He Hai and Deng Dafei: On Contemporary Art as Education for All
2010 Beijing 798 Art Festival Young Artist Recommended Exhibition Curatorial Concept Explanation
Regarding the definition, category, etymology, nature, naming and other issues of the so-called "contemporary art", there have been too many controversies and arguments both in the West and in China, and there is still no clear definition. Just from the many related vocabulary we are using at the same time, this issue is indeed complex enough: modern art (in the sense of Zhu Qingsheng, not in the general sense), post-modern art, avant-garde art, and forward art (proposed by Wang Lin) , Avant-garde art, experimental art, conceptual art (art with conceptual characteristics in a broad sense, rather than conceptual art as a historical concept in a narrow sense), trendy art, new art ("Post-1989 Chinese New Art" curated by Zhang Songren ), critical art (proposed by Wang Nanming), problematic art (proposed by Wu Wei), and "Art Today" (today art), "Art Now" (now Art), "Art actuel" (French, active art).
These names are sometimes the same but different, sometimes they have different emphases, and sometimes they are entangled with each other, and users have their own reasons. For example, the three curators recommended for the exhibition of young artists at the last 798 Art Festival chose the concept of experimental art based on their reasons. But among these many concepts, the temporal concept of "contemporary art" is still accepted by most people with its broadest tolerance. However, it would be thankless to really define this concept and pursue the “contemporary artistry” as its essence. Therefore, we decided not to dwell on what art or contemporary art is, and instead look at what art or contemporary art has done, what we are doing, and what else can be done.
No matter which name is adopted, everyone knows that we are talking about the same thing. This thing temporarily named "contemporary art" is relative to modern art and pre-modern art in art history (including modern art in a broad sense). Various artistic traditions before and outside, but more are aimed at the European Renaissance tradition) have been proposed. Usually we emphasize the differences and breaks between the three, because the distinction is made based on this difference and break. Compared with the usual features of pre-modern art (mainly referring to the European Renaissance tradition): realism and reflectionism, content and form dichotomy (form conveys content), image representation, narrative, heteronomous or In terms of subordination to other functions (such as witchcraft rituals, religious or political propaganda, moral enlightenment, environmental decoration, etc.), modern art shows distinct differences: Compared with reflection theory, modern art emphasizes that the artwork itself is a kind of reality Compared with the dichotomy of content and form, modern art emphasizes that form itself (visual form as image or material) is content; compared to artistic heteronomy, modern art emphasizes artistic self-discipline; compared to image reproduction, modern art emphasizes abstraction Compared with narrative, modern art emphasizes symbolism; if art is regarded as a linguistic phenomenon, modernism emphasizes the self-consciousness of the way of speaking more than the attention to the content of the speech. When it comes to the stage of "contemporary art", to be precise from the 1960s, everything seems to have begun to look back again (in this sense, it is synonymous with postmodern art), and art has begun to reproduce images (although it may be through photography and video) , Began to narrate again, began to add various functions, and began to be interested in the content of the speech. However, this break in modern art is not a simple return to pre-modern art, but a return after the language disinfection of modern art. It is a return to maintaining a sober vigilance against language itself. In this sense, it is in the modern era. The continued expansion on the basis of art is a synthesis of modern art and pre-modern art on a new level. The foundation of art is no longer realism but fictitious, and the representation of images no longer points to reality itself, but points to concepts. What replaces narrative and symbolism is the technique of allegory. And the ultimate goal of all this is to approach human nature.
In fact, to this day, cave paintings, art (or those things that did not have the name of art at that time but are regarded as art today) are not because of their close-to-human nature that is shocking, confusing and even ecstatic? In this regard, although Gombrich once said that there is no capitalized "art", we can still think that those things that once belonged to different fields and held different positions, but are all called art today, There are some hidden connections between them, which makes them transcend the ruptures in art history and identify each other's kinship. Art in each period has its purpose. It must spread specific information, attach specific values, and play a role in propaganda and education. Due to the common shared characteristics of pre-modern art: realism, reproducibility, and narrative, the dissemination and education of these values is first achieved through the content of the works. This is obvious. But what is easier to overlook is that these functions are not only attached to the subject matter depicted in the work, but also attached to the language form of the work. The conceptual image paradigm represented by the positive law of ancient Egypt proclaims the pharaoh’s theocratic and monarchy, and the ideal art paradigm based on natural vision in ancient Greece describes the concept of the same sex between gods and humans and the spirit of tragic heroes. The symbolic art paradigm with strong spirituality of Christian art in the Middle Ages aroused believers' repentance of sin and hope for salvation by Christ. The realistic art paradigm of the Renaissance based on perspective reveals the knowledge of the secular world. Desire, the neoclassical art paradigm of balanced rationality conveys the worship of rationality in the Enlightenment era and the nationalist spirit in the formation of the nation-state. Of course, these all touched on the deepest common emotions in people's hearts in those historical periods, and even strengthened such emotions. Therefore, we can say that art is always “useful” and always “educational”.
