like this is not a Foreword but a Chord.

Once a friend wrote, dipped in the water, a promptly fleeting sentence as a gift: In an open maze, the general draws the bow; weary in the mountains, the zephyr follows.

Text / Liu Tian

---

开幕现场，策展人刘畑、展览总监余旭鸿、学术主持杨福东分别发表讲话，四位艺术家也分别进行发言。随后，艺术家吴鼎、郑源、冯冰伊、唐潮陆续为来宾进行导览。下午4时，艺术家、策展团队及现场来宾在南苑会议室举行开幕座谈，围绕各位艺术家的艺术创作展开对话与交流。

展览现场 / Exhibition Scene

展览平面图 / Exhibition Plan

作品简介 / Artwork Introduction

冯冰伊

自然总是在逻辑中隐藏自己。

Nature hides itself on the other side of logic.

1.

从洞穴中来

From the Cave

它们从洞穴中走来，或者，它们正走进我们的洞穴？如果人的认知已经被柏拉图所预言，那么它们呢？人能从动物那里看到什么？它们又从人那里看到什么？“我们”是在同一个地方吗？那个地方是哪里？

They are walking out of the cave, or, into the cave of human beings? If the vision of human beings has been predicted by Plato, then what about theirs? What can human see from the animals? What can they see from the human beings? Are “we” in the same place? Where is this place？

2.

死与生先生

Mr Life & Death

是“那种东西”。

在特定时间内，该先生会自发死亡——没有明显征兆下停止新陈代谢。然后，当其肩胛骨的钥匙被转动，他便会回到婴儿时期并重新经历一次生长。

It is “that kind of thing”.

After a certain period of time, this Mr dies automatically, as his metabolism stops without any visible omen. After this, if the key in his scapula is turned, he will turn back to a baby and grow up once again.

3.

混合演绎

Compounded Performance

这组作品的基调，如你所见，大概就是追寻。但是追寻往往又和歧路相伴。在这过程之中，对自身的坚信究竟是妄执，还是明智？大概只有“别人”能给出答案。

As one can see, this series of works is generally about Searching, which is usually accompanied by crossroads. In this process, is it wise or stubborn to believe in oneself? Maybe, only “someone else” can know.

4.

SCP████-项目等级：爱与冲突

SCP████-Project Leve: Love & Conflict

它就像另一种除了五感之外的感觉，它就在耳后，却无法被发现。它就像另一个数字，无形且无法理解，在一和五之间，它不是第六个数字，而是一个隐藏的数字，不可能被计算。宇宙的五种元素也不足以解释它——它是另一种非物质的元素。当人类的思想里包含了慰藉时，这个新的元素，这个无法计数的数，才能被发现。我的旅伴告诉我，这是时间，只能时间才能让“可能性”都发生改变。在时间里，聚集和分散才有意义。宇宙便处于停滞的冻结状态和散落的尘埃之间，它随时可能被吹散到莫名之处，但它还在那里。

全世界的人都在一种思考方式里，冻结状态正占据主导地位。我担心爱会笼罩一切，而时间的终点也将随之降临。

It is like another sense beyond the five senses. It is there, but we can’t confirm it. It is like another number hidden among 1 to 5. It is not 6, but another one beyond any calculation. It’s also like an immaterial element, beyond the five elements of the Universe. This mystery, this…thing, can only be found when the entire human being meets the comfort. My travelling companion told me that it is about Time, the only item that even allows for the possibility of change. It is through time that aggregation and disruption have any meaning, that holds the universe between freezing in stasis, and blown like scattered dust to irrelevance.

The world is thinking in unison. Aggregation is dominant. I fear the state of Love and the end of all Time comes soon.

5.

那个跳进火山口的哲学家

The Philosopher that jumps into volcanic vent

他并不反对自己被人们视为预言家和创造奇迹的人，有人甚至认为他可以使人起死回生。

一定如此，当一个想法应当到来时，它便到来。时间未曾停歇，既标示时代，镌刻历史，又处在永恒的改变中。愿我们拥抱必要的改变，以防止停滞的蔓延。拥抱那永远不会遇见的四个人的教导吧，要知道，自己便是那第五个。

用诗人的话来说：

伟大的恩培多克勒，那位热情的灵魂，

跳进了爱特拿火山口，活活地烤焦了。

He is not against the rumor that he is a prophet and the one who brings miracles. Someone even says that he can bring the dying back to life. Time never stops. It carves histories into stones, while changing everything, even the stone. 

