Arthub Favorite: Week 61
Davide Quadrio x Qiu Zhijie
Bi Xiu vs Bu Xi

Bu Xiu vs Bu Xi, immortality vs historical continuation.

Davide Quadrio in conversation with Qiu Zhijie on the China Pavilion 2017.

For the occasion of the 57th Venice Biannale in China Pavilion, Davide Quadrio conversed with Qiu revealed a cross-cultural vocabulary that questions problems of identity, comprehension and translation but also shows the profound difference of the meaning of history, seen as a continuum of souls linked from the dawn of humanity to the present as opposed to exceptional/punctual happenings of heros, without past nor future.

The idea of “heros” in the Greek tradition is here completely annihilated by the concept of bu xi, a relay baton from generation to generation.

It is a symbolical shift of centers what the China Pavilion presents this year under the savvy leadership of Qiu Zhijie, a master who belongs to a long tradition of antecedent masters.

He is both a master and a disciple, tizi in Chinese. The link between a master and a disciple is even stronger than the Confucian link between father and son. It brings with it a paramount sense of social and cultural responsibility, humbleness and the sense of being part of a bigger whole, beyond the individual greatness. The complex construction of the Pavilion as a theater of history and tradition enacted through the language of contemporary art, represents all said above in a choral emotional construction of what China (as a cultural construction) has been developing into.

Finally, this conversation is even more relevant because comes at the time when both Qiu and I just became fatherless, we both just lost this link with our recent past, left with an echo of what our history is or should be.

DQ: You talk about Chinese wisdom and Chinese culture and art, how do you think it can be understood by the global audience? how do you translate the content in a way that does not become exotic?

QZJ: What we bring to the world is not “Chinese contemporary art,” but “contemporary Chinese art.” My experience derived from many years of participating in international art exhibitions is not to have the mentality of translating, and not to lower your standard in order to translate for the comprehension of foreigners. If you simplify your work because you worry too much about not being understood by the foreigners, you will lose the weight of the work as well as the respect from others. We should never be too optimistic about the level of smoothness of cultural exchange. However, while we are being cautious, we should always be confident and firm about our values, which will disseminate infectious penetrative energy. Therefore, the mentality we have is that of contributing and suggesting. The biennale is neither the Olympics nor the world fairs; it is not an advertising opportunity for local tourism. What it showcases is the imagination and execution of artists from all over the world when dealing with their own problems and the common problems of the world. We should participate with dignity, and actively contributing.

DQ: Can you describe the meaning on “Bu Xi” the title of this year China Pavilion? The images of “Mountain/Sea” and “Ancient/New” representing “Yin/Yang” are the framework for the narration of this exhibition. Two well-known Chinese fables, The Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains［1］and Jingwei Filling the Sea［2］, provide the imagery that correspond to “mountain” and “sea.” Can you please describe these in reference to “Bu Xi” ?

QZJ: In the Chinese cultural traditions coursing through history, Chinese people’s concern is not to be “Bu Xiu (“immortal”),” but to pursue “Bu Xi (“never resting” or “continuation”).” In the fable “The Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains,” the immortal Taihang and the Wangwu Mountains gave way to the generations and generations of the Foolish Old Man’s family. The stories in Chinese Mythology and ancient texts also seem to exude the energy of “Bu Xi.” Time and time again, China has gone through a process of metamorphosis, making magnificent creations through the great changes of time.

Chinese artists have a great sense of history. For me, Chinese art is never the isolated in making of a single mortal Chinese artist, but a collective creation that can span across five thousand years of history. Therefore, in a way, each piece is a scholarly recital and gathering that aims to last for thousands of years.
When Huang Binhong wrote texts on Chinese paintings, he often mentions qualities of Song paintings. Every Chinese artist will not be working in solitude. His or her creation is always a kind of response, a kind of enlightenment, in anticipation of echoing. This type of creation is always something that can be critiqued and commented on. Therefore, I chose the theme “Bu Xi,” as a response to “Eternity.”

DQ: Two Song Dynasty paintings, Li Song’s Skeleton Fantasy Show and Ma Yuan’s Twelve Images of Water Surging have been chosen as the “foreword” for this exhibition. How can you translate the importance of these two paintings?

