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October 25 Shanghai eArts Festival I will come back later for the critic article, hereby are some pictures first to share with you. Enjoy! October 14 Two months later 十一临近的时候我开始整理自己的思绪，准备着手论文的写作了。 在中国做博士论文最大的难处是没有足够的资料可查。几个月以前曾经跟随狗狗去三联书店买书。三层的书店里，两个小时之内只找到了一本朱其的“Video: 20世纪后期 的新媒介艺术”。没过多久回法国注册，在书店找资料时，突然翻到了这位所谓中国“第一策展人”的著作资源，原来是抄一位法国艺评的大作写成的。我开始以为自己看错 了，也许朱某的书皮上写着“译著”而非“著”。回到中国仔细察看，竟然真的是“著”。惊讶下大失所望，中国的艺评都这样赚取名利吗？ 抱着又一次希望，我上了当当网。竟然真的找到了不少关于新媒体艺术的书籍。记得和美院某位老师闲聊的时候曾为参考书籍忧虑，对方也一时给不出太好的建议。当当网 的搜寻却没有让我失望。 以下是在当当网上找到的几本国内各个院校教师撰写的有关新媒体艺术的书籍，有感兴趣的可以一同分享： 首要推荐陈玲的“新媒体艺术史纲，走向整合的旅程”，清华大学出版社，347页，北京，2007年2月第1次印刷。 十一是抱着这本书过的，非常喜欢。作者现在清华大学新闻与传播学院做副教授，曾经在日本筑波大学，东京大学学习艺术学和建筑学，又作为日本文部省学术振 兴协会的特别研究员，法国博物馆研究与修复中心研究员，哈佛大学设计学院的访问教授等，活跃在新媒体艺术理论文化遗产虚拟 展示等领域的理论研究和实践活动。 她的著作逻辑清晰，文字简练，50年短暂但异常杂乱无章的新媒体发展历程被极为顺畅地梳理和分类。回国两年了，还是第一次找到一本真正严谨顺畅地介绍新媒体艺术 起源和发展的著作。欣赏之余不仅担忧：这一次是否人如其书呢？还是又一次碰到了“批着羊皮的狼”？ 我曾经尝试同出版社联系要作者的通信方式，却吃了个软钉子，回答尽管是帮忙联系着看，却实际是不管的意思。试想书都出了，能没有她的联系方式吗？只是这种保密 让我百思不得其解。作为同领域的研究人员或艺术创作者，相互联系讨论，交流经验在国外是很正常的事。有人欣赏你的作品或著作，在欧洲的待遇是要请到家里，痛痛 快快地聊才行。到了中国，竟然成了稀有动物，被保护起来了。保护什么呢？ 这种经历不久前在艺术北京开幕式上看池田亮斯的表演后也有过。如往常在欧洲一样，看过表演，我上前找艺术家闲聊，没想到从艺术家到助手都反应及其冷淡，远不象 在欧洲时那么亲切。两分钟的交流弄的我象个”追星族”。这还不算，又蹦出个经纪公司横在中间，吵吵嚷嚷要我离开。惊异中一种哭笑不得的感觉堵在心里，好久还不痛 快。这算什么呀？！以为我象片子里的变态日本少女那么不开眼吗？ 中国的明星公式真是太可笑了。简直用的驴唇不对马嘴。 以下是正准备阅读的书籍： 新媒体艺术（New Media Art）， 张燕翔， 科学出版社，2005年6月第一版， 北京， 313页 这本书粗略看上去似乎讲技术多过讲艺术，但仔细读下一两章来，还是挺好的。 新媒介艺术 （New Media Art）， 西方后现代艺术流派书系， 张朝晖，徐翎， 人民美术出版社， 2004年5月， 71页 以张朝晖的学历背景，写出这样的书实在让人失望。倒不是书不好，而是字里行间的粗浅应付让人对何为“学者”和其在当代社会的角色与责任产生怀疑。不过这个问题对当代的 中国美术界似乎是无关痛痒的。今天的中国美术界是个“火拼”的世界，谈责任不是会被人笑掉大牙吗？我不认识张朝晖，但两天前在网上偶然读到的有关他的消息却让我 不得不重新解读其看上去极为令人欣羡的履历。媒体报道的真实性固然令人怀疑，但“无风不起浪”的老话也绝对有它的道理。 总之，如果实在无书可读，张朝晖的这本薄著还是能讲得清楚什么是新媒体艺术的。 数字艺术论 （Digital Art）， 廖祥忠，中国广播电视出版社，2006年5月，548页（上下册） 还没读。从封面看是国家教育部“211工程”科研项目，被用作全国艺术院校本科辅助教材和研究生考试参考书目。 对于搞艺术的朋友没什么用，只是我用得着，论文里分析到国家教育那部分可以有点帮助。 数字化与现代艺术（Digital Art）， 王利敏，吴学夫， 中国广播电视出版社，2006年5月，196页 也没什么用，而且几乎是上一本书的缩写。 数字媒体艺术概论（An Introduction to digital Media Arts）， 李四达，清华大学出版社，2007年6月，362页 偏教你如何做三维，太设计。不过这本书本来也是作为设计教材用的。 读陈玲的书同时收获了几个同时应该阅读的外语著作，在这里提一下，有人感兴趣可以找找看： The Culture of Time and Space, 1880-1918, Ken Stephen, Havard University Press, 1983 Vision in Motion, 1947, Chicago: Theobald, 1947 Digital Harmony - on the complementarity of music and visual art, John Whitney, McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1980 Virtual Art - from illusion to immersion , Oliver Grau, Vienna, 2006 (向大家极力推荐，是陈玲在清华的研究室翻译的，而且作者我认识） Art & Telematics: Toward the construction of new aesthetics, Roy Ascott （信息不全，但应该不难找，作者的名字如雷灌耳） Reframing Consciousness: Art, Mind and Technology, Roy Ascott（肯定非常有意思） Art Technology Consciousness, Roy Ascott （极力推荐） 好啦，祝大家阅读愉快！ August 25 Why dance but not theater?I've been tortured yesterday the whole day by a theater play scenario that, the writer who was at the same time the future investor of the play, absolutely wanted to interpret through multimedia art. I finally decided to give it up. My decision was due to two reasons: first, the scenario was poorly done; second, I finally realized that, when it's been written in traditional theater form - means, with dialogue - it can no more be interpreted by multimedia art. I have to admit that the main reason that tortured me so much that I had to take one day to make decision was the person's double identity - writer AND investor. I've been trying to convince myself to find the solution to get a budget from the writer so that I could work out a play in my own way with my team. The hypotheses was then quickly denied by myself thinking about the obstacles and the conflicts I might meet later during the creation period, as I saw how much the writer insisted in the dialogue form while I talked to him about rewriting the scenario on the phone call. No matter the scenario was poorly done or very well arranged, it was still a creation based on time and energy consuming. Everyone's work deserved others respect. Yet, a question stayed in my mind: my experience, my knowledge and my sens in/for multimedia art told me that I could not put a theater play written in dialogue form into a multimedia play, and the negative answer was pertinent. But why pertinent? I couldn't tell. There must an explanation behind this "No", and I got to find it to avoid to repeat the same reflexion in the future. This morning, the down stair neighbor who used to yawl after getting drunk over night woke me again at 6 from my deep sleep. Lying in bed, eyes closed, the dialogue in the scenario infiltrated into my vague mind while I tried to get back to sleep. Suddenly, I got it, and