第67期 “自我组织”在2010（2010年）
学术主持：付晓东 严舒黎
主题：“每个人的东湖”艺术计划 未知博物馆 雄黄社 三分钟小组 Forget Art 绿校
新作：杨鸿 方鹤 熊莉钧 梁伟
Issue No. 67(2010)
Theme: Self – Organization in 2010
Academic Host: Fu Xiaodong, Yan Shuli
A.T: Everybody’s East Lake Art Project, Unknow Musuem Group, Xiong Huang Group, Forget Art Group, Lv Xiao.com (Green School)
A.N: Yang Hong, Fang He, Xiong Lijun, Liang Wei
主题：“自我组织”在2010
学术主持：付晓东 严舒黎
在我看来，艾未未的1亿粒葵花子在泰特的涡沦大厅开幕，标志着伟大的艺术家时代的终结。巨大的资金投入，顶级的世界美术馆平台，全世界密集的媒体聚光灯的闪烁下，终于迎来了这一伟大的标志性事件的到来。非常悬殊的是，黑桥或者环铁，60平方米甚至更小，暖气供应不足，无人问津，只有邻居嘘寒问暖，北京年轻艺术家刚刚结束不拆迁的欣喜，但对于如何挨过这个寒冷的冬天依然略有忧虑。这是同时存在在艺术界的现实。进入后经济危机时代，商业对于艺术的改造不断深化，资本流入到更能高效能地产生利益和传播的渠道，大巨头的经济效益历久不衰，但是可有可无的长尾效应在这里就被直接切割了。实验性艺术在本来就不获得市场份额的情况下，连平台都有丧失的危险。由于无法获得资本的分配，更多的艺术家自发地联合在一起。这就如同80年代受到政治体制压制的地下艺术一般，在商业系统的重压下，反抗者终于找到了自己的路。他们利用非美术馆空间，在民间、在野外、在浴室进行方方面面的游击战。艺术家的聚众式的自愿参与，松散的组织结构，平等的社交关系，无阶级差别，身份的多元化，现成品和装置艺术为主的作品形态，对参与艺术作品的无关好坏的价值论，崭新的游戏规则，都成了各个不同名目的组织团体的主要特征，这使多个年轻艺术家资源聚合式的作品成为了可能，从而一个人无法完成的项目诞生了，多突的、不同价值观的、N个指向的、密集思考点的项目开始出现，作品的署名已经不那么重要。整个当代艺术的生产方式在这个时候发生了深刻的转向，从定件式的、大资本投入的、伟大艺术家的单件作品的加工厂，变成了零散的、集合式的、集体的、匿名的、低成本的创意集合体。这一切的发生，都使得当下的艺术现状更有活力，也是最新迸发出的艺术生态下的源源不断的生产力。我并不知道这些在没有国家赞助的情况下，这些没有经济来源，无明确组织纲领，不指向市场的自我组织究竟会走向哪里，也许他们不会向欧美的艺术系统那样形成一个个艺术家主导的非赢利空间，也许他们会在某一天人困马乏的时候停止，也许有一天他们会走向他们现在所反对的权力系统的相同的一面，成为美术馆的下一波起义的胜利者。这一切无从知晓，只有等待历史，给我们答案。
——付晓东
正如在上一期主题中关于艺术小组的讨论中提到的，中国当代艺术发展二十多年，由艺术家自发组成的艺术创作团体、小组一直非常活跃，并在先锋艺术中占有重要地位。与上一期集中介绍的几个共同创作作品的艺术小组有所不同，本期想要介绍的是由艺术家组成的共同策划、讨论、实施艺术项目，并围绕项目来创作的“自我组织”，这些群体中，每个艺术家以个体创作者的身份进入，艺术家之间的关系相对更为松散和自由。八九十年代中国当代艺术发展初期，艺术家们的“自我组织”十分活跃，那时的艺术思潮云涌，艺术界讨论气息浓厚，这些艺术群体、组织的形成与这种思潮讨论的氛围和艺术媒介实验的兴趣和愿望有关。
进入二十一世纪，随着中国经济迅速发展和国际化，中国当代艺术也进入了快速市场化与国际化阶段，并在2006年到2008年之间出现井喷状态。海外拍卖高昂的行情、国际资本进入中国当代艺术，刺激了中国当代艺术市场。我们都还记得前几年各种不同来源的资本注入中国当代艺术的情形，各地美术馆的建立、双年展、三年展甚至大型艺博会的举办，大大小小外资、本土画廊的成立、马不停蹄的艺术展览和活动，当代艺术从未受到如此的礼遇和关注，却也从未被这么多新问题所束缚和困扰。面对市场的刺激，艺术作品作为商品的市场价值成为占有重要地位的价值判断，渗透到艺术生产、传播、接收机制的各个环节，影响无微不至，从艺术家个体创作到各种学术活动甚至美术馆收藏，让人惊异于资本的力量。而在这个被资本迅速吹大的气球背后，当代艺术独立、先锋精神受到了威胁，艺术的精神价值也被相对忽略。
2009年的经济危机让中国当代艺术回落到一个较为真实的状态，对之前的这个阶段存在的各种问题进行反思的声音也越来越多。艺术是什么？为什么需要艺术？艺术与社会的关系是什么？怎么创作、为什么创作、为谁创作等问题，重新被提出；当代艺术快速形成的目前的艺术机制、系统遭到了质疑，而这其中，由艺术家们组成的一些“自我组织”重新扮演了重要的先行角色，各种“自我组织”的艺术项目、活动、行为在2009年底到2010年非常地活跃，或者引发了更多的关注。无论是理性思考的结果也好，还是自发的意识也好，大部分这些“自我组织”的理念、实践、包括他们受到关注的原因，体现了艺术领域对中国当代艺术之前过热状态所做出的回应和反思。本期介绍了目前六个活跃的由艺术家“自我组织”而成的艺术群体和艺术项目，代表了这些回应和反思的几个方向和态度。