It must be so. When an idea should appear, it appears. Changes should be embraced, so that the stasis will never rule. And embrace the teaches from “the four people who will never show themselves”, knowing that, everyone is the fifth.

The poet says:

The great Empedocles, the passionate soul, throws himself into the volcanic vent of Etna, and burns into ashes.

---

唐潮

隐于蚌泪之中

Hidden in tears

1.

序：雨点击目光

Preface: Raindrops Click On The Sight

睁开眼睛，一个随机生成的地点。

画面清晰、模糊，如此反复。

雨滴落下，点击着水平面，也引导着不停聚焦的视线。

Opening the eyes, a randomly generated place

Clear view, blurry view, in repeat as so

Raindrops fall and click on the horizon, guiding the sight that keeps focusing.

2.

爬行

Crawl

在街头模仿一条蚯蚓，行为、文字和声音慢慢形成一种互文关系。

Imitating a shackle on the street, behavior, words and voice slowly form an intertextual relationship.

3.

短期记忆丧失症

Short-term Memory Loss

鱼在缸中，缸在屋内，屋外一直下雨，建筑就像一个更大的鱼缸。

水填满容器，也覆盖城市，我们像鱼一样，在水中制造记忆，然后迅速蒸发。

The fish is in the tank, the tank is in the house, it has been raining outside, and the house is like a bigger fish tank.

Water fills the container and covers the city. We make memories in the water like fish, and then evaporate quickly.

4.

鳞片闪烁，像树略过火

The scales flicker, like a tree flitted through fire

鳞片通常用来比喻无足轻重之物。

光线从树林的缝隙间穿过，当我们移动，它便不停地闪烁，

可以理解这种闪烁把一整段活动影像切分、还原成了无数碎片，

再在每一个碎片的缝隙中插入静帧，有花、有马，还有日常生活中的快照，

它们就是一个人成长中的鳞片，一种残存或零碎之物。

窗间过马、白驹过隙……

参照物在不停移动、消逝，只有流动本身才是静止和坚固的。

Scales are often used to describe insignificant things.

Light passes through the cracks in the woods, and as we move, it keeps flashing.

It can be understood that such flicker divides and converts a moving image into countless pieces.

Then insert a still frame in the gaps of each fragment, there are flowers, horses, and snapshots of daily life.

They are the scales of a person’s growth, a type of residual or piecemeal.

In the twinkling of an eye, time passes by…

The reference substance is constantly moving and disappearing, only the flow itself is static and solid.

5.

随风潜入夜

Dive Into The Night With The Wind

晚上睡不着，去路上散步时拍的。

I couldn’t sleep at night, and took it when I went for a walk outside.

6.

蝴蝶暗房

Butterfly Darkroom

把演员扮演的士兵安插在上个世纪 40-80 年代的图集中，尽量去还原一种因环境所迫而产生的自娱自乐，一个天然的暗房，一种黑白相册式的生活。当两个时代的人在一些不同形式的山水和飞行物中相遇，我们发现很多东西其实并未改变。

Place the actors who dressed up as soldiers in a 40s to 80s album, trying to restore a self-entertainment caused by the environment, a natural darkroom, a life like a black-and-white photo album. When people of both eras met in different forms of landscapes and flying objects, we found that many things did not change.

