展览评论-辛云鹏：既存”的疑问

Interrogating the Predetermined

by Zhu Xiaojing

In the very process of descending to the Bunker, the exhibition creates two different perceptions in the viewers, differentiated by whether or not they are knowledgeable about the “3.18” event; and the perceptions eventually merge at the end of their visits, into an inquiry on that which preexists. It is not uncommon in contemporary art to stage an exhibition at the very site where a historical event occurred, however, the crucial question is how an artist regards such a historical event - as the subject of representation or as the very medium of art. Using minimalistic videos and installations, Hope does not intend
to emphasize one certain concept, rather it poses questions on the established historical narratives. Comparing to challenges posed to the viewers in Still not Important, Hopeattempts an alternative form of transformation; it no longer aims at pointing out the possible fallacies in the process but to question the existing form of presentation itself: are there “other sides” to the status quo that are willfully neglected? However, whether it is the loss of meaning in the presentation, or the omission and ambivalence on historical facts, the project has never deviated from Xue Yunpeng’s spirit of relentless interrogation.

The flux of perceptions is quietly present in the contradictions Xue Yunpeng created in his previous works, and perhaps it is because of this same agency of flux that he changed the exhibition title from Opportunity to Hope; are not the forces of exploitive “opportunities” in the pedagogical narratives of history, in their own very perspective, the "hope" of self- strengthening in the midst of changing political situations?

Choice’s use of oily hands suggests the proletarian Soviet Union. Its framing of putting a coin alternately in two hands implies, on the one hand, the Soviet Union’s ambiguous attitude towards the complex political situation in China at that time, and on the other, the Soviet Union in the vacuum of the preconceived notions of the masses from the period in which the historical event unfolded. Nora’s Exit provides an intermission between two videos of guessing games and creates a temporal span beyond the artwork itself, while the persistent state of "hesitation" is magnified to highlight the sense of existence. In contrast with Nora’s visibility, the participation of the Soviet Union has often been obscured in the established materials of historical education. In Nora’s Exit, the dismantled tape is finally re-closed to form a virtual field representing the space of a classroom in the 1920s (this virtual field has not broken through the physical space on which it is based). Though the setup might have some associations with the decoration style of that time (using tape lines to decorate the color block boundaries), the queries on the narrative of one-way "exit" far outweighs the intention of decorative restoration. The leaving symbolizes Nora’s escape from decadence yet still being trapped in the original fields, by which she is shaped and assimilated. In Red Lips, a Russian version of the Communist Manifesto is narrated by a female voice, and this Russian “re-narration”, as the absolute established truth, leads to the possible misconceptions in its dissemination and is often taken unconsciously as the primary source of learning. The red lips represent Women's passive state and the arrangement of far viewing distance for the directional audio reception enables the intrinsic narratives to flow in diverse directions, guided by unconsciousness and accompanied by indeterminant variations in circulation. The inquiries posed by the exhibition should not be simply categorized as "the opposition of historical truths", rather the "interrogation" of the "preexisting", and furthermore, the exhibition reframes from projecting overly obvious significations, as though it is more appropriate to remain as invisible footnotes or a mode of inquiries. The artist does not intend to correct the missing link, and the installations and images which quietly sit at the approximate site where the event occurred, are "reminders" rather than “warnings".

The historical significance of the Bunker is the inspiration for Xin Yunpeng to conceptualize this project. The superimposition of the site and history generates far greater meaning than the bunker’s historical legacies. In the Bunker, the artist uses physical divisions to separate each of his works, and the spatial design of descending the staircase is comparable to entering the chaos and oppressiveness of the historical situation, in which all the political forces were all willfully in pursuit of their own respective benefits. At the other end of the oppression exist opportunities, or say “hope”, and history here appears as materials, transformed as a medium to interrogate the existing narratives. As a site-specific exhibition striving to call forth the presence of historical materials, Hope is not fettered by historical burdens, instead it leads to questioning them in the established narratives. Is there any possibility that the facts we often take as a given had already been manipulated? Are we not still restricted by the original framework, which we think we had disposed of long ago? In this descending space, Xin Yunpeng uses the inherent connections between the 3.18 historical event and its location to pose questions beyond the realm of the predetermined “narratives”.

