Zhou Wendou - Room 1005

ROOM 1005

de sarthe

de Sarthe is pleased to present Room 1005, a solo exhibition by Beijing-based artist Zhou Wendou that explores the inexplicable and helpless state experienced by the artist during a time of social suspension. Named after the artist’s studio door number in Beijing, the exhibition indicates the artist’s perception of temporality and reality in the confined space for almost two months. The building where Zhou Wendou’s studio was located was later demolished, and the artist’s memories, helplessness and longings disappeared at once, leaving only the rubble. Room 1005 is a retrospective that freezes and captures the fragments of the artist’s emotions and contradictions. The presented works are reproductions of the artist’s reconstruction and interpretation of his aspiration for time and his anxiety generated by spatial constraint.

Though Zhou Wendou felt muddle-headed due to the stagnation of time and the loss of his ability to act freely in his seclusion from human interaction, it prompted him to utilize his observant characteristics, which started a dialogue with the daily objects that surrounded him. The long-term communication evoked deep memories and emotional touches, resulting in a fictional narrative and query of the objects’ meanings.

德薩畫廊欣然呈獻駐北京藝術家周文斗個展「1005 室」 ， 探討其在社會停頓期間無法言說的自身心境。 展覽以藝術家在北京的工作室門牌號命名， 比擬藝術家在密閉空間度過近兩個月的期間， 對時間性及

現實在認知和感知的變化。 工作室所在的建築後來被強拆， 周文斗的回憶、 無奈與渴望也一下子隨建

築物灰飛煙滅而沒入頹垣敗瓦中。「1005 室」凝注了藝術家對於情感與矛盾碎片的回顧， 追溯、 重構、

並再現了周文斗對把握時間的渴望和空間約束所產生的焦慮。

因為時間停滯， 在與他人隔絕的情況下失去了自由行動的能力， 周文斗亦感到迷茫， 但同時促使他利

用自己的觀察力， 與身邊的日常事物展開對話。 長期的交流喚起其內心深處的記憶和情感觸動， 產生

了虛構的敘述和對物體意義的質疑。

Set Arrows into Bow (2022) mimics a temporary stability. Arrows are gathered and tied together on both ends with a bowstring, then pulled taut to form a huge bow. The work itself deprives the arrows of their original utilitarian function and subordinates them to the rules of form, reminiscent of how isolated individuals are coerced into the unconscious obeying of the collective. The ineffable tension of the arrows and bow becomes a meaningful, even poetic, existence. 《集箭成弓》（2022）綑綁著數百支弓箭， 以一根 7 米長的

弓弦連起兩端， 利用箭支本身的彈性， 拉緊後形成一把巨 大的弓。 作品剝奪了箭矢原本的功能， 被綑綁的箭矢只可 服從形式規則， 讓人想起孤立的個體如何被迫麻木地服從 集體。 箭與弓形成一種不可言喻卻富有詩意的張力。

Zhou Wendou Set Arrows into Bow 2022 600 arrows, Nylon rope, Stainless steel tube 300 x 800 x 90 cm

Level (2022) is composed of hundreds of mini bubble levels presented horizontally in a line on the wall. Similarly, transforming a level measuring tool into a level line renders the item’s intended use obsolete. 《水平》（2020）由數百個迷你水平泡組成， 水平排列在牆上。 同樣， 將水平測量 工具轉換為水平線， 物品本身的屬性便蕩然無存。

Zhou Wendou Level 2020 Horizontal bubble levels 30 x 240 x 1.6 cm

Living in seclusion within his studio space, Zhou Wendou also created works that revolve around and reflect on time. Immersion Time (2022) questions whether time in water is lengthened or shortened, concentrated or diluted. Does increased water resistance slow down the clock hands’ movement? 周文斗隱居工作室期間， 亦創作了圍繞時間和反思時間的作品。 《浸泡時間》

（2022）是藝術家對時間的質疑：在水中的時間是延長了、 縮短了， 亦或濃 縮了或稀釋了；水中的阻力增加會否減慢指針的運行等疑問。

Who Stole My Time (2022) is a self-deceiving tool, where the clock hands are hidden as the clock is folded. The work simulates how time can trick human minds; though time is always ticking away, our awareness of time fades. Both works illustratean unexplainable yet provoking concern as well as a confusion against the concept of time caused by being withdrawn from society for a prolonged period of time. 《誰偷走了我的時間》系列（2022）是一件「自欺欺人」的裝置作品， 折疊的時鐘上， 指針運行至

一半時會隱藏在牆縫中。 作品模擬了時間如何欺騙人們：雖然時間不間斷流逝， 但我們的時間概念、 感知在逐漸消退。 這幾件作品描繪出一種發人深省的擔憂， 以及因長期遠離社會而對時間概念造成 的混淆。

Zhou Wendou Immersion Time 2022 Clock, Water tank, Water 25 x 40 x 25 cm

Zhou Wendou Who Stole My Time series 1 2022 Stainless steel, Clock 30 x 30 x 20 cm

Zhou Wendou Who Stole My Time series 2 2022 Stainless steel, Clock 33 x 31 x 22 cm

Pandemic and wars have worsened the impact made in the past few years, making the world order even more fragile and fragmented. Untitled 2022 consists of smashed cement spheres scattered on the gallery floor, echoic of the artist’s metaphoric view of today’s world. Its cement outer layer symbolizes the sealed cage of human loneliness, where human beings live in a blind box arrogantly and omnipotent. Its negative space, a reversed globe, mirrors the fragmentation, an involution and self-enclosure of the current world.

