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| 王度眼中的我们的精神世界 |
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王度眼中的我们的精神世界yood Pascal Beausseyood  yoodyood yood 信息是我们生活的墙纸。瞬间快讯，焦点，信息片段，短信，电子邮件，数据片段，提醒，信息，一些从我们的日常散步中偶然捕捉到的信号，构成了我们在其中演变的环境。 更有甚者，它们为我们的昼思夜想，为我们的各种决策，行动和幻想提供了一个卓越的参照的框架。生活领域被信息领域侵占，为了解释这个现象，王度有一个漂亮的说法：“媒体，就是空气，就是血液，它几乎就是我们生活的一切”。（1）像一个独立的器官一样，媒体有它自己的生命，它逃离于控制之外。信息无处不在，即时即现。根据波德里亚尔的理论，它甚至先于事件出现，或者取代它。“正是在传媒领域中，通过它的及时的图像反馈，我们能够清楚地看到短路了的事件。” （2）yood 人类进入信息时代这一事实催生了一切夸张的预言和其他的关于阴谋的理论。信息处理技术的革命和信息传播的狂热信徒和赞赏者至少找到了一个共同点：这个无所不在的信息的创造，传递和储存的网络衍生了一个自身的世界 —— 一个数码的世界。yood 这场电子革命被打下了图像万能的烙印。在今天，一则信息首先是一个图像。因而，在新起的圣像破坏者和永恒的圣像爱好者之间的冲突的复生中，围绕着以9.11事件为奠基礼的圣像冲撞事件，信息图像不可挽回地被作为绝对商品奉诸于世。被大量地挥霍，被持续地更新，被它们自身的敌人所使用，被世界上最富有的人埋葬在地下最深层的旧矿里，就象人类历史记忆里的一座陵墓。yood 这个广义上的，含括了广告和宣传的信息的图像，就是王度的题材。它是这位自90年代初来到西方以来就非常严肃地意识到当代世界的这些新坐标，并全面规划其在观念，方法和造型方面的工作的艺术家的原材料。通过把他位于巴黎郊区的工作室命名为 王度工作室 ( Wang Du Studio )， 他雄辩地指明了他正位于一个前所未闻的信息潮流和形体制作的分叉口上的生活和工作的场所。yood 就象一个公司名称或者一个品牌，王度工作室 ( Wang Du Studio )拥有能够产生一种丰富的含义的品质，它高度说明了今天艺术的角色和位置。美国式的“工作室”对艺术家工作室的神话提出质疑，后者自文艺复兴以来就一直没完没了地被延用为一个封闭的秘密地点，在那里进行着创作的炼丹术。这个Studio所指的工作室，是传播世界的一个关键、战略地点。广播和电视的转播室，晚间8小时节目播放台，影视节目制作台，配音室，剪辑室，特效制作室，都是全球网络的一些工厂。通过把他的制作工具安置在一个旧工厂的屋架下，王度创造了他的艺术家作坊，就象戈达尔把他的电影看成是面对娱乐工业的一个小手工业作坊一样。王度工作室在狡诘地跟具有强烈象征性的新闻交易场所，如好莱坞那样神秘和封闭的伊甸园。在那里，那些“大制作室”每天都在与重新炮制梦幻中的，越来越接近经济和政治的现实相较量。yood 通过报纸，信件，电子邮件，电视和电脑屏幕上的画面，信息每天都涌入工作室。王度吸收它们，揉捏它们，消化它们并再处理它们。艺术家的工作就是制作一些形象，一些传达关于世界的一种思想的形象。形体是一部观念的运输工具。技术、材料和颜色等造型选择决定了它的外观，同时也生动地说明了艺术活动的特殊性：它要面对的是文化工业越来越广阔的领域，那里的经济规律和营销战略在不断地试图把艺术拉扯进来。艺术有别于信息的地方在于它不满足于作为现实的一个移印品。王度把自己看作是“记者的记者”，他置身于信息产业链的尽头，为自己编撰了一个终极媒体的角色，通过象征性地把记者的工作引入到他本人的艺术家的领土，他从观念上搬用了记者工作的各种方法。还有其建立的速度体系在跟标志着今天记者行业特点的瞬间性相对抗。因而，面对当今信息技术一味地向世人提供的便利性，就有了艺术家的一种反常的，却又能够产生丰富含义的抵抗运动。这里面丝毫没有对艺术家“职业传统”的怀旧式的厌烦。从传统的雕塑倒膜到工厂的再加工，王度使用的技术是与其作品计划的规模相符合的。不管是在他的工作室被制作出来的，还是被用集装箱运到这里来的，他的这些三维图像都是从在观念上作为媒体材料回收处理站的王度工作室中被创造出来的。yood 王度是加载了一个世纪的大众媒体的罗丹。在他自身所处的时代中，象一个当代世界的神话和幻想的造型大师一样，这位艺术家拥有将自己置身于社会的中心，并直面其时代的野心。除了成堆的石膏和乳胶模子，以及浇铸成树脂的物体和身体的残片，王度工作室里还塞满了各种各样的成捆成堆的报纸和刊物。具体地，也是隐喻性地，期刊也是这项回收处理工作 ——图像生态学——王度每天倾注于斯的的第一个阶段。他还很高兴地到他的书商那里让人拍了一系列他的照片，他身着军装，脸上画着伪装的花纹，正在准备一件他的装置作品，《我的报亭》（2000），它聚集了一些从7月15日的报纸中取出的图像，其中有关于法国国庆节的，也有关于汤姆·克鲁兹主演的最后一部电影的。这个平凡的购买报纸的过程，为了体现报刊的丰富性和多样性，它不带任何区别和歧视，它被如此完全地纳入王度的工作程序中，以至于在同一年，王度专程前往中国，大量地购买了一批兵器和军事期刊，作为《阅兵式》（2000）的参照依据。yood 象一个报业机构的主编一样，王度参阅、挑选、剪接提供信息和进行促销的照片，他不是这些照片的作者，但它们却将是他的工作的模特。艺术家象一个信息聚合人一样地行动，他扫描无数信息来源，再建立一个博客网站，一个由他人制造出来的二手信息的无拘无束的再处理中心。《跳蚤市场——贩卖旧闻》（1998-1999）因而被设想成象一个货摊，上面川流不息的是一些超级著名人物和已经过时的某一天的某一条新闻里的无名之星，这当中除了庸俗和醒目壮观以外没有别的逻辑。一些大众媒体的垃圾箱，就象一个捡破烂的人，艺术家在回收信息的大量供给所造成的图像垃圾。他使用的不是新闻学院传授的方法，后者强调信息传媒的职业规范和准则。王度从事的是一种新形式的新闻工作，就象近几年由博客们在网上刮起的新风潮一样，他们创建自己的信息网站，他们没有记者证，也不主张什么客观性或信息来源的真实性，甚至反其道而行之。yood “我要成为一个媒体”。当王度按照艺术家宣言的传统，用带着强烈意愿的调子，发布这一已经成为名言的宣言时，他显然参照了沃霍，他要成为报业老板和电视节目制作人的野心超过了他的波普艺术活动范畴。尤其重要的是，他因此而置身于当前信息系统活动和理论的中心。这一切正好在发生在克林顿和莱温斯基事件的同时，伊纳休·拉摩耐认为它是一种新的信息方程式的奠基事件。这个童话故事和英雄传奇的混合体标志着一种新媒体的突然出现。其实是玛特·乔奇的(专门泄漏一些传闻和小道消息的《乔奇特报》)网站最先披露了这一事件，并将其独家代理权暗送给一些大的传媒机构 。（3）于是在公共舞台上出现了一个新的媒体操作者：自助媒体，它把全球信息化时代的一切初端萌芽中的事件进行同步化处理。yood 自助媒体是一个独立的个体，它在大众传媒的职业圈子以外，制作和发行一种信息材料 。它于1973年被加拿大魁北克省的传播社会学家让·克鲁迪埃作为一种理论提出来，面对马歇尔·马克鲁汉的《媒介即信息》的冰冷理论，（4）克鲁迪埃建议采用一种代替位于传播网络中心的更为人道主义的替代者。 