Li Zhanyang_The Nightmare

李占洋 LI ZHANYANG 噩梦 THE NIGHTMARE

直面现实的问题意识 — 关于李占洋的装置新作《噩梦》 文：冯博一 如果从中国现、当代艺术史的角度考察艺术与现实的关系，就会发现有个值得注意的倾向：许多艺术家始终执著于艺术对“现实”直接的投射，相信现代 性能够洞察生活的真相和现实本身，于是艺术的作用自然成为对历史对现实趋向的反映。这与中国现代性历史面对的社会危机紧密相连，是中国的历史 必然和中国现代性的特点之一。改革开放之后，由于社会转型所造成的中国现实本身的复杂性和丰富性，为中国前卫艺术提供了可利用的充沛资源，根植 于现世的奇景异观也是构成其具有独特魅力的原因之一。 在我看来，李占洋以往的雕塑创作更多的是运用后现代主义的方法，利用中国民间民俗、乃至红色经典的图像资源，在复制与挪用中进行替换、篡改、抽 离和戏仿的反讽，具有市井后现代的意味。他不仅是塑造者，是作品中的“我”，还是一种他理解和判断的社会现实的象征与隐喻，并在“处理与被处理” 的关系中，将几种图像予以纠缠与拼合，从而产生出一种新的视觉张力；并使这些耳熟能详的经典作品所提供的标准变得短暂而不可靠，也在忍俊不禁 的亵渎和滑稽与荒诞的幽默中，体会出犯忌的快感而更耐人寻味。 对当代文化境遇以及在这种处境中的个人生存的思考和敏锐，将导致对旧有艺术形式在方法论上的改造，而艺术家需要的是用一种规定为“艺术”的方 法和话语来体现这种思想观念。 最近，李占洋创作了一件新的作品，题为《噩梦》（2011/2012，综合材料装置，整个装置尺寸可变）。这件装置新作是通过现成品和雕塑来构成和给予呈 现的。他在支援重庆边远山区龙潭镇美术教育时，收集了30 多位小学生的旧书包，吊装在半空之中，其间倒立穿插着锋利的不锈钢锻造的刀状物，悬置 在他以9岁女儿为模特的写实雕塑上空，而围绕在女孩儿雕塑周围的，则是铺陈于地面重达3 吨的各种各样的作业本和考试卷。在灯光的映照与反射下， 形成了一种逼仄的冲突，沉重的壁垒和危险的现场境遇。这次李占洋的工作方式有所改变，他是根据中国教育系统的现实问题和切身的生活体验，即有 选择地利用现成品的形、功能，和象征的寓意，装置了一种直接的、具有明确现实针对性的新作品，以此表达了他对中国当下社会教育现状的思考、质疑 与批判，并且提示出一种作为学生家长都认同的教育问题意识的忧患与警觉。李占洋说， “面对太多的感慨，我有感而发，创作了作品《噩梦》，以向当今 的现状发问：我们的梦想必须这样去实现吗，我们实现了吗？” （见李占洋自述《噩梦》）。 艺术中界定的所谓真实性理应是把现实的生存欲求呈现出来，从而完成艺术家对现实各种混合状态的思考。但因为避讳种种，以往称为现实主义的艺术 是很少能表述出生动无比的复杂生存本相的。而今用当代艺术的手法来进行的现实阐述，表达出了人们说不出的人生况味，并给予世人以文化上的提示， 引起人们情感上的反拨与共鸣。这种情感力量来自于艺术家对现实的真诚态度、敏锐的洞察力和智性品质；对现实生存欲求不作粉饰，不事媚俗，如实地 对社会变革所带来的种种弊端、疮疤及一切虚伪的嘴脸尽力做毫不忌讳的揭示。通过他的创作，以及对现实问题意识的介入和处理，表现出了一种追求 的焦虑，一种来自自身的处境和状态的切近和逼人的视觉张力，而体现的是一种悲情的力量。不过这种悲情已不再延伸到历史的宏大叙事之中，而是潜 植于现实日常生存的局部细节之处，带着救赎意味和体恤的情怀，象征与隐喻出中国在现代性历史进程中的潜在冲突。这乃是对当下中国状态的具有某 种戏剧性的表现。因此可以说，李占洋的艺术和这件作品在有意识地为我们的时代描绘了他自己的体验和见证。 梦想与现实的反差是巨大的，形成了挥之不去的阴影。李占洋只能以艺术的方式转化为他的质疑、诉求，甚至在妄想里获得一丝的慰藉，抑或只是对巨大 现实的一种所谓的艺术方式的微小抵抗。尽管如此，这种从自身的文化情境出发，紧密地贴近现实欲求的创作方式，应该是反省现实对于未来的责任， 也是作为一位纯粹意义上的艺术家应当承担的义务。

