Wu Chi-Tsung work “Still Life 006 – Chrysanthemum” will be displayed on Tank Shanghai.
Duration: 2018 November 8-11
Venue: Tank Shanghai, No.2555 Longteng Ave.
Participated artists: Wu Chi-tsung, Zeitguised, Eponine Momenceau, Tomás Saraceno, Frederik Heyman
Curator: Davide Quadrio
Arthub teamed up with NOWNESS to present a new group show called “naturalunnatural” as part of “experiments” opening on 8th November in Tank Art Project Space Shanghai.
“界” refers to boundaries as well as interfaces. They are the dual-universe that are opposites and close ties at the same time. It is an experimentation of moving images that transcends boundaries and goes beyond perception between the dynamic sound and image, between the undefined time and space. Unlimited to a single-sided engagement, exploring the intertwined relationship between different media and forms.
In this exhibition, Ryoji Ikeda, a leading figure in Japanese electronic music and visual arts, will be exhibiting at Tank No.1 of the TANK SHANGHAI. Tank No. 2 will be hosted by Laure Prouvost, an artist who will represent France at the Venice Biennale in 2019. A group exhibition of “ Naturalunnatural – How will be remembered in the future?”, curated by Davide Quadrio of Arthub, will also be presented. In addition, in the Tank No. 3, artist Lu Sisi will perform a special piece for the opening party. The event is not only the first public exhibition of TANK SHANGHAI, but is also a special project of the Shanghai Biennale 2019.
Naturalunnatural
How will we be remembered in the future?
text/Davide Quadrio
For this exhibition, I have been invited by NOWNESS to explore the fragile interstice between nature, sustainability, beauty, and artificiality. The title of the show natural-unnatural refers to a way that the scientific progress has brought nature into a far complex realm of ambiguity which the artworks selected here present responding to this call: What are we doing? How do we interact with Nature and how ecosystems are built and protected? How is natural beauty compromised or enhanced by the artificial?
The artists invited to this group show which illustrates the incredible new space at Tank Shanghai Project Space. This show is a journey that invites to reflect about beauty as an uncontroversial quality of the human and moves the visitor into a realm of sensuality and inevitability. This show is a journey to the discovery of the fragility of this world of natural beauty contaminated and changed into a world of plasticity and deformations, where the humanity in its comprehensive technical development, challenges Nature and transforms it into risky territory for the future of our children. This process and all its risks though are per se beautiful and in this sense dangerous, disturbing and potentially explosive.
The exhibition is not about accusing or criticizing, instead it is an ode to the attention of beauty from recycle the present and attempt to shape the future. These images, whether based on fact or fiction, tell us how people want to remember and be remembered. They expose the desire to overcome time, space and a physical presence. The feelings of the body, the joy of the senses bring us into a world of wonder in a ludic way.
The exhibition opens by Wu Chi-Tsung, born in 1981 in Taipei, who devotes significant attention to the methods used in producing and interpreting images. In Still Life 006 – Chrysanthemum (小品之六菊), 2017, Wu is inspired by a cherished memory of the act of painting, the overwhelming beauty is here somehow shadowed by a sense of loss and guilt, almost like creating images of such beauty, is a betrayal of art and its subversive nature. This overwhelming beauty, practically a frozen image, performs the duty to open the show and to create the tone of the entire show to come.
The second room occupied by Zeitguised. The collective founded in Berlin in 2001 by Jamie Raap and Henrik Mauler, Zeitguised is a studio of art and digital design, specializing in the production of visual projects (both commercial and independent) of an algorithmic nature. The piece “Flotsam & Jetsam: Monobloc,” 2016, treats the ubiquitous plastic chair as a contemporary design classic in a continuous tension with character. The tree trunk, the only natural element in a world of plastic, presented here as the plastic chairs suffocate a mere corpse. The enormous hovering cloud of iconic chairs that behave like flotsam and jetsam in breaking waves is an image of poetry in the form of an algorithmic Perpetuum mobile.