Perhaps people would argue that when it comes to modern art, this conclusion becomes invalid, because modern art is self-disciplined. In fact, the self-discipline of art did not start with modern art. The opposition between the theory of artistic self-discipline and the theory of artistic heteronomy has never stopped in the history of art. From the dispute between Liu Zongyuan and Han Yu in China to the dispute between Ruskin and Whistler in the United Kingdom, Lu Xun and Xu Zhimo also debated whether to "art for life" or "art for art". In fact, even the purest self-discipline art cannot be useless. That is to say, a purely abstract form such as abstract expressionism in the United States still conveys a political message. In the context of the Cold War, in contrast to the monotonous "socialist realism" art of the socialist camp, abstract expressionism clearly conveyed the message of freedom and democracy to the maximum, especially when the message of the American Free Art League Conference was declassified. One point has become clearer. The United States is investing heavily in promoting abstract expressionism to the world. This is part of the United States’ national strategy, that is, cultural strategy. Some people call this a "conspiracy", we prefer to call it a "great conspiracy." Come to think of it, these seemingly contentless forms not only "educated" a generation of Americans, but also subtly "educated" those living in the socialist camp. We can imagine the surprise and excitement in their hearts when they saw such crazy and free art for the first time. This is what we call the educational function of art, not only through content, but also through form. As McLuhan pointed out: "The medium is the message." As a medium, the form itself often contains more important information than the surface content, and because of its concealment, it is more able to play a role in subtle changes.
When we talk about education in contemporary art, the situation becomes more complicated. On the surface, due to the return of "content", the educational function of contemporary art seems to be similar to pre-modern art, which is better understood than modern art. In fact, this may be just an illusion. Because this time, "content" returns as "form", although it may not necessarily be a visual form, but only an conceptual form, that is, a form in thinking. At this time, ideas and forms often become one, which is what Harold Seyman calls "when attitude becomes form." But at this time, the educational function of art may still have different levels (not necessarily): the level of the surface form, the level of the artist's concept expression and the level of the audience's self-awareness. In fact, it also includes the level of the artist's self-awareness. Therefore, this education is also the artist's self-education at the same time. In contrast, education at the level of self-awareness is more important, because this is the significance of contemporary art as art of language experimentation. At this point, contemporary art can be seen as a continuation of modernism, and it can also be regarded as a continuation of modernism. Experimental art is synonymous. The German artist Joseph Boyce is the most typical example. Boyce himself was a teacher at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts. In superficial form, he often takes lectures, lectures, talks, distributing leaflets and other interactive forms similar to education for artistic creation. The blackboard is the most common material in his works. Many of his works are also completed by leading his students and followers. On the conceptual level, he put forward the concept of social sculpture, thinking that man is the only animal that has not yet evolved into a complete form, and the purpose of art is to shape man himself. At the same time, his works often involve concepts such as environmental protection, democracy, faith, and life, and he founded the German University Student Party and the Green Party. These concepts have directly influenced and educated many people. Finally, Boyce’s art itself broke the language system of the predecessors. Many of his behaviors seem absurd, weird, and mysterious on the surface. They have no clear meaning, but they can directly point to people’s hearts, make people realize their insights, and realize the preciousness of nature. Freedom, which is quite similar to Chinese Zen Buddhism.
In fact, truly profound education has never been restricted to form, it can happen at any time and place. Socrates held the pedestrians on the street and argued with them, using "psychiatric midwifery" to educate the citizens of Athens; on some occasions, Jesus preached to thousands of people, and on some occasions he just quietly spoke to his side. His disciples said, and what he was talking about was not a logically rigorous theoretical system, but full of stories and metaphors; Confucius led the students to circulate in all directions, not only by words, but also by example; Zen's education emphasizes "no writing, insight. Become a Buddha". Among them, Jifeng and Gongan seem to be similar to contemporary art. When prophets in the Old Testament were ordered by God to prophesy, they often carried out some weird behaviors, such as injuring themselves, bandaging, or naked, or smashing terracotta bottles, or pretending to be fugitives and prisoners, etc. Waiting is often to sternly declare God's judgment. Of course, this is more than just education.
In the above examples, the characteristic of education is not only to impart knowledge and skills, but also to bring people closer to their nature and comprehend the truth. As Heidegger said: Truth is "removal of cover." In fact, there are similarities in Buddhism and Christianity. Buddhism believes that the human heart is like a pearl, but it is wrapped in various attachments such as "greed, hatred, and ignorance". Monasticism is to work hard to get rid of these filth and to see the brilliance of pearls again. However, Christianity believes that sin hinders people from knowing the truth: "Because these people are greasy, their ears are heavy, and their eyes are closed. I'm afraid they can see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn around and I will heal them." In reality, In addition to the obscuration of internal problems such as the obsession of Buddhism and the original sin of Christianity, there are also all kinds of external obscurations, which we call phantoms, that are, those established powers that force us to accept them as natural principles without reflection. Discourse system. For such a system of power discourse, Roland Barthes calls it a myth, Guy Debo calls it a spectacle, and Baudrillard calls it a simulacrum. Both internal and external concealment need to be broken by the power of education. The educational function of art, especially contemporary art, is particularly important here, especially in China today.