然而自助媒体却是在艺术活动的领域里最先被启用和创造，在1968年的威尼斯双年展中，大卫·拉姆拉斯推出了他的装置作品《关于越南战争的三个层面的信息办公室：视觉图像，文字文本以及听觉材料》。（5）在这两位天才的先驱之后，我们可以在时间上打一个折痕，并确认是在20世纪90年代，借助于一个历史的，技术的和理论的机遇，自助媒体真正地发展起来。自助媒体是一个多种因素偶合的结果：新的传播技术和工具的出现，还有面对媒体机制的图像霸权必须采用一种民众替代物的全球意识的觉醒，人们意识到要与这种被塞尔日·达尼称为“缺席的图像”的表现艺术的真正赤字相抗争。yood 以他的独特的方式，王度塑造了他对于自助媒体的观念，与此同时，还有1995年和1998年皮埃尔·雨戈和梅里克·欧阿年制作的《移动电视》，林肯·托比耶和里尔克利特·提拉瓦尼亚在1996年制作的《春天广播电台及其它》和2000年的《多功能电台舱》，格里高利·格林和他在2000年制作的《M.I.T.A.R.B.U. 》，布鲁诺·赛拉龙格在1997年《科西嘉晨报》和《布拉希尔日报》里搞的假记者活动，纪亚尼·莫蒂和他频繁的截取媒体物质以及转移事件的活动。yood 跟他们一样，王度不是一个“批判性的”艺术家。他在超越批判之上的一个层面上工作。这跟贴上金箔的“介入型的”艺术家有很大的不同。他采取了一种非教条主义的立场，通过把媒体图像当作现实本身来处理，从而达到揭示我们时代现实的目的。如果说他把自己当作媒体的替身来进行艺术活动，那正是为了假装接受媒体的双重性，通过接受媒体宣传的模式来摆脱它的道德说教。媒体贯穿着一种双重逻辑，它标志着超现代社会的一切权力机制，它给信息及其制作过程打下了暧昧的烙印。一条信息的暧昧性比任何时候都显得必不可少，它既要体现民主的良好进程，又要充当宣传机制控制和认可公众舆论的代理人。为了展示这个天真道德之上的世界，就必须进行媒体短路的制作程序的试验，就必须进入到谎言的图像内部揭示体制的真相。yood 王度对于信息(其词源上的意义就是成形)的选择透露了这一接受行为：他的雕塑作品复制了摄影师最初的取景框架，艺术家像摄影师一样按片段取景，但是以立体的三维的方式表现出来，也就是说更加形体化，更加壮观。媒体的相机镜头视差造成的扭曲衍生了一些畸形的，粗劣的和猥亵的图像，就像一片信息影剧业的“图像-物体”的浮肿块。这种再现手段使他得以直截了当地展示现实的场面。yood 将媒体产品的特征进行夸大处理的造型策略，自然地驱使王度玩弄比例概念和纪念碑的宏伟概念。对媒体圣像的体量进行缩小和加大，能够猛烈地揭示它们自身的滑稽可笑和卑鄙下流，其中的牺牲品就是《我们要把他们熏出来！》（2002）里的乔治·布什的总指挥的形象。通过对白宫的理想的一天的英雄主义的叙述，王度提供了一幅讽刺性的幽默的和拯救性的漫画。艺术家使用的造型手段跟信息技术的分区分类法完全相反。 yood 在进行这个图像整容手术的同时，从2001年起，王度让报纸或期刊封面承受他那类似于纪念碑式的放大手续。这一次就不再是从图片中取出的形象被立体化，而是一页报纸或画报从它的平面性过渡成为一件纯粹的雕塑作品，并展示着作者对这一造型艺术的不同创作阶段的纯熟掌握。在一个对他不断地操纵的原材料进行怀疑的思考的片刻，王度在他的掌心里将纸张捣碎，把它变成一个圆球，就像人们扔进字纸篓里的纸团一样。通过这个对信息的否定以及对每日新闻的极易挥发性特点的肯定，王度按比例尺实施他的游戏方法。在其作品《第三现实》（2001）中，《世界报》的头版和《新闻周刊》的封面被放大变成一些巨大的纸团，耸立在一大片铺满被揉皱的报纸的展览空间构成的移动地带上。这种不容置疑的巨人症使观众被浸没在媒体和图像的世界之中。这个在传媒世界里航行的想法被引入到《人行道地毯》（2003）中，通过把脚踩一份期刊的行为变成一种雕塑程序和一种让作品被众人脚踏的试验，直接暗示了纽约世贸大楼的塌陷。随后是《国际市场》（2004），这个钢铁巨兽永不生锈，就像《华尔街日报》每日唱诵的资本主义经济学的圣经所宣传的无比强大的市场观念一样。既然信息世界已经被工业化了，艺术家也会运用工业制作的一些手段来介入到作品当中。yood 王度对他这一生中，在中国、欧洲和美国所了解的不同的宣传模式进行了一种非常个人化的综述。在杰弗瑞·奇的画廊里展出的《阅兵式》，意在通过讽刺性地充当信使，将中国的宣传带到美国领土上来。就象斯拉沃伊·兹再克所证实的一样，（6）这件作品所探寻的武器和玩具之间的关系显示了这两个大国之间众多的共同点和在经济上互相依赖的关系 。yood 要想更公正地提及王度，为避免重复乔姆斯基的概念，（7）就应该用一个2004年全新的词汇来代替宣传：信息传播。其词源学的意义是很明显的，把“信息”加在“宣传”上。似乎其作者是鲍伯·科尔杜华，在2004年3月17日的《每日演出》中，他对有损于真实可信的新闻业的假新闻业的泛滥作了一个清醒的评价：“信息传播旨在制造假新闻。”（8）它将自己定义为用一种阴险狡猾的、欺骗的和不怀好意的方式，来利用公共信息传播网络的行为，其目的在于发放一条看上去是讨人喜欢的，隐蔽的宣传信息。我们可以很轻松地想象这个信息传播在公众舆论中顺畅地散开，就象一种基因一样，这个信息单元自主地复制和衍生 。在这个以可疑的信息洪流为特征的怀疑的时代里，面对这个无法控制的疯狂传播的危机，王度的答复体现在《无可奉告》（2001）里，这件作品是一个巨大的垃圾桶，里面承载着瞬间即逝的日报，正在直播欧洲新闻的电视还有一些电脑。在这里，在图像潮流的交汇处，我们位于艺术家活动的中心，面对着他转化信息材料的能力，王度因而将信息的商品化和这个绝对商品的世界化并列起来。是信息中毒，还是信息接收？亦或信息滑头 !yood 注释：yood 1、王度与皮埃尔·巴尔-布朗和巴斯卡尔·博斯 的会谈，《王度杂志》，精神设计出版社，巴黎，第214页。yood 2、让·波德里亚尔，《清醒的协约，或恶的智慧》，加力雷出版社，巴黎，2004年，第104页。yood 3、见伊尼亚修·拉莫奈著《传播的专制》，加力雷出版社，巴黎，1999年，第18-22页。yood 4、见巴斯卡尔·博斯 著 《信息-对现实以及自助媒体的探寻，自当代实践：艺术作为体验》，说与看出版社，巴黎，1999年。 yood 5、见巴斯卡尔·博斯 著 ， 《自助媒体小史》，自媒体事件，汉纳大学出版社，汉纳市，2003年。 yood 6、斯拉沃伊·兹再克著， 《欢迎来到现实的荒漠》, 自拉康之墨，第16期，纽约，2000年。yood 7、见诺阿姆·乔姆斯基著，《宣传》，大众菲林及危险出版社，巴黎，2002年；诺阿姆·乔姆斯基，《宣传以及对公众精神的控制》， AK 报业出版社，旧金山市，2002年。yood 8、见里查尔·达金斯著，《自私基因》，牛津大学出版社，牛津(1976)， 1992年。