The second animation presented is called “Birds”, 2016, and it mirrors ironically the content of the previous artwork with abstractions of birds on a tree branch, which are changed into shapes and textures coming from their own experiential world being them of natural or artefacts nature: so the body of birds is changed into an housebird, egg, leaves, bones etc. The beauty and fluidity of the unnatural human construction (chair) and the birds (unnaturally processed by the artists’ manipulation) are here ironically depicted as parasites, beautiful ones, and in the case of chairs iconic ones, but still a dangerous relic of the risk of the insubstantiality of human manipulation.
Frederik Heyman, born 1984, whose work is a balancing act incorporating multiple media. In this work, by using cutting-edge 3D scanning technology, Heyman virtually ’embalmed’ icons Isabelle Huppert, Kim Peers and Michèle Lamy in the latest episode of NOWNESS’s hit series Define Beauty. This work appears on the tv screen opposite to Zeitguised and brings the question as well as the subtitle of the exhibition: how do you want to be remembered forever?
In response to the question, Heyman created a digital memorial: a way to project ourselves into the distant future and be remembered by generations to come––exactly as we want to be. Using photogrammetry (3D scans), Heyman created frozen moments in time that emerges digital ‘wakes’ which will continue beyond our mortal existence surrounded by fantastic nature, flowers, trees, water, etc. life made of a plastic view is so unnatural and yet so painfully attractive.
The third room occupies by Éponine Momenceau, born in 1985, who patiently draws the outlines of a poetic and contemplative work, fruitfully heading towards a contemporary art that mixes dark rooms and exhibition spaces. The work Now is an Infinite Time, 2016 , is cyclic and hypnotic movement produced by the appearance of insects flying in a ray of light in the Amazon rainforest.
The movement thereby recalls the visions that one can have under the effect of ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant with healing properties according to the beliefs of Amerindian tribes of Amazonia. Bach’s Adagio of the Concerto accompanies this movement for two harpsichords and orchestra in C minor BWV 1060, of which study related to hypnotic mechanism has found to be music with healing and structuring properties based on impulse and tonal harmony. The artificial effect almost abstract of this artwork pairs the works by Zeitguised and Wu Chi-Tsung, bringing the subject of this show into a sphere of metaphysic innuendos, where life, death, love, trees, animals, viewer are only a small dot in the infinite time of the cosmos existence.
Tomás Saraceno, born in Argentina in 1973, lives and works in Berlin, concludes the exhibition bringing the theme of the show onto a cosmic level. The foreign world presented in the video The Politics of Solar Rhythm-Cosmic Levitation, 2018, explores and mimic cosmic celestial movements, almost showing the formation of a galactic planet, however the simulation brings this macro view into a micro world of dust and levitation of space dust suspended by sound waves. Thus the last room of this journey brings the viewer into a world of silence and of tiny/mega proportions, unnatural yet so natural leaves the viewer at the shore of the universal creation: disturbing and full of fear, humanity is brought back to the mysterious place of the beginning of everything, to a place where humanity is silenced by the extraordinary act of creation.
ABOUT NOWNESS
NOWNESS is a leading global creative video platform, presenting the best new wave short films in design, fashion, music, food, architecture, travel, etc. A go-to source of inspiration and influence, and a movement for creative excellence in storytelling. We celebrate the extraordinary of every day.
NOWNESS is the three-time Webby award-winning culture channel launched in 2010 in a collaboration between Dazed Media and LVMH. In 2017, leading independent Chinese media company Modern Media invested in NOWNESS to launch NOWNESS China and partnered with Dazed Media to create the global progressive publishing company Modern Dazed. The current team includes Creative Director and Dazed founder Jefferson Hack, Editorial Director Bunny Kinney and China Creative Director Shaway Yeh.
ABOUT TANK SHANGHAI
TANK SHANGHAI, founded by renowned contemporary art collector Qiao Zhibing, is a multifunctional cultural hub that combines exhibition venue with parkland, plaza, bookstore, education center and restaurant. The construction acreage is 10,00 sqm, and the whole project space spans over 60,000sqm.TANK SHANGHAI will be opened to the public in 2019. TANK SHANGHAI aims to foster connections among the public, contemporary art, urban life and nature. It is an upcoming center for public cultural activities and art at the West Bund.
