Curator Black Email is classless

黑邮件，一个不分阶级的策展人

What took me an hour to cut out:

NAME……………………..
CLASS……………………
COUNTRY……………….

In the meantime a friend could not find the gallery.  I was chatting with a man on the bench outside when she finally arrived.  It took her a few seconds, going into the gallery space, and coming right out.  “You are being such a rascal!”  She exclaimed. I am guessing for her, that coming all the way to 798 art district, my antimapping progress is actually a dismissive venture, since there is nothing else to see besides the recent smearing of cutout on the wall.  On the bench outside, the Venezuelan man was telling me about his own art work in an upcoming art fair.  Organized by Venezuela Embassy, four artists have been selected to exhibit works relating their experience in China.   The head of David statue and the color red will be employed to reference Western face in China.  I can tell the man is not excited by the iconic cultural forces in collaborative exhibitions.  To reach a destination, and to make an exhibition, what seems to tie a country and a feeling together is the dismissive locale.

I thought about my friend’s remark this morning, before I planned out my gallery routine.  Name, Class, Country is the only work up in the gallery, as empty as a space could be, minus a jerry-rigged ladder and the back seat of a taxi car.

用一个小时剪：

NAME……………………..
CLASS……………………
COUNTRY……………….

等一个找不到画廊的朋友。等她来到的时候我正在画廊外的长凳上和一个男的聊天。 她只花了几秒钟就从画廊走出来。“你太流氓了！” 她大叫着。 我可以想像她跑一趟798艺术区，只看到画廊里涂在墙上的几笔剪纸，会觉得我的反映像进展其实是一种指责冒险的行为。在画廊外的长凳上，委内瑞拉男人在讲述他最近要参加艺术博览想做的作品。由委内瑞拉使馆组织的四个艺术家将用作品表达他们在中国的感受。在作品里，大卫雕塑的头和大红色将代表西方人在中国。我猜这个男人其实不在乎合作展览里，那股充满代表性的文化影响力。去一个地方，或者办一个展览，只要现场里回荡着轻视感就足够把一个国家和某种感受联系到一起。

今天早上在准备画廊里常规计划之前，想起朋友的那句话。目前 Name, Class, Country 是画廊展示的唯一作品，空间里除了快散架的木梯和的士的后座， 空荡着。

(I realized artist statement is missing from the website, so I’ve updated it here)

Once in a while another human simply startles us.

In an informal meeting, two minds fluctuate between ideals and emotions. Even
our normal frequency of failure mirrors the accuracy in which two minds
sift and propel the conversation.  It seems we live our entire lives
longing for such bewilderment.  Yet the intensity of a life-changing
conversation is protected by a mutual stipulation of convergence.  We
are both unable to unlock the barrier alone. We are both satisfied by
the realization.  In this momentary buffer zone lies the basic
requirement for mapping, a whispering engagement of the senses.

But this crystallization comes as exhaustion from everyday events.
On most days the accuracy of time and place is lost to the average
human due to a broadening spectrum of human syndromes.  Most of all we
are unable to affect our wavering perceptual limitations.  Our own
mapping system can prevent us from venturing too far.

As an experiment I am asking a curator to visit an empty gallery
space and invent a universe based on no curatorial engagement. On one
hand, the curator will use his own knowledge of curatorial mapping to
invent a non-curatorial text.  On the other hand, gallery space becomes
a site of work-in-progress in which the artist showcases her own
spatial projection. The curator will yield, after mapping through an
empty gallery space, a strenuous forecast so the artist may counter the
poetics of anticipation.

The physical space in which viewers are allowed to walk through is
a path of extensive decisions, derived from an invisible command to
guide unexpected viewers.  This is the buffer zone in which the curator
carefully pours the final glaze to summarize the adhesion of an artwork
per space.  The ideal display environment is perhaps so fixed to the
point that the decree of art’s meaning is unlikely stray with viewers.