未知博物馆是一个上海年轻艺术家一起合作的创作团体，他们从2007年成立至今实施了冥想台项目、未知博物馆项目以及乌托邦房间项目。而“未知博物馆”这个名字本身传达了反思现有艺术价值生成机制、打开多元价值空间的理念，他们强调每个项目都是提问、讨论和行动的总和，是思考的过程，不是某种归纳或结果呈现。在冥想台项目中，这个过程存在于参与者自省和关照活动中，不倚赖于实体空间或机构的维持。在其“当我们谈论艺术时，我们在谈论什么”项目中，他们把艺术作品和生活品散置在同一空间里面，什么是生活品，什么艺术品，是展览、工作室，还是一个聊天场或冥想地，都界线不明。未知博物馆希望与其他精神领域，如社会学、哲学等之间的交流，为艺术提供一个精神上开放和展示平台。总体而言，未知博物馆这个群体的艺术项目是艺术家们之间互相讨论、理性思考的结果，涉及了对当代艺术的一些问题的反思，代表了现一阶段艺术家们对如何坚持艺术独立精神、注重艺术精神价值以及延展艺术边界和可能性、建立开放的艺术机制等问题重新进行学术思考的倾向。
和未知博物馆的学理倾向相较而言，绿校和三分钟小组则体现了一种在专业化、市场化、资本化的艺术生产机制掌控之外的艺术生态，它们是野生的、草根的、个人化的、平等的、自由的、活泼的创作状态。其中绿校作为一个网络社团性质的群体，以blog为平台，任何从事艺术创作的年轻人都可以在这个平台上发布自己的作品并交流，发布成员既有专业美术院校的在读生和毕业生，也有完全业余的未受过正规美术教育的艺术爱好者。网络平台特有的自由、开放、不设门槛、没有艺术家与爱好者身份差异的理想状态，使得这个平台充满了新鲜的活力，也使得他们的艺术作品保有了艺术最初的那份冲动、激情、快乐、理想主义。相较于绿校更具社会广泛性的平台而言，三分钟小组则是代表了文艺圈80后年轻艺术家的创作状态和理念，他们借助豆瓣小组等网络平台和朋友圈子，进行圈子内的交流、创作，但这个圈子也有各个不同领域的录像艺术爱好者。在这里，创作不是为进入某个主题展览，某个画廊销售，或是期待某种学术价值、市场价值认同，而是个体的自我认同、互相认同的一种形式，是一种好玩的生活状态。不需要面目严肃学术性讨论、批评，保持派对式的交流方式，不涉及理论争论或是价值判断是三分钟小组活动的特色。每次由抽签产生出题人，并围绕出题人所出的主题来进行创作，使得他们的创作像是一次次集体交出的练习作业，他们彼此互为观众和读者。也许有人会因这种松散的、内部交流式的、没有学术讨论的小组形式产生的作品所具有的力量进行质疑，但是，在不涉及任何商业利益、也没有理论争论、没有专业或业余之分的组织形式之下，也确实给年轻的艺术家们开辟了一个在现有被各种资本力量、学术权力占据的艺术机构体制之外的、相对自由独立的展示与创作平台，并给予他们通过艺术自娱自乐、享受创作快乐的权利。
雄黄社和forget art是两个有趣的“自我组织”，他们由艺术家组成，有明确的纲领和宗旨，但他们主要以策划艺术项目的方式，邀请其他艺术家们围绕这些项目来进行创作。他们项目有着更为明确的艺术理念和态度。雄黄社的“骄傲”、“天涯”等项目的实施，不在正式的艺术空间机构展出，没有固定的展示场所，没有展览时间限制，甚至作为策展方，他们放弃了参展艺术家作品的知晓权和判断权，让艺术家自由参加，自己负责作品。他们所做的系列项目，很明显是对目前当代艺术有组织机构、有商业或学术目的、有策展机制的艺术展览方式、艺术机制的逆向而行，探讨在这个机制之外的艺术的可能性。forget art小组的项目的策划理念正如这个小组的名字一样，“忘记艺术，或也有可能得到艺术”，除了在“龙泉洗浴”项目中和雄黄社同样对现有艺术的界定、艺术边界的可能性、艺术与社会的关系等问题作出了思考，forget art小组还针对当代艺术在快速市场化的这个阶段出现的许多好大喜功的、刺激感官的、材质与精神上都很铺张浪费的艺术作品提出了质疑，forget art强调一种对生活的微干预、极少主义、低调、节制的美学观。
“每个人的东湖”艺术计划是由武汉的艺术家李巨川和李郁发起的，缘起于一个知名企业在武汉东湖风景区建造大型地产项目的社会事件，由于这一行为很可能将圈去东湖很大一部分湖岸与水面，甚至可能填掉一部分水面，这一地产项目引发武汉市民对于东湖前途的关注。“每个人的东湖”艺术计划在这一背景下提出，通过网络平台以及朋友的口口相传，这个艺术计划对任何人都开放，只要不做有损于环境的作品。在发起人的访谈中，他们提到这个艺术计划的重点“并不在于创作艺术，而是以艺术活动的方式来展开一次共同的行动”。发起人认为“艺术的方式虽然并不是要解决现实的问题，而是可以使现实的问题，现实的种种冲突和困境显示出来。这也是一种抵抗”。“能不能通过艺术活动创造一个讨论公共议题的空间，以及在各种政治和经济权力所构造出的城市空间中，每个个体能不能通过一种有想像力的方式创造出自己所需的空间？”是“每个人的东湖”艺术计划思考的问题。这个艺术计划其实已经超出了艺术问题的探讨，而指向了艺术与社会的关系、艺术作用社会等问题的探讨，甚至其实也超出了这些问题的探讨，而直指社会问题。“每个人的东湖”艺术计划本不是一个以艺术为目的的计划，但它的出现在当代艺术领域消费主义盛行的时代，提示了艺术家“牛虻”精神的重要性。
除了上述提到的“自我组织”之外，其实同期活跃和受到关注的还有很多其他的由艺术家自发而成的艺术群体、组织、项目、展览，比如反对拆迁的暖冬计划，比如Waza小组发起的“社会青年”等系列艺术项目等等。这些艺术家们的“自我组织”虽然不同，但他们都在比如打破身份，催发艺术与其他艺术领域以及社会领域的交流，建立一个开放的精神平台；反思现有的艺术传播、展示、接收以及价值评判机制；保护艺术独立精神和批判精神等方面做出了努力。这些“自我组织”的出现和活动在某种意义上表达了艺术家们在当代艺术商业化现状中对独立艺术精神的根本诉求。