Our basic judgment of the current social reality in China is: this is a society full of illusions, including political illusions, social illusions, entertainment illusions, business illusions, success illusions, and wealth illusions. The essence of the illusion is a lie. Due to the development of mass media technology, these illusions have also become more developed than ever. These illusions based on lies appear in extremely realistic appearances, making people think that this is reality, abandoning vigilance amidst numbness and inertia, and completely accepting this "reality". In general, Chinese people of any age are in such a reality. Young people have a shallow experience, and they are often in true belief and are completely involved in the illusion. Because of their rich experience, the elderly are more helpless towards illusions, knowing that they are illusions, and knowing that they are lie, but since they are unable to change, it is better to bow their heads and give in, and then participate in the creation of illusions. However, compared with the helplessness of the elderly, the younger generation still has the instinctive urge to resist and the urge to tell the truth, although the results often end in failure and bloodshed.
But such young people are precisely the most energetic and hopeful part of society. They are the representatives of the youth who strive to get out of the illusion, destroy the illusion, and return to the real. The reason why these are the characteristics of young people is that compared with middle-aged and old people, young people are more innovative and changeable, have an open mind, dare to overthrow themselves, and dare to confess their thoughts. How can young contemporary artists who are also intellectuals get out of the illusion with their own unique language? They not only face the universal illusions we mentioned above, but also face the various illusions of the art world itself, that is, certain rigid things formed by contemporary art itself. For example, the excessive pursuit of the sense of work and the pursuit of art marketization. Can they educate and self-educate through art? Young artists, especially those born in the 1980s, have not been away from school for a long time. They still have more than ten years of educational experience, especially those in university. Frankly speaking, the reality of Chinese education is not optimistic. The pragmatic educational philosophy has caused many students to abandon their spiritual pursuits as well as their basic moral character. The tendency of emphasizing rationality and neglecting literature makes many young students have low humanistic qualities and know nothing except their own majors. How can such young people have the ability to get out of many illusions? Under this educational philosophy, China's art education is destined to be full of crises. Nowadays, there are so many schools offering art majors, but how many of them can really target students with personality and imagination? Looking at the art college entrance examinations that have not changed for decades, year after year there are plaster statues, avatars and still life paintings tested. Thousands of students honed their skills according to the same standard. We can understand that students are often nothing more than education. The lowest end of this food chain. Such an education is far from the university education goal of Mr. Chen Yinke's "spirit of independence and freedom of thought"?
In fact, people need art education throughout their lives, and have the ability to receive art education, not just children, nor just in formal schools.
Boyce once said: "Everyone is an artist." Of course, he is not saying that everyone should be a professional artist, but he is trying to reveal the fact that everyone has some kind of innate creativity, and everyone has the potential to become an artist. When a person fully develops this potential, he is closer to self-improvement. The educational function of contemporary art is often not to instill a certain concept unilaterally with the audience, but to stimulate the audience's creative potential and create an opportunity for the audience to get close to themselves. In this process, education will happen to each other, and artists are always ready to get education from the audience and self-educate through works. "Everyone is an artist", this seemingly absurd utopian declaration has become a lasting motivation in our hearts. This also reminds us of Mr. Cai Yuanpei's educational philosophy of "replace religion with aesthetic education". Although we do not fully agree with this statement, (after all, aesthetic education does not involve ultimate value, and will never replace religious belief. According to Chi Keguo’s life syllogism, the aesthetic stage is the lowest stage.) But in one The value of art education cannot be ignored in an era when courtesy and music are bad. This is the same as Confucius' admiration of music education. Perhaps one day, we will be able to see that art education, like 9-year compulsory education, has become the basic welfare of every citizen. Everyone, regardless of age, gender, class, and occupation, will have the opportunity to receive art education at any time. I believe that a society composed of such citizens will be a more dynamic and healthier society.
The topic will come back to our exhibition. Although we have identified that the educational function of art is not necessarily expressed in the form of education or the concept of education, as long as it is truly excellent contemporary art works, even excellent modern art works and pre-modern art works, they all have different levels of educational functions. , But in this exhibition, in order to highlight the theme of the relationship between art and education, we focus more on those artists who have adopted educational forms and concepts.
We raise the issue of education in this exhibition, aiming to rethink the relationship between art and education. Think about the function of education in art, and reflect on the goal of art in education. The final presentation may be in a variety of forms. It can be education in the form of art, or art in the face of education. It includes education on specific artistic knowledge and abilities, and it may also be targeted at Art work on educational issues. In addition to submitting completed works, artists also need to submit plans for on-site interaction with the audience in the form of education at the exhibition site to express their understanding of art and education. We do not require all works to directly show the form of education (such as class), we just hope to reiterate through this special form: whether art or education, they should ultimately point to the shaping of people themselves. This is about our future.
