“今天‘山水’有用吗？”：项目源起
源起之一：与时代相关
近年，人类相继受到了全球疫情、局部战争、超级算法的巨大冲击。在艺术界，“今天‘艺术’有用吗？”这个提问不断浮现。
沿着这条思路，身为中国艺术家，Alice 陈开始思考：“华夏文明所贡献的艺术是什么？它的作用是什么？”谈及世界艺术之林中，由华夏文明所做出的独特贡献，就不能不提到“山水”1。这里的“山水”不仅指向某类型的诗书画（文艺），也指向某种精神状态和生活方式。它渗透进了中国历代文人的生命，成为了文化基因般的无所不在的存在。
至此，该提问发展成为：“今天‘山水’有用吗？”
然而回答这个问题并不容易。要讨论“今天”，就自然会讨论到“昨天”和“明天”。至于“‘山水’为何”以及“‘山水’应该为何”，不同时代的普遍理解不同；即便是同时代人，每个人的答案也会有差异。论及“有用”还是“无用”，那更是见仁见智。
结合当下，此提问进一步发展成为：
在今日之当代中国，在今日之全球化世界，在人类开始谈论“去人类中心主义”，谈论“人类从碳基生命走向硅基生命”的当下；“山水”，这个古典时期华夏文明的产物，还能为今日的我们，未来的“人类”起什么作用？
经过一段时间的思考，Alice 陈发现这个问题超出了她的能力，她苦思而无解。
最终，她决定以“今天‘山水’有用吗？”这个问题来诚恳地请教朋友和老师们：以发起并主理同名艺术项目为方式， 来抛砖引玉，来邀请大家一起展开思考、沟通、创作和实践。
源起之二：与Alice 陈以及杭州西湖相关
随着人生际遇，自然地结合内心的感受、需要，以及问题来做艺术，是Alice 陈所喜欢的工作模式。
Alice 陈相信，追问“艺术有用吗？”这样的问题，属于艺术工作者的本职工作范畴。
Alice 陈也相信，无论多深刻多宏大的问题，如果不能结合至具体的个人、结合至具体的语境，终将会沦为空泛。由这个追问所激发产生的艺术项目“今天’山水’有用吗？”将立足于具体个人与具体语境，同时以普世价值为追求。
Alice 认为此项目是符合她的工作总标题“正向艺术研究会”的工作方向的：研究、实践、和推广能够为人类和社会带来正向推进力的艺术。
由于家庭原因，Alice 陈经常搬家。而每搬到一个地方，以“做艺术”为方法，和那个地方产生深层的关系，交一些当地的朋友，是她所喜欢的。之所以在杭州发起“今天’山水’有用吗？”这个项目，也是和杭州，以及Alice 陈与杭州的个人缘份有关的，现按照时间顺序列举如下：
-1991至1995年，Alice 陈就读于位于杭州西湖边的浙江美院附中。
-2011年，“杭州西湖文化景观”列入《世界遗产名录》。世界遗产委员会认为，“杭州西湖文化景观”是文化景观的一个杰出典范，它极为清晰地展现了中国景观的美学思想，对中国乃至世界的园林设计影响深远，时至今日，其核心要素仍然能够激发人们“寄情山水”的情怀。
-2014年，Alice 的父母搬家到杭州西湖区。
-2022年9月，Alice 陈开始在巴黎和杭州两地间往返居住。
Alice 陈
2023年4月12日，杭州
“Is ‘Shan Shui’ Useful Today?”
Project Origins
Part One: Regarding Our Times
Human lives have recently navigated the impacts of a series of world events including the global pandemic, regional wars and the advance of artificial intelligence. The art world has perennially questioned its own utility, a query that now takes on a particular urgency.
These developments have caused Chinese artist Alice Chen ask questions like, “What is Chinese civilization’s contributions to art? And does it have any purpose?” Of China’s unique artistic contributions, “Shan Shui”1 figures among the most prominent. “Shan Shui” here encompasses not only the artistic and literary genre of poetry, calligraphy and painting but also to a certain spiritual state and lifestyle. It has permeated the lives of Chinese literati across dynasties and become deeply, ubiquitously ingrained in Chinese cultural DNA.
That leads into the question, “Is ‘Shan Shui’ useful today?”