The work is Zhou Wendou’s self-reflection on his role as a human living on Earth - People often believe that they are the authority and that they have the power to control everything.

Ultimately, humans only have control over their own recollections and sentiments. To the artist, fragments of memory symbolize emotional alienation and isolation, which can be seen as an attempt to overcome loneliness and the passage of time. It is Zhou Wendou’s hope that visitors will resonate spiritually, be inspired and provoked by his endeavor in conquering the endless cycle of loneliness through their journey in time. 隨著瘟疫和戰爭對過去幾年的影響加劇， 世界秩序日漸脆弱和支離破碎。《無題 2022》（2022）由散

落在畫廊地上的破碎水泥球組成， 與藝術家對當今世界的隱喻觀點相呼應。 水泥外層象徵關著人類孤 獨感的密封牢籠， 自以為無所不能的人類傲慢地在一個個盲盒中生存。 水泥球的負空間是顛倒的地球 儀， 反映了當前世界的分裂、 內捲和自我封閉。 作品是藝術家對人類身份的自我反思——人們常常認

為自己是權威， 擁有掌控一切的力量。 然而人類能掌控的就只有自己的回憶和情緒。 對周文斗而言， 記憶碎片象徵著情感的疏離和孤立， 可以看作是一種克服孤獨和時間流逝的嘗試。 藝術家希望觀者在 人生漫漫長路上， 透過他克服無休止的孤獨循環的努力， 在精神上產生共鳴， 有所啟發。

Zhou Wendou Untitled 2022 2022 Concrete, Globe sticker Dimensions Variable

Zhou Wendou Blue Light 2022 Acrylic on linen, Diptych 200 x 300 cm

Zhou Wendou Lifetime Scale 2022 Titanium plated stainless steel 14 x 100 x 1 cm

Zhou Wendou My Right Arm 2022 Resin paint, T5 fluorescent tube 12 x 120 x 50 cm

Zhou Wendou Isolation net wrapped with mud balls 2022 Tin-plated isolation net, White glue 120 x 95 x 5 cm

Zhou Wendou Fly 2022 Broom, Neon Light 140 x 55 x 10 cm

Zhou Wendou Flame 2022 Corroded aluminium plate 190 x 140 cm

Zhou Wendou b. 1970 born in Beijing, China

Zhou Wendou was born in Beijing. He attended to the Central Academy of Arts and Design (currently Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University) and graduated in 1996. He then went to the Academy of Fine Arts of Complutense University of Madrid in Spain in 1998 to study painting, from which he graduated in 2003 with a D.E.A. Zhou Wendou has adopted a humor akin to Duchamp's, with a dedicated focus to social meaning and cultural characteristics. He believes this imbues his artwork with its own special “taste.” When we are confronted with his objects, one instinctively thinks of materiality, but finds unexpected surprises. Zhou Wendou does not simply appropriate, but rather sees the characteristics of culture and function in objects and asks: “does product only have utilitarian value?” Zhou strives to extract “uselessness” and abandon the function of a multitude of objects. He does this to construct new forms and establish new meanings between product, space and context.

Zhou Wendou currently lives and works in Beijing, China.

周文斗

1970年出生於中國北京

周文斗生於北京，1998 年前往西班牙研習繪畫。在西班牙十年的學習和創作生涯中，他的創作從繪 畫到裝置性攝影，再到純粹裝置，經歷了一個自然而然的蛻變過程。2008 年回國后，其帶有西方色

彩的創作為中國當代藝術帶來一個不一樣的視角。他的創作風格幽默戲謔，不嬌嗔不做作的態度，在 眾多冠以「當代」的藝術創作中尤為突出。

周文斗受杜尚的幽默影響，帶著調侃而警惕的態度創作，專注於社會意義和文化特徵，風格妙趣橫生。 他相信這是他的藝術品別樹一格之處。觀眾面對他的作品時，會本能地想到物質性，同時亦會有意想 不到的驚喜。周文斗不只是產品用家，他更看到了物品背後、深層的文化和功能特徵，他會問：「產

品只有實用價值嗎？」周文斗力求提煉出「無用」之用，摒棄物件的功能、實用性，繼而對物件、空 間與語境之間建構新的意義形式。 周文斗現於中國北京生活工作。

Artist CV Zhou Wendou b. 1970 born in Beijing, China. Currently works and lives in Beijing, China 2003 2001 1996

