Chen Zhen - Muzej suvremene umjetnosti Zagreb

ŽelimirJackie-RuthKoščevićMeyerJeromeSansNada BerošLe Silence SonoreZvonka tišinaSonorousSilenceChenZhenl.Pl ']"1' \( ;"1'

Chen ZhenLe Silence SonoreZvonka tišinaSonorousSilenceŽelimirKoščevićJackie-RuthMeyerJeromeSansHada BerošJardrn lavotr, Cirnaise &. Pornque, Centre departemental d'art contcmporam. Albi25·3- • 28. 5. 2000.Šest vrela, Muzej suvremene umjetnosti, Zagreb28 S· - 7 7. 2000

Želimir Koščević Six sources Pour Chen Zhen le monde n'est pas un objet.II n'est pas non plus l'equlvalent dc l'activitćreflextve du sujet, si typtque du systeme dc pensće occidental. De la rnanlere dont Chenle VOlt, le monde est en premier lieu l'etat energetlque gou verne par lc courant qui passeentre les forces polaires qu'on nous concedera de nommer ym et yang. Le caractere deces forces qUI se meuvent dans ce courant circulaire perpetuel est quastmcnt Impe-nettableil la "raison prattque". mars stimulant pour celui qui soupconne que derriere la facultede connaissance. la faculte de sensation et la faculte de desir se cache quelque chosede plus.L'art occidental nn-aussr a toujours man tre ce "quelque chose", qui restatt cependanlincornpris: ce probleme. de rneme que le def qu'il suscite. etait en general esthense.c'est-a-due mis a l'ecart et rejete hors du champ de la reflexion philosophique serteuse,Les prernters Grecs. ceux d'avant Socrate. avaient mčrne pressenti quelque chose, maisus se sont "develcppes" ensurte, de sorte que retre et la nature, a travers une suite demodifications, d'ćcoles el de dlsciphnes, nous sont parvenus dans une version confuse.c'est le moms qu'on pursse dire."eu unporte le moment prects auquel cela s'est produit. et quai qu'tl en soil, au sterleprecćdent, c'est-a-dire au XXe, des change ments importants ont eu lieu qui ont remis enquestion le systeme occidental de reflexton et de perception du monde. II ne s'agtssattpas seulement de l'examen profond de sa propre conscience, mais aussr de retargtssementdes connatssances et de l'ennchrssement de la sensi bih te europeenne grace auxapports d'expenences differentes. africatne. uaruenne. latino-arnerlcalne. abongene,hindou, tao.ste. zen. etc L'rdee post-moderne. a savoir europeenne, et a. l'heure actuellernondralement admtse. dc la fin de l'histoire est une consequence logique de cetteexpansion horizontale et cette percee verttcale. Apres un seneux examen cntrque desvaleurs mais aussr des vrcissltudes de la multitude de theories post-rnodemes. c'est lecoeur net que ron peut s'approcher avec intelhgence des sources de l'insplratron creatrice de Chen Zhen.Au cours d'un entrettcn avec Chen Zhen sur sa concepnon de rette exposttton au Museed'art contemporain de Zagreb, qui a rnaintenant son debut et sa fin, Je supposars. aveciguorance et de rnanrćre typrque pour l'ćducatron que {ai recue, que sl l'installation d'uncyrle de SIX ensembles commence avec la mćtaphorc poettco-plusttque de la narssance.alors . necessalrcrncnt - ta mort dort en etre la fin. Chen a irnrnedtaterncnt rectifie mameprtse. Non - a-t-il dit . non pas la mort, mais la fin. Si ron considere que rnčme le cornmencementn'est pas preosernent defini, entre ce que I'on pounart appeler commencement et ce qui pourrart etre deslgne comme la fin. on obttent l'espace fascmant ct suggestude l'Intervalle, qui est "etre entre". c'est-a dire la defirutton sputtuelle fondarnentale,elle ausst partialement spatiale. du vide en questionL'Occident excclle a donner des definitions de tout et de lous. Jal bien des dlffrcultes ilctesser mon travail il l'tntertcur d'une telle logrque. Plus que par la forme de l'assernblage,du collage ou de l'installatton. JC SUIS tnteresse par ce qUI les compose. Mes"recettes chmotses", Je les compose a. partu du choix tres soigneux des elements que {me1usdans la composition" 1 Avec son experience de graveur d'lvotre acquise a l'Ecole desArts Appllques de Shanghai, et il partir de l'amas de l'ensernble des expčnences his-

tortques et spirituelles chlnolses. sans oublier lei l'epoque stntstre de la revolution eulturelte,il n'a en effet pas ete faciJe pour Chen de comprendre la reduction posltlvlste del'Occldent. mais il a entičrernent accepte le def! de son nouvel environnement. Parchance, depuis 1986, c'etait Paris, ou il vit toujours. Le probleme qui a pu etre dairementapprehende des cette epoque venait de la crise de la theorie et la pratique de l'tntcrtextuallte,a savoir du "cut-de-sac intertextuel" de "l'irnpasse tntertextuelle'". Avec sa senstbthte presque incroyablement precise et par ses projets d'installattons destmćs a desespaces rigoureusement defrms. comme c'est le eas du projet "Les six sources" pour leMusee d'Art Contemporain de Zagreb. l'artiste a opte pour une contextualisation beaucoupplus vaste de ses installations - et Je dirats beaucoup plus libre.L'intercontextualitedont par1e N. Zurbrugg, et que Chen Zhen prend pour la base de sa strategte creatrtce.l'incrte non seulement oi la cornprehension profonde de I'espace accorde a ses futuresinstallations, mais aUSSIbien a donner un sens vital nouveau a chaque detail indus dansl'ensemble de l'mstattntton. En apparenee chaotique, polymorphe et equrvoque. un telensemble, en tant que communaute de diverses "vies" et "experiences", invite a un dialoguecornplexe. Puisqu'i1 s'aglt d'ensernbles d'mstallatlons dans lesquels sonl indus denombreux details reconnaissables qui renvoienl a la narratlvlte, il faut dire qu'il s'agtt lad'un ptege qui protege le sacre profond de I'oeuvre du regard profane. tart chf nots. maisausst l'art europeen, connatssent les mecanlsmes de protection de leur tntegrnć spin.tuelle et de leur puissance energetique. qui sont bien caches la ou evidernrnent on ne lesvoit pas. Dans ce Jeu de cache-cache, l'art chinois a atteint un haut degre de raffinement.11ne s'est jamais voue a representer une objecuvtte donnee. mais par sa ptasucnć.soigneusement prčservee dans les rouleaux, II ouvrart les portes. presque ntuellernent.a des platsrrs estnenques parttculters. a la contemplalion, a rčveu de sentiments nobleset de I'harmonie morale qui fait partie des prtncrpes du tao.Donc, lorsque Chen dil: "L'art n'est pas narrateur et il n'a pas besoln de s'trnposer auspectateur. Lorsque dans sa rencontre avec l'oeuvre d'art. le spectateur se demande cequ'tl volt.roeuvre lui renvore la question: Qui es-tu? Autrement dil. devant l'oeuvre d'artle spectateur est son propre rnaltre'S. On envisage une toute autre strategte de l'actecreateur, je ditais mem e contraire aux strategies creatrtces de la post-rnodemite. Al'en.contre de l'tdee trequente. et typiquement europćcnne. qui veut que la tradition (dans leeas present. la tradition du modernisme) soit non seulement abandonnće. mais encoreoemoue. Chen defend et renouvelle. par sa proposition d'une stratćgte d'tntercontextualite et par I'emploi qu'tl en fait dans sa pratique artistique. le principe constructif.Certes. il n'est pas question iei du renouvellement de I'idće constructive du typeeuropeen. mais de la creation, dans le vide rempli par l'intervalle rnentionne ci-dessus,d'un champ positivement charge, Dans ce champ se deroule tout, les questions et lesreponses fondamentales. les Iormations et les transformations, les processus de differenceset de "differenciations" ainsi que et les condiuons fondamentales qui lient laperception et l'expenence dans un ensemble unique et harmonieux ou elles se realtsent.Dans un certain sens, II est pcssible de comprendre les installations de Chen Zhencomme des indications a travers lesquelles il onente vers le bon chemin l'attentton decelui qui "utilise", ou rencontre son oeuvre4. Chen ne cache pas, bien au contraire, IIsouligne, que ses oeuvres peuvent etre considerees. dans leur sens rneditattt et

