内容提要
序言
便觉春光四面来
蔡国强先生独特的创作活动，每每能够引起广泛的关注。这次，他将目光投向了杭州，投向了西湖。展览尚未开幕，各方早已充满期待。这是因为这次在浙江美术馆举办的个展《春》是以杭州和西湖为题材量身定制的，“火”与“水”如何交融？如何用当代艺术的表现手段和视觉效果来体现西湖山水、江南人文的文化内涵？这次主题性创作与他以往的创作有哪些创新与突破？这些都充满“悬念”。展览以《春》为题，不仅仅因为时节的关系，更寄寓了对当下艺术视角和生活状态的深层思考。
杭州之春
杭州人文荟萃，底蕴厚重，文艺昌盛，是中国江南文化的典型代表。杭州的春天，明秀艳丽，妩媚动人，景致奇绝，华美优雅，一派升平气象，弥漫着艺术气息。这已经成为大家对杭州的整体印象。得天独厚的自然条件赋予杭州永恒的魅力，更吸引古往今来的艺术家尽情为她锦上添花。
也正是出于对杭州人文的感受和喜爱，蔡国强先生产生了到杭州举办个展的强烈愿望。1978年，蔡国强第一次到杭州，这里的风光景致就给他留下了深刻的印象。特别是浙江美术学院（现中国美术学院）的艺术氛围令他深受感动。之后他每次来杭州，几乎都与美术相关，逐渐感悟到杭州风光景致背后深厚的文化底蕴。他在国外的生活创作经历，让他进一步体会到杭州文化在国际上的影响力，更激起了他对江南山水与文人精神的向往和追求之情。
蔡国强先生一直希望用他擅长的艺术形式表现杭州山水的宁静秀美，追溯江南人文的灿烂辉煌。2003年他曾提出在西湖上爆炸形成“观潮图”，因故未能实施。但创作构思一直深藏在他心中，并不断得到充实与升华。在蔡国强心中，杭州除了西湖之外，最有代表性的就是钱江潮，他说：“（钱江潮）表面看汹涌澎湃与文人精神有点脱节，但是文人气质有时候也会像潮水一样，突然的来，不可阻挡、鲜血沸腾，爱得要命。”去年9月22日，蔡国强先生在浙江美术馆成功进行《观潮图》火药草图公开制作，高3米、长36米的火药草图长卷《观潮图》气势磅礴，气韵生动，淋漓尽致地表达出蔡国强对江南文化的超强把握。蔡国强的“钱江潮”是有情感的，一开始比较平静，渐渐地波涛起伏、势不可挡，最后又趋于舒缓。这是他创作心态真实的写照，“在最激烈的浪头底下，就是平淡如水。”
蔡国强的《春》就是以这样一种外势奔腾，内蕴沉厚的姿态向我们宣告：杭州这座“世界上最美丽华贵之城”将更加开放融合、锐意进取，向世界充分展现其别具一格的永恒魅力。
西湖之春
蔡国强先生作为近些年在国际艺坛上令人瞩目的华人艺术家，他在世界各地的艺术活动往往把创作和当地的重要地标结合起来。在杭州的《春》当然要充分展现西湖的“春”色无边。
西湖的春天，“千里莺啼绿映红”、“暖风熏得游人醉”，这是一种沁入骨子里的柔美、浪漫。但凡文人墨客都喜欢泛舟湖上，赏自然造化，赋人间绝唱。文人是中国传统文化的主要创造者，西湖与文人的绝妙结合，深刻阐述了中国山水美学所特有的“诗情画意，题名景观，天人合一，隐逸文化”等东方传统文化理念，成为艺术家理想中的精神家园。
蔡国强先生把《春》这次展览称为“精神的返乡之旅”，他把自己对中国山水意境和文人情怀的喜爱和理解全部融进创意和创作中，令展览呈现出多层次的意蕴。
《春》的创作体现了他对西湖山水人文的感动。这次展览中，蔡国强主要以丝绸和薄纱来表现西湖的柔美细腻，把人们带入云烟浩渺、柳韵空灵的西湖山水世界。火药在丝绸上爆炸产生出水墨的效果，也是一次对中国传统绘画艺术的一次探索与创新。作品题材除了西湖水、雷峰塔、柳树、茶山之外，还有“小百花”的越剧演员，用现代艺术的表现手法提炼出西湖风光的诗情画意，营造出了强烈的视觉效果。
《春》的创作体现了他对传统文人精神的溯源。蔡国强先生身上充溢着很强的文人气，他渴望遨游天地自然的飘逸心境，追求传统文人精神的写意风格。他不想错过与西湖的天赐缘分，所以创造性地利用浮船在西湖上搭建平台，在丝绸上现场写生作画。思接千载，文心涌动，以此完成了他对中国文人的致敬，对中国传统文化的推崇。
《春》的创作体现了他对休闲生活状态的崇尚。蔡国强的艺术包括了他的作品和作品创作的过程，还有其深层次的社会涵义。我们读懂了蔡国强的艺术，也读懂了他试图通过传统和当代的对接在精神和美学层面的传承。杭州西湖文化景观已成为世界文化遗产，我们不仅要加强对西湖的发掘、保护、宣传和推广，更要思考它对提高生活品质的影响，也许蔡国强先生的展览是一次很好的契机。
艺术之春
2009年，蔡国强先生曾在台湾举办过一个很有名的展览，主题是“泡美术馆”。他的主旨就是要培养大众“泡”美术馆、走进美术馆、了解美术馆，最终养成接触、感受、领悟艺术的习惯。2010年8月，蔡国强先生应邀来到浙江美术馆与我们有了接触，当时他提出了在杭州西湖上创作和在浙江美术馆举办展览的意愿。