——严舒黎
2010年10月
Self-Organization in 2010
Academic Hosts: FU Xiaodong YAN Shuli
In my view, the opening of the exhibition by Ai weiwei with his 100 million sunflower seeds at the turbine hall of Tate Modern marked the end of the era for great artists. Large sum of funds input, top of the art musuem, the focus of worldwide medias, all together finally ushered in the arrival of the great symbolic event. In sharp contrast with it, most artists’ studios in Black Bridge art zone or Railway art zone of Beijing only have 60 square metres or even smaller which are short of heating supply and only visited by the neighbors. For the young artists in Beijing, although the happy mood of not having to be removed again are not over, they begin to worry about how to suvive from this cold winter. These are two realities existed in the same art field. When the post-economic crisis era comes, the reform of the art by the commerce has been deepened and capitals inflow to the channels which can bring interests and spread more effectively. Economic benefits brought by the Big Man never decline while the “useless” long-tail effect here are directly being cutted off. In this situation, experimental arts encountered with the danger of losing all their platforms while have little market before. Since unable to obtain capital allocation, more artists spontaneously united together. Just like the situation of the underground art throttled by the political systems in 1980s, these new risers finally found their own way under the oppress of the commercial systems. They launched many guerrilla warfares at non-art musuem space, the public space, the urban or even the bathroom. Voluntary participation and loose structure, equal social relations and the same class, diversity of identities and main styles of installtaiton art and readymade art , non-judge on the works and establishing some new rules, all these are the main characters of these various organizations with different names. These characters makes it possible for many young artists to do some “putting all the resource together” works. It also leads to many projects which can not completed by only one person and the project with conflicting