yood  yood yood yoodyood Our Mental Environmentyood Our Mental Environmentyood According to Wang Duyood yood By Pascal Beausseyood yood Information is the world’s rumour. Newsflashes﹐ commercial breaks, bits of info﹐ fragments of data﹐ alerts﹐ messages﹐signals picked up by chance during our daring our daily walks﹐ these things constitute the environment we move around in. Further﹐they offer a preeminent referential framework for the many decisions﹐ actions and fantasies that punctuate our days and nights. Wang Du has a wonderful phrase that expresses that encroachment on life’s time and space by the information sphere﹐” The media are the air﹐ blood﹐ nearly everything we have lived.”1The media have a life of their own, like an autonomous organism﹐beyond any control Information is everywhere﹐ in real time. As Baudrillard sees it﹐information goes so far as to anticipate the event-or even take its place. “It is in the sphere of the media that we most clearly see events short-circuited by their immediate image feedback.’2yood yood Humanity’s entrance into the information age has generated all kinds of hyperbolic pro-phecies and conspiracy theories. Zealots and denigrators of the revolution in information transmission and processing technologies have more or less come together on one point﹐namely﹐that this omnipotent network for creating﹐transmitting and stoking information has given rise to world which in itself—a digital world. This cyber-revolution is stamped by the omnipotence of the image. Today﹐ a piece of information is above all an image. Thus﹐in a fresh outbreak of the confrontation between new iconoclasts and eternal iconophiles around the founding iconoclash of September 11﹐the information image has been established once and for all as an absolute commodity. Abundantly available﹐constantly renewed﹐used by its very adversaries﹐and buried by the richest man in the world deep underground in ancient mines﹐like a mausoleum dedicated to the memory of human history.yood yood If we broaden its sense to include advertising and propaganda, the information image is what Wang Du in fact works with. It is the raw material of his activity as an artist﹐who completely reconfigured his work in terms of its concepts﹐methods and forms in the early 1990s (when he arrived in the West) ﹐seriously taking into account these new reference point of the contemporary word. Dubbing his workplace in the outskirts of Paris the “Wang Du Studio﹐” he devised an eloquent name for where he lives and works﹐locating himself at an original juncture of the flow of information and production of forms.yood yood Like a corporate name or a brand﹐Wang Du Studio offers the advantage of generating a multiplicity of meanings that are highly significant of art’s role and place in the word. In the American sense of the word﹐”Studio” challenges the myth of the artist’s atelier, endlessly renewed since the Renaissance as a secret closed-off place where the alchemy of artistic creation is carried out. The studio Wang Du is referring to is rather that strategic﹐crucial locus of the world of communications. Radio and television studios, venues for broadcasting the evening news and film stages﹐dubbing or editing rooms﹐or special-effects labs are factories in a global network. Setting up the tools of his trade in the grand framework of a former mid-sized business﹐Wang Du has thus created his very own artist’s factory﹐just as