蔡国强先生对美术馆有深刻的理解和认知，浙江美术馆的特性与他的理念非常吻合。浙江美术馆位于杭州市南山路，背倚玉皇山万松岭，毗邻西湖，紧挨南宋皇宫遗址。这是一块文脉相承800年的土地。明朝的张撝之在《武林旧事》夹注中说，南宋名家荟萃的宫廷画院，就在万松岭麓。美术馆的宗旨之一就是要在当代艺术和传统文化之间建构起一座传承融合的桥梁。双方相约，以“春”的名义在2012年杭州最美丽的季节向世界呈现一道视觉艺术盛宴。
这次展览有别于蔡国强先生此前在费城、尼斯、墨西哥城、顿涅茨克、洛杉矶、多哈等地举办的展览，它是与浙江美术馆的场馆特征紧密相关，也是西湖成为世界文化遗产后第一次在西湖之中进行大规模当代艺术创作。去年9月的《观潮图》火药草图公开制作是蔡国强第一次到杭州进行艺术创作和展览活动，也是他首次在中国大陆公开制作火药草图。这幅长达36米的火药草图长卷在浙江美术馆的展厅完整展示，充分呈现了作品的内容和气势。蔡国强在西湖现场制作的丝绸火药画在通高展厅组装布置，加之环绕展厅一周的原木游步道，形成高近8米、360度环形上下覆盖的巨型装置作品，构出一个世外桃源般的“西湖新天地”。
与其他展览相同的是，蔡国强先生在艺术创作中非常注重与当地民众的交流与合作。作品创作期间，会同美术馆邀请观众现场观摩，公开招募志愿者参与作品创作的全部过程，真正拉近了当代艺术与公众生活之间的距离。
近几十年来，中国整个文化艺术生态结构迅速与国际接轨，当代艺术元素显示出巨大的活力，其中美术馆的发展尤其令人可喜。我们正迎来美术馆的春天，艺术的春天。春天辛勤耕作，秋天才会硕果累累。现代美术馆要不断完善多元化功能，强调社会责任感，满足人们群众日益增长的精神文化需求。要加强与艺术家和艺术机构的交流与合作，牢固建立精品意识，树立良好的品牌形象。要积极开展公共文化服务，丰富服务内容，创新服务理念，提升对现代城市发展和公众生活的影响力。
借此机会，我们要衷心感谢浙江省文化厅，杭州市委、市政府和杭州市风景名胜区管理委员会、杭州市公安局等相关部门、单位对本次展览的高度重视和大力支持；感谢蔡国强先生和他的团队为本次展览付出的艰辛和心血；感谢劳力士钟表有限公司作为首席合作伙伴对本次展览的赞助。
在这个春天，我们以艺术的名义印证了生活品质的内涵，更印证了人与自然、社会之间水乳交融般的和谐。
浙江美术馆馆长 马锋辉
2012年4月
Foreword
Feel the Sense of Spring in All Directions
The unique creative activities of Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang often cause widespread concern. This time, he turns his attention to Hangzhou and the West Lake. Although the exhibition has yet to launch, people are full of expectations for it. This is because the solo exhibition Spring held at the Zhejiang Art Museum is specially made with Hangzhou and the West Lake as the subject. How do ¡°fire¡± and ¡°water¡± blend? How to reflect the cultural connotations of the West Lake landscape and the humanities of Jiangnan (regions south of the Yangtze River) through forms of visual effects and expressions of contemporary art? Compared with his previous works, what are the innovations and breakthroughs of this thematic creation? All of these are full of ¡°suspense¡±. Taking springtime as the exhibition theme, is not just by reason of the season, but also a deep thinking of the current artistic perspective and state of life.
