Marginalized
Curator: Su Dianna
Artists: Qian Honglin / Hannah O'flynn (Spain) / Gabrielle Petiau (France) / Yang Mo / Yu Tianwen / Liu Peng
Opening Time: Dec 19th , 2014 (Friday), 10:00 AM
Duration: Dec 19th , 2014 (Friday)--Jan 9th (Friday), 2015
Venue: Project Space, CAFA Art Museum
Directors: Wang Huangsheng / Yu Ding
Executives: Cai Meng / Chen Jie
Host: CAFA Art Museum / School of Humanities, CAFA
Support: Wu Zuoren International Foundation of Fine Arts, Fund of Young Curator
Just as the name implies, “marginalized” superficially refers to the “marginalized community.” But in depth, it also means an active or passive detachment from mainstream culture and social norms in terms of concept and behavior, usually showing a physical state of wandering. Those “marginalized” can either be the socially marginalized vulnerable groups, such as farmer migrant employees, vagrants, homosexuals, etc., or avant-garde artists with cultural capital, but actively resisting mainstream culture.
Since the Enlightenment, rational and scientific concepts tended to be extremalized, governing principles consisting of economy and technology dominated the social structure. But art shall always concern human being’s living state, psychology, human nature and imagination, so it is always dispelled by mainstream society, and breaking the inclusion of mainstream culture. As various artistic reforms occurred internally, it maintained its natures as free, drifting and marginalized. Artists, as a “marginalized” group, live in the society, acting as the rebel, betrayer and even breaker of the modern material-consuming society in pursuit after high efficiency and interests.
As time goes, the “marginalized” artists are provided with new cultural background, since they were born under the diversified cultural state in a globalized context. It is true to both Chinese and foreigners in China. As the “marginalized” individuals, they all share something in common--In the face of the big gap between different cultures, they are rootless in both body and soul, drifting and wandering in different physical spaces; But they are relentlessly exploring the issues of mutual communication and self-existence in the context of cultural difference. For them, there is no absolute eastern or western, only “marginalized” destiny forever.
The 6 young artists presented by this exhibition are from the “marginalized” community, from different countries or regions. With their existing memories of their original cities and new memories shaped by themselves later on, they echoed contemporary urban cultural phenomena. Through installations, images and videos, they put forward their own considerations over city culture, collective mentality and individual existence. Their works formed a collective “marginalized” achievement, expressing their collective spiritual feeling and physical state in contemporary life. They never belong to a group, or a system, or a country, or even an era. They are a group of drifters being possessed by the wandering soul of art.
The issue of “marginalization” was first shown among overseas artists. For them who did not take root in original culture, homeland is always the memory of dream, while they are excluded, estranged and attracted by foreign cultures. As the “marginalized” overseas students, those artists are often inspired by the collision and integration of two cultures, so new experience is generated. More concisely, they are more “marginalized” in terms of physical space and cultural identity. Notably, not only Chinese artists studying overseas, but also foreign art majors learning in China are facing the same confusion and issue. As the “marginalized” westerners in China, the two foreign art majors found Beijing--the Capital of China, was not that old, quiet and changeless as they had imagined, but it is rapidly fostering, extending, harmonizing and transforming Chinese and western cultures. Thus they strive to find and identify familiar cultural symbols in the new environment, as well as change their memories about Chinese cities as the “marginalized.”
Qian Honglin, as an exchange student learning in Germany, is seemingly confused by the “unlanded” mentality in a totally strange environment with different timing, and by the absence of self-identity. With the digitally simulated voice and image, the artist compared beliefs, races and looks between Chinese and western in his workMeasurement. In an absurd manner, he explained the collision of civilization, and conveyed his disagreement with conventional ideas adopted in the comparison.
Although studying together as international students of the exchange program of the School of Experimental Art, CAFA, Gabrielle Petiau and Hannah O’flynn have totally different backgrounds and expressions in art. Gabrielle Petiau is from France, but is a “fan of China.” She studied Chinese at school when she was 15 years old, and has been to China for 3 times, and also she speaks and writes Chinese very well. The transplanting and exchange of Chinese and western cultures, restructuring and experiment with physical shards are all within her focus. In her workTransplants, the artist “transplanted” different items symbolizing Chinese and western cultures respectively into a new “species,” which was put in the exhibition hall like animal or plant specimen and exhibited in the muselogical classification and observation methods, so as to simulate and recreate a “marginalized” westerner’s observation and cognition over the harmonization and rebirth of culture from a scientific perspective, as well as reconsider the diversity of culture through collecting the museological shards and dividing them into rational order.