Godard sees his filmmaking as a small craftsman’s workshop vis-à-vis the entertainment industry. The Wang Du Studio mischievously pits itself against the symbolic strongholds of the news business and the mythic zed﹐endemic enclosures dotting the hills of Hollywood. Where major studios reformulate each day an ideal reality in an ever-growing proximity to the economy and politics.yood yood Information comes in each day to the studio via newspapers, the mail﹐e-mails﹐the images on TV screens and computers .Wang Du assimilates﹐blends﹐digests and reworks this info. It is the artist’s job to produce forms that convey a certain conception of the world .Form is a vehicle for ideas. Plastic choices that preside over what the form comes to look like-techniques﹐material﹐colors-evince the specificity of artistic activity vis-à-vis the wider filed of the culture industry﹐which economic laws and marketing strategies are increasingly trying to force it into. Art stands apart form information in that it could never simply content itself with merely copying reality. If Wang Du sees himself as〝the journalist〞by inventing an ultimate media role for himself and taking up his place at the end of the information assembly line, he conceptually displaces the journalist’s working methods by symbolically bringing them into his own territory as an artist. He sets other speeds against the instantaneousness characterizing journalism today. The artist harbors a paradoxical resistance then (one that is at the same time productive of meaning) to the advantages that are commonly offered by computer technologies these days. Yet we find no nostalgic anxiety with regard to the traditions of the artist’s〝craft〞The techniques employed by Wang Du are a function of the piece’s scale, from the sculptor’s traditional modeling to outsourcing a project to a factory. Whether they are produces in the studio or are delivered there in a container﹐his 3-D images are very much created conceptually in the Wang Du Studio﹐taken as a recycling center for media materials.yood yood Wang Du is Rodin with an additional century of mass media. There is the same ambition on the artist’s part to place himself at the very heart of society and in synch with his times, like a great popular maker of images for the myths and fantasies that characterize the contemporary world, in a direct address to his day and age .Beside the plaster and latex molds, the body parts and objects cast in resin, the Wang Du Studio is cluttered with piles and teetering heaps of newspapers and magazines of every kind. Concretely and metaphorically﹐the press review is the first phase of the artist’s recycling work﹐that ecology of images that Wang Du engages in daily. He thought it would be a fun idea﹐moreover, to have himself photographed at a bookseller’s dressed in a parathion for an installation of his﹐Mon Kiosque,2000.The piece offered a series of images taken from French newspapers dating from 15 July, the day after Bastille Day﹐ and treating both France’s national holiday and Tom Cruise’s latest film. This banal phase of buying newspapers, indiscriminately in this case