Rockbund Art Museum 上海外滩美术馆

Rockbund Art Museum’s latest exhibition “Model Home – A Proposition by Michael Lin” opens on March 10, 2012. The show is a new conceptual project presented by artist Michael Lin in the way of cross-boundary collaboration. Taking the collaborative work by the artist and Japanese architect collective Atelier Bow-Wow as departure point, this exhibition invites artists, construction workers and furniture makers, as well as local musicians, photographers and urban culture researchers to contribute to and participate in the production. In so doing it is hoped that this project will echo the proposition of Bauhaus in early 20th century, which sees architecture as vehicle for a total work of art that integrates architecture, painting and sculpture. This exhibit was curated by RAM Advisory Committee member Lai Hsiangling. Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art at the Guggenheim Museum, also a member of RAM Advisory Committee, acted as associate curator of this project.

The first thing visitors see on entering the exhibition space is Lin’s signature wall painting, which was inspired by the patterns on the quilt cover found in a local shop in Shanghai. The artist used the motif elements throughout the six floors of the museum, in special rhythmic and metrical patterns that imbue the historical space of RAM with a new visual feel. Michael Lin has always excelled at finding unique or culturally significant local fabric patterns and transplanting them into different contexts, thereby achieving the transformation of ordinary public “space” into culturally specific “place”. Visitors see the hidden agency of culture at work during the transformation, as well as the clashes and interactions between different cultures. Rather than being a single work on display, the wall painting serves as the exhibition’s starting point, as well as a nexus and platform that links the various parts of the exhibition into an organic whole. From preliminary work on the pattern itself, to the living spaces of the workers who painted the pattern onto the walls and the audio and visual works that evolved from the pattern, and ultimately extending to the research into urban history, all are reflected in this patterned environment, which forms the interdisciplinary, material, and integrated foundation of the exhibition as a whole.

This exhibition’s “workers’ house” was designed by Atelier Bow-Wow, an experimental architectural firm founded by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima, in collaboration with Lin, to provide accommodation for the artists, painters and works in the production of the exhibition. During the installation period, this structure was placed in a narrow alley between RAM and one of the historic buildings in Rockbund area. On the opening of the exhibition, the house would be moved into the museum and become an installation work on view with all the traces of its temporary role as a worker’s dormitory. This structure reveals the wisdom and concerns that guides Atelier Bow-Wow’s research into urban life, betrays the backside of the glittering urban scene by showing the normal setting of workers’ life in a museum space. The appearance of the living space of the workers who are responsible for the construction of our glittering urban centers in the “temple” of art not only offers realistic on-site visual experience to the audience, but also represents a concrete instance of the roles Lin thinks artists should play in society.

Another important collaborator is Professor Li Xiangning from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University and his team of students, who are currently working on a project with Atelier Bow-Wow entitled “Made in Shanghai”. This project is investigating several dozen historic and contemporary buildings in Shanghai, from iconic governmental and cultural landmarks to unlicensed structures, and even architectural ruins, in an attempt to trace their living transformations from planning through utilization. Drawings of these building merge, intersect, and clash along a 165 meter long wall of the construction site on Huqiu road. These classic yet atypical spatial structures are refracted, filtered, and distorted to create a familiar yet distant cityscape where pedestrians can locate their own special memories, dreams, and visions of the city. This project is also incorporated into the “Workers’ Club” on the second floor of the museum as a display of several cases, and will be updated periodically so that visitors can keep up to date on the latest and most detailed research results. In the “Workers’ Club”, along with “Made in Shanghai”, visitors also find a collection of handmade furniture based on Hans Wegner’s classic designs, which feature finely crafted jointwork, and reflect the integrated nature of the exhibition that combines all parts together. During the exhibition a series of lectures and workshops will be held in the “Workers’ Club”, as well as RAM’s long running free public event series “Night @ RAM”.

Another highlight of the second floor are two screens showing videos made by artist Cheng Ran, which document over one month in the lives of the wall painters and construction workers as they prepared for the exhibition. Due to the amount of time that the artists and workers spent together and the meticulous observation and firsthand experience it entailed, these videos are no longer just simple documents; rather the camera extended into every detail of the workers lives, from their safety helmets and meals, to the clothing of workers of different ages, and the scenery they saw from inside the museum looking out. These images are displayed in the second floor gallery as well as in the museum lobby and café, creating an overlap of the space within the narrative and the space where the narrative is recounted. These moving images give the museum and the exhibition a degree of autonomy, making them the subjects of the narrative. This piece recreates lost scenes and allows visitors to better understand the creation of the exhibition, but it also comes to symbolize the complex relationship between memories, historical narrative, and space-time.