my whole mind was "woke up" by the click. On the stage, a theater play can actually hardly share a dominant position with multimedia art right because of its dialogue form writing. Comparing to dance that is based on corporal language, the theater tells all the contents hidden through the dialogue which could have been interpreted with the aide of multimedia art. Differently said, the dialogue and the image play the same role in a theater play as they both contribute to interpret the main element in a scenario which is human or actors' thoughts, although it is not the only "function" that multimedia art can play on the stage. What other "functions" does multimedia art play on the stage beside human thoughts? The environment / atmosphere description, the actors identities in the play, or from time to time an interactivity between the stage (active space / actors / story) and the audience (passive space / perceivers / perceived content). The interactivity can be realized by new technology (based on computer and some other medias such as webcam, Internet, LED...) or by pure moving images, however, its role is mainly to revers the traditional concept to explore a theater space that was, for thousand years, destined to "show". The interactivity means to break the "show" concept in traditional theater creation so that the audience can be somehow a part of the "happening" on the stage (spatially and spiritually). Yet, the dialogue helps on the contrary the actors (from the very beginning of the creation the scenarist) to keep the traditional "show" concept - when you try to "tell" something to somebody you actually are "showing" to that person, as there is always the act of "convincing" in your dialogue, no matter it is built in positive, negative or interrogative form... you are "convincing" the audience to concentrate on you and to react on what you are "saying" - so its goal is opposite to the principal of the existence of multimedia art on the stage. In this case, the creators - especially the scenarist(s) - have to make a choice between the dialogue and the silence (that allows multimedia art to "tell" everything through "images" in stead of "dialogue - words"). Dance is different. It is supposed to be "showed" in silence, and it doesn't require any perception / reaction from the audience part, not necessarily. Multimedia art can easily find its position on the scene, tells everything hidden within the actors (choreographer)'s interior world. Or, it simply restraints its role into an environmental decoration, helps to create a certain special atmosphere... The corporal language of the actors preserves the total "freedom" for multimedia art to explore the potentiality of every element on the stage: decor, light, actors, space... although we can do the same in a theater play with the set and the light designs, but we can never "free" as much as we can in a dance creation for it. Understand this is radical for me to react before the future scenarios I will get and I will work on. I am not saying that there is NO possibility for a theater play to inlay multimedia art. So far the best solution that I think is to reduce the dialogue volume so that multimedia art can get enough "freedom" to play on the stage. But of course, we also have to think about its collaboration (or conflicts?) with set and light designs. This looks a big problem for any performing arts creation - can multimedia arts replace set and light designs on the stage? My answer - so far - is : from aesthetic view, no; from functional view, yes. It depends on the creation team to find the balance. August 24 DVDsGot DVDs from a French curator who, a few days ago while calling me, insisted that he absolutely did not want to do any projects in Beijing but has been forced (by two top master choreographers friends) to contact me. Didn't know what to say. He must have been terribly unfortunate at the moment he sent the DVDs. Being forced so much to do something in life, he cannot be not unfortunate. Here they are, the unlucky but extremely attractive DVDs, on my dest, in front of me: "Amelia", "Compilation 1997-2004", Dumb Type", "Saburo Tshigawara"(3 including a documentary), "LA LA LA human steps"of Edouard Lock. Hard to make my friends in Europe understand BJ and China. They are too much famous and busy to hold any time and patience for this hot, cold, dynamic, messy, arrogant, generous, unbelievably open but strictly conservative city... What a pity! I decided to keep silence and work. I am exhausted by proving and arguing. August 23 Ivo Bol - being abandonedThis afternoon, before