Rockbund Art Museum 上海外滩美术馆

In an era in which everyone emphasizes on self-fulfillment, most people have made the choice to “be yourself” and treat it as the ultimate creed to live a good single life. And those who choose to reject rat race and lie flat are subjected to criticism because they are deemed “negative” and don’t produce meaning.

In 4’33”, John Cage brought silence and environmental sound into full play. Silence was no longer the opposite of sound. Rather, it became a continuous form of time, just like sound. Likewise, music is not merely about sound. It’s also about the presence of the performer, engagement of the audience, the air, noise and smell of the overall environment. Under his influence, John Armleder manages to capture and develop the chance of fluidity and the interplay between the creator and the audience to the fullest. In his music intervention in elevator and furniture sculpture series, he bridges the gap between music and the ambience in which the music is played, and blurs the dichotomy between environment/background and performance/foreground.

The so-called silence is a definite object. It is neither emptiness nor nothingness. Instead, it turns into a “loud” meaning. In other words, the artist manages to substantialize silence, turning it into a known object that could be analyzed, acquired and consumed. In this regard, silence is a target, but fails to be recognized previously. Upon recognition, it becomes wonderful. In the case of John Cage, when value was attached to him, he was devoured and dispelled by middle-class culture.

“No sound” is soundless, not silence. It’s neither beautiful nor ugly. Just like that. When there’s no sound, the performer is still there. So are the audience. Time is carried in them. In time, an event without specific event happens. It is exactly how the floating sense of time is like. We need to stop bestowing value on things that are valueless. That’s the state of “lying down”.

在这个标榜自我实现的新时代里，大多数人早就接受“选择成为自己”这样的信条，并奉为独善其身的至上律令，而“躺平”的人们由于“消极”则备受责备，因为他们不生产意义。

在《4'33"》中，约翰·凯奇将声音的留白与环境声音发挥到极致。寂静从此不再是声音的否定，而成为同声音一样作为时间的存续形式。同样地，音乐不只是声音，它是表演者的在场，是观众的参与，也包括整个环境的空气、杂音、味道。受此影响，约翰·阿姆莱德将这种流变的偶然性以及创作者与受众互动的偶然性发挥到极致。尤其在电梯音乐和家具雕塑艺术创作中，他打破了音乐与音乐置身的环境的间隔，对换了环境/背景和表演/前景之间截然的二分对立关系。

然而，这种所谓的寂静是一个明确的客体，它既不是空，也不是无，它变成了一个响亮的意义。换言之，他把寂静实体化了，当做已知的对象，而可以分析、获取、消费的对象。从这个角度看，寂静是一个靶子，只不过它可能之前没被人指出来。指出之后它就是美妙的，有了价值后，凯奇被中产阶级文化吞没、消解。

无声只是无声，而非静寂，既不美也不丑，如此而已。然后，无声的时候，演奏者仍是在场的，观众也仍是在场的，他们承载了时间，在时间里，发生着这个没有特定事件发生的事件，时间的漂浮感如是。我们得停止为没有价值的事情赋予价值，躺平的境界亦如是。