therapeutrque. comme un petit apport de la medeone ctunoise au systeme de lamedectne occidentale. 11parle de ses oeuvres comme des "recettes chmoises" et de lu i-metne il dil: "J'espere deventr un jour docteur en rnedecine chinoise tradmonnelle.Il estpossible que ce salt mon projet le plus ambitieux pour les dix prochaines annees" Danscette pratique que Chen ambitionne, comme dans celte. unique ment artistique, qui a etela srenne [usqu'a present. cc n'est pas la chimie qui compte, JI n'y est plus questiond'alclumie. cella-ci etant drsstrnulee en Europe depuis le siecle des turmeres. La spmtualitedu XXe siecle a decouvert ses qualites a un autre nivea u, et aujourd'hui, lorsquenous parlons retrospecttvernent de l'art du siecle dernier, !'importance et la valeur de sacomposante spintuelle. par ailleurs assez negligee, s'accroit et devrent plus ma ifeste.L'irnaginatron et la rneditauon ont eu dans le pJOcessus alchimique une significationpartrcuhere. el cela nous rcnvote au coeur mčrne de la stratćgre creatnce de Chen Zhen,c'est-a-dire il l'inter-contextuahte et au probleme de l'intervalle.II irnpone certainement de parler iei d'ecologie. d'une nouvelle sorte de narrattviteinteractive ct de la nćcessite de redefirur d'une facon critique les egarernents est hetiqueset theortques qui se sont rnanifcstes notam ment au cours des trois dernieresdćcenntes du XXe siecle. Il semble que petit a petit rnurisse le savoir sur le Trou Noirdanslequel se trouventl'Europe CI l'Occldent: et s'tl y a quelque chose de posluf dans l'ćpoquemorose des trans-avant gardes et des prattques retro, c'est alors ce relativisme devantlequel a du ceder la defense inebranlable des postttons esthettques doctrina leseuropeennes (et amertcatnes. en particulier!). Du point de vue de Chen Zhen et de sa pratrqueartistique. l'idee de remplacer la reahte par sa simulation est tout simplementridicule. La sagesse chinoise percevatt la realtte de Iacon beaucoup trop complexe pourque cene-cr puisse etre reduitc simplement il son apparence digitale. La geographte etl'origine. dans la cacophonie que nous auscu1tons sur la scene artistique conternporaine.n'ont presque pas de poids. Ce qui est important, ce sont les energies qui s'interpenetrent.L'exposition de Chen Zhen au Musee d'Art Contemporain de Zagreb est lefruit d'une telle lnterpenetratlon. Avec Albi, ville du sud de la France.Iieu d'une et rangehistoire heretrque. avec l'aide de Nehama Guralnik, conservatnce au Musee d'Art deTelAviv, de l'Autnchien Robert Fleck, directeur de l'Bcole Rćgionale d'Art 3 Nantes et debeaucoup d'autres, Chen Zhen a reussi a creer le puissant champ energčnque derectprocne au milieu duquel se trouve son oeuvre. Si ron accepte cette oeuvre commeune sorte de therapie et une occasion de rnediter. elle remphra sa fonet ion. Demanderplus a Cet artiste seratt exagere, car il n'est. apres tout, qu'un etre humam, Mais presqueimperceptiblernent, II nous donne a penser que:La profondeur est le fond de la surface,La paix est le fond du mouvement.Lao-Tseu9

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CHE H ZHENNe en 1955 a Shanghai en Chi ne. il vit et travaille a Pans. JRođen je 1955.g. II Šangaju II Kini, živi i radi II Parizu. /Born in 1955 in Shanghai, China, lives and works in Paris.1998 "Annie Wang Foundation for Artr.Hong Kong1999 "Annie Wang Foundation for Art". Hong KongExpositions personelles I Samostalne izložbe I PersonalExhibitions1973 AI Shanghai rine Arts and Craft School1976 Professor al Shanghai Fine Arts and Craft School1978 At Shanghai Drama Institute. speciality: stage design1982 Professor at Shanghai Drama Institute1986 At Ecole Nationale Superteure des Beaux-Arts ofParis1989 Al Institut des Hautes Etudes en Arts Plastiques ofParis1991 Visiting artist-professor at Ecole Nationale Superieuredes Beaux-Arts of Paris1993 - 1995 Professor at Institut des Hautes Etudes en ArtsPlastlquesof Paris]997 Visiting professor at CCA, Center for ContemporaryArt. Kitakyushu1995 - 99 Professor at Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts ofNancyGrants and Prizes19891990199119921993199519961997L'fnstitut des Hautes Etudes en Arts Plastiques of parts.ParisThe Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New YorkErwin und Glsela von Steiner Foundation, Munich"Fonds d'lncltation a la Creation, Ministere de laCulture Prancalse, Paris"Fonds d'Inotatron a la Creation, Ministere de laCulture Prancalse, ParisThe Pollock Krasner Foundation, New York"Penny McCall Foundation", Ne\ .... r York"Ponds d'Incitation a la Creation", Ministere de laCulture Prancalse. Pans"Penny McCaU Foundation", New York'97 Kwangju Biennale Award1990 "Chen Zhen", Hangar 028, Paris, with the collaborationof Musee Departemental des Vosges (cat}1991 "Chen Zhen", Valentina Moncada Gallery, Rome (cat)"Chen Zhen", Ecole Nationale Superteure des Beaux-Arts of Paris (cat)"MomiJication of Ready-made", Dany Keller Gallery,Munich1992 "Re-birth Door", Espaces des Arts, Colomiers (cat)"Objects lIIuminated during the NIght': vrvtta Gallery,Florence"Sleeping Tao", Le Magasin, Centre National d'ArtContemporain de Grenoble, Grenoble (cat)"Future Eruptton". Arts 04, Centre d'Art Conternporalnde St-Remy-de-Provence (cat)1993 'Potyrnorpn". Michel Rein Gallery, Tours"Light of Conjession". Centraal Museum, Utrecht"Room of Altars~, Lumen Travo Gallery. Amsterdam"The Fire - Wateras a Purification~ Dany Keller Gallery,Munich1994 "Fieldoj Waste",The New Museum ot ContemporaryArt. New York (video-cat)"Chen Zhen", Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts of Nancy1995 "Field of Purificatton". Ghislaine Hussenot Gallery, Paris"No Way to Sky, No Door to Earth", Jean BernierGallery, Athens1996 nOally tncantattons". Deitch Projects, New York"Permanent Diqestiot:". Musee Leon Dlerx. La Reunion(cat)"Chen Zhen~ Centre International d'Art Contemporain,Montreal (cat)1997 nFu Dao I Fu Dao, Upsr'de-down Buddha I Arrival atGood Forture", CCA, Center for Contemporary Art,Kitakyushu (book)1998 "Chen Zhen and Ken tum". Catriona Jeffries Gallery,Vancouver106

"ln(ter)jedion: Chen Zhen and Nari Ward", in theframework of ~Archipelago: Crash Between Islands-Stockholm, Cultural Capital of Europe 'g8: NationalMaritime Museum, Stockholm (cat)"Jue Chang / Fifty stroees to Each", Tel AVIv Museumof Art, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for ContemporaryArt, Tel AVIV(cat)"Between Therapy and Meditation ~ GhislaineHussenol Gallery. Paris1999 "Between rnerapy and MeditatIOn ~ ADDC EspaceCulturel Francois Mitterand, Pengueux (cat)2000 HNightly tmprecauon". Art & Publlc. GenevaH/n Praise of Blad? Magic", GI\M, Galleria Crvića d'ArteModerna e Conternporanea, Turin (cat)"tardtn tavan". Cima ise & Portique - CentreDepartementa! d'Art Contemporaln. Albi (cal)"Six Roots", curated by Želimir Koščević, MOCAMuseum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (cat)"Dancrng Body Drumming Mind~ Deitch Projects. NewYork"FIeld oj SynprgyH, Continua Gallery. San Gimignano"One Bed, Different Dreams", Ghislaine HussenatGallery (FtAC), Pans"The ritual mustc - Daily Incantations", Museum of theMusic, Pans''jon'', cu rated by Jerome Sans, Gallery des Archives,Paris"la tecnnotoqte dans ran". vivua Gallery, Florenceapa~aggio con eovtne". curated by Achille BOnitoOliva, Museo Civico dl Arte Conternporanea. Grbellma(cat)1993 "Enerqotopes", curated by Demosthenes Davvetas.French Institute of Athens, Centre d'Art ConternporamIleana Tounla of Athens and French Inslitute ofSalontque (cat)Pl?OSPECT 1993, Frankfurter Kunstverein and SchirnKunsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt (cat)"PI6tzJichist eine Zp;t hereingebrochen, in der allesmoglJch sein some: curated by Udo Kulterman,Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Ludwigsburg"Devantle fut ur". rurated by Pontus Hulten. "TaejonExpO'93" (cal)"tresots de Voyage", curated by Adelina vonFurstenberg, Venice Biennial (cat)'Before the sound of the beep : a Parisian exhibition v,curated by Jerome Sans, 22 gallertes. Paris (cat)"Concession perpetueile", Museum Leon Dlerx. LaReunion (cat)"Ine Sstent tnerqy", curated by David Elliot. TheMuseum of Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (cat)Expositions collectives I Grupne izložbe I CollectiveExhibitions1990 "taboratotre". curated by Pontus Hulten, RussiaMuseum, St. Petersburg (cat)"Ctnne Demain Pour Hier". curated by Fei Da-WetPourriete (cat)"Von mir aus~,Dany Keller Gallery, Munich (cat)~Sous le siqne de ...H, Centre Lotois d'Art Conternporam.Plgeac (cat)"Parrours Prlves", curated by Adelina von Furstenberg,Pans (cat)"L'An de la Lecture". FRAC. Alsace (cat)"fast vvtnd", Asian American Art's Center, New York"Al1ocatieslAllocations - Art for a natural and arti/,cia!environment': cura led by Maria-Rosa uoezem. plortadeden Haag-Zcetermeer (cat)19941995"kencontres dans un coutotr". curated by Hou Hamu, 12Rue Lacordatre Isere, Paris"Thalatta, Thalatta~ curated by Achille Bonito Oliva,Museo Internazionale d'Arte Contemporanea, Termo"(cat)HVlennese Story~ curated by Jerome Sans, WIenersecession, Vienna (cat)"L'a::uv,e a-t-elle lieu!", curated by Daniel Buren, wrttede With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (cat)"Jnattre parole", Valentina Moncada Gallery, Rome"Out oJ the Centre", curated by Hou Hamu and Jan-Pekka Vanhala, Pari Art Museum (cat)"te Shuttle", Kunstlerhaus Betharuen Berlin. Berlin"Heart oj Darkness~ cura led by Marianne Brouwer,Krollcr-Muller Museum, Ottcrlo (cat)"Dialogue de Paix", curated by Adelma vonFurstenberg. Palais des Nations Urues, Geneva (cat)"25 Jahre Gaiene". Dany Keller Gallery (cat)107