going to BMDC, I got the email from Ivo, telling me that he was going to abandon our project for a while. "I know that you've been working hard on it, I know that you did a lot of work..." Alter Factory, The Art of Sampling, then what? Disappointed? Not very much. This is actually something that I was waiting for. Ivo said that he was going to transform the project into something bigger and more solid, with a real exchange between China and the Netherlands. "We have a wonderful team, good venues, perfect opportunity". All of these are true, we just cannot make it happen. More and more, I'm convinced that it's time for me to get married and make some children - find back my real "woman identity". I hate being curator / agent / producer... whatever... When you loose your project because of money, you just feel so weak, fragile, little, an insect with a sort of brain, that's it. Tonight, at the theater rehearsal, one of the investors for the play talked about multimedia art with me:"I have a question: why your multimedia art work looks like some pieces of plasters? It's like that we only have to put them somewhere but they have nothing to do with the play?" Good question. I cut him off and said:"Because you only gave us a place for plaster." He looked excited by my answer (obviously not very friendly), wanted to talk more about multimedia with me. He noted down my phone number, like really ready to call me tomorrow. Who knows? I don't care anymore. If he calls me tomorrow for sure I will go meet him and talk about multimedia. I'm actually more expecting his wonderful dinner than his talk, as I know that once again I'm going to upset a Chinese investor with my "lecture", as what I repeated thousand times before. One of my girlfriends told me that I was extremely unattractive before males because I gave too many "lectures". "They all got bored and try to escape from your speech, from you!" Well, what can I do? I'm just anguished by what I expect to do but cannot do in China. I need more people to understand me. I'm so lonely in my research here! The theater play has completely gone to another direction. I'm just so disappointed. It's even worse than Jing Meng. I learned to be hypocrite. I started to lye to myself, to lye to everyone. In fact, from my part, if the director asked me tonight, I would probably have answered:"I don't like this play. Nothing is fine in it." But she didn't give me chance to say it. During a short while she talked about human beings' double identity: everyone has two aspects (maybe even more for certain people). Sometimes by accident we can see a person completely changing into another person - a stranger - in life. This is exactly what I was doing to her at our meeting - a very important skill to handle for our survival. It is just SAD. Long time ago, an architect friend has retorted me while I was expressing my ideals with excitement:"Why being so serious and responsible? Of what? Of whom? Want to do something in life? Do it but be simple!" I've been asked so many times:"Why did you make yourself so complicated?" Frankly, I have no answer to the question. That's just me. August 21 观世音接 “观世音” 有段时间了。 剧本被七改八改，昨天终于尘埃落定（这是我一厢情愿的想法，从老象寄来的邮件上看，这次的剧本有了个封皮，显得很正式，很庄重，让人不敢小看）。 多媒体影像的人选换了又换，现在的老马目前为止不负众望，工作有条不紊，创意时有惊人之处，是个很舒服的合作伙伴。 我是半路上接触这个剧的。从专业上讲，我的戏剧理论知识比起剧中其他成员可谓少之极少。但跨越着多媒体艺术学来的那点皮毛仍然可以让我对剧本有所感觉。对于这个戏，从感觉上其实比以前的合作要好很多。一群年轻的艺术工作者找到了自己的方式去做一个尽量属于自己的东西，而且尽量地让它有突破。这个突破并且不是单纯的以展示为目的的突破，而是真的想对得起自己。 可发展到现在，剧本无法回避地遇上了所有创作在中国会遇到的问题：定位的选择。是屈从于大众，以看得懂为目的，还是忠于自己，以做艺术为原则？ 与所有的年轻创作者的选择，或者说是命运相同，“观世音”屈从了大众。 这不是剧组的选择，而是被强加的命运。说不是选择，其实剧组也选择了，只不过是被动的。因为领导说...... 我的感触：在中国讨论什么是戏剧似乎没有什么太大的意义，因为其定义不是研究戏剧的人所能给得了的。永远是领导决定一切。 中国的戏剧工作者似乎也习惯了和这种潜规律“作战”。领导不满意？我们可以改。最终目的是把这个事作成。可最终被作成的还是那个事吗？你的意思是不做了，和领导死抗到底？你真的能罢手不干了吗？ 在左右为难的思考，权衡和痛苦抉择的过程通通经过之后，是中国市式的大智若愚的忍耐和麻木。中国现状就这样，我们只能尽量让个人的声音存在。只要你在继续，总有一天，你能发出你想要的声音。 这一天还远吗？什么时候到来呢？ 我们去到那么远的地方学习，生活，回来以后只是为了象以前那样等待和继续的麻木不仁吗？ 老墙在前两天的Blog里说，每一代有每一代的故事。我深有感触。我和他只差两三岁，可却好像差了整整一代人。他性格中的隐忍，圆滑，中庸来自让我如此钦佩却又急于逃避的久远时代。那是属于我父母的时代，我在他身上看到了一种久违了的不属于我这一代的世故，并非惹人讨厌的世故，而是对生活的透彻理解和智慧的累积。 老墙属于最后一代还有精英存在的中国人，是我父辈那一代人的延续，到我们这里划上了句号，却并不完美。 我们呢？是分崩离析的一代。出生在精英时代的尾巴上，生长在知识走向消费的空白里，成熟在以国际化为生存标准的热潮中，竭尽一切努力，却只学了个表象，骨子里却集结了无比的西方情绪，被卡在爱国和崇尚西方自由的中间了。真是要多难受有多难受。 我们这一批人代表老一辈中国人向往却消受不了的小资，下一代嗤之以鼻的假西化，坚守阵地并修成正果的同辈同胞们再也无法理解和接受的另类。总之，活丢了。 “观世音”的和谐是一个大题目。这个剧从立意到形式都特别有意思。寻找和谐这个主题无时无刻不在困扰着全组的人。寻找已经不是剧中的动作而发展成每天的生活。而和谐究竟是怎么个样子？又该以什么样的方式去体现？什么元素才是和谐的元素？事实上，我们在解一个永远没有答案的数学题。 多媒体还是影像在这个剧的创作过程中已无足轻重，或者说，完全没有讨论的意义。在讨论用什么形式去创作之前，我们其实需要先找到和谐。但目前的中国却恰恰没有和谐。 我们仍然是认真的，对待工作一丝不苟。但我们并不和谐。做到底，仍然是凑出了一台戏。 什么时候才可以真正地创作？多媒体艺术真的只能存在于西方？ 想得太多容易伤脑，还是看个片子轻松轻松吧。