The theme music for this exhibition, “The Room in Stripes”, was created by sound artist and musician Lou Nanli, who used the patterns of the wall painting and the interior of the museum itself as a “spectrum” of musical raw materials. The thickness, color, and shape of the wall painting patterns, and the doors, structure, and volume of the museum building were transformed into a musical frequency distribution curve. As the wall painting becomes more complex moving from the first floor up to the sixth floor, the music changes from a single tone into a finished musical composition that interacts with the museum’s spaces, walls, and images. The exhibition’s opening ceremony features a live performance edition of “The Room in Stripes”, a collaboration between Lou Nanli and video artist A Jiao.

The unique core of this exhibition is the collaborations that have occurred across disciplinary boundaries and between professionals and non-professionals. This unique achievement is directly demonstrated in the variety of artworks on display, and even more so in the production of the exhibition itself. Artists, architects, university research team, construction workers, furniture craftsmen, the museum staff, and everyone else involved with the exhibit helped by giving and receiving orders, communicating and compromising, and debating and reconciling, thereby creating the dynamic environment that ultimately gave birth to this exhibition. Because of this Michael Lin suggested that the names of everyone involved with the exhibition, including security guards, housekeepers, and kitchen staff, should appear on posters and printed materials. And this in turn echoes the original guiding principle agreed on by the curators and artists: “to use this exhibition to bring people together, and promote interaction between members of society” (Michael Lin). The name “Model Home” would seem to be directly related to the innovative living space designed by Atelier Bow-Wow; but what it accomplishes, beyond being a model for interaction between artists and society, is a new experiment of Rockbund Art Museum towards its role in contemporary society.

上海外滩美术馆最新展览《样板屋：2012林明弘》于2012年03月10日开幕。本次展览是艺术家林明弘以跨界合作模式呈现的最新观念性创作。展览由艺术家与日籍建筑团队犬吠工作室（Atelier Bow-Wow）的合作出发，邀请建筑工人，木作家具商，以及上海的音乐、影像、和城市研究工作者共同加入；作品结合了绘画、装置、音乐、影像以及行为等各种创作形式。本次展览的灵感源自于上个世纪初上海外滩美术馆所在建筑的历史，和同期发生的强调艺术的社会功能性的包豪斯宣言，是在当代社会现实下对这一艺术史上的重要信念的回应。担任此次展览策划的是上海外滩美术馆艺术委员会委员赖香伶女士；纽约古根海姆美术馆的资深策展人，同为本馆艺术委员的亚历山德拉‧孟璐（Alexandra Munroe）女士担当协同策展人。

观众在展览中首先看到的是林明弘标志性的墙面壁画作品，其视觉概念来自于本地一间小店买来的普通被褥。艺术家将其贯穿美术馆六个楼层，以特定的节奏和韵律为上海外滩美术馆的历史空间铺陈出崭新的视觉感受。林明弘一直擅长于撷取具有地域生活特性或文化意涵的花布样式，将其移植入异质空间，实现在日常的社会「空间」(space)和具有特定文化意义的「场所」(place)之间的转变。观众可以在此转变中发现隐含着的文化的能动性，以及不同文化之间的冲突与交流。同时，本次展览的壁画并非孤立的作品呈现，它是展览的开始，更是整个展览各个部分有机链接的枢纽和平台。从前期筹备的花纹构思，到绘制花纹的工人们的生活空间，由花纹所衍生出的声音与影像作品，最终扩展出对城市历史的个案研究等等，都在这个花纹的环境中获得呈现，从而构成整个展览跨界性、现实性和整合性的基调。

本展中的“样板屋”（工棚）是由塚本由晴、贝岛桃代所领衔的日本实验建筑设计团队“犬吠工作室”和本展艺术家合作为壁画工人所设计定制的，供其在布展过程中居住。展览筹备期间，该建筑被摆放在洛克外滩源两幢历史建筑之间的狭小空隙中；开幕前，这些保留着工人生活痕迹的临时居所被移入美术馆内，成为展览中的装置作品。工棚的规划和运用显示了犬吠工作室在城市现象研究中的现实关怀和智慧；同时，代表着辉煌的城市化进程背面的农民工群体的生活空间在艺术的“殿堂”中的出现，不仅为观众提供了具有现场真实性的观看体验，也是林明弘思考艺术家角色与社会实践的具体行动。

