Friday, February 13, 2009

The year 2004 : Are they still there? —— Old Shanghai returns

2004年:它们还在吗? —— 勾勒老城厢

“东方的塞纳左岸”出发,我们的主人公开始关注整个上海变迁之下的老城厢:在有文字印记的老石碑中发现昔日的上海,见证老城厢里的庙的沉浮变迁,发掘书隐楼背后的故事……一次次的寻访掀起了沉重的记忆之门,探访遗落的经典。
Starting from the "Left Bank of the Oriental Seine", 
our heroine began to focus on the remaining old city 
in this time of change : 
making a discovery by reading the engraved stones, 
witnessing the development and changes of old temples, 
meeting the last ladies of Shuyin Mansion...  
Thus opened the door of the heavy memory, 
revealing the forgotten classic.

2006年文汇出版社出版的《从无声开始》之上部《海上绮梦》,详细记录了老城厢的寻访过程。
Her trips are recorded in "A Dream of Shanghai", the first volume of "It Started from Silence", published by Wen Hui Edition in 2006.



“当我开始触摸上海的历史沧桑,抚慰它正在逝去的遗迹,逐渐了解她蕴涵的神秘时……上海城市慢慢从我眼前远去游离,我如同在天上俯瞰一块海滩,朦胧地浮现她的变幻与变迁,一幕幕往事烟云,这是一个创造神话的奇迹般的城市,一个历来由外来人激活的城市,一个魅力与丑恶、骄傲与屈辱、风情与暧昧尽显极至的花花世界。撇开她的浮华,多少人间沧桑故事暗香浮动,如同不尽的漪涟,在历史长河中人的一生是如此的一瞬间。”
When I started to touch the history of Shanghai, and began to feel the existing pieces left from the old time, I tried to discover the secrecy of its beauty...  The city, Shanghai, gradually departs in front of me, falling, vanishing... as if I was watching a beach from an outer planet, she shows up with a shape of her change and moves, so vague and unclear.  The past, like a misty performance on the stage, ebbs and flows.  This is a city which makes magic and mystery, a city which needs to be activated by aliens.  It's full of beauty and ugliness; pride and humiliation.  It's a vanity fair with consciousness or unconsciousness.  Unearth it from the rubble of arrogance, and you will see there are so many life stories performed, like dimpled whirl pools, submerged in the river of history...  A life of human being, is just a glimpse of the time...




注:《从无声开始》邮购请联系 19art@imagetunnel.com
P.S.   Please write to 19art@imagetunnel.com if you want to order "It Started from Silence".

Friday, August 22, 2008

Living Death Samsara——the concept digital photos of Yuqi Han


Sep. 2004
The photographer, a casual person, usually does not have any planned objectives whenever she goes out to work and is completely guided by her intuition.  Her works are all based on her philosophies, cognizant of the the legends and formed by her taste.  Plus, with her luck, she can always catch some shots unexpectedly.  One day, when she passed a relic wall of an old building, surprised by the sharp contrast of the relic and the beautiful red bricks, driven by an invisible mission, she took out her camera, made shots of that scene. She then realized that what she shot was once Saint Maria Female Middle School, where the talented Elen Zhang studied before.  Accidentally, she caught the last glimpse of the fantasy that was this famous female school.  Some works of this photography exhibition were brought to us by our photographer from the said female middle school relic, with regret and sentiment.  Most of the works were caught by our photographer casually, but she tried her best to express her swirling mind more intensively and poetically.
It is the different idea and comprehension of living, death and the meaning of being that bring about the different perception and art sense.  People are always happy to seek the source of life and realize the philosophy within it, even though they will never find the truth about living - Death and Samsara. Rather then a discovery in digital photos, the works are the deducation from the Samsara and the view of modern life.  For the life is glorious, the soul is lone, and the photos are beautiful.
Living
You will never foreknow the being of the life, therefore the course of living is mysterious. The human life likes a window, when you look at the world from the window, some feeling can always come upon you.
Death
It seems simply in a sense that death is only an end, though we can't accept it.  At this moment, maybe time is the best and cruelest treatment.  Buddha tells us that we could be reborn after death, and we call it ninvana.  So death is the end of living and the start of it at the same time.
Samsara
There are many invisible ways to get reborn and reincarnate, by the means of practicing asceticism and going beyond everything, you can fly freely in the cosmos passages.

2004年9月 《轮回》韩妤齐观念数码摄影展
地点:四行仓库

“同样在2004年双年展期间 9月30日我的《轮回》影像展在四行仓库开幕,展览素材取材于这几年本人纪录的上海城市正在消失的一些场景,城市的发展让我感到纪录可能是最快的保护。”

"Similarly, during the 2004 Shanghai Biennale, September 30th, my video exhibition was shown in the warehouse of Sihang. The material of the exhibition comes from my recent years' records of many vanishing scenes in Shanghai. The rapid development of our city makes me realize that recording may be the quickest protection."