7、

结晶

Crystallization

当我们用力捏塑料泡沫纸的时候，其实是在展现一种破坏性和情绪之间的关系，泡泡破裂，指尖的力被瞬间拆卸，连带皮肤的触感和破裂的声音，一种综合的感官让我们觉得压力似乎被磨损掉一点。同时在一个扁平的电子屏幕，我们不停的点击、划动，化身为一个切水果上瘾的忍者，或者是一个不断排列图形然后消除它们的人，消除，消除，这种行为当中微乎其微的毁灭性在慢慢放大，再放大一点，如果不用严谨的逻辑去追究这些类比，我想要做的就是不断地管中窥豹，去组织事物中脆弱和短暂的特性。

When we squeeze the plastic foams hard, we are actually showing a relationship between destructiveness and emotion. The bubble bursts; the force of the fingertips is disassembled in an instant, along with the touch of the skin and the sound of cracking, a comprehensive sense makes us feel that the pressure seems to be released a bit. At the same time, on a flat screen, we keep clicking and swiping, turning into a fruit-addicted ninja or a person who constantly arranges graphics and then eliminates them, eliminating, eliminating, and the destructiveness of such act is gradually zoomed in. Zoom in slowly, zoom in a bit more. If you don’t have to use rigorous logic to test these analogies, what I want to do is to constantly look with a restricted view, to organize the fragile and transient characteristics of things.

8、

卧室里的糖

Sweets In The Bedroom

大部分的梦和糖果都是甜的，但睡觉前最好不要吃糖。

Most dreams and sweets are sweet, but it’s better not to eat sweets before going to bed.

9.

蜕皮

Molt

如果把世界想象成一个虚拟模型，那么拍照的举动就像是在获得它的材质贴图。

一层一层的揭开，不是希望窥探到什么，而是专注于这个摄取的动作。

If you think of the world as a virtual model, then the act of taking a photo is like getting the texture mapping of it.

Reveling layer by layer is not hoping to spy on anything, but focusing on the act of ingesting.

10.

尾声：石榴和恒星

Ending: Pomegranate And Stars

一人从小患有眼疾，左眼只能近观，右眼只能望向远处。

这个世界对他来说一直像一个谜，因为他无法统一两眼的景别……

日复一日，除了身体的衰老，他左眼的视距越来越近，右眼则反之，加在一起，一眼便省略了世上所有的中间事物。

正午，他在草坪席地而坐，双手吃力地剥开一个石榴，阳光穿过晶莹剔透的果肉，折射出许多耀眼的光斑，果皮在撕裂时沁出雾气，他感受到此刻的空气，嗅到了美。于是便鼓起勇气开始放弃整合自己的视线，他用左眼观察石榴，右眼审视太阳，世界就慢慢变得浑然一体、五彩斑斓起来.……

“在这儿吗？”

“形象隐退，真理浮现。”

“这可是他第一次瞬间挣脱那令人窒息的错乱。”

“世界在哪儿呢？”

“在这儿吗？”

“赤橙红绿青蓝紫，即是在花园最里边的篱笆下面。”

A person suffers from eye diseases since childhood, his left eye can only see close-up while the right one can only look into the distance.

This world has always been a mystery to him because he can’t unify the view from his both eyes…

Day after day, besides the aging of the body, the sight of his left eye is getting more and more close-up, and the right eye is the opposite. Adding up, all things in between in the world are omitted at a glance.

At noon, he sat on the lawn and took a pomegranate trying to peel with his hands. The sunlight passed through the crystal-clear flesh, reflecting dazzling lights. Tearing the peel with a slight of mist, he felt the air and smelled the beauty. He then took the courage to start giving up unifying his vision. He used his left eye to observe the pomegranate and his right eye to look at the sun. The world slowly became one, colorful and bright…

“Here?”

“The image retreats and the truth emerge.”

“This is the first time he has broken away from the suffocating mess.”

“Where is the world?”

“Here?”

“Red, orange, green, blue, and purple, that is below the fence deep into the garden.”

---

吴鼎

想象是认知的可靠图像

Imagination is a reliable image of cognition

关于圆的历史

On the History of the Circle

---

郑源

…过去的真实写照一一掠过，过去只能被作为一帧瞬间闪耀的图像捡拾起来，它在那一刻能被识别但也永远不能再见… 每一幅过去的图像若不能在现在被识为独一，那它就承担着不可挽回的消失的威胁。 
…The true picture of the past flits by, The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again…For every image of the past that is not recognized by the present as one of its own concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably. 

1.