"Joe BOUTse d'Art Monumental d'tvry", Centre d'ArttheEdge oj Awareness", organised by Art for theContemporain d'lvry.Ivry (cat)World, Headquartersof WHO, Geneva; P.S.l''On Board". cura ted by Jerome Sans and Karin Schorm.ContemporaryArt Center, New York and SESCdevernce Biennial (cat)Pompela. Sao Paulo, (cat)·Shoppmg~. CAPC Musee d'art contemporain de"Cities on the Moves: curatcd by Hans Ulnch ObristBordeaux (cal)and Hou Hamu, CAPC Musee d'art contemporain de"Aperto 95~ LeNouveau Musee, villeurbanne (cat)Bordeaux, Bordeaux; P.5.1ContemporaryArt"Dada-etuxvs.recno". vtvrra Gallery. FlorenceCentre, New York"Jn/ra sound", curated by Jerome Sans. Woche die'The Ouiet 111The tana", curated by France Morin, ICA,Bildenden Kunst, Hamburg(cat)Boston·,st ShanghaI Art Bienrual". Shanghai Art Museum."Desire of Home". KunsthalleTyrol, TyrolShanghai(cati"Ist Biennale de Montreal':curated by Claude Cossehn."Artistes Fran9ars de A ci Z", Gabrielle Maubrie Gallery.MontrealPans"J998 Taipei Biennial: Site of Desire". curated by Fumio"Shopping", Dettch Projects. New York (cat)Nanja, Taipei Fine Arts Museum(cat)"Si/es et Artis/es", Vili ette-Amazone, Paris (cat)"Globa' Vision nel'.' art from the 90'S': curated by"onqm and Myths o/Fire", The Museum of ModernKaterina Gregos, The Dakls Joannou Collection - DestcArt. Saitama(car}Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens (cat)"The Quiet Jn The Land", curatcd by France Monn,"Gare de VEs!", curated by Hall Hamu

"Street Life~,curated by Jerome Sans, Project RowHouse, Houston')rd Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art~Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane"xunstwette» im Dia/og", curated by Marc Scheps,Museum Ludwig, Cologne"The 1999 Carnegie tnternottonot", curated MadeleineGrynstejn, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh2000 "Art Grandeur Nature': Parc Departernental de laCourneuve, La Seine-Saint-Denis"The Quiet in the Land: Everyday Life, ContemporaryArt and Projeto Axe': curated by France Morin, MOMA,Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, Salvador"Paris-esca/e", curated by Hou l-lamu, EvelineJouanno. Marie-Sophie Carron and Aurelie Voltz, ARC,Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris"Collection", Ktrtslurna Open-Air Museum, Kagoshima"Continental Shift", Ludwig Forum, Aachen"Playground & Toys~ organised by Art for I he World,Musee de Croix Rouge, Geneva109

Entretien entre Jerome Sens et Chen Zhen, janvier 1999. Catalogue de l'expostttonpersonnel1e. NChen Zhen - entre thćrapte et međitation", Perigueux. Dordogne,le 10fevner- le 2 avril1999.2 C'est Nicholas Zurbrugg qui a amsi denomme cette crise dans son livre recemmentpublle: "Critrcal Vices - The Myths of Postmodern Theory". dans le chapitre intitule"The limits of tntertextuality". Edition G+B International, 2000, p, 34-35·Cite d'apres la lettre que Chen Zhen a envoye le zg janvier 1998 oiNehama Guralnlk,conservatnce au Musee d'Art de Tel Aviv. Reprodurte dans le catalogue de l'exposttronpersonnelIe de Chen Zhen au Musee d'art de Tel Aviv, Chen zhen- Jue Chang IFifty Strakes to Each, 7 mal - 18 [uillet 1998.4 Tao fut d'abord traduit en langues europeennes par "raison" ou "esprit suprerne" etpuis par "sens'cll a ete propose depuis cent cinquante ans deja de tradulre tao par lemot "chemin", et dans une variante ulteneure par "chemin du mouvement universel",et cette proposrtton me sem bl e appropriee pour comprendre I'art de ChenZhen. Cependant. il faut dire que le plein sens de tao est fondarnentalementintraduisible. car toute traduction ne transmet qu'une partie de sa signification.(ZW)10

ŽelimirKoščevićvSest vrela Za Chen Zhena svijet nije objekt. On čaknije niti korelat subjektivne misaone djelatnosti,toliko tipične za zapadni sustav mišljenja. Onako kako ga Chen vidi. svijet jeprije svega energetsko stanje kojim vlada tok polarnih snaga, sila koje s dopuštenjemimenujemo yin i yang. Narav tih sila koje se kreću II stalnom kružnom toku gotovo jenedokučiva "praktičnom umu", ali izazovna svakome tko iza moći saznanja. močiosjećanja i moci žudnje nasluti kako se tamo iza krije još nesto. I umjetnost Zapada nato je "nešto" stalno ukazivala, ali joj se nekako nije vjerovalo pa je problem zajedno sizazovom II pravilu estetiziran, to jest marginaliziran i izbačen iz sfere ozbiljnog filozofskogmišljenja. Rani su Grci, oni prije Sokrata, čak i naslutili nešto, ali su se kasnije"razvili", pa su ibitak i priroda, uz niz modiftkaclja. škola idisciplina, stigli do nas u jednoj,najblaže rečeno. zbunjujućoj verziji.Kada se to točno desilo. nije toliko važno, ali svakako u prošlom, to jest u 20. stoljeću.zbile su se ozbiljne promjene koje su zapadni sustav mišljenja i doživljavanja svijetadovele u pitanje. Nije u pitanju bilo samo dubinsko preispitivanje vlastite savjesti,nego i širenje spoznajnih horizonata i obogaćenje europskog osjetilnog iskustvadrukčijim: afričkim. iranskim, latino-američkim, aboridinskim, hinduističkim,taoistlčklm iskustvom, zenom i drugim. Postmodernistička, to jest. europska ideja okraju povijesti logična je posljedica te - za sada globalne - horizontalne ekspanzije i vertikalnogprodora, i nakon ozbiljnog kritičkog preispitivanja dosega, ali i promašaja obiljapostmoderruh teorija. može se čista srca i duše približiti razumijevanju vrela stvaralaCkognadahnuća Chen Zhena..Prilikom razgovora O koncepciji samostalne Izložbe Chen Zhena u MuzejU suvremeneumjetnosti u Zagrebu, koja sada ima svoj početak i svršetak, neuko sam i tipično zamoje opće obrazovanje pretpostavljao da ako instalacijski ciklus od šest cjelinazapočinje poetsko-plastičkom metaforom rodenja, tada - logično - smrt treba biti njensvršetak. Chen je odmah ispravio moju zabludu. Ne - rekao je - ne smrt. već svršetak.Uzme li se da baš ni početak nije suviše odreden, dobiva se nešto izmedu onoga što bise moglo nazvati početkom i onog što bi se moglo nazvati svršetkom, zamamni i izazovnimeđuprostor, a biti između temeljna je duhovna, a dijelom i prostorna odrednicate praznine."Zapad je sjajan u definiranju svega i svačeg. Imam dosta teikoća u klasifikaCiji svojegrada unutar takve logike. Od oblika asamblaia, kolaža ili tnstalaciie, više me zanima onood čega ih sastavljam. Svoje "Kineske recepte" sastavljam na temeiju vrlo pažljiva odabiraelemenata koje ugradujem u kampoziciiu, "I S iskustvom gravera u bjelokosti, sakupljenogna Školi za primijenjenu umjetnost u Šangaju i nakupina Cjelokupnogkineskog povijesnog i duhovnog iskustva, uključivši ovdje i nesretno vrijeme kulturnerevolucije, Chenu zaista nije bilo lako razumijeti pozttivističku isključivost Zapada, alije u cijelosti prihvatio izazov svog novog životnog okruženja. Srećom, to je od 1986.g .•bio Pariz, gdje i sada živi. Problem koji se već tada mogao jasno nazrijeti, proizlazio je izkrize teorije i prakse intertekstualnosti, odnosno "intertekstualne slijepe utice"2. 5 gotovonevjerovatnom preciznošću svog senzibiliteta i lnstalacijskirn projektima namijenjenimatočno određenim prostorima, što je slučaj i s Chenovim projektom "šest vrela"II