D.E.A. PhD Candidate in Modelling, Conceptual and Material Art, Complutense University of Madrid, Academy of Fine Arts, Madrid, Spain Courses of Doctorate. Academy of Fine Arts, University of Complutense, Madrid, Spain B.F.A. Central Academy of Arts and Design (Currently Tsinghua University, Academy of Arts and Design), Beijing, China

Solo Exhibitions 2022 Room 1005 , de Sarthe, Hong Kong, China 2017 Bu Qian , de Sarthe, Beijing, China 2016 ADHD , de Sarthe, Hong Kong, China 2015 Borderless , de Sarthe, Beijing, China 2013 The Study , Other Gallery, Shanghai, China 2010 The Use of the Useless , Other Gallery, Beijing, China 2009 Estampa Gallery, Madrid, Spain 2007 Estampa Gallery, Madrid, Spain Selected Group Exhibitions 2022 LUMEN, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia 2019 Pal(ate)/ette/, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China 2018 OCAT Nanjing Public Art Project 2018, OCAT Nanjing Qixia Exhibition Site, Nanjing, China Flowing Books – OCAT Nanjing Qixia Public Art Project 2018, OCAT, Nanjing, China 2017 The Second Space – the Contemporary New Media Art Exhibition, H-Space, Xi'an, China 2016 Project 2: Hybridizing Earth, Discussing Multitudes – Seventh Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea Standing by Themselves: China Now, de Sarthe, Hong Kong, China Abstract China 2016, Ming Yuan Art Museum, Shanghai, China TONGXI – The 3rd China International Art Forum & Exhibition on Installation Art, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

The Tales of New Year, Hui Art Space, Beijing, China 2015

2014

2013 2012

2011 2010 2009

2007

EAST BRIDGE 2015 - Plastic Garden: Chinese & Korean Contemporary Art, 798 Art Factory, Beijing, China It's Not Right But It's Okay, UCCA Store, Beijing, China Stay Tuned, de Sarthe, Hong Kong, China Future of Today, Future Gallery of Beijing Today Art Museum, Beijing, China Artists at Play, de Sarthe, Beijing, China Where Are We?, de Sarthe, Hong Kong, China The Lightness of Being, de Sarthe, Hong Kong, China Traces: Xintiandi Contemporary Public Art Exhibition, Shanghai, China You, I, Among Us, de Sarthe, Beijing, China Current Reality, Hidden Barriers, de Sarthe, Hong Kong, China Summer Gallery Selection, de Sarthe, Hong Kong, China How Now, How Art Museum, Wenzhou, China Transformations, Other Gallery, Shanghai, China Architecture China - The 100 Contemporary Projects, Reiss Engelhorn Museen (REM), Mannheim, Germany White Box Art & Design 100, White Box Museum, Beijing, China 迎新春 , Other Gallery, Shanghai, China How To Philosophize With A Hammer, White Box, New York, USA Chinese Pose – Second China Sculpture Exhibition, Wenzhou International Convention & Exhibition Center, Wenzhou, China Suspensions of Disbelief, Other Gallery, Shanghai, China The Big Bang - White Rabbit Chinese Contemporary Art Collection, What Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia Beijing Time - La hora de China, Matadero de Madrid, Madrid, Spain XIII Premio Unicaja de Fotografía, Almeria Spain 洗牌 , CCD300 Art Zone (Cao Chang Di Art Zone), Beijing, China Sixty-eighth Valdepeñas Plastic Art International Exhibition, Valdepeñas, Spain Exhibition of Doctoral Students of the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

2006

2003 2000 1999

XXXIII Premio Bancaja de Pintura, Escultura y Arte Digital, Valencia Institute of Modern Art (IVAM), Valencia, Spain IX Mostra Internacional UNION FENOSA, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo UNION FENOSA, A Coruña, Spain Angeles Penche Gallery, Madrid, Spain Gallerie dell'Academia, Venice, Italy 18th International Exhibiton of Paintings, Frejna de la Sierra, Spain Francisco Duayer Gallery, Madrid, Spain Galeria de Arte Victoria Hidalgo, Madrid, Spain Obispo Vellosillo Museum of Contemporary Art, Segovia, Spain

Public Collections Fundación Estampa, Madrid, Spain Fundación Antonio Pérez, Cuenca, Spain Museums San Clemente, Cuenca, Spain Art and Heritage Collection, Academy of Fine Arts, University of Complutense, Madrid, Spain Private Collections How Art Museum, Shanghai, China White Rabbit Collection, Sydney, Australia

ROOM 1005 12 November – 23 December 2022 Hong Kong

de sarthe 26/F, M Place, 54 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Hong Kong www.desarthe.com Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11am–7pm Tel: +852 2167 8896 Fax: +852 2167 8893 E-mail: hongkong@desarthe.com Texts: Zhou Wendou and Janis Or Photographs: Hamish Chan

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means in whole or part, without prior written permission from the gallery and the artist.

版權所有。未經畫廊和藝術家的事先書面許可，不得以任何形式或手段全部或部分複製本出版物的任何部分。

de sarthe 26/F, M Place, 54 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Hong Kong E-mail: hongkong@desarthe.com Tel: 2167 8896 www.desarthe.com