values, different directions and plenty of thinking points. The signature is not important any more. All the mode of production for Contempoary arts deeply changed, from the processing factory to do one great artist’s one ordered piece of work with large capital input to the separated, collecitve, anonymous and low-cost creative unite. All these makes contempoary art more active and turn to be the powerful productive force for the new art ecology. I have no idea that what is the future of these self organiztions without the support of the country, the commerial resource, even any fixed orgainzation and market relation. Perhapes they will not establish non-profit organizations dominated by the artists as what they do in the Euramerican art systems. Perhapes they will finally stop when they feel tired. Perhaps they will go to the same side of the system that they object to now and turn to be the new victor of the art musuem. We don’t know anything about that now. All we have to do is waiting for the history to give us an answer.
By FU Xiaodong
As was mentioned about the artistic group in the discussion of the previous issue, within these twenty or more years of China’s contemporary artistic development, the artistic troupes and groups organized spontaneously by the artists themselves have always been extremely active and occupy an important proportion in the avant-garde. Different from the artistic groups that create one piece of work together, which serves as the main focus of the previous theme, this issue mainly introduces the self-organizations by the artists who devise, discuss and carry out artistic projects, and create individual works of various kinds according to the projects. In these organizations, every artists enters as an individual creator, thus the relationship between the artists is relatively loose and free.
At the beginning of China’s contemporary artistic development in the 1980s and 1990s, self-organizations by the artists presented a rather active appearance. During that time, the artistic ideological trends surged in large numbers, and the art circles were saturated with discussions. The establishment of those artistic troupes and groups had a great deal to do with the artistic discussion ambience as well as the experimental interest and wish of the artistic media.