文/强震宇

红得热情、蓝得冰冷、灰得死寂或是白得苍茫,往往每个艺术家都会选择其中的一个光环来修饰自己,因为用那双单色调的眼去看世界更能凸现自己的思想。而韩妤齐并不避讳,她喜爱多彩的生活,她觉得每种色彩都有其魅力。所以她用五彩修饰她的作品,她用人生作为主题,为我们展现一场——生、死、轮回观念数码摄影展。

作者曾经是一个很冷的人,她也曾常年在小画室里描绘这个人的世界,避开社会,更不在乎这功利社会的人情世故。直到由于一个偶然的机会,来到了莫干山50号,租下了一间30年代造的小阁楼,开始创作大幅的油画作品。豪放的大画迸发了她的激情,生活开始回暖。在一年前她领导和参加了河畔老建筑的保护并编著了《东方的塞纳左岸》。她开始乐于面对,甚至挑战这个五彩世界了,用她的话说就是“我走出来了。”从冰冷的画家到富有社会责任心的艺术家,这2、3年间,她的生活发生了蜕变,并开始尝试多种形式艺术的探索,当我们在注视这些极富冲击力的作品时的,隐约能体会到几分作者的心境。

缘起

作者是一个很随意的人,对于外出摄影她没有明确的目的性,完全靠感觉走,加上几分幸运,她总能拍到一些意想不到的镜头。一日,当作者偶然走到将要拆毁的圣玛丽亚女中时,面对残垣断壁和红砖圆顶的强烈反差,潜意识萌发的使命感驱使她抓起镜头捕捉下了这座——一代才女张爱玲曾就读过的教会女中,最后几丝的魅影。本次摄影展的很大一部分素材取自这座女中。

生、死、轮回

韩妤齐把这次展览划分为了三个部分,生、死、轮回。生和死是人生的两个必须经历的阶段,生像是一条线,是个或长或短的过程,死是一个点,是灵魂出鞘的一刻。至于轮回,是佛教里的理论,由他引导灵魂长存于世间,从生到死,又死而复生,循环不息。这是玄而又玄的过程。

生命的存在总是不可预知的,因而生命其持续存在的过程又显得犹为神秘
人生就像一个窗口,一个人站在窗口看世界,总能悟出些什么。

生命在子宫中孕育,人生也由此开始。作品中一开始的窗系列,用了大量的窗和拱门作为基本素材,加入模特的元素,体现了生命开始状态的迷幻感,用色彩的对比,讨论着人的不同状态和人性的复杂。其中的“长窗户”这一作品,通过叠影和色彩的变化,给人一种流年,岁月飞逝的感觉,黑洞洞的空间中四扇光亮的窗,让人想到独处时用自己的眸子窥视外界时的那种心境,给人留下深刻的印象。而后的几个作品是关于人生状态的几个片断,有描绘都市快节奏生活所带来的迷茫的,还有体现一个人生活状态从凄冷到五彩,从安静到热闹,从热闹到嘈杂最后归于平静的变化的。总的来说生这一系列给人的感觉是气势平淡却内容多彩。



死亡从某种意义上说只是一种停止,
道理可以看得很简单,但人的感情往往无法接受停止,
时间是最好的、也是最残酷的疗效剂。
佛主告诉我们死之后亦将重生,谓之——涅磐,
故死又是——从生的结束到生的开始。

死这一系列,作者并没有把重点集中在叙述对死的理解,或用死来烘托生的意义这一层面上,而是表现了一种死的状态,如绝唱系列,图案从实到虚,从明到暗,体现了一种灵魂逝去的过程,并且富有冲击力的画面,时刻刺激着观者的眼球,时刻提醒我们,死的残酷。而像“溺”这类作品则是展现了在特殊情况下死的状态,那种灰暗的的调子深深触及人们心灵深处对水的恐惧。死系列是灰调的。是恐惧和逝去的颜色。

轮回

生命的回归、轮回有许多无形的通道,
假如修炼升华、超脱了一切,
就将在这宇宙的无形通道中自由地畅游。

在作者心中轮回是一个隧道,在其中酝酿着死而复生的过程。这隧道是黑而深邃的,因为它一端连接地狱,一端通向人间。可是轮回的过程是光明的,毕竟灵魂由此重见世间的光亮。所以我们看到的作品,虽然用了深黑的底色,感觉却反而不暗,却是黑衬托了光明。生命尚未形成,灵魂却已复苏。我们从黑暗看到了轮回的光亮。

人生悲喜剧

无论是生命也好、建筑也好、文化也好,他们存于世,值得旁人去品位,他们消失于人间,值得我们为之伤心、叹息,一切过后,我们期待他们归来,应该是不认得了,那就重新去品位和叹息重生后的美和遗憾吧。

Years 2002-2003: dreams born from the ruins

2002~2003年——废墟上诞生的梦想

“当时艺术家们与画,正在从最早的上海艺术仓库里面搬迁出来。”

At that moment, many artists and art galleries are moving out from the earliest Shanghai Artistic Warehouse.