Hannah O’flynn is a Spanish with Germany and Irish descents. Now she commutes between UK and Beijing. For her, the concept of home is usually absent. With her “Lost in Translation”--an installation consisting of a lantern and LED lights, a poem describing her experience in Beijing, is cited in Morse code, with which she discussed about the possibility of communication between different cultures, and more she focused on the language barrier in translation. In the artist’s eyes, the loss of original meaning in translation exists forever, and the “marginalized” state of cultural identity and language can never be reversed. Such a rebellious voice against the cultural view advocating communication inspires some reflections in a time featuring discussions over diversified culture.
Additionally, “marginalization” is concentratively reflected on Chinese young artists who were born and grew up in a transitional society. The rapidly-changing society resulted in crisis of self-identification, and diversified values led to confusion in self-positioning. In the network information age filled with cross-boundary information explosion, the commercialized and popularized entertaining culture in a mass consumption society put everybody into anger, anxiety, confusion and loneliness unexceptionally. Everybody lives in the physically and psychologically rootless and marginalized state, which is explored by the young artists--Yang Mo, Yu Tianwen and Liu Peng.
Yang Mo, who is originally from Heilongjiang and now teaches in a college in Beijing, created a dummy, “marginalized” suitcase. With the selected items being put in the suitcase, she keeps different memories of different cities. Traveling through different places with the suitcase, she obtained new possibilities. The love towards traveling, the unique identity and the romance of roaming all over the world showed a kind of cultural mentality originated from active self-marginalization.
Yu Tianwen, who is originally from Jilin and now teaches in a college in Xi’an, depicted the impact of cultural differences on individual in hisEnclosure, as he had experienced both cultures of a heavy industrial city in northeast China and an ancient capital city of six dynasties in northwest China. With the old and shabby Chinese herbal medicine cabinet, as well as the traditional Chinese medical prescription, he related them closely to the employers’ destiny. He naturally used the common social symbols relating to the “marginalized,” e.g. The cabinet stands for city, the drawer stands for the narrow living space of people, the recruitment ad stands for prescription, the railway ticket instead of medical material, stands for migrant residents in cities. Each of them is of a certain medical property and destined to fulfill their mission and value in different cities. Most of the “marginalized,” those in the lowest social rank, will be buried in history like the dregs of decoction. But their efforts and struggles, sweat and blood have shaped the prosperous cities. The work contains the artist’s reconsideration on the life value of those “marginalized.”
In his “Marginalized,” Liu Peng, who is originally from Shanxi, recorded the daily life and thinking of the artists participating in the “Marginalized” Exhibition, as well as stories behind it (including those who did not participate in the exhibition at last). Liu Peng himself also lives in the “marginalized” state, but he tries to observe and interpret such kind of life and mentality from an outsider’s perspective.
About Project Space
CAFAM Project Space ("Project Space" in short form) is an exhibition hall consisting of three continuous exhibition rooms on the mezzanine between 2/F and 3/F, which was founded upon active advocacy from CAFA leaders and CAFAM. In the approximate 85m2 area, about 8 theme exhibitions were held each year, on which different art medium were shown, including installation, sculpture, painting, video, audio, photography, network, public art and interdisciplinary art.
With the aim of cultivating talented young curators as a long-term project, the Project Space establishes an academic and demonstrating platform, to promote, support and encourage young curators` internationally focused curating practice.
Different from CAFAM, the Project Space tends to provide opportunity for young curators who finally succeeded in selection, allowing them to choose artists and artworks, organize ,plan and implement exhibition projects. Finally, the future curators, in company with artists, made their debuts on the professional stage of CAFAM. For this purpose, we will solicit effective plans and solutions nationwide, in order to demonstrate diversified characteristics of CAFAM.
Since 2013,the Project Space, in collaboration with the School of Humanity, CAFA and Fund of Young Curator, Wu Zuoren international Foundation of Fine Arts, will continue to solicit, evaluate and selected schemes will be implemented in the Project Space(6 exhibitions each year),and CAFAM will provide professional support to assist young curators in realizing their projects.
With the courageous experiment in teaching practice of national higher fine art institutions and public art museums, we are confident that the "Project Space" will eventually become a challenging public platform specializing in cultivating Chinese future curators and artists. Also, we are confident that your participation will add to the success of the project!