QZJ: These two works both touch on the form of unique Chinese spiritual world, especially the outlook on life, death, and time, which all point to the image of “Bu Xi.” Skeleton Fantasy Show is about almost surreal folk scenes from everyday life, the puppeteer has indefinite possibilities of metaphor, the juxtaposition of skeleton puppeteer and children, the nursing woman, the folk peddler as the game organizer and life educator, all provided an interesting and non-terrifying foothold in the daily life for the Chinese life philosophy of “Bu Xi.” In “Twelve Images of Water Surging,” the ability to comprehend calmness and passion, finite and infinite, smooth and difficult circumstances, and farness and closeness displayed by Ma Yuan, is the almost philosophical interpretation of the energy of life in Chinese painting history. The breadth of mind and the broad perspective of the Chinese people are clearly manifested in these two Song paintings.

DQ: How do you present them in the show?

QZJ: Suzhou embroidery master Yao Huifen not only will recreate the Skeleton Fantasy Show with more than a hundred exquisite and unique techniques, she will also participate in making Tang Nannan’s work The Forgotten Sea. Wu Jian’an and shadow play master Wang Tianwen have been collaborating for many years, for this exhibition they will create new works based on Ma Yuan’s “Twelve Images of Water Surging” and images of mountain and sea. Tang Nannan who was born in a Puppet Theatre, and shadow play master Wang Tianwen, Wu Jian’an who is from Shanghai Jin’an and Yao Huifen who is from Suzhou, Yao Huifen who is from the Southeast and Wang Tianwen who is from the Northwest, returned Indonesian Chinese Tang Nannan and Wu Jian’an who is from Zhejiang, will produce new works. In this way, the whole exhibition will make a network of intertextual and collective creation.

DQ: Can you describe the performative elements of the presentation and how they connect to the three stories, Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains, Jingwei Filling the Sea, and Fish Kun Morphs into Bird Peng?

QZJ: Continuum – Removing the Mountains and Filling the Sea, a multimedia shadow play performance, is the core of the Pavilion of China at the 57th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. It is also a collective creation based on crossover and collaboration by four artists and I.

Shadow plays will be performed at three locations in the pavilion. At the same time, the shadow play figures created collaboratively by Wang Tianwen with Tang Nannan and Wu Jian’an will be shown on three video projection screens. Instead of using traditional lighting, projected video content will act as the light source for the shadow play performance. Six artisans from Hua County, Shanxi province of China, will operate the shadow puppets, and play musical instruments, and sing.

The narrative of the performance stems from three Chinese fables – The Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains , Jingwei Filling the Sea , and Fish Kun Morphs into Bird Peng . The three screens correspond respectively to the three fables although the imagery is interconnected. Bird Jingwei enters the scene of the Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains, and helps move the mountains. The process of removing the mountains and filling the sea helps Fish Kun morph into Bird Peng and fly off to the North Sea.

The live performances, mechanical performances, and moving images in the videos are intertwined. The shadow figures in the videos and the live shadow play performances overlap with each other, while the video contents rotate on the three screens continuously in the exhibition space. The live performances at each location also rotate among the three stories. Two Suzhou embroidery artisans will be embroidering images of rocks on silk mounted on stretchers, on which images of the space and ocean waves will be projected, creating an illusion of continuously flying rocks. The work process of the embroidery artisans will also be recorded live and broadcast on the screens, as part of the performance.

The audience can move freely around the pavilion. They can not only enjoy the video performances on the screens, but also observe how the artisans perform the shadow plays from behind the screens and the embroidery process.

DQ: This concept is very important and I think it connects to a very different way of accessing “tradition” as a sequence of individuals in history. How will it be appearing in the pavilion?

QZJ: Different from the Chinese Pavilion of past years, this year we especially set up an archival area in the exhibition.

We strive to transform the idea and image of “Bu Xi” into archival evidence and to show the educational lineage of these four artists. Each Chinese artist has his or her own educational lineage, and at the same time he or she also will go on to be a teacher. As long as they are creating, their teachers will never pass on.
This kind of overlaying discourse and echoing of folk art and fine art, new art and traditional art, will create an energy field of “Bu Xi.” This is completely different from the Western way of individual creation.
This is the secret of Chinese art and Chinese Civilization passing from one generation to the next for thousands of years. The contemporary Chinese art stems from the same lineage. This is the Chinese response to “Viva Arte Viva.”