The artist Wang Evelyn Taocheng loves the beauty of harmony, and she is particularly fond of kunqu for its unique colours, costumes and expression of secular life and human stories and emotions. On the evening of 27 May, we introduced kunqu to the "Contrasts of Difference" exhibition. The Bund Museum of Art will be transformed into a flowing garden with the graceful water sleeves and soft chanting of the kunqu opera "The Peony Pavilion". Under the artist's exhibition design, the exhibition on the second and third floors of the museum is like an unfolding scroll, and on this fine evening, the performer will take the audience into the scroll, moving in front of the different paintings by Wang Evelyn Taocheng, and guiding them through the "yimingliang'an" layout of the Chinese aesthetics. The audience will be guided through a Chinese aesthetic of "one bright" and "two dark" exhibition halls, which subtly echoes the plot of The Peony Pavilion, as well as the virtual grass, trees and pavilions of the singing performance, allowing the audience to experience the interplay of time and space beyond the artist's paintings. This experimental kunqu performance will form a "contrast of contrasts" with the artist's work itself. As Eileen Chang said, "Sadness is a kind of completion, while desolation is a kind of revelation." Wang Evelyn Taocheng's paintings are themselves poetic, fragmented and multi-layered narratives that are a mix of emotion, poetry and autobiography, conveying her "bleak" experience of life between ancient and modern times, eastern and western cultures, and binary genders, which have some resonance with the Chinese literati who composed kunqu in the cracks; while Duliniang breaks through the confines of The experience of love, in which Du Liniang breaks free and dies for "love", corresponds to a kind of "tragedy" of ideal and self-fulfilment. In this performance, performers Liu Xiaochuan, Haibao and Wang Jiaxin will present excerpts from the first book of The Peony Pavilion, namely, "A Visit to the Garden", "A Dream of Fright", "A Dream in Search of Love" and "A Separated Soul", creating a utopia with the audience that is free from the constraints of time and space: Du Liniang and her maid Chunxiang visit the garden to enjoy the spring. They fall in love at first sight and meet by the rocks on the lake. The next day, Du Liniang went to the garden alone to relive her dream, but the twelve pavilions were bleak and cold, with no one in sight. As a result of this dream, she became ill from spring to mid-autumn and died of depression. Following the spectacular performance of these eight tunes, performer Liu Xiaochuan will discuss new ideas and academic contexts for the fusion of tradition and contemporary, Eastern and Western culture and art, starting from the current globalised literary and artistic context, and share his own exchanges with overseas scholars on the poetics, choreography, drama, art history and anthropological values of kunqu. The three performers will also interact with the audience in a Q&A session, offering interpretations of Kunqu's rich cultural issues and stage language, sharing discussions on how to explore the collision of Eastern and Western aesthetics and ideas.
艺术家王伊芙苓韬程钟爱中和之美，她因昆曲独特的色彩、服化以及对于世俗生活与人的故事情感的刻画表达而独有钟情。在5月27日晚，我们将昆曲引入“参差的对照”展览中。随着昆曲《牡丹亭》翩跹的水袖和柔美的唱念，外滩美术馆将化为一座流动的园林。在艺术家的展览设计构思之下，美术馆二、三楼展览如同一幅徐徐展开的卷轴，趁此良夜，表演者将带观众一同进入画卷，在王伊芙苓韬程不同的画作前游移，并引导观众穿过中式美学“一明”与“两暗”的展厅格局，与《牡丹亭》剧情巧妙呼应，以及唱词表演中的虚拟一草一木亭台楼阁之间，让观众感受艺术家画作之外更多重的时空交错。此次实验性昆曲表演将与艺术家作品本身形成一种“参差的对照”。如张爱玲所言：“悲壮是一种完成，而苍凉则是一种启示。”王伊芙苓韬程的画作本身具有诗歌性、碎片化、多层次的叙事，兼容情感、诗歌和自传成分，传达了她在古今时代、东西方文化、二元性别之间极具“苍凉”之感的生命体验，与在夹缝中创作昆曲的中国文人有些许共鸣；而杜丽娘冲破束缚，为“情”出生入死的爱情经历正是对应了一种对于理想和自我完成的“悲壮”。在本场昆曲演出中，表演者刘小川、海宝、王佳鑫将带来昆曲《牡丹亭》上本中《游园》《惊梦》《寻梦》《离魂》的片段，与观众共创超脱了时空束缚的乌托邦：杜丽娘与丫鬟春香游园赏春，花香鸟语，触景伤情，游倦之后，回房休息。梦见书生柳梦梅手持柳枝冉冉而来，二人一见钟情，遂相好于湖山石边。次日，杜丽娘独自来到花园重温梦境，十二亭台凄凉冷落，杳无人迹。她因这一梦，伤春病至中秋，病势转沉，郁郁而死。在这8支曲牌的精彩演唱后，表演者刘小川将从当下全球化的文学艺术语境入手，探讨传统与当代、东方和西方文化艺术融合的新思路与学术背景，并分享自己与海外学者就昆曲的诗学、舞美、戏剧、艺术史、人类学等价值的交流。三位表演者也将与观众问答互动，对昆曲丰富的文化议题和舞台语言做出解读，分享讨论如何探索东西方美学与思想的碰撞。
