自由的限度

在当代艺术生产发展过程中，策展成为非常重要的环节，而策展前瞻性观念已经成为当代艺术意义系统中不可或缺的重要组成部分。因此，一次当代艺术展览，其质量往往取决于策展人的价值观念、艺术判断、文化高度以及全新的策展视野。

由清华大学美术学院苏丹教授、西班牙艺术家MiguelGuzmán Pastor教授共同策划的“四面空间·微驻留”当代艺术展，其策划理念在某种意义上为今日当代艺术策展提供了新思路、新方法、新视角。同时，此次展览从策划理念与参展艺术家现场创作实践两个层面对艺术自由进行深度解析，即旨在通过一种特定的策展方法制造一个艺术冲突：限制与自由。并在此艺术冲突中对自由的限度进行探讨。

一般而言，多数当代艺术展览总是主题先行，即策展人在展览计划开展之前会预设一个展览主题，待主题经多次论证成立后，再寻找与展览主题相适应的参展艺术家，而参展艺术家也必须围绕展览主题进行作品创作，这已经成为当代艺术一种固定的策展套路。但是，当下此种模式已然缺乏新意，甚至造成了当代艺术展览主题泛滥，并且在很多时候，一不小心参展艺术家作品不自觉地沦为策展人主题插图。此时，艺术退隐，策展前置，成为主角。而预设的展览主题成为某种束缚，使得艺术家的想象力萎缩，甚至导致思想的惰性，此种现象很值得深思。当然，我这里并非主张当代艺术展览去主题化，而是强调艺术先行，即在深入研究了解艺术家创作意图与作品背后的语境之后提出相应的展览主题，如此方能对原有策展模式的突破。

微驻留艺术展正是对原有固定策展模式的一次突破，抑或是对策展惰性的一次抵抗。这是一场独特的当代艺术展览，此次展览的策展人事先并没有提出一个特定展览主题，而只是设置两个前提条件，一是时间条件，即艺术家必须在两个小时内完成作品，同时用影像方式记录创作过程；二是将创作经费限制在2欧元以内。2欧元的创作经费在今日当代艺术日趋大制作态势看，显然是微不足道的，甚至可以忽略不计。

前面已经说到主题先行的问题，即这种策展模式已经预先限制了艺术家的创作自由，遏制艺术想象力，但是，微驻留展的限制性条件是否同样限制了艺术家的自由创作呢？我认为，前后两种限制是不一样的，在性质上是相异的。前者是对艺术家思想的束缚。尽管艺术家可以运用各种媒介，多种语言方式进行创作，但是，艺术最为根本的核心，即思想，已经被限定了，而微驻留的策展方法只是限定创作经费，即在预定的经费范围，艺术家可以利用各种媒介材质，可以使用各种方法，多种语言模式进行创作，对各自感兴趣的主题进行探讨。在短短的两个小时内，将激发艺术家创作灵感的爆发，同时增强对艺术现场空间的敏感以及对语言运用之快速反应。

再则，当代艺术的核心是观念，即只有一个观念是好的，那么这件作品才能是好的，或者说才有可能是好的。因此，当代艺术首要的任务不是材质语言训练，而是观念训练。美国概念艺术家勒维特说：“艺术可以被建构，也可以不必被建构”，也就是说，一个艺术观念只要在头脑中成熟，艺术就已经完成了，不必要再被某种可视性语言建构呈现出来，因为，在严格意义上，艺术是一种思想，是非物质的，一个物质性可视媒介只是思想的载体，因此，艺术作品仅以一段文字表述即可，即我们通常所说的“方案艺术”。这在当代艺术范畴是成立的。就此而言，似乎2欧元的创作经费都是一种奢侈。

另外一个悖论是，如果艺术是非物质的，那么如何解释一个以物质特性而呈现的艺术品呢？在观念艺术的逻辑内，这个问题已经不是不可逾越的障碍，其关键点在于艺术的过程性，即艺术的时间性，因此，当艺术家有意识地将创作过程置于一件作品的重要位置时，如此，艺术的非物质性就体现出来了。所以，微驻留展策展人非常注重艺术家们在现场的创作过程，并对创作过程进行记录，观众将在展览现场通过影像与其他文献看到作品制作过程。 

参加此次微驻留展的艺术家均是四川师范大学美术学院学生，参展作品涵盖绘画、雕塑、装置、行为、影像以及多媒体等。他们通过此次独特的创作展览，相信会在更深的思想层面上思考未来的艺术道路，更准确地把握当代艺术的本质，不断置换自己的艺术思维，使自己的艺术创作层层推进。

廖邦铭

2014年7月9日于成都

The limits of freedom

In the production process ofdevelopment of contemporary art, curatorship becomes a veryimportant part, and the prospective curatorial concepthas become an indispensable part of contemporary art meaning systems.