In the 21st century, with the rapid development and internationalization of China’s economy, its contemporary art stepped into a phase of rapid commercialization and internationalization and exposed itself in a state of blowing out between the year 2006 and 2008. The high auction price together with international capital came into China’s contemporary art, stimulating our contemporary art market. As far as we could recall, in the past few years, capital from various sources flooded into our contemporary art; art galleries were established everywhere; people held biennales, triennials and even big art fairs. In the face of the establishment of those large or small art galleries from home and abroad, and the nonstop art exhibitions and activities, our contemporary art had never encountered courtesy and attention like this, nor had it been restricted and troubled by so many new problems. Stimulated by the market, the market value of the artistic works which presented themselves as commodities turned out to be an important yardstick of value and the discourse of power, and penetrated every section of the mechanism such as artistic production, communication and reception. It exerted so great an influence that people marveled at the power of capital from the individual creation of the artists to various academic activities and even to the collections of the art galleries. Nevertheless, right behind this balloon blown up rapidly by capital, the independence of contemporary art as well as the spirit of avant-garde had been greatly threatened. Meanwhile, the spiritual value of art and its social meaning were relatively ignored.
In 2009, due to its economic crisis, China’s contemporary art went back to a relatively true state, and more and more people began to reflect on those various problems existing in the previous period. Inquires such as “what is art”, “why do we need art”, “what is the relationship between art and society”, and “how to create, why to create and for whom to create art” were raised again. Different kinds of artistic mechanisms and systems of contemporary art formed rapidly were questioned, in which several self-organizations by the artists played an important vanguard role over again. Artistic projects, activities and behaviors of various self-organizations became extremely active at the end of 2009 and the year 2010, which aroused more attention. Most of the ideas and practices of these self-organizations, as well as the reasons of catching public attention, whether they came out of the result of rational thinking or spontaneous consciousness, concealed the reflection on the superheat towards China’s contemporary art in the previous period. This issue introduces six current active artistic groups and projects by the artists, which represent several directions and attitudes towards the response and reflection mentioned above.
Unknown Museum Group is a creation group co-worked by the young artists in Shanghai, who carry out projects such as meditation stage, unknown museum and utopian house. And the name Unknown Museum Group itself delivers the idea to reflect on the current artistic value production mechanism and open the pluralistic value space. The artists emphasize that every project is the sum to raise questions, to discuss and to put into action, and it is a process to think instead of a certain induction or presentation of some result. The process of the meditation stage project exists in the self-reflection and self-concern of the participants, rather than depend on the maintenance of real space or mechanisms. Also in their “when we talk about art, what exactly are we talking about” project, they scattered the artistic woks and living goods, the boundary between which is rather obscure, in a certain space, and it is up to the viewer to judge what objects belong to the living goods or artistic works, and to decide whether this space is a place to chat or to meditate. Unknown Museum Group also expects to communicate with some other spiritual fields such as sociology and philosophy, so as to provide a stage to open and demonstrate one’s mind. Generally speaking, the artistic projects of this group is the result of the mutual discussion and rational thinking of the artists, and involved the reflection on some important problems of contemporary art while representing the tendency of current artists to do the academic thinking again on those problems such as how to maintain the dependent spirit of art, pay attention to the spiritual value of art, extend the artistic boundary and its possibilities, as well as to establish open artistic mechanisms.
Compared with the theoretical tendency of Unknown Museum Group, Lvxiao.com(green school) and Three Minute Group embody an artistic ecology beyond the control of the specialized, commercialized, and capitalized artistic production mechanism. They represent a creation state which is wild, plebeian, individual, equal, free and active. As an internet group, Lvxiao.com(green school) sets blog as a stage where any young man who does artistic works could post his own piece of work and communicate with others, and who can be an undergraduate or graduate from the art institutes, or a total amateur art-lover who never receives any standard art education. The unique ideal state of this internet stage which is free, open, unrestricted and without identity difference between an artist and an amateur endows it with brilliant vigor, and keeps the original impulse, passion, happiness or idealism in their artistic works. Compared with the social universality of the stage in Lvxiao.com(green school), Three Minutes Group represents the creation state and ideas of the young artists of the art circle who were born in the 1980s, and who, by making use of internet stage such as douban group and their friends, communicate and do artistic works within their circle. Still, the group has people of various kinds and video art lovers from different fields. Creation here does not aim to enter certain thematic exhibitions or the selling of some galleries, or to expect the realization of some academic or market value, but serves as a form for the individual’s self-recognition and mutual identification, and an interesting living state. It doesn’t need any serious academic discussion or criticism, nor does it involve any theoretical argument or value judgment; its characteristic is to keep a frolic and merry communicative fashion like that in a party. In every activity, the person who would be the one to set the theme is decided by drawing lots. The participants then create their works according to the theme, thus their works look more like the assignments handed in every time by the whole group, in which they could be audiences as well as readers. Someone would probably question the power of these works produced by such a group which is loose, inter-communicative and without any academic discussion. However, such kind of group which doesn’t involve any commercial interest, which has no theoretical argument and no boundary between an artist and an amateur, does establish a creation stage which is relatively free and dependent beyond the current artistic mechanism which is occupied by the fights among various kinds of capital and academic powers, and endows the young artists the rights to amuse themselves, and to enjoy the happiness of creating through art.