za Muzej suvremene umjetnosti u zagrebu, umjetnik se opredijelio za mnogo širu - arekao bih i mnogo slobodniju - kontekstualizaciju svojih instalacijskih ambijenata.Interkontekstualnost o kojoj govori N. Zurbrugg. i koju Chen Zhen uzima kao osnovusvoje kreativne strategije, potiče ga ne samo na temeljito razumijevanje zadanog prostoranjegove buduće instalacije, već i na potrebu da svakom ugrađenom detalju u instalacijskucjelinu dade novi iivotni smisao. Naizgled kaotična, polimorfna i višeznačna,takva cjelina kao zajednica različitih "života i "iskustava", otvara vrata slojevitom dijalogu.Budući da se radi o instalacijskirn cjelinama u koju su ugrađeni brojni prepoznatljividetalji koji upućuju na narativnost, treba reći da se radi o zamci koja dubinskusvetost djela štiti od profana pogleda. Kineska, a i europska umjetnost. poznaju instrumentezaštite svog duhovnog integriteta i energetskog potencijala, dobro skrivenogtamo gdje se očigledno ne vidi. U toj igri skrivača, kineska je umjetnost dosegla visokstupanj rafiniranosti. Ona se nikada nije iscrpljivala u prikazivanju određene predmetnosti,već je svojom likovnošću, pažljive spremljenom u svicima, gotovo ritualno otvaralavrata posebnim estetskim užicima, kontemplaciji, buđenju plemenitih osjećanja imoralne harmonije što je ugrađena u načelo tao-a.Stoga, kada Chen kaže - "Umjetnost nije priča lica i nema potrebe da se namece promatraču- kada se u susretu s umjetničkim djelom promatrač pita što je to što vidi, djelo muuzvraća protupitanjem: A tko si til Drugim riječima, pred umjetničkim djelom promatračje sam svoj majstor"3 - ima se na umu potpuno drukčija strategija kreativnog čina,a, rekao bih, i suprotna stvaralačkim strategijama postmodernizma. za razliku od uvriježenogi tipično europskog mišljenja, kojim se tradicija (u ovom slučaju tradicija modernizma)ne samo napušta. nego i ruši, Chen svojim prijedlogom strategije interkontekstualnostii njene primjene u svojoj umjetničkoj praksi. brani i obnavlja konstruktivniprincip. Ovdje, dakako, nije riječ o obnovi europskog tipa ideje konstruktivnosti,nego o stvaranju polja pozitivnog naboja u praznini, ispunjene ranije spomenutimmeđuprostorom. U tom se polju odvija sve, osnovna pitanja i protupltanja, tvorbe ipretvorbe, procesi razlikovanja i "razlukovanja". ostvarujući temeljne uvjete poveaivanjapercepcije i iskustva u jedinstvenu harmoničnu cjelinu.U izvjesnom smislu, instalacije Chen Zhena moguce je razumijeti kao naputak kojim sepažnja onoga koji "koristi", odnosno susreće njegovo djelo, upućuje na pravi putA Chenne krije, štoviše naglašava, da se njegova djela mogu u meditativnom i terapijskomsmislu smatrati malim doprinosom kineske medicine zdravstvenom sustavu Zapada.On o svojim djelima govori kao o "kineskim receptima", a sam za sebe kaže: "Nadam seda tu jednog dana postati liječnik tradicionalne kineske medicine. Toje vjerojatno mojnajambiciozniji projekt u sljedećih deset godina." U toj praksi kOJUChen priželjkuje, kaoi II njegovoj dosadašnjoj, i za sada samo umjetničkoj praksi, kemija nije bila nešto sačime se računa. Riječ je više o alkemiji. koja se nakon prosvjetiteljstva tek pritajila uIZEuropi. Duhovnost 20. stoljeća otkrila je njene kvalitete na drugoj razini, idanas kada IIretrospektivi govorimo o umjetnosti prošlog stoljeća, pokazuje se sve veća i većavažnost i vrijednost njezine, prilično zanemarene, spiritualne komponente.Imaginativnost i meditacija imali su u alkemijskom procesu posebno znaćanje. a ovonas vraća li samu srž kreativne strategije Chen Zhena, to jest na interkontekstualnost iproblemmeđuprostora.

Ovdje. dakako, treba govoriti i o ekologiji, novoj vrsti interaktivne narativnosti i potrebikritičkog redefiniranja estetskih iteorijskih zabluda. koje su posebno došle do izrazajaposljednjih tridesetak godina prošlog stoljeća. Čini se kako pomalo sazrijeva saznanjeo crnoj rupi u kojoj su se Zapad i Europa našli. i ako je išta bilo dobro II tom mračnomrazdoblju transavangardi i retro-prakse. onda je to bio relativizam pred kojim su ičvrsto branjenje pozicije europskih (i američkih, njih posebnoJ) estetskih doktrinamorale posustati. Iz pozicije Chen Zhena i njegove umjetničke prakse, ideja o zamjenistvarnosti njenom simulacijom naprosto je smiješna. Kineska mudrost vidjela jestvarnost mnogo kompleksnije, a da bi se mogla svesti samo na njen digitalni privid.Geografija i porijeklo II toj kakofoniji koju osiuškujemo na suvremenoj umjetničkojsceni gotovo su beznačajni. Važne su energije koje se prožtmaju, Izložba Chen Zhena uMuzeju suvremene umjetnosti u Zagrebu plod je takva prožfmanja. zajedno s gradomjužne Francuske, mjestom čudne heretičke povijesti, Albijem, uz pomoć NehameGuralnik, kustosice Umjetničkog muzeja u Tel Avivu, direktora pokrajinske Umjetničkeškole u Nantesu, Austrijanca Roberta Hecka i mnogih drugih, Chen Zhen je uspiostvoriti snažno energetsko polje uzajamnosti u čijem središtu stoji njegovo djelo.Prihvati li se to djelo kao jedna vrsta terapije i kao prilika za meditaciju, ono če ispunitisvoju funkciju. Tražiti više od tog umjetnika bilo bi pretjerano, jer I on je ljudsko biće.Ali gotovo neprimjetno dade nam misliti:Dubina je osnova površine.Mir je osnova kretanja.Lac-CeRazgovor Jerome Sans - Chen Zhen, siječanj 1999. Katalog samostalne izložbe "ChenZhen - entre therapte et meditation", Perigueux, Dordogne, 10. veljače. 2. travnja1999·2 Krizu je tako nazvao Nicholas Zurbrugg u svojoj nedavno objavljenoj knjizi "Criticalvtces - The Myths of Postmodern Theory", a u poglavlju naslovljenom "Thelimits of intertextualtty". Izdanje G+B International, zooo. slr. 34·35.citirano iz pisma što ga je Chen Zhen uputio 25. siječnja 1998. Neharni Guralnik, kustosiciUmjetničkog muzeja II Tel Avivu. Iz kataloga samostalne izložbe Chen Zhenau Umjetničkom muzeju u Tel Avivu. Chen Zhen - Jue Chang I Fifty Strakes to Each,7· svibnja- 18. srpnja 1998.Tao se isprva na europske jeztke prevodio kao "razum" ili "vrhovni um" a kasnije sa"smisao". Premda star više od stotinu i pedeset godina, prijedlog da se tao prevederiječju "put", i II kasnijoj varijanti kao "pUL sveopćeg kretanja", čini mi se prihvatljivijimza razumijevanje umjetnosti Chen Zhena. Ipak, treba reći, puni smisaotao-a II osnovi je neprevodiv, jer svaki prijevod sadržava tek dio njegovogznačenja.13

ŽelimirKoščevićSix roots To Chen Zhen, the world is not an object. ltis not even a correlate in the subjectivecontemplative process so typical of the Western way of thinking. Seen by Chen, theworld is above all a state of energy ruled by the flow of polar forces, forces which, ifwe may be permitted, we will name yin and yang. The nature of those endlessly drclingforces is almost unfathomable to the "practical mind", but it also poses a challengeto all who sense that there is something more hidden behind the power of cognisance,a power of feeling and a power of yeaming. And although the art of the Westkept indicating that "something", it was somehow never really believed. The ensuingresult was that the problem, and the accompanying challenge were, so to speak. aestheticized,in other words, marginalized and eased out of the sphere of serious philosophiethought. The early Greeks, those before Socrates, did sense that certain something,but then they "developed", which is why the essence and the nature - havingundergone a string of modifications, schools of thought and discip1ines - reached usdown the centuries in, to put it mildly, a rather confusing version.Apart from the fact that it certainly happened in the last, or rather, in the aoth century,it is not all that important exactly when the serious changes, which challengedthe Western mind-set and view of the world, did occur. The point at issue was notonly an in-depth examination of one's own conscience, but also a widening of cognitivehorizons and enrichment of the European sensory experience with those of others:African, Iranian, Latin-American, Aboriginal, Hinduist, Taoist, Zenist, and soforth. The post-modernistic, i.e. European, concept of the end of history is a logicalconsequence of this horizontal expansion and vertical penetration which, at thispoint in time, are of global proportions. lt can therefore, following a serious and criticalexamination of both the attainments and failures of the profusion of post-modernistictheories, and given the correct understanding, be quite genuinely regarded asbeing akin to the roots of Chen Zhen's creative inspiration.When talking about the concept behind this one-man exhibition by Chen Zhen in theMuseum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, which now has its beginning and its end, 1have in a rather ignorant manner typical of my general education assumed that if asix-cycle installation begins with a poetic-eome-plastic metaphor of birth, then -Iogically- its ending must inevitably be death. Chen wasted no time in setting my erroneousthinking straight. "No," - he said - "not death, but an ending." If one bears inmind that "the beginning" itself has not been strictly defined, what we get betweenthat which could be called 'the beginning', and that which could be called "the ending",is the alluring and provocative interspace, and being between is the fundamentalspiritual and, to a degree, a physical determinant of that void."The West excets in pravtdtnq definitions for all and everything. Ifind it quite difficultto classify my work within such logic. My interest lies more with the elements I use tocreate than it does with the form of assemblage, collage or an installation. Icomposemy "Chinese prescripttons" on the basis ofa very meticulous selection ojthoseelementswhich I incorporate into a composition." J Possessing the knowledge and experience ofan ivoryengraver, acquired at the School of Applied Arts in Shanghai, and being able14