权当暂时的逃避。 August 18 South Gate Space performance昨天去798南门空间看了Frishzell的现场表演。被邀嘉宾Gogo和巫娜。 回国以来第一次看到像样的现场表演，真的很成功。空间空前爆满，许多人是站在那里看完的。 颜俊的组织很到位，一个也没拉下。 尽管在欧洲常看这样的演出，许多比这个更好，但昨天的演出仍然让我很享受。有久违了的感觉。 可惜接触艺术家群体太晚了，否则真想和他们多聊一会儿，已经好久没有这么聊过了。一瞬间，在欧洲穿梭在法国，荷兰和奥地利之间拜访艺术家工作室，参观艺术节的生活又活了过来，一时间感慨万千。 颜俊经过10年的努力，在国内能做到今天这个地步，真是很不容易。 昨天Frishzell的表演分成上下半场，中间有10分钟的休息。 上半场有点象室内音乐会，Jazz旋律性很强，是Frishzell自己的表演。钢琴，长号，鼓，声音和视频之间的配合很默契，但稍有些偏古典，不知道是否照顾了现场观众的兴趣。 视频有些让我失望。中场休息时还和Gogo聊了半天多媒体艺术里视频的出路。觉得似乎国内国外都有过于抠技术和软件的倾向。德国年轻艺术家的现场表演我还是第一次看，也许评论过于偏激，但总的感觉是昨天的视频如果多些内容会更好，而不是单纯的图案变化。也许是受 Gogo的影响，我现在越来越喜欢Video。其实在欧洲的时候就喜欢哲理性强的东西，或者纯审美意识体现的作品。对于科技太强的偏设计的作品一向不是太感冒。在法国呆得太久了，而且入门的时候是Erwin Wurm的摄影和Video雕塑，对于欧洲路线的影像作品明显地偏爱。这也是为什么喜欢Gogo作品的最主要原因。是怀旧情结在作怪，而且教育决定的，没办法。 下半场Echo, 巫娜和Gogo的加入让表演多了许多中国味。 Echo的人声很有意思，我喜欢，但不喜欢昨天她做的视频。不知为什么觉得她没在状态，现场没找着感觉。那段小熊的视频被大家公认不好，完全的不和谐。表演的时候似乎巫娜和Hannes看到这组画面都有些诧异。 最后一段是Gogo的视频和Sven还有Hannes 的声音编程。觉得挺委屈Gogo的，基本没怎么发挥出来。尤其是她这么一个小人被左拥右抱地挤在三个男孩子中间，更显得势单力薄。 相比之下，我更喜欢她前不久在两个好朋友做的声音，和Hannes的那场，出乎意料地默契，蛮来电的。 巫娜的古琴很棒。头一次见有人用古琴做声音， 真的很棒。Echo做人声的时候我在想杜薇的现场声音。我更喜欢Echo的。一切野性的东西我都喜欢。 思路是一个很玄妙的东西。 唯一觉得差点意思的是视频，其实Sven和Hannes的声音编程我也觉得没有想像中的好，和欧洲同行比起来仍然很稚嫩。有活力却缺底蕴。艺术行业中的积累是没法掩饰的，只能慢慢来。 昨天演出中没有天才，但每一个人都很棒。 希望颜俊能带来越来越多的现场，北京真的很缺。 艺术家名单（参考颜俊的网站） 斯芬·哈纳（Sven Hahne）：声音编程 马提亚斯·穆赫（Matthias Muche）：长号 菲力普·佐贝克（Philip Zoubek）：加料钢琴（预制钢琴） 克里斯蒂安·托默（Christian Thomé）：电子、鼓 迈克尔·迪斯（Michael Thies）：视频 艾科·何（Echo Ho）：笔记本、电子、视频 韩纳斯·赫尔兹（Hannes Hoelzl）：笔记本、电路、声音编程 August 02 2005 chengdu biennale2005年6月－9月 for geert mul and all my dear friends in rotterdam the article is written in chinese, about my experience with geert at 2005 chengdu biennale. it was the second time i brought over a foreign artist to assist to an exhibition in china. it was a wonderful experience to work with geert. i discovered a great personality much more than only a great art work. really hope that one day in a very soon future, i will still have chance to work with you, in china. 真不爱在这个系统里写中文，写着写着字就摞一块儿去了。 昨天把辛辛苦苦整理了几天的网站发布出去，一大早就接到了东京表哥的来信，曰：“满纸都是法语，谁知道你写的都是什么？” 没中国话是真的，可我写的是英语，难道说日语时间长了会分不清英语和法语了吗？ 不管怎样，为了表哥，我也一定要写篇中文的！ 成都双年展是我斗胆带miguel chevalier来中国讲座以后参加的第一个国内展事。这之前贪仲松的便宜和朋友们上中国国际画廊博览会转了一圈，“巧遇”范老师，几下交谈展示之后，他看上了我的荷兰哥们儿geert mul的作品，就成就了我们参加2005成都双年展。 那次参展真是“收获非浅”。一切细节暂且按下不表，单说到成都之后。 新落成的现代艺术展厅宏伟壮观，一看就知道是巨资而建。后来在开幕式的啤酒节上我们还在排队等烤串的时候遇到了此馆的建筑师，澳洲归 来，在国内谋生，而且谋得不错。话说远了。 总之，此次参展让我见识了国内作战（做展）的阵式。离开幕式还有两天了，早9点到达场馆一看，除了一间面积合格的用建筑工地搭厂房 用的几块板搭起来的小屋子和几块被水泥牢牢实实固定在地上的方砖之外，其它一无所有。荷兰哥们儿当时就晕了。我因为是在国内第一次参展，正兴奋着，暂时没顾上晕，可后来想起来挺后怕的。 早在一个月前所有geert mul参展需要用的设备清单包括场所规定就发过来了。如今说什么都晚了，只有赶快行动。Geert 展的是地投作品， 我们还剩下一天半的时间，需要做的工作是：搭建吊投影仪的架子，搞定遮光问题（因为我们的展位在高达二十多米的落地玻璃窗边，展 厅是工业展厅，1000多平米的顶棚也完全是透明的），找到6000流明的投影仪和一个广角镜头，DVD机，本来是想把geert的电脑直接接 在投影仪上，以保证影像画面的清晰，一看现场，得了，肯定丢了，当时决定用DVD，刻盘展示作品。地面上的方砖原本不该用水泥固定 ，好随时移动配合投影仪调影像用，后来听说几个主事的策展人（名字不说了）为了节约我们的工作量，二者怕随意进出的工人偷砖，特意用水泥固定在地上。固定了也抠不下来，只好搭架子和固定投影仪的时候较劲吧，还不能出了给我们划的展位。 一切如奇迹般发生了。在我们的奋战下（后来数一下，我们是当天夜里4点回饭店睡觉的，第二天又9点到了场馆，中午清场，晚上6 点开幕式），一天时间里，我们用十几根钢管搭建了高达8米的脚手架，用5个小时的时间固定了投影仪，接上了广角镜头（因为规格不符）， 用两个小时把一个软件作品刻成了DVD, 并且找准了地面的影像，还买了我忘了多少米遮光布搭起了一间完全无光的标准投影作品展室，门 口的帘子还设计出了个造型。 除了中午的一顿饭和其他参展的人一起吃的，晚饭没人管，水没人管，回饭店的车没人管。Geert在现场睡过去好几次，还倒时差呢。我每需 要一个新的设备，人员或是什么工具，就要在1000平米的展厅里到处奔跑着找人解决。场内没有空调，满地是不知名的虫子，你看不见它们，可没耽误它们咬你。凌晨回饭店时，我们俩互相展示了身上大大小小的包，一身冷汗。 第二天晚6点的开幕式先在饭店举行，范老师接见所有参展艺术家。Geert拒绝参加，在房间里睡了一大觉。8点我们起床叫了出租去现场，9 点才到，正碰上CCTV9采访。反正只有geert一个欧洲艺术家来了，被抓了采访，还算留下点资料。后来我们极度庆幸接受了那个采访，因 为拿到的画册中居然把geert的作品照片给拉掉了，因为这个geert在回北京的飞机上好几个小时没跟我说话。要不是回到我的地盘上给他好 住好吃好喝的补了一下，估计今天我们早掰了。 后来在北京休假的时候geert说，如果不是因为你，当时那种情况下，要是在欧洲，我是有权利掉头走的，你自己去跟策展方打去吧。我说那参展费用还没给你呢，你不是白做作品了吗？他愣住了。我说你知道离开成都那天早晨我是怎么在策展人办公室打架把我们的费用给结清的吗？你知道其他人都没按合同给钱呢吗？geert困惑地看着我，一如我委屈但同样困惑地看着他。 我们后来把CCTV9的采访作成了DVD。2006年巴黎la fiac展的时候我在展厅看到了ron mandos，是geert在鹿特丹的经纪人。他展位上的powermac里正放着我们的DVD。我当时觉得心里真的很欣慰，但并不快乐。 后来国内大大小小的展览我不知为什么再也无法象在成都那样任劳任怨了。似乎国内一直都是这个状态，办展览象打仗，永远无法规矩清楚 地做事情，合同签了像没签…… 欧洲的哥们儿姐们儿们似乎也习惯了不立即回应我的召唤，因为有了前车之鉴，懂得了与中国交锋需小心行事。 无论怎样，2005成都之行总算是一个开篇吧，我们只能期待一切的一切都会越走越好。 www.sklunk.netjan.-jun. 2006 Go online, take a look of www.sklunk.net. this is the only e-magazine in france talking about the real artists over the world ... pierre, pierre, pierre, dois-je rediger cet article en francais? rien que pour mes souvenirs pour la france ou je pourrais te retrouver. pierre bongiovanni, big personality in art and politic circles in france. he represents a france that has been prosperous thanks to her loyalty and courage. you cannot make any effect mentioning again his name today. but just a few years ago, pierre bongiovanni might give you the whole power to be as much bright and famous as you expected in art circle in the whole europe. today when i think about pierre again, i still can feel