吳季璁《小品之六 菊》將於上海西岸油罐藝術中心展出
展期：2018年11月8日-11日
地点：上海油罐艺术中心，龙腾大道2555号
参展艺术家：吴季璁、Zeitguised, Tomás Saraceno, Eponine Momenceau, Frederik Heyman.
策展人：乐大豆（Davide Quadrio）
NOWNESS 携手上海西岸油罐艺术中心举行 NOWNESS EXPERIMENTS首个展览项目：“界”BEYOND PERCEPTION。
界，即是界限，也是界面。是互为对立却又紧密相连的两个世界。在声音与影像之间，在自然与感官之间，不局限于单一的感知，进行一场突破自我边界的实验。
在本次展览中，日本电子音乐创作方面领军人物和视觉艺术家池田亮司（Ryoji Ikeda）展览将在西岸油罐艺术中心1号罐展出；2号罐则迎来即将代表法国参加2019年威尼斯双年展的艺术家劳瑞·普罗沃斯特（Laure Prouvost）。由 Arthub 策展人乐大豆策划的“大自然小自然”（Naturalunnatural）群展也将同场呈现。此外，在3号罐，艺术家吕思斯将为开幕派对呈现特别演出。本次活动不仅是上海油罐艺术中心首次面向公众开放，同时也作为上海双年展2019的特别项目之一。
《大自然小自然》
在未来，我们该如何被铭记？
文/乐大豆
此次展览我受 NOWNESS 之邀，借展览的形式来探索存在于自然、持续性、美与矫饰之间的脆弱裂隙。展览标题中的大自然-小自然指的是科学进程已经将自然带领到了一个异常复杂的矛盾世界，展览中的作品也想要回应这样的问题：我们在做什么？我们如何与自然互动？生态系统是如何被构建及被保护的？自然美是如何与人造方式相妥协或者被人造方式所提升的？
群展邀请到的艺术家们在上海油罐空间惊艳的新场域内展开了与之相呼应的阐释。这场展览也是一次反映美作为毫无争议的人类品质的旅程，把观者带入到了感性与必然性的世界之中。同时它也是一次探索世界上自然美的脆弱性的旅程，因自然美已经被污染损坏，变成了被随意塑造与捏造的存在，而人类在全面科技发展的大潮之下不断挑战自然，留给未来和后人的是一块危险的领地。这样的过程及其冒险行为虽然本身也是美的，但在这个层面上，却也是危险、恐怖及灾难性的。
但从另一个角度来说，此展览并不是要谴责或者批判，相反，它是一次利用回收当下并塑造未来的形式向美致敬。其中的图像，无论是基于事实的抑或是虚构的，向人们诉说着人们是如何记住与被记住的。他们展示了人们想要征服时间、空间和客观存在的欲望。身体的感觉、感官的愉悦以轻松的方式带我们进入到了惊奇世界之中。
展览以吴季璁的作品开篇，他于1981年生于台北，作品关注在创作及解读图像时所使用的手段。在《小品之六-菊》（2017）之中，吴季璁的灵感来自于对绘画的缅怀，它令人震惊的美感在这里不知怎的被一种失落感与负罪感遮蔽，好像创造这样一种美的事物是一次对艺术与其颠覆性的背叛。这种令人震惊的美感，在现实中以凝固的图像呈现，承担着开启展览的责任，为整个展览奠定了基调。
第二个房间带来的是 Zeitguised 的作品。该团体于2001年成立于柏林，组员包括Jamie Raap 与Henrik Mauler. 该团体是创作艺术及数字设计的工作室，主要创作以计算机算法生成的视觉项目（包括商业和独立项目）。作品《漂浮废料&海洋垃圾：单模块》（2016）把日常所见的塑料椅作为当代设计的经典。视频中的树干，作为这个塑料世界中的唯一自然物，反衬出这些塑料椅子仿佛缺乏生命力的浮尸。一大团像云朵一样扭动的经典椅子的聚合体，仿佛是漂浮废料与海洋垃圾在海浪中扭动；是永恒动态算法形态的诗歌。