in order to take in the whole diversity and heterogeneity of the press, is so thoroughly a part of the process of Wang Du’s work that he traveled specifically to China that same year with sole aim of buying as many armament magazines and bellicose military reviews as possible to use as reference sources for Defile, 2000. yood yood Like a press editor-in-chief, Wang Du pages through﹐selects and cuts out information or advertising photographs, which are not his work of course and which go to form the models for his art. The artist acts like an assembler of information who scans a myriad of sources to put together a blog﹐ a casual rearrangement of information produced by others, of second-hand information another words. Marche aux puces﹐mise en vented’informations d’occasion﹐1998-1999﹐is thus designed as a great merchant’s stall where one can find side, in accordance with no other logic than what vulgarity and the spectacular dictate, ultra-famous actors and anonymous stars-for-a-day figuring in “current” events that are already out of date. From the trashcans of the mass media, the artist as rag-and-bone man salvages scraps of images that are the result of an overabundance in the supply of information. The methods are not those that are taught in journalism schools and which figure prominently in the code of ethics the professional media. Wang Du is more of a practitioner of a new form of Gonzo journalism as it has been renewed in the past few years by amateur loggers on the internet, who create their own information websites with neither a press card nor any claim of objectivity or verification of their sources-quite the opposite.yood yood “I want to be a media.” When Wang Du came up with this willful and now famous declaration in the grand tradition of artists' of artist’ statements﹐he was of course openly refer-ring to Warhol and his ambitions to be a press baron and producer of cable television﹐ rather than the Pop side of the American artist. But above all, Wang Du was placing him-self at the very heart of current theoretical and practical developments in the information system, precisely when, according to Ignacio Ramonet﹐the founding event of a new informational equation was playing out﹐i.e.﹐ during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. That mixes of deviant fairytale and saga marks the sudden emergence of a new medium. It was in fact Matt Drudge’s internet site (The Drudge Report﹐where gossip, leaks﹐off-the-record remarks and unsubstantiated rumors are published) that revealed the affair, scooping the major media.3 There now appeared on the public scene a new media operator﹐the self-media, who was coming into his own as the global information age was starting.yood yood The self-media is an autonomous﹐individual entity that produces and broadcasts informational materials outside the professional sphere of the mass media.4 It was theorized as early as 1973 by Jean Cloudier﹐ a sociologist of communications from Quebec who﹐ in the face of Marshall McLuhan’s cool 〝The Medium is the Message﹐〞proposed a humanist alternative to place man once again at the center of the