this delicate vibration in my heart. he was wrapped in a black jacket and black pans, wearing a pair of black sun glasses, walking from the left to the right in front of the cafe Z. i was sitting next to the window in the cafe, looking at this charming man getting upset for the absence of his meeting person. behind him was la place chatelet. i knew his name through edmond couchot. i went to his home to talk about my "rupture" exhibition project. he thought over then gave me this name: "pierre, call him, he might have some ideas for you." pierre came to my meeting. in one hour, he crashed me by his questionnaire attack, then judged me as a "no energy person". conclusion: i'm not going to make my project happen. i was in panic, didn't know how to answer. i got depressed by his opinion. a few days later, he invited me to join him for a show. it was hold by some japanese artists, deep in a narrow street behind la place bastille. we had dinner together before the show, he looked much nicer and polite this time. when i told him that he frightened me at our first meeting, he got a shining in his eyes, looked at me and smiled like a mischievous little boy:"ha! really? am i that serious?" i said "yes you are" by nodding my head. we stayed quite a while at the event place. it was a bar where a group of young artists frequently gave their performances. apparently they already got some reputation in the circle, several japanese young girls performed with some french boys. dance, happening, theater... it was a quite interesting evening. i talked to the japanese organizer who was a very young and pretty girl still studying contemporary art in france, then chatted with her collaborator coming from japan. she was already a very famous choreographer in her country. from my eyes corner, i saw pierre watching me, smiling. i finally couldn't make my exhibition happen in my way, but did another one with ministry of culture in china. each time i went back to france, i must call pierre to catch up a meeting. he was always sarcastic, harsh with the others, but no more with me. he always found me girlish, not enough energetic for the profession i wanted to do, but i only realized that his comments were right after i completely settled down in china and started to work as a real curator. i didn't stay long time with his magazine, www.sklunk.net. i actually liked his magazine, but my new life in china didn't allow me to contribute more his publishing. during the first months of my life in china, i made a lot of effort to support sklunk. i even thought to develop my interview and writing work for pierre into a serious business in china. i was obviously too much naive thinking in this way. however, sklunk gave me a start to approach chinese art scene in a very natural way, and allowed me to have some really nice experiences in interviews and writings. my work for sklunk ended six months later, when my survival issue became fairly serious. pierre couldn't get sponsors either to keep his beijing writer in a more convincing way. when i finally confirmed him my stop on the skype, he didn't say anything back. since then, we stopped to chat to each other. it's been so long time i didn't talk to pierre. sometimes i saw him online, but never got the courage to talk to him again. when i don't see him online, i know that he is traveling. canada probably the most. loin des yeux, loin du coeur. this is one of the earliest proverbs we learned in french at university in beijing. my life totally changed since my return to beijing. it has to be changed, unless i don't want to stay here anymore. i never believed on culture difference before, but now i suffer it everyday. some days in the morning, paris came back suddenly in my dreams, with those "ruelles" leading back to saint-michel, the quartier latin, saint-germain-des-pres, bastille... i almost saw cecile, yi and i sitting around the table, at cecile's little appartment deep in la rue roquette, the candle was shining in the dark, we were chatting about our dreams for the future, the song "notre dame de paris" was floating in the air... 8 years in france, i've been so deeply a part of this country and a part of this culture. i still cannot come back to china in my mind. perhaps i just don't want to and i never will want o... everything is just so different... alain fleisher workshopCentral Academy of Fine Arts 2006 Croisement Festival organized by AFAA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France) and French Embassy in China (no picture reference) work notes: i love to work with artists. when pro. ma gang told me about alain fleisher's workshop in central academy, i presented right away my candidature for assistance for the workshop. alain fleisher is an official photographer listed by ministry of foreign affairs in france. long long time ago (10 years? 