What if an artwork ceases to exist in the confinement of this
mapping? Despite seamless curatorial mapping, the natural predicament
of human syndromes will drive some viewer astray. Essentially cultural
synesthesia is the mega sum of human syndromes sifting through a given
space.  In this case it is up to the artist to dispel and contain the
absurd drive of human syndromes.

As an experiment I use the term cultural synesthesia to counter the
mapping context of curatorial practice.  It is the goal of Antimapping
to encounter cultural synesthesia at its brink of expression.  Cultural
synesthesia is the stuff that does not become a piece of art or enter
music composition, but rather the developing stage of inspiration that
gives human impulse to create.  It is possible to pocket these
bottomless encounters anywhere.  But what must be done to protect this
fragile convergence?

Wei Weng
March 16th 2009
Chaoyang, Beijing

（艺术家的展览叙事）

反映像：文化通感实验

偶尔，另一个人会让我非常惊愕。

这是一个 非正式的会议。我们积极地尝试描述各自的理想与激情。通过这次看似平凡的交流，整个过程精准地折射出人的思想如何一次次筛选和推动彼此的对话。这就是我们 毕生都在寻找的困惑。一次能够改变一生的对话其强烈程度已经被对话者的默契所保护。我们双方都无法打破这种趋同障碍。就此双方达成一种认识，轻微的满足于 暂时的缓冲地带，而感官系统已经锁定了各自对映像的基本要求。

是疲惫的平凡生活滋养了感官的结晶。平时大部分人无动于衷，这正是受人类综合症谱系扩散的影响，人失去对时间和地点的掌握。我们大部分人都无法影响自身的极限。我们各自的映像体系尽量阻止我们过于冒险。

做一次实验。一位策展人到一个空荡荡的画廊空间，我请他不要根据策展的形式创造一个新界。一方面策展人提供一种非策展的文本，运用他一贯的映像知识。另一方面，画 廊空间陈列艺术家在空间里展开绘制的进程。看过空荡荡的画廊，策展人根据自己的映像提供某种预测，以便艺术家尽可能反抗忧虑的诗意性。

观众经过的展览空间，其实是一条布满大量决策的路径。某种看不见的指令引导着不期然而然的观众。围绕作品，策展人小心用他特有的釉彩，在这片缓冲地带里贯注空间。也许理想的展示环境就是一个使观众无法错过对判断艺术本质的空间。

假如一件艺术作品不再受策展映像的限制，又会怎样呢？尽管策展人自己对映像掌握的准确无误，但人类综合症自然而然迫使一些观众步入迷失的窘境。本质上，文化通感是人类综合症在空间里的总合现象。在这种情形之下，艺术家决定去驱散和抑制人类综合症的荒谬本能。

作为一次 实验，我运用了文化通感这个术语，以此来对抗策展实践的映像语境。反映像作品的目的，就是艺术家在表现文化通感的边缘进行反抗。作为原料而已，文化通感不 会成为一件艺术品或者融入音乐的演奏，它是人在创作时感受灵感冲动的阶段。每一个地方都隐藏着深不可测的邂逅。但是保护这一脆弱的趋同我们又该做些什么 呢？

翁维

2009年3月16日

北京市朝阳区

NAME…………………………

CLASS…………………………

COUNTRY……………………

Yesterday, CPU’s gallerist told me there is now very little budget for the project, in fact, only RMB6000.  I am worried.  From the gallery perspective, the installation project has no immediate prospect of quick sales during this economic spur.  Already, starting off with an empty gallery space.  It is unrealistic to put a price on future prospects. Even considering the photo shoots scheduled for end of the month, things can possibly go so wrong.

昨天， CPU的老板跟我说现在展览的预算很低，其实只有6000人民币。 我有点担心。从画廊的角度看这个展览，装置项目没有实物可销售，这样确实没有很好的经济效益。 第一天画廊就是放空的。为未来的可能性定价也是不现实的。 即使现在考虑月底的拍摄计划，也没法控制即将发生的事情。