“更令人震惊的是,这最早的艺术仓库与周边美丽的仓库被无情的推倒。”

"To my greater surprise, this earliest artistic warehouse was pulled down together with other charming warehouses around it in a cruel way."



“因为觉得太可惜,开始了对莫干山路地块的关注与记录。”

"I think it is really a pity to pull down these warehouses,
so I began to pay more attention to the Moganshan area and try to make a record of it."





“随着调研的深入,我感觉莫干山路地块的现状,
如果整体规划,完全可以成为上海标志性的文化场所,
当时为自己发现一个了不起的梦想而兴奋不已!”

"With investigation in depth, I felt that if we gave a integral plan of the Moganshan area,
it could completely become a symbolic cultural spot of Shanghai.
At that moment, I was so excited for making such a great dream come into being!"




然而,梦想所面临的事实是严峻的:
美丽的仓库被剥离,更多的优秀仓库面临着迫在眉睫的拆除,
我们租的绘画工作室被告知两年后拆除,要保护这几乎是不可能的梦想。
但是我心中依然存有一丝不灭的希望,于是开始了保护的历程。

However, what confronted our dream is the cruel reality:
This charming warehouse is being damaged and more wonderful warehouses face the possibility of being pulled down.
I was informed that the area where my studio is would be pulled down two years later, and protecting it seems a mission impossible.
But at the bottom of my heart, there still existed a little hope,
so I stepped on the way of protection.



2003年是特别难忘的一年,突如其来的非典,夏日高温,更重要的是莫干山路。
意识到等待无法催生奇迹的发生。

2003 seems the most unforgettable year to me, the unexpected SARS attack on China, the unusually hot summer, and the Moganshan road.
Waiting can do nothing to help us realize the emergence of miracles.



我们开始由点线到面的对莫干山路地块的调查与规划,

We started the investigation and planning of Moganshan road from the smallest details to the big picture,

提出上海标志性的艺术文化场所与莫干山路旧仓库群。
giving our suggestions about the symbolic artistic cultural spot and the group of warehouses on Moganshan road.



梦想与现实一步之遥

Our dream is only one step from reality.

7月12日课题组的徐峰与同学吴巍,再次去莫干山路面粉厂拍照。
重型机械已经开进来了。二周后,有三幢独特的老建筑就要拆掉了。
2003年7月12号,热。40度!工程车。现场,急!
July 12th, Xu Feng and classmate Wu Wei in the project group went to the flour factory on Moganshan road again to take some photos.
To their surprise, the big mechanisms for deconstruction had been moved there.
Three special historical buildings there would be pulled down in three months.
July 12th 2003. Hot weather. 40 ℃
Mechanism. Spot. Hurry!

我们开始。。。
We had to start…

她所在大学土木建筑系的同事们与她一起从莫干山地块进行城市规划,通过影像与学术论文,完成了《关于苏州河南岸莫干山路地块近现代工业建筑群整体保护利用规划的可行性报告》,开始送往一切可能保护的有关部门。
Her colleagues at the department of construction and building activities joined her in the planning of Moganshan area. By using the image documents and research articles, they finished a report called « The possibility of protecting, using, and planning of the modern industrial buildings in Moganshan area on the south bank of Suzhou Creek », and sent it to all the departments which are probabaly related to the protection of historical buildings.


7月17日 得到专家与有识之士的鼎力相助,连夜拟稿紧急呼吁
7月18日 去市政府信访办
7月23日 到规划局专家一起紧急开会讨论
……

July 17th Our action aroused the attention of related experts who begin write reports to appeal the protection.
July 18th Visiting the Municipal Office of Letters and Calls.
July 23rd Having emergent meetings with the experts from planning offices.
...



奇迹出现了,上海面粉厂的三幢风格独特的老厂房依然耸立在苏州河岸边。

A miracle took place: three factory houses of Shanghai Flour Factory in their special architecture still stands by Suzhou Creek.


莫干山地块被神奇的保护下来了。

Moganshan area survived as a miracle.

2004年5月,记录了这一保护历程和莫干山路50号艺术家生存状况的新书《东方的塞纳左岸——苏州河沿岸的艺术仓库》问世,

May 2004 saw the publication of « Eastern Left Bank——Warehouses Along Suzhou Creek », which recorded the protection course of Moganshan area and the living mode of artistes in M50,

发布会得到上海规划局副局长同济大学博士生导师伍江的忠心祝贺
The publishing meeting was congratulated by Professor Wu Jiang, the vice president of Shanghai Planning Bureau.



2004年5月 策展 “东方的塞纳左岸影像展
May 2004 "Image Exhibition: The left bank of Oriental Seine"

地点:香格纳、东廊、比翼艺术中心
Place: ShanghArt, East Link, BizArt

注:《东方的塞纳左岸》邮购请联系 19art@imagetunnel.com
P.S.   Please write to 19art@imagetunnel.com if you want to order "Eastern Left Bank——Warehouses Along Suzhou Creek"