查常平博士（《人文艺术》主编）





一尊尊用泥土堆铸而成的千万个普通中国人的怪异头像，镶嵌在一片金黄色的大地上，或静卧在茂盛的青草丛中。他们没有笑容只有哀哭、没有欢乐只有痛苦、没有盼望只有埋怨、没有良善只有凶恶。中间，十多位全身用泥土着色的同学，或牵手舞蹈，或趴地成圆，同四周的头像无论在色彩构成还是精神气质上都形成一种同构关系，一种源于自然肉体生命的、对人的精神生命的否定性情感。他们的眼睛、鼻子、嘴巴如同坟茔式的脸谱，奋力地从大地表层挣脱出来，仿佛在千方百计地逃离泥土对其深深的、悠久的桎梏、迫害。这里，作为华夏文明起源的中原大地，不是母亲般温柔的怀抱的象征而是一种充满掠夺、毫无怜悯的拒斥力量；不是孩子劳累后渴望安息的处所而是他们受到压迫与强夺的历历在目的见证。当观赏艺术家王刚的行为作品《老万大地浮雕》（2007）时，我们便产生了这些联想，一种和艺术家本人企图要从中表达的顶天立地之气相对立的解读。他动员5119人在中原工学院3万平方米的弘德广场，用七天时间完成了该创作。

当然，这件具有纪念性质的行为作品，还告诉一切艺术爱者另一个人生的真相：人本来自尘土，又将归于尘土。当我们把目光停留在长满稀疏的青草丛中的那些头像面前时，我们尤其明白此话的真谛所在。问题是：如果人生的起点与终点都是物质自然的尘土，那么，人生追求所谓的意识生命的心理成长、精神生命的社会交往、文化生命的历史传承的意义何在？换言之，如果人生没有这些不同于自然的肉体生命的内容，如果我们都像动物那样仅仅是为了活着而活着，我们怎能称自己的生活为人的生活吗？我们从哪里寻求作为人的存在尊严？当我们在社会生活面前受到非人的对待的时候，我们依据什么去抗议？对于这样的提问，物质主义者的回答是：人本就是动物，因而当其受到动物般的待遇的时候，人没有先天的抗议理由；社会生活的基础是弱肉强食、适者生存；人死亡后至于是否进入历史，那无关紧要，因而活着的时候也就无需敬畏历史、对历史负责。相反，基督教的回答在于：人是一位精神性的存在者，他作为人的尊严源于创造者的上帝的神圣性，社会生活的根基是人与人的绝对共生共在，人在世界历史的终末处必须受到审判因而人必须对自己的行为承担相应的责任。

王刚的行为《老万大地浮雕》，是其多年表现千千万万普通人的精神性处境的艺术探索自然产生的结果。他有用泥土或铁为材质的雕塑群像《21世纪》（2002－04）、有系列给人雕塑感的油画《天地间的老万头像》（2000－07）以及带立体感的《老万－矿工》、有用综合媒材创作的带有壁画感的实验头像。总而言之，他的行为，属于其艺术生涯的有机组成部分，是其创作精神在媒介方式上的延伸。它同今年8月发生在艺术圈里的笑柄“范跑跑上历史课”而被媒体拒绝之类行为有着质的差别，同那些对行为作为一种艺术媒介毫无知识预备、只想利用其牟取名声效应的“伪行为”形成鲜明的对照。这类现象的出现，仅仅表明中国当代艺术的文化贫血症，一种在油画、雕塑、水墨等领域普遍存在的去文化美学趋势，一种在行为艺术界日渐严重的文化败血症。

在艺术史上，行为艺术诞生于20世纪60年代的维也纳行动小组，最初以身体艺术的面目出现，强调探索人在自然的肉体生命与心理的意识生命忍耐的极限可能性，这就否定了后来的艺术家们深入推进身体艺术的可能性。所以，从中发展而来的行为艺术，在同舞蹈、戏剧之类表演艺术与偶发艺术的关联中，更多侧重于表演性，强调在公共空间和公众的交流，带有偶发性、身体性、公共性的特征。由于对行为的这种特性的全然无知，由于对西方20世纪六十年代以来的行为经典作品缺乏系统的了解，由于艺术家本人的人文积淀的严重匮乏，再加上我们的艺术学生入校时文化课程普遍比较差的现实（不少行为艺术家，都是自我培养的结果）。所以，三十年来，我们的确只有像戴光郁、何云昌等非常优秀的行为艺术家，但我们实实在在没有伟大的行为艺术家。或许，这是由于我们的现代艺术历史异常短暂的缘故，由于我们对现代性的精神理解肤浅所致（2009-9-11于蓉城）。