边缘体
中央美术学院美术馆项目空间第十一回
策展人：苏典娜
艺术家：钱泓霖、小云（西班牙）、彭玲秀（法国）、杨茉、于天文、刘鹏
开幕时间：2014年12月19日（周五） 上午10：00
展览时间：2014年12月19日（周五）至2015年01月09日（周五）
展览地点：中央美术学院美术馆项目空间
总策划：王璜生、余丁
总执行：蔡萌、陈洁
主办：中央美术学院美术馆、中央美术学院人文学院
支持：吴作人国际美术基金会青年策展人专项基金
“边缘体”，顾名思义，即“边缘化的群体”，但是这仅仅是其中的表层含义。“边缘体”，还意味着在观念和行动上被动或主动与主流文化及其社会规范相脱离，也往往呈现出漂泊的物理状态。他们既可能是被社会边缘化的弱势群体，如农民工、流浪汉、同性恋等等，也可能是掌握文化资本、拒斥主流文化趣味的前卫艺术家。
自启蒙运动以来，理性和科学的观念不断走向了极端化，由经济和技术构成的统治原则主导了社会的结构。然而，艺术一直所关注是人的生存状态、心理、人性和想象力，它不断被主流社会驱逐，又不断突破主流文化收编，内在不断发生各种艺术变革，从而保持了其漂泊自由、边缘化的本质特征。艺术家的群体作为“边缘体”存在于社会之中，他们是追逐高效和各种利益的现代物质消费社会的反抗者、叛逆者，甚至颠覆者。
时过境迁，当今的“边缘体”艺术家有了新的文化背景，他们是在全球化语境下多元文化生态中诞生的，不仅对于中国人如此，对于在中国的外国人也是如此。作为“边缘体”的无数个体，他们具有一定的共同点——面对各种文化之间的巨大差异，身心上出于一种无根、无着落的状态，而物理空间上出于漂移游走的状态，也各自探索着文化差异下的彼此交流、自我存在的问题，对于他们而言，没有绝对的东方，也没有绝对的西方，存在的只有永恒的“边缘体”的宿命。
此次参展的6位艺术家属于年轻的“边缘体”，他们来自不同的国家或地区凭借自己既有的城市记忆，置身于所构造的新的记忆中，对鲜活的城市文化的当代现象做出了回应，通过装置和影像，对城市文化、群体心理和个人存在提出了各自的思考。他们的作品共同构成了一个“边缘体”的作品，表达这个群体在当代生活中的精神感受和物理状态。他们不从属于某一群人，某个体制，某个国度，甚至不愿意属于某个时代，他们是一群被艺术游魂执意附体的漂泊者。
“边缘体”的问题，首先表现在留学海外的艺术家人群里。因为不是扎根于本土文化的艺术家，故乡对于他们来说是如梦一般的记忆存在，同时他们又被异乡的文化所排斥、疏远和吸引。作为“边缘体”的留学艺术家，在两种文化生活的对抗和融合中碰撞出自己的创作灵感，产生新的经验，准确地说，他们更多意义上是一种物理空间和文化身份上的“边缘人”。值得注意的是，不仅是留学海外的中国艺术家，来自国外的艺术留学生也面临同样的困惑与问题。作为在中国的西方“边缘体”，参展的两位外国留学生发现中国的北京不是想象中的那般古老宁静、一成不变，而是中西方的不同文化在此快速地滋生、膨胀、融会与变异。她们也努力在新的环境中寻找、辨识熟悉的文化符号，并以“边缘体”的身份来改变他们对于中国的城市记忆。
在德国做交流访问学习的钱泓霖，他所面临的困惑表面上是异时异地的环境所产生的“没落地”的心理状态，以及在中西方文化差异下，自我身份问题的缺失，艺术家的作品《尺度》用数字虚拟的声音和影像进行中西之间的信仰、人种、外貌等比较，运用荒诞的手法来阐释文明的冲突，也体现了他对于中西方比较的常规观点的叛逆。
Gabrielle Petiau（彭玲秀）与Hannah O'flynn（小云）一起在中央美术学院实验艺术学院作国际交换生，但是她们有着截然不同的个人背景与艺术表达。Gabrielle Petiau来自法国，是“中国迷”，15岁的时候就在学校学习汉语，已经到过中国三次，能够流利地进行中文书写与交流。中西方文化之间的移植与交换，物理碎片的重构与实验是她所关注的话题，她的作品《移植》将象征中西方文化符号的不同物品“移植”在一起，构成新的“物种”，像动植物标本一样放置于展场里，用博物馆学的分类法和观察法进行展示，模拟和重现了一个在中国社会文化中处于“边缘体”位置的西方人以科学眼光对于文化的交融、再生状态的观察与认知，也是借用博物馆学家的碎片化拾取和理性秩序的划分，重新审视文化多元性。