本展的另一个重要参与方是同济大学建筑与城市规划学院的李翔宁教授和他的学生团队，他们与犬吠工作室共同带来了正在进行中的调研项目“上海制造”。这一项目选择了数十个上海的历史和当代建筑，从政治和文化地标到违章建筑和市民空间，乃至建筑废墟，追溯了它们从建设到使用过程中的活生生的变化。在本次展览中，这些建筑的线描图像被彼此分离、并置、侵入、交叉、覆盖，最终组成165米的巨幅长卷沿着虎丘路的工地围墙直接向公众展示。这些既典型又非典型的空间结构经过折射、过滤和变形，组合成一个既熟悉又疏离的城市图景，路人们可以从中找到自己独特的城市记忆、欲望和想象。这一项目还在美术馆二楼的“工人俱乐部”空间中以个案的方式得以展示，并定期更新，让观众可以对其研究成果有更全面和细致的认识。除了“上海制造”，在二楼展厅正中央是艺术家根据丹麦设计师Hans J. Wegner(1914-2007)所设计的经典家具，重新演绎出一组手工木制家具。其中艺术家特别关注于接榫的工艺，代表组成展览的各个部分，并借此反映本展的合作精神。展览期间“俱乐部”中将举办一系列与本次展览主题相关的讲座和教育活动；同时，上海外滩美术馆的长期免费公共项目“艺术夜生活”也将在“俱乐部”中展开。

二楼展厅的另一件作品是左右两个投影屏中放映着的艺术家程然的录像，分别纪录了壁画工人与建筑工人一个多月以来的工作过程。由于艺术家与工人们长期密切的相处，以及细致入微的观察和体验，作品已不再是工作的简单记录，镜头延伸到工人生活中的各个细节，从安全帽、一日三餐，到不同年龄工人的穿着、工人由馆内向外望去的风景…等等。除了在二楼展厅播放的记录外，这些充满诗意与细节的工作影像同时还在美术馆的前厅、咖啡馆等场所出现，使影像叙述中的空间与实际的空间产生重叠。通过影像，美术馆和展览被赋予了一种自主性，成为了一个叙述的主体。这件作品不仅重现了逝去的景象，更成了记忆、历史叙述和时空之间错综复杂的关系的隐喻。

本次展览的另一部分是声音与音乐创作者楼南立为本展所作的主题曲—“带条纹的房间”。楼南立以壁画的图样和美术馆的空间作为乐曲的“频谱”的素材，壁画图样的粗细、颜色和构图，美术馆的门窗、结构、空间等等，一一转化为乐曲频率的分布曲线。壁画由一到六层越趋复杂，音乐从单一的音色逐渐演绎成一首完整的乐曲，在整个美术馆内空间与壁画、影像等作品产生互动。在展览的开幕式上楼南立还将与影像艺术家阿角合作推出“带条纹的房间”现场版的声音表演。

本展最鲜明的特点是在不同艺术领域、专业与非专业之间的跨界与协作。这一特点不仅以各种形态的作品直接呈现在观众面前，更在展览的执行过程中获得了最充分的体现。艺术家、建筑师、大学研究团队、建筑工人、木作家具商、美术馆团队，以及涉及展览的各方之间从一开始就在指令与接受、交流与协商，直至争执与妥协等动态的过程中展开，最终形成这个展览极为丰富的形态。基于这一理念，艺术家林明弘作为项目的发起人和协调者，提出将所有工作人员，包括安保、保洁、厨房等工作人员的姓名并列出现在展览海报和画册封面等印刷品中；这也进一步呼应了策划人与艺术家对本次展览最初设定的宗旨——“利用这个展览让大家聚在一起，形成社会成员之间的互动（林明弘）”。《样板屋》的展览名称看似与犬吠工作室的创意工棚建筑直接对应，但实际建立起的毋宁说是一个艺术与社会之间互动关系的样板，也是上海外滩美术馆对自身在社会中的角色的一次新的探索。