to draw on the accumulated wealth of the entire historical and spiritual experienceof China, including the grievous period ot the Cultural Revolution, Chen was unableto easily comprehend the positivistic exclustvisrn ot the West. Nevertheless, he fullyaccepted the challenges posed by his new living environment, which luckily, from1986 that was, and still is, the Paristan spleen. The problem, which was already clearlydiscernable at that time, originated from the crisis through which the theory andpractice of intertextuality was going, or rather from the "tntertextua! blind al1ey"'2With an almost unbelievable precision of his sensibility, and installation projectsdevtsed for specific spaces - as is the case with Chen's project entitled Six roots createdtor the Museum ot Contemporary Art - this artist opted tor a much wider, andtherefore, l would say much freer, contextualisation of his installation ambiances.The intercontextualify that N. Zurbrugg talks about, and which Chen Zhen takes asthe basis for his creative strategy, encowages him not only towards a thoroughunderstanding of the given space of his future installation, but also inspires him withthe need to imbue each detail incorporated into an installation entity with a newsense of life. Seemingly chaotic, polymorphic and ambiguous, such an entity - orrather a community of different "lives" and "experiences" - opens the way to a multi-Iayered dialogue. Bearing in mind that the installation entities in question containnumerous identifiable details indicating a narrative character, it must be pointed outthat this is in fact a "trap" which serves to protect the profound sanctity ot the workfrom a profane gaze. Bot.h Chinese and European art possess the instruments for protectionof their spiritual integrity and energy potential, which are well hidden so asnot to be blatantly obvious. In this game of bide and seek, Chinese art has attained ahigh level of sophistication. It has never exhausted itself in a specific object representation,but has instead almost rltually opened the door - through its visualitymeticulously put away into scrolls - to exquisite aesthetic pleasure, contemplation,awakening of noble feelings and the moral harmony which is an integral part of theTao prtnclple.Hence, when Chen says: "Art is no prattler and has no need to impose itself on theobserver. When the observer, encountering a work of art, wonders what it is that he orshe is seetnq, the work poses a counter-question: And who may you be? In other words,while standing before a work of art an observer is left to his or her own devices"3 - hehas in mind a totally different strategy of a creative act, one,l dare say, which runscontrary to the creative strategies of post-modernism. In contrast to the ingrainedand typically European view, whereby tradition (in this case the tradition of modernism)is not only abandoned but also destroyed, Chen's proposal for the strategy ofInter-contextualrty, and its application in his artistic practtce, defends and indeedrenews the constructive principle. Needles to say, this is not a case of restoration ofthe European model of the concept of constructivism; rather, it is the creation of apositively charged field in a void filled with the previously mentioned interspace. Itis in this field that everything takes place - all the fundamental questions andcounter-questions, creaticns and transformations, processes of perception and discemment,and where the basic conditions for the interlacing of perception and expe·rienee into a single harmonious entity are being fulfilled.IS

ln a certain sense Chen Zhen's installations can be taken as a form of a hint, directingthe attention of the person "using", or rather encountering his work, in the correctway.4 Chen does not hide, in fact he even makes a point of underlining, that hisworks can, in a meditative and therapeutic sense, be regarded as a small contributionby Chinese medicine to the Western health care system. He describes his works as"Chinese prescriptions", and as for himself, he says: "1hope to one day become a doctorof traditional Chinese medicine. This is possibly my most ambitious project for thenext ten years." ln the practice for which Chen yeams, just as in his present, and todate merely artistic, practlce, chemistry is not something that is counted on. Rather,what we are talking about is alchemy which, following the Period of EnJightenment,had gone to ground, so to speak. The spirituality of the 20'" century discovered itsqualities at another level, and so today when, in retrospect, we talk about the art ofthe last century, the slgnificance of its quite neglected spiritual component comesincreasingly to the fore. In an alchemic process imaginativeness and meditation wereof particular importance, which brings us back to the very nucleus of Chen Zhen's ereativestrategy, or rather to inter-contextuality and the question of tnterspace.Here, we also need to talk of ecology, a new kind of inter-active "narrativeness", aswell as of the need for a critical redefinition of aesthetic and theoretical misconceptionswhich became particularly prominent in the final thirty years of the last century.It would appear that the awareness of the Black Hole in which the West andEurope find themselves, is gradually maturing. If anything good did exist in that darkperiod of trans-avant-guard and retro-practice, it would have to be relativism, beforewhich even the staunchJy defended positions of the European, and particularly of theAmerican aesthetic doctrines, had to submit. Viewed from Chen Zhen's position, andfrom the aspect of his artistic practice, the idea of exchanging reality for its slrnulationis simply ridiculous. Chinese wisdom perceives reality in a much too complex amanner to allow its reduction to mere digital illusion. In the cacophony reaching usfrom the contemporary art stage, geography and origin are practically insignificant.What matters are the energies which imbue one another. Chen Zhen's exhibition atthe Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb is the result of such imbuement. Workingin cooperation with Albi - a town with a curicus history of hereticism situated in thesouth of France, assisted by Nehama Gura1nik . a curator at Tel Aviv's Art Museum,by the director of the regional School of Arts in Nantes - an Austrian by the name ofRobert Fleck, and a number of others, Chen Zhen succeeded in creating a powerfulfield ofrnutuality, the centre ofwhich is occupied by his work. To ask more from thatartist would be truly excessive, because he is but a human being. However, in analma st imperceptible way he makes us think:Depth is the root of the surfacePeace is the root of motion.Lao-Tzu16

Conversation Jerome Sans - Chen Zhen, January 1999, Catalogue for a one-manexhibition "Chen žhen . entre therapfe et meditation", Perigueux, Dordogne,February roth - April and 1999.2. The crisis was thus named by Nicholas Zwbrugg, in his recently published book"Critical Vices - The Myths of Postmodern Theory", in the chapter entitled "TheUmits of Intertextuality". Published by G+B International, 2000, pp. 34-35.Quoted from the letter sent by Chen Zhen on January 25, 1998 to NehamaGuralnik, a curator at the Art Museum in Tel Aviv. From the catalogue for ChenZhen's one-man exhibition organised in the Art Museum in Tel Aviv. Chen Zhen- Jue Chang I Fifty Strokes to Each. May 7 - July 18. 1998.4 Initially, European languages translated Tao as a "reason" or "supreme mind",and later on as "sense". Although over 150 years old, the suggestion that Tao betranslated as the "way", and in a later version as "the way of all motion," seernsto me to be more acceptable with regard to understanding the art of Chen Zhen.However, it has to be said that the full sense of Tao is basically untranslatablesince every translation conveys only a part of its meaning.(T.iV.D.)17

Remerciements Lancee des l'automne 1998,l'exposition de l'artisteChinols Chen Zhen au Musee de t'art contemporain a Zagreb a ete realisee grace a uneriche collaboration internationale que ce Musee entretient depuis le debut de son actrv.ile en 1954.A ce moment, alors que l'expositlon dc Chen Zhen est ouverte au public dans notreMusee, on peut affirmer que c'est grace aux modalttes de collaboration les plus drvcrscsavec les specialistes et les institutions du monde entter. de Nehama Guralnik, conservateurau Musee de Tel Aviv. a Robert Fleck. crruque d'art autricluen actu elle ment en residenee a Nantes. l'Institut francais de Zagreb el le service de l'action culturelle duMinistere des Affaires Btrangeres de la Rćpubhque Irancaise (AFAAj, atnsi que le Centredćpartemental d'art contemporain "Cimaise & Portique" a Albi. les sponsors prlves, et ledćvouernent de beaucoup d'assistants engages, etudiants de l'Acadernie des Beaux-Artsde Zagreb, des ateliers d'artlsanat de Stanko Urbas de Samobor et d'AGRAM de Zagreb,et beaucoup d'autres encore, que la ville de Zagreb figure sur la liste de ces institutionsqui etatent en mesure de realtser une exposition de Chen Zhen. Notre reconnatssancepartlcultere va a Madame Neda Young.Pour ces engagements el leur assistance, le Musee de I'art contemporain de Zagreb et lecommissaire de l'expositlon de Chen Zhen, professeur Želimir Koščević leur reitere sesremerciements.Secretariat de la Culture de la Ville de ZagrebMinistere de la Culture de la Republique de CroatieAssociation Francalse d'Action Artistique, Ministere des Affaires EtrangeresMonsieur Robert Horn, dtrecteur de l'Institut ftancats de ZagrebMadame Marjana Klanac, Direction pour les relations publiques et d'infcrrnatton auMinistere de la Defense de la Republlque de CroatieMonsieur Stanko Urbas. SamoborMadame Zdenka Kolarević, AGRAM, confeetion des produits de wir et de textile, ZagrebMadame Ljuba Gamulin, ZagrebUstnc des allumettes Drava, OsijekMadame Jela Radak.Industnc de mode, ZagrebMonsieur Ladislav Galeta, Academie des Beaux-Arts, ZagrebMadame Tatjana Kuhar-Fan, Academie des Beaux-Arts, ZagrebHćpital general "Sveti Duh", Zagreb18Cimaise et Portique, Centre departemental d'art contemporatn reme rei e parttculterement:Conseil General du TarnConseil Regional Mldi • PyreneesDirection Regtonale des Affaires Culturelles Midi - PyreneesMinistere de la Culture et de la CommunicationAFAA Ministere des Affaires EtrangeresMusee d'art conternporain de Zagreb