他们的第二部作品是《鸟》（2016），与前一部作品的内容形成具有讽刺意味的互相映射，以抽象形态停于树枝上的鸟幻化成来自其自身经验世界的不同形态与材质，或自然或人造的自然：鸟的身体转变为家鸟、蛋、树叶、骨头等。人类的非自然构建物（椅子）所具有的美与流动性在这里与鸟（被艺术家以非自然方式操作）形成了一对讽刺的寄生物、美的事物，以及此情此境椅子所代表的标志性事物，但它们仍然是人类不可持续性冒险行为中显露出的危险遗迹。
Frederik Heyman, 生于1984年，作品总在融合多种媒体的媒介中找到了平衡。在这部作品中，他使用了前沿的3D 扫描技术，在 Nowness 最新的系列《美的定义》中对 Isabelle Huppert, Kim Peers 和 Michèle Lamy 使用了虚拟防腐。这件作品展现在 Zeitguised 作品的对面，紧扣展览的副标题：你想以怎样的方式被永远铭记？
对于这个问题，Heyman 的答案是制造一个数码纪念物：这是将我们投射进遥远的未来，被后人铭记的方式——一切皆如我们所愿。利用前沿的三维扫描技术，他创造了凝固的瞬间，显现出来的是数码式“守灵”，会在我们的肉身死去后继续存在，并被奇幻的自然、鲜花、树木、水等包围。由塑料所构成的生命形式看起来如此地不自然，但是却又痛苦地吸引着我们。
第三个房间展出的是 Éponine Momenceau 的作品，她生于1985年，精心地勾勒出她诗意而又深沉的艺术作品，使得她能够在当代艺术、暗房以及展览空间内产出颇为丰富的作品。她的作品《此刻时间无限》（2016）是一部循环而又催眠的作品，展现的是昆虫群在亚马逊雨林中的光线里飞行运动。
这种运动引起了一种视幻觉，这是一种通常人们在南美卡皮木的作用下才会有的一种现象，这种致幻植物在亚马逊的印第安部落中被认为有治疗效果。视频配合的是巴赫的《大键琴协奏曲（为两台大键琴而作）BWV 1060 慢板》，研究发现这部曲子的催眠效果因为其节奏及和谐调性与疗愈及构造属性相关。这种人造效果从作品中抽离出来，与一旁房间Zeitguised 和吴季璁的作品共鸣，把展览的主题带入了形而上的暗讽维度，在这里，生、死、爱、树木、动物、观者只是宇宙存在的无限时间中的一颗尘埃。
巴赫的音乐普遍具有这样的效果，而这部慢板则特别具有“致敬爱”的特性。
Tomás Saraceno, 于1973年生于阿根廷，目前工作生活在柏林。他此次带来的作品作为展览的尾声，把主题带到了宇宙的高度。在作品《太阳节奏的政治：宇宙悬浮》（The Politics of Solar Rhythms-Cosmic Levitation, 2018）之中，我们看到了陌生的世界，探索并模仿了宇宙天体的运动，仿佛看到了星系的形成，然而，这样的模拟效果却把宏观的视角引入到了围观的尘埃世界，空间的尘埃在声波的作用下悬浮。至此，最后的房间把观者带到了旅途的终点，静谧的微小/巨大比例的世界之中，小自然且又大自然，把观者留在了宇宙创世的海岸上：不安且充满恐惧，人性被带回到万物创世之初的神秘空间之中，被创造出的非凡景象惊艳到沉默。（译/卜生）
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上海油罐艺术中心由当代艺术收藏家乔志兵创办，是集合各式各样的展览空间、公园绿地、广场、书店、教育中心和餐厅等功能于一体的艺术中心。项目建筑面积1万平方米，整体占地面积6万平方米。预计于2019年对外开放。上海油罐艺术中心为公众提供亲近与感受当代艺术、感受艺术与自然、艺术与城市的平台，将成为新的公共文化活动及艺术核心区域。