Li Mu: Gate Keepers at Play Van Abbe Museum

During Play Van Abbe Part 3, the project Gate Keepers takes up ideas around the politics of collecting, in relation to the Gate Foundation archives. After the foundation closed in 2006, its archives have been housed as part of the Van Abbemuseum library. The Gate Keepers project seeks to open up questions and conversations around the Gate Foundation’s work since its inception in 1988, using it as a case study to speak more broadly about the establishment of links between the so-called “non-Western artistic world” and the Netherlands. The project will consist of an intervention into and presentation of the archives (in part) by invited guests from those regions in the world represented in the Gate Foundation archive as well as those who are not.

Li Mu is invited to present a new archival work after his experience with Double Infinity in Shanghai.

An extensive interview between Davide Quadrio and Li Mu is available below: 

The art I like should be the art that continues to explore on the edge
Li Mu and Davide Quadrio in conversation, Double Infinity

Davide Quadrio: The first time we met, you left a deep impression on me, since I had not met such a modest and low-profile Chinese artist like you for a long time, and yet I was also moved by your direct and strong words when you introduced your works. Today I’d like to talk with you about the concept of your work and your special experience in Double Infinity. In this exhibition, you chose to become an ordinary worker in a museum, acutally a worker in the Van Abbemuseum, in the Netherlands. What made you think of that? Why did you work so hard to become a Dutch worker?

Li Mu: It was actually a chance for me to achieve the idea of being a worker in the Van Abbemuseum. Before receiving the invitation for the Double Infinity exhibition, I had been thinking of a question for several months: could a job also be a work? I could hardly make ends meet at that time and was planning to find a job to make a living and be able to afford studying English. So natually, I handed in this idea as an artistic project when the invitation from Van Abbemuseum came. I didn’t care in which country I would become a worker.

Davide Quadrio: Cultural communication is easy to say but hard to achieve. As an ordinary worker in this exhibtion, you were in the middle of this cultural communication. I believe your experience must have been more important than that of other artists participating in this exhibition. I’d like to know what influence this experience had on you. What was good? What was bad? Do you think this exhibition changed your attitude towards cultural communication? Do you think this exhibition changed your attitude towards art in general?

Li Mu: If by communication, you mean showing the collection of a European art museum to ordinary people in Shanghai, it would have been quite superficial. The true communication should be an equal dialogue with mutual influence. I explained the works to the actual audience and exchanged views on art in the exhibition hall every day that the Double Infinity show ran. Such a way of communicating made me very happy, since conversation became the window for mutual understanding. Art is no more than a medium which facilitates the spritual communication between artists and the audience and the mutual impact on each other. This makes me realise that in my future work, I should come out of the studio and permeate my works into everyday life.

Davide Quadrio: In the exhibiton, you gave up your artistic identity and became an employee in Van Abbemuseum and you also had to adjust your life (for example, folding your work). How did you consider your decision at that time?

Li Mu: Well, when does an artist count as an artist? When walking? Or when reading? Identity just differentiates each person and their life from the social point of view, whose interests lie in uncertainty. Take this experience as an example, I not only finished a work, but also earned a wage under European standards. Actually, I got more from this work. God always blesses me, giving me much more than I want.

Davide Quadrio: Could you show me your working diary which you made during the exhibition? I’d like you to choose ten important sentences, drawings and so on in the diary, and explain to me why you think they are important.

Li Mu: This is a rather personal experience, quite hard to share with other people. Although I had a few diary entries and pictures, I don’t think they can represent my personal experience. So I just tried to find some sentences to express it:

Remember: don’t get jealous! Face everything you see peacefully. Don’t judge or feel. In this exhibiton, what I can and need to do is to work hard and be a good worker. Other things are not mine–don’t be greedy. Don’t even think about them.
April 25, 2010, Sunday

“I thought their kindness to me was just a kind of politeness several days ago. But today, due to working, I don’t feel any barrier between us. Everyone is working overtime, including me. It was nearly two o’clock after we hung all the pictures on that wall. Others can go first, but I have to stay until Xiao Gao finishes his work. Everyone hugged me and said ‘good night,’ ‘have good dreams.’ In this moment, I feel we are connected and appreciate each other.”
Look at the surrounding world with a happy heart!
April 28, 2010, Wednesday

“I always believed that a work should guide people to be better, not more evil or greedy. But I changed my mind. Art should be diversified. What I like is just one direction of art. Surasi’s work probably reflects people’s greed just in the exhibition hall, but the greed is always there. Only when an artwork makes us realise the fact, is there a possibility for us to reflect. Of course, this work also brings surprise and happiness to people who have gentle minds.”
May 8, 2010, Saturday, cloudy

“A disadvantaged old man showed up again in the exhibition hall, bringing a visiting group–his wife and neighbours. He became an artistic commentator this time, explaining every piece of work vividly. His wife obviously didn’t quite get what he said, she kept saying: ‘Art is so abstract.’ In front of Surasi’s work, a well-dressed old lay said to me: ‘This is very good mohair. How many sweaters could be made! It is more expensive than a golden necklace.’ Finally, she whispered to me: ‘could you give me some mohair at the end of the exhibition? I’d like to knit a scarf for my grandchild.’”
May 10, 2010, Monday, fine

There was no rest time from morning till evening. I kept explaining the works to journalists in the afternoon, and my mouth was parched. It is really necessary to communicate the artworks to the public. Such communication is beneficial to both of us. The view of the audience to art may influence my thinking of art, or at least, provide me with another angle to see art.
May 14, 2010, Friday, rain

What Lao Wu hates is their greed. At this moment, Lao Wu’s thoughts are complicated. I don’t know what else there is. It is not people’s fault they are greedy, but the overall social environment. Such ideas make you feel relieved.
May 20, 2010, fine

The art I like should be the art keeping exploring on the edge.
May 25, 2010, fine

Davide Quadrio: The last question is what do you think of the opportunity that a Dutch museum would invite you to work there for several months? How will you use this opportunity?

Li Mu: This is my next artistic project–cooperating with the Van Abbemuseum. I would like to make an artistic exhibition in the village of my hometown, and my parents’ house will be the main location of this exhibition. I plan to go back to my hometown and make an observation and survey. I think I need to re-observe and rethink that place, although I am already rather familiar. And then I will go to Van Abbemuseum in Holland to make an investigation of culture and art. I’ll try to find a possibility to communicate between the two of them, not just to organize.