曾经占据过这片天空

Once Occupied the Same Sky

1979 年，中国的改革开放确立了以建立区域化的经济特区为主要手段的发展路线，与开放市场所平行的是同样被国家意志所打开的广袤空域。在 1979 年邓小平访美之后，1980 年邓小平提出了“民航一定要企业化”的指示。中国民用航空开始进行与军队脱离的企业化改革。《曾经占据过这片天空》以中国改革开放以来的中国民用航空的发展为主要线索，拍摄取材于北京，西安，兰州及嘉峪关，作品详细调查了中国民航与国家外交，经济，政治详细而复杂的联系。通过对企业，档案以及对当事人采访片段的梳理与连接，作品试图讨论记忆与档案，图像与语言，物件与事件是如何在巨变时期中不断地改变自身的叙事与性质，以及个体在这种不断瓦解，不断重述的历史中所获得的经验。

In 1979, with the Chinese economic reform (literally: “reform and opening-up”, known in the West as the Opening of China) were established special economic zones in order to establish regionalization as a primary means of development path. Parallel to the open market there was a vast airspace opened by the state.  After visiting United States in 1979, Comrade Deng Xiaoping put stated in 1980, that “civil aviation must be handled via entrepreneurship”. China’s civil aviation began the reform of separation from the air force.   “This sky has been occupied” is the main idea of the development of China’s civil aviation since China’s reform and opening-up. Filmed in Beijing, Xi’an, Lanzhou and Jiayuguan, this work makes a detailed examination of complex links between Chinese civil aviation and national diplomacy, economy, and politics. Through the enterprise, archives and combination of interview footage of interested parties, the work attempts to discuss how memories and archives, images and language, objects and events constantly changed narratives and characters during the time of a great change; as well as the experience, gained by the individual in this history of constant disintegration and constant retelling.

2.

一段简短的历史：中国西北航空公司

A Brief History of China Northwest Airlines

1980 年 2 月 14 日，邓小平指出：“民航一定要企业化”。1987 年，中国政府决定对民航业进行体制改革，组建 6 个航空公司，实行自主经营、自负盈亏、平等竞争等原则。中国西北航空公司（China Northwest Airlines）成立于 1989 年 12 月 6 日，2002 年 3 月，中国民航业再次进行重组，根据中国国务院组建“三大航空集团”的改革方案，一直处于亏损状态的中国西北航空公司被东方航空集团并购，自此消失于历史的进程中。《一段简短的历史：中国西北航空公司》追踪了原中国西北航空公司所运营的每一架飞机在公司破产后的命运。客机作为商品的特殊性，制造序号的唯一性以及国际民航组织网络数据的健全，使得在网络中持续流通着的图像与在空中不断移动着的客机成为了在全球贸易中可被循迹的“档案”。作为中国“政企分开”改革过程中的一次尝试，对西北航空公司破产之后的“资产清算”，显示出曾作为整体的物质基础与意识形态是如何在被市场这只“看不见的手”全面接管后全面分崩离析的。

On February 14th, 1980, the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping declared that “civil aviation must corporatize.” In 1987, the Chinese government decided to carry out reforms in the civil aviation industry and establish six major airlines under the principle of independent operation, self-financing, as well as equal competition. In March 2002, another round of restructuring was carried out for China’s civil aviation. According to the reform plan of “Constructing Three Airlines Groups” by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, China Northwest Airlines, founded on December 6th, 1989, was acquired by China Eastern Airlines due to a long-term run in the red, and the airline bowed out of people’s sight. A Brief History: China Northwest Airlines traces the follow-up stories of every plane after the airline’s bankruptcy. The particularity of passenger planes as a commodity, uniqueness of the Manufacturer Serial Number, and adequate data from well-established networks of international civil aviation organizations made images of sustainable online circulation and passenger planes in constant motion overhead into traceable “archives” in global trade. Despite a frustrating attempt in China’s reform to separate functions of government from enterprises, the archaeological investigation of China Northwest Airlines suggested how the potential national airspace had been controlled by the strength of policies and how material basis and value as a whole had been segmented after a complete take-over by the market economy.

3.