The“Four-Face Space microResidencies” contemporary art exhibition co-curated byProfessor SU Dan from the Academy of Art & Design of Tsinghua Universityand Artist Professor Miguel Guzmán Pastor from Spain, the concept in the senseof its planned offers new ideas, new methods, new perspectives for today’scontemporary art curatorship. Meanwhile, this exhibition from the both sides of planningconcept and creative artists practice did a depth analysis about artisticfreedom, which aims to create an art conflict through a particular method of curatorship:limits and freedom, and in this conflict to the limits of artistic freedom werediscussed.

In general, the majority ofcontemporary art exhibitions are always theme first, which means the curatorswill imagine a theme before the exhibition. After the establishment of thetheme repeated demonstration, they will find artists to fit the theme, and theartists must also work around the theme of the exhibition. This has become afixed contemporary art curatorial routine.However, this model is already present lack of new ideas, and evencaused a flooding of contemporary art exhibition themes.And in many cases, artists’ works will unconsciouslybecome curators’ theme illustrations accidentally.At this point, Art retired, curatorship front and become the protagonist.The default theme of the exhibition becomes somekind of restraint, making the artist's imagination atrophy, and even lead toinertia of thoughts, this phenomenon is worth pondering.Of course, I am not here to advocate the themingof contemporary art exhibitions, but to emphasis on art first.After a in-depth study and understanding of thecontext of artists' intentions behind the works, then think about thecorresponding theme of the exhibition, so can only break through the originalcuratorship model.

The microResidencies exhibition is trulya breakthrough on the original art exhibition mode, or is a resistance to the inertiaof original ones.Thisis a unique exhibition of contemporary art, which the curators did not proposea specific prior theme of the exhibition, but only set two preconditions:one is the time condition that the artist mustcomplete the work within two hours, while the creative process with a videorecording; another is the creation of financial constraints in less than 2 euro. Compare with today’s increasingly largeproduction trend, 2 euro in funding for the creation of contemporary art islittle, even negligible.

The theme first problem as mentionedearlier, this curatorship model has limited the artist's creative freedombefore they create, curbing the artistic imagination.However, is the restrictive conditions of microResidencies also limitthe freedom of the artist's creation? In my view, these two limits are not thesame, and are dissimilar in nature.Theformer one is the bondage to artists’ thought.Although artists can use a variety of media, multi-lingual approach to dotheir art works, but the most fundamental core of the art -- thinking, has beenlimited. But the way of curatorship in microResidencies just limited to thecreation of micro- financing, which artists can use a variety of mediamaterials, methods, multilingual authoring in pre-funding, and each artistcould go deep inside their topics of interest. The two-hour limit willarouse the inspirations of artists, while enhancing their sensitivity tothe arts scene space, as well as rapid response to their language using.

Furthermore, the core ofcontemporary art is the conception, that only one conception is good, then thiswork is good, or that it is possible to be good.So, the primary task of contemporary art language training is notmaterials, but the training of conception.The American conceptual artist Leavitt says, “Art could be constructed,but also do not have to be constructed”, it means that as long as an artisticconcept is matured in artist’s mind, then the art work has been completed, andthen revealed by some visibility language is unnecessary.Because in the strict sense, art is an idea, is immaterial,and the matter of visual media is just a thinking carrier.Thus, works of art can be expressed only in aparagraph of text, which we usually call it "art program".It works in the contemporary arts. In thisregard, it seems that the 2 euro of creation funding is a luxury.

Another paradox is that, if the art couldbe non-material, then how to explain the physical characteristics of an art workand presented it?Inthe logic of the conception art, this problem is not an insurmountable obstacle,the key point is the process of art -- the art of timing. Therefore, when theartist consciously placed the process of creation in an important position, thenon-material of art has manifested.ThemicroResidencies curators are really emphasis on the field of creative processof artists, and recording the process.Theaudience will see the works in the exhibition site through the production processimages and other literatures.

All the artists of this microResidenciesare students from the College of Fine Art of Sichuan Normal University, and theart works are including painting, sculpture, installation, performance, videoand other medias.Throughthe creations of this unique exhibition, I believe they will think in a deeper levelof artistic path in future, and they could more accurately grasp the nature ofcontemporary art, constantly replacing their artistic thinking, to make theirown artistic creations move forward.

LIAO Bangming

2014.07.09 in Chengdu