communicational network. It was in the field of artistic activities﹐however﹐that self-media was first created﹐specifically by David Lamelas in 1968 at the Venice Biennial with his installation Office of information about the Vietnam War at three levels: the visual image﹐text and audio.5 After these two inspired precursors﹐however﹐we can simply fold time over itself and shift to the second half of the 1990s﹐when it is clear that the self-media truly began to develop﹐thanks to an opportunity that was historical﹐technological and theoretical all at once. The self-media is a response to two things﹐the convergence of and new accessibility to communication tools and techniques﹐and the worldwide awareness of the need for a civic alternative to the monopoly of the imaginary exercised by the mass-media system﹐which contributes to genuine representational deficits﹐what Serge Daney called the〝missing image.〞yood yood In his way﹐Wang Du was fashioning his concept of the artist as self-media at the same time as a number of other artists who were active in this regard﹐including Pierre Huyghe and his Mobil TV﹐created with melik Ohanian in 1995 and 1998﹔Lincoln Tobier and Rirkrit Tiravanja and Radio Printemps＆... in 1996 and Polyradiobuket in 2000﹔Gregory Green and his M.I.T.A.R.B.U. in 2000﹔Bruno Serralongue and his activity as a fake news reporter in Corse-Matin in 1997 and Jornal do Brasil in 1999﹔and his frequent recycling of events or taking the mechanisms of the mass media hostage.yood yood Like them﹐Wang Du is not a 〝critical〞artist. He works in a place that lies beyond the critical and does not kit himself out in the showy rags of the 〝activist〞artist. He has adopted a no dogmatic position in order to bring to light the reality of our times through media imagery taken as reality itself. Acting as the media′s double﹐he pretends to accept the duplicity in order to get beyond morality by taking propaganda images as his models. The media are imbued with the dual logic that marks all instances of power in hypermodern society﹐infusing information﹐and the procedures involve in the production of information﹐with ambivalence. It is the ambivalence of information that is﹐now more than ever﹐indispensable to the proper functioning of democracy while being an agent in the construction of consent and the control of public opinion through the mechanisms of propaganda. To shed light on that world﹐that place beyond candid morality﹐you have to experience the produce media short-circuits. You have to enter the false image to be able to point out the truth of the system.yood yood It is Wang Du’ s selection of information(i.e.﹐the〝giving of form to〞﹐if we go back to the etymology of the them) that renders that sense. His sculpture reproduces the initial framing of the image selected by the photographer﹐whom the artist identifies with. But the artist also acts﹐using fragmentation but in terms of volume﹐i.e.