普罗大众之夜

Nights of Proletarian

《普罗大众之夜》的题目来源于 1981 年雅克·朗西埃的著作《劳动者之夜：十九世纪法国劳工的幻想》Nights of Labor: The Workers Dream in Nineteenth Century France，2012 年，这本书被 Verso 出版社重新发行，更名为《劳动者之夜》Proletarian Nights。

《普罗大众之夜》开始于凯文·曹颇具戏剧性的人生经历。在接连获得 2009 年全国脚斗士精英赛中量级冠军、2009 年“CCTV5 挑战脚斗王”六连冠之后，他与团队决定远赴美国推广这一竞技项目，但最终以失败告终。凯文·曹旋即选择留在美国，成为了一名婚礼影片摄影师，并开始从大众文化与视觉艺术中汲取养分。而身份与职业的转换也使他从舞台中央走向了无人知晓的边缘：从镜头前到摄影机后，从暴力的呈现者到幸福的记录者，平行于他动感颇强的颠沛人生，《普罗大众之夜》由凯文·曹在美国所拍摄的婚礼影片，早年的比赛录像和对他的采访片段而组成，作品试图围绕着图像内外中的劳动，价值以及身份问题而展开讨论，并将这些影像重新写入虚构与纪实交织而成的叙事中。

Nights of Proletarian took its name from the book by Jacques Rancière in 1981 (then titled Nights of Labor: The Workers Dream in Nineteenth Century France) which was re-published by Verso Books under the new name of Proletarian Nights in 2012. 

Nights of Proletarian based on the dramatic life experience of Kevin Cao. After becoming the middleweight champion in the 2009 National Judose Classic and topping the 2009 CCTV5 Judose Tournament for the sixth consecutive time, he and his team decided to head to the US to internationalise the sport of Judose, but it ended in failure. In the aftermath of the setback, Kevin Cao chose to remain in the US and became a wedding videographer immersed in popular culture and filmmaking. The shift in profession led him to step away from center stage and retreat to unnoticed corners: from the limelight to behind the scenes, from a violent performer to a witness to happiness. As a parallel to his turbulent and displaced life, Proletarian Nights weaving together of wedding videos Cao made in the US, game recaps in his early years, and interview clips at his studio in Chicago, attempts to spark discussions over issues of  labor, value, and identity in and outside the image-making process, and reconstructs images into a narrative entwined by both fictional and documentary elements.

4.

梦中的投递

Dream Delivery

一位已疲乏到极点的外卖小哥瘫倒在街边公园的长椅上，熟睡了。而在被长镜头所虚构出的梦境中，这些个体的劳动者们被聚集在荒漠中的一处山寨公园里: 在这里，奔波的外卖骑士成为了静止的“塑像”，形成了与他们日夜疲于追求速度与效率的反差。这些原本离散的当代劳动者的集体出场，指向了中国经济奇迹的反⾯：在技术与资本共谋下愈发同质化的城市生活，及其所造成的新型劳动与社会剥削——永远不能减速的移动和永远无法停止的劳动。在Jonathan Crary的《24/7》中，睡眠在当代资本主义社会中被形容成成一种稀缺的资源，而作为全球资本主义前线的中国，睡眠成为了这些移动者们所无法承受的风险。在超现实却又极端写实的梦境中，艺术家试图去捕捉到这自身所处时代的倦怠与焦虑——在现实中一直移动着的人，在梦里应该一动不动，在现实中从未被记住的脸，在梦中应该被给予特写。

An exhausted delivery rider sprawled on the bench of a roadside park and fell asleep safe and sound. In the dream composed of a long take, laborers gathered together in a Shanzhai park in the desert where dynamic riders became static “statues,” forming a contrast with the speed and efficiency they pursued inexhaustibly around the clock. The all-star lineup of contemporary laborers revealed the other side of Chinese economic miracle: an increasingly homogeneous urban life infused with technology and capital as well as new kinds of labor and social exploitation — perpetual mobility with speed and labor without rest. In 24/7 by Jonathan Crary, sleep was described as something rarely available in the contemporary capitalist society. And in China, at the forefront of global capitalism, sleep has become a costly risk for these mobile people. In surreal and extremely realistic dreams, the artist made an attempt to capture the elements of fatigue and anxiety in this era — ceaseless mobility day-to-day is frozen in the virtual world, while unremembered faces in real life deserve close-ups in imaginary dreams.