As two interesting self-organizations, Xionghuang Group and Forget art Group are composed by artists. With clear guiding principles and objects, they mainly invite other artists to create works according to the projects conducted by them, and their projects bear much clearer artistic ideas and attitudes. Such projects as Pride and The End of the Earth by Xionghuang Group are not exhibited in formal artistic institutes, nor do they have fixed exhibition places or time limits. Even the conductors themselves give up the rights to know and judge the list of woks by the artists, and make the artists to participate freely and be in charge of their own works. Obviously, the series of projects they conducted go right in opposite with the art exhibition forms and mechanisms of current contemporary art which has certain organizations, commercial or academic purposes and curation mechanisms. Just as its name suggests, Forget art Group bears the same conducting idea, which is to forget art, or perhaps for getting art. Besides its thinking in its project Longquan Scouring Bath on problems like the definition of contemporary art, the possibility of artistic boundary and the relationship between art and society, which Xionghuang Group considered as well, Forget art Group also questions those artistic works which crave for ambition in greatness, stimulus to the sense organs, extravagance and wastefulness in both material and spirit in this period of contemporary art’s fast commercialization. It emphasizes an aesthetic attitude of slight interference, minimum, low profile and temperance in life. In a sense, the artists in Forget art Group could be regarded as the advocators in contemporary art field to practice thrift and protect environment in art.
Due to a social event in which a well-known enterprise decided to build a large-scale estate project in the East Lake Scenic Spot of Wuhan, the architects Li Juchuan and the artist Li Yu in Wuhan launched Everybody’s East Lake Art Project. If accomplished, this estate project is vey likely to occupy a large part of the shore and water surface of the East Lake, or even stuff a part of the lake. Thus, it arouses the attention of the Wuhan citizens to care about the future of the East Lake. Proposed under this background and delivered through internet and friends, this art project is open to anyone as long as he does not produce any piece of work to do damage to the environment. In the interview of the initiators, they mention that the point of the art project is not to create artistic works, but to launch a common activity in the form of art. They believe that though the form of art does not aim to solve problems in reality, but it can expose the real problems, conflicts and plights, which is also a kind of resistance. The question that whether a certain space to discuss public issues could be created through artistic activities, or whether every individual could create a place he needs in a city which is constructed by various political and economic powers, needs thinking by everyone in this Everybody’s East Lake Art Project. Actually, this art project is right beyond the discussion of art, but points to those questions like the relationship between art and society, and the influence that art exerts on society. To be specific, it even goes beyond the questions above, and points to the social problems. Not being a project with an aim for art, Everybody’s East Lake Art Project appears in the era when consumerism is prevalent in the artistic field, and calls attention to the importance of the spirit of the gadfly in the artists.
Apart from the self-organizations mentioned above, there exist many other artistic groups, organizations, projects and exhibitions spontaneously conducted by artists who remain to be active and catch a lot of attention in this period, such as Social Youth, the series of projects launched by Waza Group. Though different, the self-organizations attempt to build an open spiritual stage which breaks the difference between professionals, and professional and non-professionals, and to stimulate the communication between art and other artistic fields and social fields; which reflect on current artistic communication, exhibition, reception and value judgment; and which make efforts to protect the independent spirit and critical spirit of art.The birth and activities of these self-organizations in a sense implicate the basic appeal to the independent artistic spirit in current commercialize art.
By Yan Shuli
October 2010