﹐in a much more physical and spectacular way. Rendered in three dimensions﹐the distortions produced by the optical aberrations of the media′s deforming lens generate images that are monstrous﹐grotesque﹐obscene﹐like a swelling of the object-images that make up the information show business. This process of re-presentation allows Wang Du to bluntly lay bare the spectacle of reality.yood yood The artist′s formal strategy here of enlarging the characteristics of media products logically leads Wang Du to play on the notions of scale and monumentality. He wild expansion or contraction of media icons allows him to vehemently slap them with a kind of comical infamy﹐one victim of which is the great commander George W .Bush in We′re Smoking Them Out! ﹐2002. Starting with the highly heroic tale of one ideal day at the White House﹐Wang Du offers up a caricature that is filled with sadistic salutary humor. This kind of shaping practiced by the artist offers a stark contrast with the formatting of information.yood yood Since 2001﹐alongside the plastic surgery he performs on images﹐Wang Du has also applied his monumental enlargements to the very pages of the newspaper or the cover of magazines. In this case﹐it′s no longer the figure that is removed from the image and given its volumetric treatment﹐but the simple page that shifts from its superficial flatness to a volume that is literally sculptural﹐in an eloquent mastery of the different phases of this eminently plastic art. In a moment of skeptical reflection on the original material that he is endlessly manipulating﹐Wang Du crumples up the sheet of paper into a ball﹐like the kind we intend to toss in the wastepaper basket. To that act of negating information as well as affirming the extremely fleeting and volatile character of daily news﹐Wang Du now began to apply his method of playing with scale. In Lure popularize﹐2001﹐the front page of Le Monde or the cover of Newsweek﹐properly enlarged﹐became giant balls of paper in an unstable topography made up of a myriad of crumpled newspapers tipped out into the exhibition space. The implacable proof of gigantism invites viewers to immerse themselves in the world of the media and its images. This idea of navigating the space of communication was renewed with Le Tapes due pieton﹐2003﹐which features a straightforward metaphor of the collapse of the Twins Towers by transposing the gesture of trampling a magazine under foot into both a sculpture-generating procedure and an experience of the work of art﹐offered to the heels of passing visitors. Then there is World Markets﹐2004﹐a stainless steel monster as impervious to rust as the ideology of the all-powerful market conveyed by that daily bible of the capitalist economy﹐The Wall Street Journal. Since the information universe has become industrialized﹐the artist may turn to industrial production procedures.yood yood Wang Du has carried out a highly personal synthesis of the various propaganda models he has come to know throughout his life﹐either in China﹐Europe or the United States The principle behind his Défilé﹐for example﹐consisted in bringing Chinese propaganda onto American territory(at the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery) ﹐ironically transforming himself into its messenger. The like between arms and toys that he made use of in this way recalls