5.

游戏

Game

根植于《游戏》这部作品中的核心策略是对不同图像媒介中“呈现”与“观看”的解构，它以一种非线性的，跳跃式的叙述方式而展开：从传统摄影到电脑生成图像（CGI）的比较，从体育赛事电视转播中摄影机位置的追踪，到第一人称射击类游戏中对人眼的模仿。作品试图通过对这些异质图像的挪用，对比与蒙太奇来讨论图像背后的生产机制与迭代关系，以及观察者在其中所处的位置与其所持有的相应的视角。“世界是如何被图像所再现的？再现的世界又如何重构了我们观看方式？”是一个很难被回答的问题，《游戏》是对于这个问题的一次谦逊的尝试。

The thrust of Game is the deconstruction of “presentation” and “observation” in different media. The deconstruction is displayed in nonlinear and saltatory narratives: from the comparison between images photographed by cameras and computer-generated images, to the track of camera positions in live sports on television, and then emulation of human eyes in first-person shooter games. This piece of work intends to, by comparing these borrowed heterogeneous images with montage, unroll the mechanism, iteration, and recurrence behind, as well as the position and corresponding perspectives of observers. ”How is the world represented by images? How does the represented world reconstruct the way we observe?“ It is hard to answer the question in simply one single piece of work. Game is a humble attempt.

6.

无事发生

Nothing Happened

《无事发生》开始于一个极简主义者所拍下的一段视频，画面中显示着寒冬中空无一人的高速路上偶有几辆车经过。而在城市的实时仿真中，图像显示出就在这位极简主义者所拍摄的同时，在她所拍摄的高速路上发生了一起严重的车祸。但出于极简主义美学的考虑，她选择不将这场事故拍摄下来，她的画面中依旧保持着冬日的平静。

Nothing Happened began with a video made by a minimalist. A few vehicles occasionally passed by the viewer and there were no pedestrians in sight on the highway in a freezing winter. Meanwhile, according to the real-time city simulation, a serious accident simultaneously occurred on the same highway while the photographer made this video. As a minimalist in favor of the minimalist aesthetic, she chose not to shoot the accident, in a way to maintain the tranquility of a cold winter day.

7.

图像研究

Image Study

《图像研究》是一部桌面录屏作品，一幅罗兰·巴特抽烟的照片窗口缩小后，旋即弹出的窗口中是一段由电脑的前置摄像头所拍摄下的卷烟教学视频。与“如何去卷一根完美的香烟”同时出现在电脑桌面上的，是“如何去制作一副完美的图像”，在这个窗口中，艺术家挪用了不同影像中的“教学片段”：从 YouTube 上的 Photoshop 教学，到哈伦·法罗基所拍摄下的《花花公子》杂志封面的制作过程，再到电影《放大》中商业影棚的拍摄场景…与这些不同的“如何去…” 所对应的，是艺术家本人在作品中所做出的声明：“我，除非在万不得已的情况下，才会使用摄影机”，暗示了在景观社会永远在场的现今我们已无需生产出更多的图像去制作一部影片。

Image Study is a piece of screen recording work. After zooming out from a picture of Roland Barthes smoking in front of his desk, a tutorial video on how to roll a cigarette recorded by the front camera of the macbook popped out. Along with this “how to roll a perfect cigarette” tutorial, another window appears showing “how to create a perfect image”, where artists appropriates various “tutorial clips” from different contexts, from photoshop tutorial on YouTube, to the making of a Playboy magazine cover photographed by Harun Farocki, and scenes of the studio for the film Blow-Up. Corresponding to these different versions of how-to, the artist declared in the work that “I would only use a camera as a last resort,” indicating that in the world where the spectacle is always on the scene, there is no need to produce any more images to create a new film or artworks.

（特邀翻译 / Translator：Halina，徐子涵/Xu Zihan，黄兆铜/Huang Zhaotong）