The Cultural Septicemia of Performance Art



Dr. Zha Changping   Chief-editor of Journal for Humanities and Art



Thousands of strange head portraits of Chinese ordinary people, which are piled up by clay, set in an orange land or lie calmly in a luxuriant growth of grass. They have no smile but mourning, no joy but pain, no hope but complaint, and no goodness but fierceness. Among these sculptures, more than ten pupils who apply clay all over their bodies are hand in hand dancing or circling a round by falling flat on the ground. They have some isomorphic relationship with the surrounding head portraits in terms of their color composition and spiritual qualities, that is, a negative emotion from the natural fleshly life against human’s spiritual life. Their eyes, noses and mouths, the grave-like faces are trying to throw off the surface of the earth; they seem to do all they can to escape from the deep shackles and longtime persecution of the earth. This central land of China, as the origin of Chinese civilization, is not a symbol of motherly hug but a predatory and refusal power without any compassion; this land is not the place that kids are eager to return when they are fatigued but the witness of the oppress and snatch which they have experienced. This is what we can connect with when facing Wanggang’s performance artwork “Laowan (Thousands of Ordinary People): the Earth Relief”, but this comprehension is just the opposite of the dauntless attitude that the artist tries to express. At the Hongde Square (30000 sq.m.) of Zhongyuan Institute of Technology, Wanggang asked 5119 people to join in his work which lasts seven days.   



It is certain that this commemorative performance also tells any lover for art another truth about life: man is of dust he comes and to dust he shall return. When we look at those stone heads among the thin growth of grass, we can understand the true meaning of the saying better. The question is: if the starting point and the finishing one are both physical dust, what is the meaning for us to pursue the so-called psychological growth of conscious life, the social association of spiritual life and the historical inheritance of cultural life? In other words, if our life has nothing different from the natural fleshly life, and if we live, like animals, just for living, how can we call our life a life of human being? How can we get the dignity of being a human existence? When we suffer from the inhuman treatment in social life, according to what principles do we protest against it? Materialists always have this answer: man is originally animal, so he has no innate reason to protest when he is treated like a animal; The law of the society is that the weak are the prey of the strong and only the fittest can survive; It’s indifferent whether man can get into history or not, and in that case, it is unnecessary for a man to have respect for history or to hold responsible for history. On the contrary, Christianity will answer the question in this way: man is a spiritual being, and his dignity of being a man is from the divinity of God who is the creator. The base of social life is the symbiosis and coexistence of each man. Man will be judged in the end of world’s history and thus man must take the responsibility for his own behaviors.



Wanggang’s performance “Laowan: the Earth Relief” is a natural result of his artistic exploration on expressing ordinary people’s mental situation. His other works include the group of statues “21st Century” (2002-2004) made by clay and iron, the series of oil paintings “Laowan’s Head Between Sky and Earth” (2000-2007) with sculptural effect, “Laowan--- Miner” with three-dimensional effect, and experimental head portraits with mural effect, which are made by mixed media. In a word, his performance is an organic component part of his artistic career and also an extension of his creative spirit in terms of medium. There is an essential distinction between Wanggang’s performance and other performances like that of “Fanpaopao (whose name is Fan Meizhong as a teacher in the Middle School who escaped out of classroom in the Wenchuan Earthquake) Wanted to Lecture History” which is refused by the media, which was happened in August this year and has become a laughing stock in Art Circle. There is also an obvious contrast between Wanggang and those people who have no knowledge of the performance as an artistic medium but only use “false performances” to seek personal profits. These phenomena show that our contemporary art has suffered from the “cultural anemia”, which is a tendency of de-culture and de-aesthetics, universally existing in the fields of oil painting, sculpture and ink-water painting. This “cultural septicemia’ is more and more serious in the world of performance art.



In the history of art, performance art was born in 1960s and developed from Wiener Aktionismus. Body art, which emphasis on exploring the possibilities of the limiting patience in human’s physical life and psychological life, was its predecessor. In that case, it is impossible for the artists in the future to go deep into body art. Thus, compared with the artistic forms like dance, drama and Happening, the performance that was developed from body art focuses on the performing in itself and on the communication with people in public spaces. It’s characterized by fortuity, nature of the body (leiblichkeit) and publicity. Since some artists themselves are ignorant about this characteristic of performance and have limited understanding of the Western famous performance artworks since 1960s; since they quite lack some accumulation of humanities’ knowledge and art majors don’t pay enough attention to cultural classes before attending into college (lots of performance artists are self-taught); there has been truly no great performance artists in China during 30 years, although we have some excellent performance artists like Dai Guangyu and He Yunchang. Perhaps the reason is that our history of contemporary art is pretty short, and perhaps that we only have a superficial understanding of the spirit of modernity.  

(In Chengdu, 11/09/09; Translated by Chengli)