the many points in common and ties of economic dependence that connect these two superpowers in a symbiotic relationship﹐as Slavoj Zizek has clearly demonstrated.6 While the main source of American products﹐Including toys﹐China is inventing in its press a virtual arsenal﹐a paper army the Wang Du gives shape to while revealing the artifices of disinformation.yood yood To avoid reiterating certain Chomskyian tics﹐7 rather than use the term propaganda we might employ a brand-new neologism to conjure up Wang Du more accurately﹐i.e. ﹐Infoganda﹐which dates from 2004. The etymology of the term is obvious﹐fitting the 〝info-〞of information onto the 〝-ganda〞of propaganda. Apparently the term was coined by one Bob Corduroy(on The Daily Show of 17 March 2004) ﹐who was making a clear-eyed assessment of the expansion of faux journalism at the expense of the real﹐trustworthy kind. Infoganda involves the production of rigged news. It can be defined as the act of using public information networks in a deceptive﹐underhanded way﹐or with the intention to harm﹐in order to broadcast an apparently plausible﹐hidden propagandist message. One can easily imagine how this infoganda can readily spread through public opinion like a meme﹐that unity of information that reproduces itself and independently propagates like a gene.8 In a suspicious era characterized by a wave of information of doubtful veracity﹐in the face of this crisis of uncontrolled communicational madness of doubtful veracity﹐in the face of this crisis of uncontrolled communicational madness﹐WangDu’s answer lies in No Comment(2001) ﹐an immense trashcan that makes clear the perishable nature of the newspapers﹐television sets turned to Euronews and computers filling it. We find ourselves here at the point where various streams of images cross paths﹐at the very heart of the artist’s activity﹐confronted by his capacity to transform informational material. Wang Du place side by side a future as commodity for information and a future as a world to itself for this absolute commodity Intox [brainwashing] or info? Infox!yood yood 1.Wang Du﹐interview with Pierre Bal-Blanc and Pascal Beausse﹐Wang Du Magazine(Paris: Design Mental﹐2001) ﹐214.yood 2.Jean Baudrillard﹐Le Pacte de lucidité﹐ou I’intelligence du mal(Paris: Editions Galilée 2004) ﹐104.yood 3.Cf. lgnacio Ramonet﹐La Tyrannie de la communication (Paris: Editions Galilée﹐1999) ﹐18-22.yood 4.See Pascal Beausse﹐〝Information-Inquiries into the Real and the Self-media﹐〞in Contemporary Practices: Art as Experience (Paris: Dis Voir﹐Paris﹐1999).yood 5.See Pascal Beausse﹐〝petite histoire du self-média〞In Media Res(Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes﹐2003).yood 6.Slavoj Zizek﹐〝Welcome to the Desert of the Real﹐〞Lacanian Ink 16(New York,2000).yood 7.See in particular Noam Chomsky﹐Propaganda(Paris: Editions du Félin/Danger Public﹐2002)；and the CD﹐Noam Chomsky﹐Propaganda and Control of the Public Mind(San Francisco: AK Press﹐2002).yood 8.See Richard Dawkins﹐The Selfish Gene(Oxford: Oxford University Press 1992). First edition published in 1976. |
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