Zahvale Potaknuta II jesen 1998. godine. izložbakineskog umjetnika Chen Zhena II Muzejusuvremene umjetnosti II Zagrebu, ostvarena je zahvaljujući plodnoj medunarodnojsuradnji koju Muzej njeguje od samog početka svog djelovanja, od 1954- godine.Ovog časa. kada je izložba Chen Zhena otvorena II našem Muzeju, slobodno se možereći da je zahvaljujući najrazličitijim oblicima suradnje sa stručnjacima i institucijamaširom svijeta. od Nehame GuraJnik, kustosice Muzeja II Tel Avivu do Roberta Plećka.austrijskog kritičara koji živi II Nantesu. Francuskog Instituta II Zagrebu i službeMinistarstva vanjskih poslova Francuske za kulturnu aktivnost (AFAA), te pokrajinskogCentra za suvremenu umjetnost "Cimaise & Portique" II Albiju, privatnih sponzora,ljubaznostii predanosti niza angažiranih suradnika, studenata Akademije likovnihumjetnosti u Zagrebu, obrtničkih radionica Stanka Urbasa iz Samobora i AGRAM-a izZagreba te mnogih drugih, grad Zagreb mogao biti uvršten na listu onih institucija kojesu bile u mogućnost! realizirati izložbu Chen Zhena. Posebnu zahvalu dugujemogospođi Nedi Young.Na tom angažmanu i pomoći, Muzej suvremene umjetnosti u Zagrebu i kustos izložbeChen Zhena, prof. Želimir Koščević.još jednom zahvaljuju:Gradski ured za kulturu, Grad ZagrebMinistarstvo kulture Republike HrvatskeAssociation Franc;aise d'Action Artistique, Ministere des Affaires EtrangeresRobert Horn, direktor, Francuski Institut, ZagrebMarjana Klanac, Uprava za odnose s javnošću i informiranje, Ministarstvo Obrane RHStanko Urba s, SamoborZdenka Kolarević AGRAM, Izrada predmeta od kože i tekstila, ZagrebLjuba Gamulin, ZagrebTvornica šibica Drava OsijekJela Radak, Modna konfekcija ZagrebLadislav Galeta, Akademija likovnih umjetnosti, ZagrebTatjana Kuhar-Fan, Akademija likovnih umjetnosti, zagrebOpća bolnica "Sveti Duh", ZagrebCimaise et Portique, Centre departernental d'art ccnternporain posebno zahvaljuje:Conseil General du TamConseil Regional Midi - PyreneesDirection Regtonale des Affaires Culturelles Midi - PyreneesMinistere de la Culture et de la CommunicationMAA Ministere des Affaires EtrangeresMuzej suvremene umjetnosti, zagreb19

Thanks Initiated in the Autumn of 1998, the exhibitionby the Chinese artist Chen Zhen,organised in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, was realised through thefruitful international cooperation which this Museum has been nurturing since thevery inception of its activities in 1954.At this point in time, with Chen Zhen's exhibition in our Museum, it can be safelysaid that Zagreb. and the Museum of Contemporary Art, have been included in thelist of dties and institutions capable of organising Chen Zhen's exhibition, thanks tovarious forms of cooperation with experts and institutions from all over the world:from Nehama Guralnik . a curator at the Art Museum in Tel Aviv, Robert Pleck . anAustrian critic living in Nantes, the French Institute in Zagreb, the Department forCultural Activities within the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (AFAA). the regionalCentre for Contemporary Art "Cimaise sr: Portique" in Albi, private sponsors, the kindnessand dedication of numerous coUaborators, students at the Academy of VisualArts in Zagreb, the artisan workshops of Stanko Urbas, Samobor, and AGRAM ofZagreb, as well as to many others. Special thanks to Mrs. Neda Young.The ewator of the Chen Zhen exhibition, Prof. Želimir Koščević, and the Museum ofContemporary Art in Zagreb, take this opportunity to once again extend their gratitudeto:Cultural Department of the City of ZagrebMinistry of Culture of the Republic of CroatiaAssociation Francaise d'Action Artistique, Ministere des Affaires EtrangeresRobert Horn, Director of the French Institute, ZagrebMarjana Klanac, Office for Public Relations and Information, Ministry of Defence ofthe Republic of CroatiaStanko Vrbas, SamoborZdenka Kolarević, AGRAM, (production of textile and leather objects) ZagrebLjuba Gamulin, žagrebThe Drava match factory, OsijekJela Radak, Modna konfekcija zagreb (producer of fashion wear)Ladislav Galeta, Academy cf visual Arts, ZagrebTatjana Kuhar-Fan, Academy of Visual Arts, ZagrebSveti Duh General Hospital, ZagrebCimaise et Portique, Centre departernental d'art contemporain particularly thanks to:Conseil General du TamConseU Regional Midi - PyreneesDirection Regionale des Affaires Culturelles Midi . PyreneesMinistere de la Culture et de la CommunicationAFAA Ministere des Affaires EtrangeresMuseum of contemporary art, Zagreb20

Jackie-Ruth Meyer Introduction auJardin lavoir"Cnaque aeqre atteint est en meme temps la preparatton du sulvant et le temps n 'est plusun obstacle mais le mayen qui permet fa realisatian du possible"Le livre des transformations -Yi-KingExl rail Hexagramrne n" 1 Le Cteateur/KienVersion atternande de Richard Wilhelmubratrte de Medicis - Parts . 1973Claude Lattes. Bien que tres ajfaibl( iJ a tenu a nous aider, pendant la production et la miseen ptace.jusou'au vernissage Je25 mars 2000.1/ est mort le t'juin. Jejourde tAscension. LeJardin lavoir Va accompoqne au terme de sa vie.Cette exposition et t'ceuvre, ont pour moi el pour toujours, un sens lres particuJier.La matodte de Jean-Claude est auss! un element du contexte de la realisation et de rexperience du Jardin tavoir.Cette exposition. fe Jardin tavoit de Chen Zhen, a ele Ja derniere que [at reatisee avec Jean-Jean-Claude a aime ce projet. il sy est, comme toujours, beaucoup investi. Chen Zhen amornre beaucoup de respect et d'amttte et it Ta occompaqne par son ouvre. Je fen remercieinJin!ment.Je tends hommage pa, ce texte ti Jean-Claude, avec qui le centre d'an se construit depuisvingl cns. possionnement, Je dis merci, ici. tJ tous ceux qui ont partaqe le gout et le travailde Fort, par moments avec tui, et qui lu! ont rendu hommage avec beaucoup de chaleur etd'amitie.l'at ecrit le texte qui suit avant sa mort, apres Jevernissage. Vous Jetrouverez inchangt?Produire une ceuvre in situ avec un artiste est une histoire de fusion dont l'mtenstte estconstamment alirnentee par des echanges d'rdees, d'affects, de contraintes et de possibllttes,d'elernents prevtstblcs et lrnprevlslbles, de colnctdences qui nalssent de renergtemise en ceuvre. Une tncandescence qui atteint son apogće au moment de la realisationsur place et se termine par l'ouverture de I'exposition, date fatidique que rien ne peutfaire reculer. pas rnčme les inevitables et toujours inattendus problemes qui ne manquentpas d'apparaltre. Chaque fois, il faut alors se surpasser. alter au dela des hrnites.bruler d'une ulttme ttevre avant la separation que la rnaterialisatron de l'ceuvre el sapresentatlon publlque accomplissent. La creation du Iardir: tavotr ceuvre et exposition,n'a pas de-roge a la regle.II Y eul des moments c1efs ou Chen a montre toute sa capacite tl faire erne rger le travailau travers des dlfftcultes: des moments d'expositton complete qui ont demande al'equipc teute entiere de se de-passer, Xu Min, sa femme, Thomas Manin, son assistant.ZI

les etudiants des Beaux - Arts de Lyon et de Toulouse, le personnel du centre d'art.Il y cutsetze tonnes de gravier dans la salle, transfotmant les lits en tornbes. le soleil de 17heuresdessmant des croix au sol par le grillage des ouvertures et la rernise en cause immediatede la forme decidee prealablemcnt. JI y eut aussl un moment tres chaud du a la dis pariliond'une partie essenttelle de "Nightly lrnprecanon", pendant le transport et le rntracle.accornplt par Chen, d'avoir pu reconstituer son sens et ses proporttcns en 48 heures, enutlltsant ce qu'il a pu trouver et en rassernblant tout le monde jour et nuit. Une energieet une concentration extraordlnaire.Par ailleurs, la production d'ceuvres permet aussi de toucher un public parliculier achaque exposition, des partcnatres institutionnels ou prtves. des artisans. des douaruers.des transporteurs, des etudtants stagtaues en formation, des ouvriers, des regtsseurs. descomrnercants. .. sont impllques. sans parler du personnel du centre d'art et des amisbenevoles. qui contribuent ii l'existence de l'ceuvre et l'experlrnentent par diffćrentesentrecs. objectivement ou subjectivement. socialement ou intirnement.En general. la proxtrnite avec l'ceuvte et l'artrste se deroule en une annće pendant laque-Ile il y a un avant. un pendant, un apres: trois temps toujours rejoues. jamais identtques.aventureux. a la limite de l'trnposstble el de I'insoutenable parfots. intenses souventEnsuite, l'ceuvre, par son existence realisee. les absorbe et les effaee en prenant placedans un contexte plus large, celui de la dćmarche de l'artiste. celui de l'evolutton historiquede l'art et celui de sa reception publtque. De ce fait merne la production est a lafois condition rnatertelle et histoire subjcctive. Cecl est rarement pris en compte par lacritique, qui impose la generaltsatton des concepts et l'objectivite du discours, en partieulteren France. Il a donc fallu l'insistance amicale de Chen Zhen pour aborder tet l'hlstoiresubjective de la production du Jardin lavclr. a l'instar de sa dernarche, qui fait serejoindre les petites htstotrcs de la vie et les grandes trajectoires culturelles.Nous sommes parttculterernent heureux de pouvoir realiser cette exposition en deuxtemps, en collaboration avec le Musee d'art contemporain de Zagreb avec le ProfesseurŽelimir Koščević, et de crćer alnsi des liens virtuels entre les deux villes. pays et structures.Nous avons trava ille ensemble sur ce projet. I'elaborant avec Chen Zhen commedeux stations d'une idee temporelIe a propos du corps, de la vie et de la mort. Ce livreUnit les deux temps et les deux lieux.Contribuant a notre interet pour Je travail de Chen Zhen, il y a certainement notreexperience personnelle avec la pen see et l'art chinois au moment de l'adolescence.quand Jean-Claude Lattes a recherche !'influence formatrice de son pere spintuel. IvanDurand, fćru de taolsme. et quand j'at commence ii prattquer le Yi King comme un exercicephilosophlque permettant de lire le monde {Iorsquc les bases protestantes et marxtstesde mon education parentale se sont averčes Insufftsantes. pour ma cunostte ..}.Nous avons donc grandi tous les deux avec et par une influence etrangere. suffisammentlointaine, inconnue. pour que nous putssions nous I'approprier sans en sentir lespesanteurs histortques et. a travers cela, nous tr-venter nous rnernes. La (hine a ete, pourZZ