20 years? don't remember anymore) he set up his own lab in lille, and developed it into a film institute that became over 10 years passed one of the best schools in france to learn photography, video art and artistic film production. it's rare that he comes to china to give his solo show. ma gang who is such a brilliant pr person in nature knows how to catch foreign artists in china to give free lectures in his academy. anyway, seeing that i was so excited, he smiled in his eyes and said, "ok". i stayed a week with alain and his beautiful girlfriend, danielle. danielle had a wonderful sens of humor that made everybody laugh so much. she must have been extremely beautiful and lovely at younger age. she still is, but definitely you can see age from her face and her eyes. alain's workshop was from 1h to 6hpm everyday. his work was not complicated: explain to ma gang's students about fresnoy - his film institute, give comments on their own works and show some fresnoy students works to them. pure exchange. the translation part was intensive! 5 hours everyday, instantly. i had a lot of fun with the translation. i actually can always learn a lot of things from translating for artists. you have to follow their thoughts, understand exactly what they want to do, how they develop their concepts into real art works, what techniques they use, what problems they may confront, how to resolve these problems, why and how you can judge an art work is good or not enough... there is no better way than translation to remember all these details in art creation procedure. at the same time, you discover some great personalities. about this issue, i like to say a bit more. i worked with number of famous artists like alain fleisher in europe, but only got chance to discover chinese artists and curators after my return to china. i have to say that i prefer to deal with european artists as they usually know who they are in life. it sounds easy to understand who you are in life, but most of people in china get lost when they have to deal with their vanity. nowadays in china, people care so much about the appearance, we don't live to enjoy life but to show to the others how powerful how lucky we are. we don't have time to think, only have the right to react. apparently everybody wants to do things in china, but when you go deep in those projects, 99% are for power and money but not for the projects themselves. i've been told that everywhere is the same in the world. i can't tell about america as i've never lived there, but in europe, artists that i knew are not living in this way. honesty, sincerity, been true with yourself and rigorous in work... all of these qualities and principals that a human being should posses, i learned them from europe. back to china, the realities are telling me more and more to give them up and to go back to a much more primitive time where people are allowed to do anything they want, in any way they think fine. contemporary china doesn't care about quality, she only cares about money. if you are an idealist, please do not come to china. we don't need new concepts, we need money. after the workshop alain joined dashanzi art festival to show some fresnoy students art works. he got very upset by the festival work quality. at the opening day, the audio system was broken, all his videos lost sound. when i arrived at the show, danielle and he looked at me, shaking their heads and said: this festival is really socks! they don't understand how important the sound is for a video. it doesn't make sens to show these images without sound. people were walking around, laughing, drinking, chatting with each other, once again the society life gave them chance to show themselves. nobody cared about alain's videos sound problem. i didn't even notice when he went away with danielle. fortunately, his solo exhibition was quite successful. it was hold by fan di'an at national museum, assisted by ma gang multimedia studio. play(s)-international digital and multimedia arts exhibitionplay(s) - international digital and multimedia arts exhibition within the 3rd china international animation and digital arts festival changzhou, china mar. - sep. 2006 it's really a pity that i lost the whole package of visual documentation of this exhibition! I got seriously hurt about this accident. last summer while i was running