It does not have an easy answer. “Today” is naturally situated between “yesterday” and “tomorrow”. Each historical period has its own dominant definitions of ‘Shan Shui’ as well, while even within the same period different individuals have their own takes. Whether something is “useful” or “useless” also sparks diverse perspectives.
Moving beyond current affairs, in today’s globalized contemporary world including modern China trendy topics like “de-anthropocentrism” and “human evolution from carbon-based to silicon-based” dominate artistic discourse. As a product of Classical Chinese civilization, what functions does “Shan Shui” have for us today as well as whatever constitutes “human beings” of the future?
After delving into these issues, Chen realized they were beyond the scope of one person’s capacity. She racked her brain to no avail.
Eventually, Chen humbly decided to reach out to her friends and experts in the field to ask them, “Is ‘Shan Shui’ useful today?” Initiating and directing an art project titled after the question itself, she invites participants and audiences to contemplate, exchange ideas, engage in creative activities, and take part in actions responding to the question, in the hope that opinions and even answers may emerge in the process.
Part Two: About Alice Chen and Hangzhou’s West Lake
Following the natural flows of life and making art that organically corresponds to inner feelings, needs and questions is Alice Chen’s preferred creative modus operandi.
She believes that positing existential questions such as “Is art useful?” is the duty and responsibility of art professionals.
Chen also believes that no matter how big, profound and complex a question is, its answers must be relevant to specific individuals within specific contexts – not present vague, empty platitudes. The art project “Is ‘Shan Shui’ useful today?” will be grounded in personal experiences and realities, which underlie the most universal values.
This project lines up with the mission and overarching theme of Chen’s artistic practice found in her Positive Art Research Centre: to research, practice, and promote art that brings a positive force to human beings and society.
Alice Chen moves frequently for family reasons. Each time she moves to a new place, she seeks to cultivate a deep relationship with the place and develop friendships through the making of art. She chose Hangzhou to launch the project “Is ‘Shan Shui’ Useful Today?” due to the city’s unique features as well as Chen’s personal ties to the city, as below.
- From 1991 to 1995, Alice Chen attended the Affiliated High School to Zhejiang Academy of Art (later renamed the Affiliated High School to China Academy of Art), which is located by the West Lake in Hangzhou.
- In 2011, the “Hangzhou West Lake Cultural Landscape” was officially listed as a World Heritage Site. The World Heritage Committee considered the “Hangzhou West Lake Cultural Landscape” as “an outstanding example of cultural landscape that display with great clarity the ideals of Chinese landscape aesthetics,” which has a profound influence on garden design in China as well as in the rest of the world. To this day, “the key components of West Lake still allow it to inspire people to ‘project feelings onto the landscape’.”2
- In 2014, Chen’s parents moved to the West Lake District in Hangzhou.
- In September 2022, Alice Chen began to live between Paris and Hangzhou.
Alice Chen
April 12, 2023, Hangzhou
注解1
“山水”：中国的“山水” (Shan Shui)这个词，由山和水这两个字组合而成。“山水”经常被翻译为“自然” (nature)、“风景” (landscape)。然而其实它与西方的“自然”、“风景”的概念并不相同。中国的“山水”是为了从经验世界里面建立起一种山水审美系统，借以通往一个超验的山水世界。随着华夏文明的发展而不断演变，“山水”逐渐糅合了儒、释、道三家的思想，追求物我两忘，天人合一。“山水”不仅成为了中国各类文艺所表现的的重要主题，也成为了人们的某种精神状态以及生活方式。
Annotation 1
“Shan Shui”：In Chinese, the phrase “Shan Shui” consist of two words “Shan” (mountain) and “Shui” (water). “Shan Shui” is often translated as “nature” or “landscape.” However, the concept is different from “nature” or “landscape” as is understood in the west. The Chinese “Shan Shui” establishes an aesthetic system of Shan Shui in the experiential world, creating a transcendental world of Shan Shui. Evolving along with the early development of Chinese civilization, “Shan Shui” gradually integrated the ideologies of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, including the pursuit of the “dissolution of subject-object duality” and the “unity of heaven and humanity”. Not only has “Shan Shui” become an important motif in various genres of Chinese art and literature, but it has also come to embody a specific spiritual state and lifestyle.
“West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou,” UNESCO World Heritage Convention.
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1334/