Spring in Hangzhou
With rich humanities, brilliant culture and prosperous literature and art, Hangzhou is representative of the Jiangnan culture. Springtime in Hangzhou is wonderfully bright, charming, gorgeous, and elegant; it is filled with peace and the breath of art. And this has become people¡¯s overall impression of Hangzhou. The unique natural conditions endow Hangzhou with permanent charm, making it attractive to artists through the ages and aid its brilliance.
The feelings and love of Hangzhou culture give Cai Guo-Qiang a strong desire to hold his solo exhibition there. In 1978, Cai Guo-Qiang visited Hangzhou for the first time, the scenery of which greatly impressed him. In particular, the artistic atmosphere of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art) deeply touched him. Later, subsequent visits to Hangzhou was often for the purpose of art, and he gradually realized the rich cultural heritage of Hangzhou behind the charming scenery. His experience abroad enabled him to further understand the cultural influence of Hangzhou in the world, but also stirred up feelings of desire and pursuit of the Jiangnan landscape and the literati spirit.
Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang hopes to express the serenity and elegance of the Hangzhou landscape and trace the brilliance of Jiangnan humanities with an art form he practices. In 2003, he proposed to form a ¡°Tides¡± above the West Lake by explosion, but in the end they were not realized. These creative ideas have been deep in his mind and continue to be enriched. In the mind of Cai Guo-Qiang, second to West Lake, the tides of Qiantang River are also representative of Hangzhou. He said: ¡°The surging and violent tides of Qiantang River seem to be a bit disjointed with the literati spirit, but the literati temperament is sometimes like the tides, coming all of a sudden, irresistible,
passionate and crazy.¡± On September 22, 2011 and open to the public, Cai Guo-Qiang successfully made Tides gunpowder sketch at Zhejiang Art Museum. With a height of 3 meters and length of 36 meters, the long-scroll gunpowder drawing is magnificent and vivid, fully expressing Cai Guo-Qiang¡¯s mastery of Jiangnan culture. The ¡°Qiantang River Tides¡± of Cai Guo-Qiang is emotional, which is relatively calm at the beginning, gradually heaves, overwhelming, and finally tends to relieve. This is the true portrayal of his creative state of mind, ¡°under the most intense wave is plain water.¡±
Cai Guo-Qiang¡¯s Spring declares to us in such a state with bold appearance and a profound mind that: Hangzhou, ¡°the world¡¯s most beautiful and luxurious city¡±, will be more open and inclusive and forge ahead to fully demonstrate its unique and everlasting charm to the world.
Spring in the West Lake
As the most remarkable Chinese artist in international art of recent years, Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang tends to combine creation with local significant landmarks in his art activities around the world. Spring in Hangzhou will of course fully demonstrate the boundless of ¡°spring¡± in the West Lake.
The spring of the West Lake, ¡°In the vast Jiangnan region, orioles warble in green landscapes dotted with red flowers¡±, ¡°the warm spring wind makes the visitors drunk¡±, is a softness and romance felt in one¡¯s core. All men of letters enjoy boating on the lake, appreciating the natural creations and creating fantastic works. Literati are the main creators of the traditional Chinese culture, and the wonderful combination of the West Lake and the literati profoundly expounds the Oriental traditional culture concept of ¡°poetic illusion, title landscape, unity of heaven and humanity, hermit culture¡± unique to Chinese landscape aesthetics, becoming the ideal spiritual home of the artists.
Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang called the exhibition of Spring ¡°spirit¡¯s journey home¡±. He integrates his love and understanding of the Chinese landscape conception and the feelings of literati into his innovation and creation, showing multi-level implications of the exhibition.
Spring reflects his feeling of the scenery and humanities of the West Lake. In this exhibition, Cai Guoqiang mainly uses silk and tulle to depict the softness and delicateness of the West Lake, bringing people into the world of the West Lake with cloud and ethereality. The gunpowder¡¯s explosion on silk produces the effect of the ink, which is also an exploration and innovation of the Chinese traditional painting. Beyond the waters of West Lake, the Leifeng Pagoda, willows and hills covered with tea plants, the subject of the works also includes the performers of Xiao Bai Hua Opera Troupe, which extracts the poetic charm West Lake scenery with the method of modern art to create a strong visual effect.
Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang, imbued with a strong sense of literati, is eager to have the elegant mood of traveling around the world and pursues the creation style of the traditional literati spirit. He does not want to miss the fate of the West Lake endowed by the heaven; therefore, he builds a platform on the West Lake with a floating vessel where he can draw on silk. Connecting the past and inspiration surging, he completes his tribute to the Chinese literati and worship of traditional Chinese culture.
Spring reflects his advocacy of the state of leisure life. The art of Cai Guo-Qiang not only includes his works and creation process, but holds deeper social implications. We understand the art of Cai Guo-Qiang, as well as his inheritance in levels of the spiritual and aesthetics through traditional and contemporary connection. Since the cultural landscape of the West Lake, Hangzhou has become the world¡¯s cultural heritage, we should not only strengthen the development, protection, publicity and promotion of it, but also think about its influence on improving the quality of life, and perhaps Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang¡¯s exhibition is a good opportunity.
Spring of Art
In 2009, Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang held a famous exhibition in Taiwan with the theme of ¡°Immerse in Art Museum¡±. His aim was to foster the public to ¡°immerse¡± in the art museum, enter into and understand the museum, and ultimately to develop the habits to contact, feel, and understand art. In August 2010, Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang was invited to the Zhejiang Art Museum, where we met. At that time, he put forward his wishes of creating and holding an exhibition on the side of the West Lake and Zhejiang Art Museum in Hangzhou.
Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang has a deep understanding and cognition of art museums since the characteristics of the Zhejiang Art Museum is very consistent with his philosophy. Located in Nanshan Road, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Art Museum is perched on Wansong Ling of Yuhuang Mountain, adjacent to the West Lake and next to the site of the palaces of the Southern Song Dynasty. This is a land with 800 years of history. Zhang Weizhi of the Ming Dynasty said in the folder notes of the Martial Arts that the court art academy full of talents in the Southern Song Dynasty located just at the foot of Wansong Ling. One of the purposes of an art museum is to construct a bridge of heritage fusion between contemporary art and traditional culture. Both parties agree to present a visual feast of art to the world in the name of ¡°spring¡± the most beautiful season in Hangzhou in 2012.
Different from previous exhibitions of Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang in Philadelphia, Nice, Mexico City, Donetsk, Los Angeles, Doha, etc., this exhibition is closely related to the venue features of the Zhejiang Art Museum. And it is also the first large-scale contemporary art creation on the West Lake after the Lake became the world¡¯s cultural heritage. In September of last year, The gunpowder sketche of Tides in public was the first time that Cai Guo-Qiang made artistic creation and exhibition in Hangzhou, as well as the first time he publicly produced gunpowder sketches in mainland China. The exhibition hall of Zhejiang Art Museum completely display the long-scroll gunpowder sketch with a length of 36 meters, fully showing the contents and momentum of the work. The silk gunpowder drawing blasted on the West Lake by Cai Guo-Qiang will be assembled and arranged in the high exhibition hall, coupled with logs tour trail around the exhibition hall, forming a large installation work with a height of 8 meters and 360-degree circular covered on the upper and lower parts, constituting a paradise-like ¡°new world of the West Lake¡±.
Identical with other exhibitions, Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang attaches great importance to exchanges and cooperation with local people in artistic creation. During creation, he, in conjunction with Zhejiang Art Museum, will invite the audience to observe and emulate, and will openly recruit volunteers to participate in the entire process of creation, which will truly shorten the distance between contemporary art and public life.
In recent decades, the ecological structure of the entire Chinese culture and arts quickly meets with international standards of contemporary art elements showing great vitality, among which the development of an art museum is particularly gratifying. We are ushered in the spring of the art museum and spring of art. The diligent cultivation in spring will lead to fruitful harvest in fall. Modern art museums should constantly improve its diversification functions, emphasizing the social responsibility to meet the growing spiritual and cultural needs of the masses. It should strengthen exchanges and cooperation with artists and art organizations, firmly establish awareness of delicacy and good brand image. We should actively carry out the public cultural services, enrich service content, strengthen service innovation, and enhance its influence on modern urban development and public life.
We take this opportunity to sincerely thank the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture, Hangzhou Municipal Committee of the CPC, Hangzhou Municipal Government, Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Public Security, The Board of West Lake Scenic Area of Hangzhou, and other relevant departments and units for their emphasis and vigorous support of the exhibition; thank Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang and his team for their arduous and painstaking efforts for the exhibition; and thank Rolex for their sponsorship of this exhibition as chief partner.
We confirm the connotation of quality of life in the name of art in this spring that reflects the harmony between humanity, nature, and society.
Director of Zhejiang Art Museum Ma Fenghui
April , 2012
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