after the french embassy and all chinese governmental institutions for my first digital art exhibition project in china, a very kind french official (do not want to tell his name as it might cause too much melancholy and hurt about certain people and souvenirs) introduced me to alain, manager for culture and art programs at ministry of culture in china. we finally decided to work together only the next year, in march, when he asked me to set up a digital art exhibition for his annual event with changzhou. even though the city didn't sound attractive for me, especially when i thought about my european artists who've been expecting to come visit china for so long time, but, thinking that the event could somehow give us a chance to make something happen in china. i accepted alain's invitation. it was a great experience to work with alain and his assistant, hao who was a wonderful english speaker. we brought over 8 european artists and 10 interactive installations to changzhou, with a incredibly tiny budget and one week hard work in the exhibition hall. yeh yeh, the way to work in china... i still am extremely proud of my artists: sylvia eckermann, gerald nestler and christof from vienna, han hoogerbrugge and arthur kleijan from the netherlands (han was such a famous artist all over the world. god! i still cannot believe that i was the first curator to bring him to china and to show his work here! what a pity that i only got a show for him in changzhou!), samuel bianchini, laurent lettree and nathalie delpech from france, and two very young artists from china fine arts academy in hangzhou, zhang song and peng yun (beautiful girl i've ever met in china!). all of them worked SO hard for my exhibition! the art works we showed were all somehow related to cartoon art that was the theme of ministry of culture's event in changzhou. people coming visit the exhibition were so excited, they never saw these installations before. they tried them one by one, like playing some computer games. they talked to my artists, trying hard to understand their philosophy and themes. in the evening we hang out in the city, discovering local food in those little, dirty but extremely delicious restaurants. they were all so cheap: 50 yuans for 8 people with i don't remember how many bottles of beer... comparing to this, we hated so much the official ceremony that happened in the most luxurious hotel of the whole city at our exhibition opening night, mayor's speech was so boring... after the event they all went visit shanghai. we've been arguing in work. some of them were not satisfied with me, i also complained about their not-being-collaborative... but at last, we all kept in touch and liked to remember that wonderful week we passed together. it definitely was the most dynamic and exciting moment of my new life in china. i cannot remember how i lost my more than 60mns video of that wonderful part in our life. i just cannot find the types anymore. it stays until now the only digital art exhibition, a REAL one, that i curated since my return to china from 2006. i never had occasion to work on a similar project after that. i should say thanks to alain. things became difficult and not understandable after that exhibition. it was so hard to make things happen in beijing in proper way, sometime i really feel hopeless in work as it's so hard to find a place for digital art in beijing. living in this city, being surrounded everyday by thousand people you know or you don't, you think you see every minute some opportunities to do things but finally the "opportunities" are so fragile that even before you understand how to catch them they get broken by themselves. i wonder if everybody has to spend a century to work on relationship in this city before he or she realizes some projects. doing things is not the goal of people in beijing, but making relationship. you may say that everywhere is the same in this world, we all need a network to make things happen. yes, i agree, but trust me, never as much as in china. jingmeng-new peony pavilioni stopped my website on mac space to start this new blog that is much cheaper - free 
- and more fun. But in editing i realized that, with this simple blog i
won't be able to arrange the pages and the topics as i expected. well,
anyway, my goal was just to find a place to note down what i did in the