Hannah O'flynn是拥有德国、爱尔兰血统的西班牙人，现在常年生活于英国与北京。对于她来说，没有家的概念。她的作品《翻译的迷失》通过一盏灯笼+LED灯装置，以摩尔斯电码的形式来朗读一首关于北京经历的诗，从而探讨了不同文化之间交流的可能性的问题，更关注的是翻译中的语言障碍。在艺术家这里，这种翻译的语言意义迷失状态是永久性的，文化身份和语言上“边缘体”的状态也是不可逆转的。这种有悖于主张交流性的文化观的逆反声音，在探讨文化多元性的今天也具有反思性的作用。
另一方面，“边缘体”集中反映在处于社会转型期的中国本土年轻艺术家身上。快速变迁的社会导致人们自我认同的危机，价值导向的多元性引发自我定位的无所适从，跨向信息爆炸的网络信息时代，消费社会文化呈现商品性、娱乐性和大众性，也带来了人们普遍的焦躁、孤独、浮躁与困惑，人们的身心均处于漂泊无根、被边缘化的状态，这也成为了本土年轻艺术家杨茉、于天文和刘鹏探讨的核心。
来自黑龙江的杨茉现任教于北京某高校，她的作品《MOMO的手提箱》创造了一个虚拟的“边缘体”的行李箱，通过选择性的物品整体地放置在行李箱里，保留不同城市的记忆，又通过行走漂泊获得新的可能性，具有漂泊本性，独立特性的身份，以及一种浪迹天涯的浪漫情怀，体现了主动将自我边缘化的文化心态。
来自吉林的于天文现任教于西安某高校，他的作品《围城》体现了从东北重工业城市文化到西北六朝古都文化的文化差异给个体带来的影响，他用废旧的中医药柜，结合中医抓药的方式，与打工者的命运紧密联系在一起。他将“边缘体”常见的社会符号自然地运用，例如药柜代表城市，药箱就是蜗居的民居空间，招聘广告象征药方子，火车票代替药材，象征流动的城市人口。每个人天生有他的药性，其命运就像抓药一样，来到不同的城市实现自身的使命和价值，大多数的“边缘体”，即处于社会底层的打工者，像中药药渣一样被埋没于历史之中，但他们的心血凝聚成了繁华的城市，作品亦是对于“边缘体”的人生价值的重新思索。
来自山西的刘鹏，其作品《边缘体》通过影像记录了“边缘体”展览艺术家的日常生活和思想状态，以及“边缘体”展览背后的故事（包括最终未能参展的艺术家），刘鹏自身也处于“边缘体”的生活状态之中，又试图以他者的眼光来观看和解读这种生活和心理状态。 CAFA项目空间介绍
“CAFAM项目空间”（以下简称“项目空间”）是在中央美术学院领导及美术馆的积极倡导下创立，位于美术馆二层半的展厅，由三个连续分布的展示空间构成，总面积约85平方米，每年有8个左右的专题性展览在此举办，其艺术媒介包括装置、雕塑、绘画、video、声音、摄影、网络、公共艺术、跨界艺术等。
“项目空间”旨在以项目制的方式培育优秀青年策展人的长期计划，为青年策展人搭建一个学术和展示平台，推动、扶持、鼓励具有国际视野的策展实践。
与中央美术学院美术馆的其它项目不同，“项目空间”的展览策展人主要由被最终选拔上来的青年策展人担任，由他们选择艺术家及其作品，组织策划并实施。从而，使这些未来的策展人和艺术家共同亮相在这个美术馆专业平台上。对此，为了体现多元的面貌，我们还将在全国范围征求策划方案。
从2013年开始，“项目空间”将继续联合中央美术学院人文学院并由吴作人国际美术基金会青年策展人专项基金从全国范围内征集优秀青年策展人策展方案，并对其进行审核、选拔。入选方案将在“项目空间”举办展览（每年6个展览）。中央美术学院美术馆将为展览的实施提供专业的支持，从而协助年轻策展人完成其项目。
“项目空间”将是全国高等美术院校教学实践和公共美术馆的一次大胆尝试，我们坚信它将成为培养未来中国策展人和艺术家的一个充满挑战的公共平台！同时，我们也相信有您的参与将会使这个项目更为精彩成功！