nous, une experience de la Iiberte et de J'accomplisscment de sci. comme l'a sans douteete pour Chen Zhen l'approprlatron de la culture occidentale. Rencontre avec l'autrc. radtcalementdtfferent, a un niveau dc liberte agrandi. Transexpćrience dira it Chen Zhen. Cequi est operatoire est l'experlence. ou sensation et connaissance se rejofgnent.Cela signifie cussi un changement d'attitude et de contexte: il n'est plus necessaire d'endosserles formes artistiques dominantes, occtdentales. comme cela etait le eas aumoment de l'abstrartton amertcatne et europeen ne. Les eeuvres de Chen Zhen suggerentune extraordinaire libertč, une capacttc a se soustraire aux diktats occidentaux et asianquespour retenir ce qui est fecond, pour inventer des contenus et des formes cl la foisuniversel s ct singuliers, relevant de la nature humaine en general et de la speciftcitć deson approche rnultlculturelle. marquee au coin de son experience de vie et de sa stngulatiteartistique.Le vocabulaire du Jardin tovon met en jeu des metaphores. des images mentales comprćhenstblespar differentcs cultures, sc rćfčrant a l'interteur de celles-cl a la vie du corpsintime et social, tout en [ouant des gammes de l'art conternporain.Chen Zhen ose dire au dela de la forme, aborder les images, la philosophie. les intentionsde sa demarchc d'une facon extrčrnement simple. II endosse sans dtfftcultćs la responsabtlitesociale de l'art, entendue en tant que therapie et destgne les soins qu'il enlenddonner: changer les stres par la transformation des choses, du regard, par les experiencesvćcucs. Replacer l'art au niveau de l'etre, sans niaiserie ni mystification dans unmonde ou seul l'avolr a droit de cite, ou rnerne les defenseurs de l'art pensent en termede capital culturel necessaire cll'integration et il la progress Ion sociale, n'est pas neutre.Quand on lui parle de forme, il repond en rlant, "c'est lc grand mystere" Ce par quot ildeplace il nouveau les choses: ce qui est visible devient l'inconnu. ce qUI est tmrnatertel(le sens) est indlque tout il fait ouvertement. Cependant, on peut constaler qu'il joue dela repetition des formes, de leur presence physique, qu'il ordonne l'espace et le tempspar des motifs scandes comme de la musique, qu'll convoque des modes recurrents del'htstotre de la sculpture et les prolonge, inscrivant les posstbihtes dans la duree.Residence, resonance. resistance: trois mots de Chen Zhen pour resurner sa dćmarchc..dont je propose lei une interpretation contextuee. /\ residence. Chen Zhen ajoute:"invitez-rnoi et je viendrai chez vous". Le Jardin lavoir s'est construit avec le lieu, par lecontexte architectural. nature! ct artistique. En retour, rccuvre revele ce lieu a lur-rnerne.retenant des aspects encore tnapercus.Le contexte est dtssous. rnaltrtse, non pas domine ou servt.I'artiste joue sa propre partitionde memoire et de devenir, en accord avec l'esprit du lieu lis s'accuerllent etechangent leur identite.L'eau est au centre du Jardin lavoir de la rnerne facon qu'clle englobe l'espace. riviere al'extćrieur. source a l'interieur. Cependant l'ea u n'est pas sirnplernent constderee commeelement natu-el. actif du lieu, mais aussi comme memoire de I'experience personnelleII

de l'arttste. venu six ans plus tot. lors d'un colloque "Paroles d'Arttstes" reunissant unevingtaine d'arttstes sous la houletle de Jan Hoet. alors qu'une crue exceptionnellelnondait les locaux. A cela s'ajoutent ses souvenirs d'enfance lors des bains de sourcedont la Chine fait grand eas et l'importance de l'eau dans la culture artistique chinoise.L'eau a une double dimension dans l'ceuvre. elle lave les objets de la vie quotidienne reunisdans les onze ltts represeritant les organes du corps, satu res, encornbres. Les objetsnous forment en nous informant. t'eau leur redonne vie tout en lalssant en suspens lamena ce de leur disparttion. Le temps est egalement double: pendant quinze minutesl'eau cou!c. puis quinze minutes d'arret permettent aux ltts de deverur des lacs paisibles,revelant la composition picturale des objets qu'elle contlent. propices au silenceinterieur, proposant d'echapper au tumulte de l'actton cffrenee qui nous carectćrtscaujourd'hui.Une autre indication ternporelle est donnee par le caractere llhrnlte de l'eau, dont lanature est de coulcr. et, par les limites du corps figure qui la recott. corps organtque. mental,social. Et encore: circulation des flux entre les etres et les choses.Resonance: de Iacon quasi musicale, absorber l'echo du contexte. l'mtegrer et le renvoyerailleurs. Faire passer des images mental es, des rnćtaphores. d'une culture li une autrc,les meler, les rapprocher. faire circuler le sens comme un son, d'une parci a une autre.Transmettre des experiences, d'un individu a un autre, d'une culture a une autre.partager de la vttaltte. Cornpliclte arnlcale, resonance sensible dun projet artistique ctdune experience vecue par Chen Zhen ainsi que par ccux qui y collaborent. Les intersubjectivltesse rencontrent. Lc Jardin lavoir met en jeu des rnetaphores de vie et demort, des etapes de la vie. Nous y contrtbuons au moment rnerne ou ces termes ontperdu toute abstraction. dans une situation crrttque. physiquement et mentalernent.pour mon ami, compagnon de vie et de travail, gravement malade. Nous nous metlonsa espćrer que l'ceuvre nous donnera de la force pour res.ster.Resistance: Chen Zhen accepte le malentendu comme faisant partie feconde del'echange. entre les cultures, entre les personnes. Cc sont des reslstances culturelles.Chen Zhen preserve son identit e chinoise tout en absorbant. par l'experience. toutes lescultures qu'rl traverse. Ce qui est assez ernblernatique des nouvelles rnodalitesd'echanges. Ce sont auss! les method es de l'art pour se rnettsser, se transformerPas de hterarchte entre le sensible et l'tntelltgtble, pas de hieratchle non plus entre lesgenres artisttques. la nature des objets, le contenu ella forme. Une reelle determinationa ne pas redutre le divers et aussi a aller au dela de la rationalite et des categories qu'elleforme. Solliciter l'espnt pour qu'il pu isse exister dans une societe qui represente et agttpar la techmcttć.ta dimension polltlque est sous jacente.Instaurerdes differences, des hierarchies est au cccur du systeme artistique, notarnmentinstitutionnel et occidental: cela correspond ~ la separation entre le corps et rame, l'emotionet la cornprehenston. le bas et le haut, le superieur et le pcpulatre. le corps individuelet le corps social, propre a notre culture. Depuis Platon, ces hierarchies. ces eloi-24

sonnernents, ces distinctions sont la base de l'lnterpretatlon du monde et de l'ordresocial correspondant. C'est aussi ce qui permet de separer la vie de l'art. Chen Zhen passeoutre.A Albi - rnai-jutn 2000.zs

Jackie-Ruth Meyer Uvod U Jard inlavotr"Svakije dosegnut stupanj ujedno priprema za sljedeći, a vrijeme više nije prepreka, negosredstvo koje dopušta ostvarenje moqućeq;"Knjiga promjena YI -KingHeksagrama br. 1 Stvaratelj I KienIzvod IzNjemačka verzija Richarda WilhelmaLibrairie de Medicis, Pariz, 197).Chen Zhenova izložba Jardin tavotr, zadnja je što sam je ostvarila s Jean-ClaudeomLattesom. Premda vrto onemoćoo, trudio sepomagati nam tijekom izvedbe ipostava, svedo otvaranja 25. ožujka 20oo.g. Umro je 1. lipnja. na Uzašašće.Jardin lavoir pratio gajesve do konca života.Ova izložba idjelo imaju za mene, zauvijek, posebno značenje.šean.Ctaudeova bolest takoder je dio konteksta ostvarenja idoiivljaja djela Jardin lavoir.Jean-Claude je volio ovaj projekt, u njega je, kao i UVijek, uložio velik dio sebe.Chen Zhenje, iskazujući veliko poštovanje iprijateljstvo, bio uz njega svojim djelom. Beskrajno sammu zahvalna.Ovaj eeest hommage je Iean-Claudeu, s kojim se ovaj umjefnic1?i centar gradio sa strašćutijekom dvadeset godina. ZahvaljUjem svima onima koji su s nama dijeltU ljubav i rad uumjetnosti. Oni mu s mnogo topline i prijateljstva zahvaljuju na tome.Tekst koji slijedi napisala sam prije njegove smrti, nakon otvorenja izložbe. Ovdje jeneizmjenjen.Z6Izvoditi djelo s umjetnikom in situ, doživljaj je stapanja, čiju intenzivnost neprestanonapaja izmjenjivanje misli, osjećaja, prinuda i mogucnosti, predvtdljivth inepredviljivih elemenata, podudarnosti nastalih iz uložene energije. To je žar kojidoseže vrhunac II trenutku ostvarenja na licu mjesta, a završava otvaranjem izložbe,sudbonosnim datumom koji ništa ne može odgoditi, pa ni neizbježni ni neočekivaniproblemi koji se uvijek pojave. Tada svaki put valja nadmašiti sebe. prijeći granice,izgarati do trenutka kad započne rnaterijalizlranje djela i njegovo javno predstavljanje.Stvaranje djela Jardin lavoir i njegovo izlaganje nisu iznimka od ovog pravila.II ključnim trenucima Chen je pokazivao svu svoju sposobnost da unatoč teškoćamaiznjedri rad. Bili su to trenuci potpune izloženosti. koji su od cijele ekipe zahtijevali danadide sebe, podjednako od Xu Min, Chenove supruge, asistenta Thomasa Monina, studenataAkademija likovnih umjetnosti iz lyona i Toulousea. kao i osoblja Umjetničkogcentra. U dvorani je bilo je šesnaest tona šljunka kako bi se krevete pretvorilo ugrobove, dok je sunce u 17 sati kroz prozorske okvire ocrtavalo križeve na tlu. Istogatrena odbačeno je prethodno odlučeno rješenje. Kritički trenutak bio je nestanak