辛云鹏:“既存”的疑问

文 / 朱晓静

自掩体空间入口向下的过程中，展览因观者了解该事件与否而铺陈出两条路径，最终又在观看结束后划归一处——对于“既存”的疑问。在 3·18 事件背景论坛的讨论中曾提到:依事件发生地进行踩点式行为的创作在当代艺术中是常见的，而究竟“历史”或者“事件”在作品中是作为被再围绕叙述的主体或是具有媒介意味的素材，从作品处又再次延伸出两条路径。《希望》以静置的影像与装置，并非意在强调某一概念，而是提出对于“既存”历史叙事的疑问，与艺术家此前《还是不重要》中表露的对于观者的挑战不同，《希望》是另一种转换的尝试——不再针对过程发生中可能存在谬误的事实进行指出，而是对既有的呈现本身发起疑问:“既存”的已知现状是否存在被忽略的另一方?而无论是呈现中引发的意义流失，抑或是针对已知史实的隐含忽略，其最终都未离开辛云鹏对于“质疑”的探讨。

这种流动可解的状态隐晦呈现在他此前作品体现的矛盾中，或许同展览原本意向的名称“机会”最终更改为“希望”这一变动有着同样的巧合:在历史教育叙事中以“机会”乘虚而入的势力，于他们自身的角度来说，不过是变动时局中期冀自我强盛的一次“希望”。

《猜拳》以油污的双手暗示工人阶级的苏联，揣摩这一枚硬币的“扶持”，面对中国当时复杂的政治情况的犹豫考量，将事件发生时对于大众“既存”认知中处于真空状态的苏联显现。《娜拉出走》的间隔为猜拳的身前与身后两部分营造了作品本身之外的时间跨度，“犹疑”的持久状态被放大凸显其存在感，与之相反的是“既存”历史的教育中却往往隐去了苏联的参与。而《娜拉出走》中，被拆出的磁带最终又依贴代表当时教室的空间再次闭合回复为一个虚拟的场域(这个场域却同时又并未突破原本承载它的空间)，或许其中有与当时装修风格相关联的因

素(以磁带线来装饰色块边界)，但其中还原的意图不及对于单向“出走” 叙事的疑问:出走象征的逃离腐朽之外，却仍旧处原有的场域中，被其塑形并收纳。《红嘴唇》中自女性口中朗诵而出的俄语《共产党宣言》，二次叙事的“既存”事实导向传播中可能存在的误差并将之作为第一来源学习的无意识，红色嘴唇代表的女性的被动状态和远观才可听清朗诵的布置作为将固有叙事流向其他面的契机，指向其中由无意识被引导的可能性，而与之相伴的是不可知的流通差异。展览中表述的“质疑”不以“走向史实的对立面”概括而以“对于既存的疑问”进行概述在于展览不投射出强烈的意指，这一近似于旁注的无形与“疑问”的形态更为贴合——艺术家并非强烈地意图指正这缺失的一环，装置与影像幽静地被放置在发生过事件的临近场域内，是“Remind”而非“Warning”。

掩体空间作为引发呈现的契机，其场所与历史的重合在平衡间远大于防空洞在此后累积的历史负担，对于不同面向的呈现以物理间隔的形式作出划分，层进又低矮向下的场所从另一个意义上形似当时的形势—— 迫乱又压抑——各方之间执不同的意志意图谋求更多的利益，于迫压的另一端是可能存在的机会——或者说，希望。历史在此以素材的形式呈现，转化作为对于“既存”叙事疑问的媒介，以“踩点式”对应历史素材呈现的展览最终不受既存历史重负的约束，而是指向了对于“既存”叙事的疑问——在我们已知的“既存”之中或否存在被淡化或刻意修改的谬误，而叛离之外却依旧有被束缚于既存的空间中的可能性。下沉的掩体空间中，辛云鹏将空间与三一八事件相同场域的重合作为一种契机，提出了伫于“固有叙事”之外的疑问。