past, the method should not be a big issue in this case. so, here we go!the first project for the new blog / the last project for until jul. 2007 jingmeng - new peony pavilion multimedia modern dance and theater wang yuanyuan dance studio production oct. 2006 - feb. 2007 scenario: wang yuanyuan, yuan xiaoying director/choreography: wang yuanyuan music: du wei set design: tan shaoyuan light design: han jiang multimedia art creation: 8gg costume: li qing supported by beijing youth daily and city weekend （http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/articles/cw-magazine/close/aging-beauty/） special thanks to that’s beijing （http://www.thatsbj.com/blog/index.php/2007/01/10/not_to_miss_47） timeout beijing (january 2007 N.28 - performance - living the dream by nancy pellegrini) china daily （http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/citylife/2007-02/13/content_808326.htm） ... work notes it was yuanyuan’s idea to rewrite mudan ting (peony pavilion), kunqu opera of tang xianzu. it was, at the beginning, a project that she wanted to do with li liuyi, which consisted in rewriting and putting mudan ting and jin ping mei both two stories together to make a theater and dance play, nevertheless li liuyi changed his mind, withdrawing from the production, yuanyuan came ask me if i was interested in writing the play。 i liked the idea so said “yes”. we’d been talking about producing a multimedia dance together for a year before she got the idea to rewrite mudan ting. my participation to the production therefore gave us a chance to realize our first project. in our original project, we’d like to replace a part of setting design and light design by some videos, in the meanwhile they should have interpreted the interior world of the personages in the play. we’d like to use video to tell those delicate thoughts that we were unable to tell through dance and theater. another goal was to create a new stage, in spreading the space for dance and theater by moving images that can in the meanwhile dialogue with the bodies of the dancers. i invited 8gg to join us for multimedia art creation part in the play, as they were one of the best in china in the interactivity technic. their creation responded to yuanyuan’s choreography style that was very influenced by postmodernism. the images were generative but finally not interactive with the dancers because of the very restrained budget. we only could create some simple animations then make them virtually interactive with the dancers on the stage. the collaboration between multimedia art people and stage art people was at the same time an exciting and hard experience for everybody. it wasn’t all the time as pleasant as i imagined, since everyday we had some new difficulties in communication or conflicts from all levels such as in the creation concept or in the production management. through this production i saw how hard it was for multimedia art artists to convince people in chinese stage art to accept them as “artists” but not simple “technicians”. i’m afraid that we still have to wait for very long time before multimedia art can get rid of its “tool”position that china is imposing on it. most of the chinese artists are more attracted by the programming and technic side of this art, as the new technology allow them to explore the interactivity that they can play with in their creation. only a few of them are doing research through aesthetic and art history view. the whole situation derived multimedia art from contemporary art field, pushed it become the new favorite of designers who can only use it as a simple tool. Also this art is considered in china as the result of the alliance between IT and design but not as a serious discipline in contemporary art. it’s true that we see more and more multimedia art installations in galleries or museums in china, but most of them are still done in a quite superficial way without any concerns about aesthetic, philosophy or sociology. however, these works created by artists cannot be compatible to those done by designers as technically they can never be as good as them. people in stage art in china perceive multimedia art more as a technic with the purpose to make the traditional setting design and light design more dynamic and original. they haven’t got the essential of this discipline which consists in reversing those conservative concepts in aesthetic and art history. whatever, jing meng-peony pavilion inspired me a lot. i learned so much from this collaboration. the lesson was quite intense and helpful. it’s good to see what we should do and where we should go in the future. i wish to have more collaborations in stage art in china, and to produce more interesting pieces with people sharing the same ambition as me in the future. |
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