Awareness of the Problem Gained by Facing Reality: Li Zhanyang’s new installation The Nightmare

by Feng Boyi If one scrutinizes the current relationship between art and reality— as viewed from the vantage point of contemporary art history— one may discern a noteworthy trend: In the belief that modernism somehow enables them to peer into the wellsprings of verity and reality, many artists are striving to project art directly onto “reality”. The function of art is adopting a natural tendency to mirror history as it appears when cast against the backdrop of reality. Consequently, a close link between modernist history and social crises becomes an inescapable concomitant to Chinese history. Since the advent of the policy of opening up and reform, our transitioning society has unleashed an abundance of complications into China’s own backyard reality. These in turn provide a rich vein of resources for avant-garde Chinese artists to mine, resources that ultimately trace their source to diverging worldviews. This is one reason why this artistic genre has attained such a unique appeal.

To my way of thinking, Li Zhanyang’s (*1969 in Changchun, China; lives and works in Beijing and Chongqing, China) previous sculptural creations employed more of a post-modernist approach, and exploited Chinese folk customs and lore, even being so bold as to commandeer resources from classical “red” imagery,1 and so engaged in sleight-of-hand substitution as the artist copied, misappropriated and tampered with these icons, doing so with that detached and parodying irony that encapsulates the very essence of textbook post-modernism. Li Zhanyang thereby becomes not merely the sculptor, but also the “I” in his works. Yet he also understands and judges the symbols and metaphors of social reality that persist amid the relationship between the “processing and being processed,” entangling and fusing several images. This procedure spawns a novel visual tension that truncates and renders inoperable the standards that these familiar classical works have hitherto provided. One is also hard-pressed not to chuckle at the profanity and the whimsical, quirky humor and yield to the thrill of the taboo while ingesting its subtle and intriguing insinuations.

The current state of contemporary culture and its consciousness of the piquancy of personal survival may well lead to changes in the former methodology of art creation, but artists must still employ some form of standard “artistic” method and discourse in order to substantiate the viewpoint that underpins their conceptions.

Accordingly, Li Zhanyang has recently wrought his new work, titled The Nightmare (2011/2012, mixed media installation, dimensions variable). This freshly crafted installation is comprised of and presented through the media of ready-made materials and sculpture. When he was serving as a teacher of fine arts education in Longtan Township — located in a remote mountain district in the environs of Chongqing— he collected more than thirty old book bags from school children. These he hung in empty space, impaled by sharp, knife-like forged stainless steel objects he suspended in the void above a realistic sculpture for which his 9-year-old daughter served as the model. These sculptures surround the girl, with a miscellany of assignment notebooks and exam papers weighing three tons set on the ground all around. A narrow conflict forms where the glow cast by the lights obtrudes upon their reflection. These are bulky barriers that hem in this milieu, which is fraught with its perilous scene. Li Zhangyang’s production method has changed in this one work: he has, based on current issues surrounding China’s educational system and drawn from his own personal experience, elected to use the media of ready-made materials, employing functionality and moral iconography. He thereby infuses a direct expression of his views into this new work, which is of practical relevance to the status quo of current socio-educational thinking, and bound up with the queries and criticisms he levels against it. At the same time, it sparks an awareness of the sense of hardship and vigilance that parents of students unanimously feel nowadays. Li Zhanyang says: “In the face of too much such emotion, what I felt I conveyed in this work The Nightmare , which poses the question to today’s actual mise-en-scène: ‘Must our dreams be achieved this way? Have our dreams indeed been achieved this way?’” See Li Zhanyang’s tale The Nightmare .

As defined in art, authenticity should appear as the desire for survival realized, thus consummating artists’ conceptions with regard to the various mixed states of reality. Due to a variety of taboos, however, what was previously known as realism in art can now only very rarely express the vivid complexity of survival at this juncture. While contemporary art practices occur as a mechanical elaboration, they express the flavor of human life — which people are otherwise powerless to give voice to — while offering cultural sustenance that sets off an emotional backlash and triggers a resonance. This emotional fortification derives from the basis of a genuinely sincere attitude, incisive insight and the quality of intelligence among artists. Real life thus needs no make-over, no kitsch: it remains true to the social changes brought about by adversity and reveals, warts and all, the face of hypocrisy when denuded of its taboos. In addition to Li Zhanyang’s consciousness of the problem with and treatment of reality, there is also a pursuit of angst manifested throughout his works, one that emanates from his own circumstances confronting a menacing suspense, and one that embodies a tragic force. But this mournfulness now no longer extends merely to grand narrative; it is also rooted in the realities of everyday life in all its parochial details, conveying the sense of redemption and the feelings of compassion that have become such iconic symbols and metaphors for the potential for conflict in modern Chinese history. Thus, the current situation in China is encapsulated in a dramatic performance. It may be said that Li Zhanyang’s art, in general, and this work for our times, in particular, depicts his own experience and constitutes his personal testament to the present set of conditions prevailing in China.

The contrast between dreams and reality is huge, and casts a lingering shadow, one that is not easy to dispel. Li Zhanyang has to seek sole recourse in an artistic approach to tackle this question —this appeal — even seeking a haven in delirium in order to obtain just a cold crumb of comfort. Or perhaps this is just the grin-and-bear-it resistance of art when squaring up to the sheer immensity of reality. This departure from one’s own cultural context to come nearer to the yearning for a method of creating reality must nevertheless shoulder a responsibility towards posterity to truly reflect upon the reality it captures, and so this also represents an obligation in the purest sense that an artist is bound to assume.

Translated from Chinese: Benedict Armour An example of this is ‘Rent’ - Rent Collection Yard (2007), Li Zhanyang’s modern-day take on the paragon of Socialist Realist propaganda sculpture, Rent Collection Courtyard (1965), which portrays oppressed peasants being squeezed by an exploitive and tyrannical landlord.

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《噩梦》(女学生与李占洋) 2011/2012 局部

“The Nightmare” (schoolgirl and Li Zhanyang) 2011/2012 detail

《噩梦》(女学生与李占洋) 2011/2012 局部

“The Nightmare” (schoolgirl and Li Zhanyang) 2011/2012 detail

《噩梦》(女学生与李占洋) 2011/2012 局部

“The Nightmare” (schoolgirl and Li Zhanyang) 2011/2012 details

《噩梦》(红领巾) 2011/2012 综合材料装置 (铅笔, 红领巾) 尺寸可变 麦勒画廊 北京-卢森, 中国北京展览现场, 2012

“The Nightmare” (red scarves) 2011/2012 mixed media installation (pencils, red scarves) dimensions variable Exhibition view at Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne, Beijing, China, 2012

《噩梦》(红领巾) 2011/2012 局部

“The Nightmare” (red scarves) 2011/2012 detail

李占洋 1969

生于中国吉林长春 生活和工作在中国重庆与北京

主要个展 “裸露的人性”，朱屺瞻美术馆，中国上海

2012

“噩梦”，麦勒画廊 北京-卢森，中国北京

2007

2010

“中国病人”，白盒子艺术馆，中国北京

2006 “场景”，麦勒画廊 北京-卢森，瑞士卢森

2009 “性 · 情”，麦勒画廊 北京-卢森，瑞士卢森

2003 “人间万象”，艺术文件仓库（CAAW），中国北京

2008 ‘租’ — 收租院，麦勒画廊 北京-卢森，中国北京

主要联展 2012

“第四届广州三年展项目展第一回— 去魅中国想象”，广东美术馆， 中国广东

2011

“5x5Castelló2011 – Premi Internacional d’Art Contemporani Diputació de Castelló”，西班牙卡斯特罗当代艺术中心，西班牙卡斯特罗

2010

2007

“底层人文—当代艺术的21个案例”，原创艺术博展中心，中国北京 “麻将— 中国当代艺术希克收藏展”，萨尔兹堡美术馆，奥地利萨尔兹堡 “艺术的温跃层— 亚洲新浪潮”，艺术和媒体技术中心（ZKM）， 德国卡尔斯鲁厄

“事物状态 — 中比当代艺术交流展”，中国美术馆，中国北京 “改造历史：2000 — 2009年的中国新艺术”，国家会议中心，中国北京

“来自中国的艺术— 希克收藏”，巴西中央文化银行，巴西里约热内卢

2009 “BEG BORROW AND STEAL”，Rubell Family Collection，美国迈阿密 “事物状态 — 中比当代艺术交流展”，比利时皇家美术宫， 比利时布鲁塞尔

“浮游— 中国艺术新一代”，韩国国立现代美术馆，韩国首尔 2006 “现在中国— 一个世界变革之魅力”，Klosterneuburg Essl现代艺术收 藏，奥地利维也纳

“意派— 世纪思维”，今日美术馆，中国北京 2008 “众声喧哗雕塑展”，宋庄原创艺术，中国北京

“都市镜像—当代艺术邀请展”，深圳美术馆，中国深圳

“麻将— 中国当代艺术希克收藏展”，汉堡美术馆，德国汉堡 2005 “麻将 — 中国当代艺术希克收藏展”，伯尔尼美术馆，瑞士伯尔尼

“人民— 中国20世纪中国美术展”，中央美术学院美术馆，中国北京 “啊，我们— 中国当代艺术三十年回顾展”，国家大剧院，中国北京 “麻将— 希克中国现代艺术收藏展”，加利福尼亚大学；伯克利美术馆； 太平洋电影文献馆，美国伯克利

Li Zhanyang 1969 born in Changchun, Jilin Province, China

lives and works in Beijing and Chongqing, China

Selected Solo Exhibitions 2012 “The Nightmare”, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne, Beijing, China

2007 “The Naked Human Body”, Zhu Qizhan Museum, Shanghai, China

2010 “Chinese Patients”, White Box Museum of Art, Beijing, China

2006 “Scenes”, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

2009 “Libido” Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

2003 “Life Myriad”, China Art Archives & Warehouse (CAAW), Beijing, China

2008 ‘Rent’ – Rent Collection Yard, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne, Beijing, China

Selected Group Exhibitions 2012 “The 1st Project of the 4th Guangzhou Triennial – Disenchantement of Chinese Imagination”, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China

2007 “Urban Mirroring – Contemporary Art Exhibition”, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China

2011 “5x5Castelló2011 – Premi Internacional d'Art Contemporani Diputació de Castelló”, Espai d’ Art Contemporani de Castelló (EACC), Castelló, Spain

“Grassroots Humanism: 21 Cases of Contemporary Art”, Songzhuang Contemporary Art Museum, Beijing, China

2010 “The State of Things. Brussels/Beijing", National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Beijing, China

“Mahjong – Chinesische Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg”, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria

“Thermocline of Art – New Asian Waves”, Zentrum für Medientechnologie ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany

“Art from China – Collection Uli Sigg”, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“Floating – New Generation of Art in China”, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea

“Reshaping History – Chinart from 2000 to 2009", China National Convention Center, Beijing, China

2009 “BEG BORROW AND STEAL”, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA

“The State of Things. Brussels/Beijing”, BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium

“Yi Pai - Century Thinking”, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2008 “A Hubbub of Voices”, the 4th Songzhuang Culture and Art Festival,

Beijing, China

“People History – Exhibition of Studies of Chinese Art of the 20th Century”, Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China

“Ah, We – Contemporary Chinese Art Over the Past 30 Years”, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, China

“Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection”, The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, USA

2006 “CHINA NOW – Faszination einer Weltveränderung”, Sammlung Essl, Kunst der Gegenwart, Klosterneuburg / Vienna, Austria

“Mahjong – Chinesische Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg”, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

2005 “Mahjong – Chinesische Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg”, Kunstmuseum Bern, Berne, Switzerland

出版：麦勒画廊 北京-卢森 本出版物为李占洋个展 “噩梦” 而出版, 展出于中国北京麦勒画廊 北京-卢森 2012年 3月3日 - 4月 29日 编辑：麦勒画廊 北京-卢森 文章：冯博一 翻译：Benedict Armour（英文） 设计：李建辉 摄影：汪洋 © 2012 麦勒画廊 北京-卢森, 李占洋 未经出版人的书面许可, 本出版物所有内容不可用于任何形式及目的, 包括但不限于图片复印、抄录或其他信息存储及文字转换的复制及传播。 印刷：中国北京 Publisher: Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne on the occasion of Li Zhanyang’s solo exhibition “The Nightmare” at Galerie Urs Meile in Beijing, China, March 3 - April 29, 2012 Editor: Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne Text: Feng Boyi Translator: Benedict Armour (E) Designer: Li Jianhui Photography: Wang Yang © 2012 Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne, Li Zhanyang All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including but not limited to photocopying, transcribing or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Printed in China

麦勒画廊, 北京市朝阳区草场地104号, 邮编 100015, 电话 + 86 10 643 333 93 Galerie Urs Meile, No. 104, Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, PRC -100015 Beijing, China, T +86 10 643 333 93 Galerie Urs Meile, Rosenberghöhe 4, 6004 Lucerne, Switzerland, T +41 41 420 33 18 galerie@galerieursmeile.com, www.galerieursmeile.com

封面图片： 《噩梦》(女学生与李占洋) 2011/2012 综合材料装置 (玻璃钢女学生及男人雕塑, 考试卷, 书包, 不锈钢雕刻) 女学生雕塑: 130 x 50 x 40 cm, 男人雕塑: 175 x 60 x 36 cm; 整个装置尺寸可变 麦勒画廊 北京-卢森, 中国北京展览现场, 2012 Front page: “The Nightmare” (schoolgirl and Li Zhanyang) 2011/2012 mixed media installation (fiberglass sculptures of a schoolgirl and a man; examination sheets; schoolbags; sculpted stainless steel) schoolgirl sculpture: 130 x 50 x 40 cm; man sculpture: 175 x 60 x 36 cm; overall installation dimensions variable Exhibition view at Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne, Beijing, China, 2012