jednog od ključnih djela, Night1y lrnprecation. tijekom transporta. Chen Zhen je ostvariočudo. U 48 sati iznova je uspostavio to djelo, i II njegovim dimenzijama i u njegovomsmislu, pronalazeći sve što je nedostajalo, okupljajući nas danju inoću. Iznimnaenergija i koncentracija.Među ostalim, produkcija djela, omogućuje uključivanje posve određene publikepovodom svake pojedine izložbe, tj. instintucionalne ili privatne suradnike, obrtnike.carinike, prijevoznike, studente na praktičnom radu, radnike, upravitelje, trgovce ..., nespominjući osoblje Umjetničkog centra i prijatelje volontere koji pridonose postojanjudjela i ispituju ga različitim pristupima, objektivno i subjektivna, ili društveno i osobno.Općenito, povezanost s djelom i umjetnikom zbiva se tijekom godinu dana, u vremenukoje postaji kao prije, za i nakon izložbe; tri se vremena uvijek ponavljaju, nikada istovjetna,puna događaja, na granici nemogućeg i ponekad neizdrživcg, često vrlo intenzivna.Nakon toga, djelo ih svojim ostvarenjem upija i briše, dobivši mjesto u širemkontekstu umjetnikova postupka, povijesnog razvitka umjetnosti i javne recepcije.Upravo stoga, produkcija je Ujedno materijalni uvjet i subjektivno iskustvo. Rijetko jekad predmet bavljenja kritike, koja nameće poopćavanje koncepata i objektivnostdiskursa, osobito u Francuskoj. Bila je, dakle, potrebna prijateljska ustrajnost ChenZhena kako bismo ovdje ispričali subjektivnu priču o nastanku djela lordin lavoir, sukladnonjegovu postupku koji spaja male životne priče i velike kulturološke putanje.Osobito nas raduje što izložbu možemo ostvariti u dva navrata, u suradnji s Muzejemsuvremene umjetnosti u Zagrebu i profesorom Želimirom Koščevićem, te na taj načinstvoriti virtualne veze izmedu dva grada, dvaju zemalja i ustanova. Zajedno smo radilina ovom projektu, prtređujućt ga s Chen Zhenom, kao dvije postaje jedne svjetovneideje o tijelu, životu i smrti. Jedna će knjiga ujediniti dva vremena i dva mjesta.Našem zanimanju za rad Chen Zhena zasigurno je pridonijelo osobno mladalačkeupoznavanje s kineskom misli i umjetnosti. kada je Jean-Claude Lattes istraživao odgojniutjecaj svojeg duhovnog oca Ivana Duranda, zatravljenog taoizmom i kada sam sepočela baviti Yi - Kingom kao filozofskom vježbom koja mi je omogućavala iščitavatisvijet (kada su se protestantske i marksističke osnove mojeg roditeljskog odgojapokazale nedovoljne za moju znatiželju).Oboje smo, dakle, odrasli uz i kroz strani utjecaj, dovoljno dalek i nepoznat da bismo gamogli posvojiti i preko njega pronaći sebe, ne osjećajući njegovu povijesnu težinu.Nama je Kina bila iskustvo slobode i ispunjenja sebe, kao što je nesumnjivo za ChenZhena to bilo prisvajanje zapadne civilizacije. Susret s drugim, korjenito različitim, narazini proširene slobode. Trans-iskustvo, rekao bi Chen Zhen. Ono što je djelatno jeiskustvo, u čemu se susreću osjeti i spoznaja,To takoder znači promjenu stava i konteksta: nije više nužno usvajati vladajuće,zapadne umjetničke forme, kao što je bio slučaj II vrijeme europske i američke apstrakcije.Chen Zhenova djela sugeriraju iznimnu slobodu, sposobnost izmicanja zapadnimi azijskim diktatima, zadržavajući samo ono plodno, izumljujući istodobno univerzalnei jedinstvene sadržaje i forme, izdižući se iz ljudske prirode općenito i specifičnostivlastitog multikulturalnog umjetničkog pristupa, obilježenog njegovim životnimiskustvom i umjetničkom osebujnosti. Rječnik Jardin lavoir igra se metaforama, men-27

talnim slikama razumljivim različitim kulturama, refenrajući se podjednako naintimni i društveni žtvot. svirajući čitavu skalu suvremene umjetnosti.Chen Zhen se usudi govoriti izvan forme, pristupiti slikama, filozofiji, umjetničkompostupku na iznimno jednostavan način. On bez teškoće prihvaća društvenu odgovornostumjetnosti, shvaćenu kao terapiju i pokazujući pomoć koju namjerava pružiti:promijeniti bića transformacijom stvari, pogleda, žtvljentrn iskustvom. Potisnutiumjetnost na razinu bića, bez gluposti i mistifikacije, u svijetu u kojem imati znači bitiu pravu, gdje ćak i zagovornici umjetnosti drže kako je kulturni kapital nužan za integracijuidruštveni napredak, to nipošto ne znači neutralnost.Kada mu se spomene forma, on, smijući se, odgovara: "To je velika misterija". Čimeiznova premješta stvari: vidljivo postaje nepoznato, sve što je nematerijalno (smisao).pokazano je posve otvoreno. Uza sve to on se poigrava ponavljanjem oblika, njihovomfizičkom prisutnošću, uredujujući prostor i vrijeme skandira nim motivima poputglazbe. priaivajućt ponovljene oblike povijesti skulpture, i nastavljajući ih, upisujućimogućnosti u trajanje.Boravište, odjek, otpor: tri Chen Zhenove riječi sažimaju njegov postupak, kojem ovdjepredlažem kontekstualno tumačenje.Chen Zhen "boravištu" dodaje: "pozovite me, dolazim." Jardin tavotr je nastao zajednos mjestom, iz arhitektonskog, prirodnog i umjetničkog konteksta. Zauzvrat, djelo jeotkrilo mjestu sebe samoga, izabirući njegove još neuoćene aspekte.Kontekst je razvodnjen. ali i svladan. Niti dominira, nut se njime gospodari. Umjetnikizvodi vlastitu partituru po sjećanju, onako kako je nastajala. u suglasju s duhom mjesta.Oni prihvaćaju jedan drugoga i izmjenjuju sjećanja.Voda je u središtu Jardin tavoir-a na isti način na koji spaja razna mjesta. rijeka izvana,izvor iznutra. Ipak, vođa nije promatrana tek kao prirodni, aktivni element mjesta. Onaje takoder sjećanje na osobno iskustvo umjetnika, kada je prije šest godina došao naskup "Paroles d'Arttstes" (Riječi umjetnika), koji je okupio dvadesetak umjetnika podvodstvom Jana Hoeta, dok je neočekivana bujica prepla vila prostorije. Tome sepridružuju sjećanja iz djetinjstva, kupanja na izvorima do kojih se u Kini veoma drži, tevažnost vode II kineskoj umjetničkoj kulturi.Voda posjeduje dvostruku dimenziju u djelu. ona pere predmete iz svakodnevnog života,sakupljene II jedanaest glomaznih, pretrpanih kreveta koji predstavljaju tjelesneorgane. Predmeti nas formiraju, prenoseći poruku. Voda ih Ujedno vraća U život, ostavljajućiu zraku prijetnju njihova nestanka. Vrijeme je takoder dvostruko: vođa teče petnaestminuta, zatim petnaest minuta stanke omogućuje da kreveti postanu mirna jezera,otkrivajući slikarsku kompoziciju predmeta što ih sad rie. sukladnu unutarnjojtišini, predlažući bijeg od meteža naše svakidašnjice.Jedan drugi temporaini pokazatelj daje neograničena narav vode. Njena je prirodatekuća, kao što je to slučaj s granicama oblikovanog tijela što je voda zaprema. tijelaorganskog, mentalnog, društvenog. I još: strujanje izmedu bića i stvari.Odjek: Na gotovo glazbeni način, upijati odjek konteksta, usvojiti ga. te ga uputiti dalje.Prenijeti mentalne slike, metafore, iz jedne u drugu kulturu, pomiješati ih. prlbllžiti,pustiti u optjecaj smisao poput zvuka. od jedne stijenke do druge. Prenijeti iskustva odjednog pojedinca do drugog, od jedne kulture do druge, razmjenjivati životnu snagu.Prijateljska suradnja. osjetilni odjek jednog umjetničkog projekta i žlvljenog iskustvaChen Zhena, kao i svih onih koji su u njemu sudjelovali. Intersubjektivnosti koje se28

susreću u Jardin lavoir pokreću metafore života i smrti, životni put. Mi tome pridonosimoupravo II trenutku kada ove riječi gube svaku apstraktnost, u jednoj kritičnojsituaciji, fizički i mentalno, kada je moj prijatelj, pratilac u životu i poslu, teškobolestan. Počinjemo se nadati da će nam djelo dati snage za otpor.Otpor: Chen Zhen prihvaća nesporazum kao plodni dio razmjene između kultura,izmedu osoba. To su kulturološki otpori. Chen Zhen čuva svoj kineski identitet i pri tomiskustveno upija sve kulture kroz koje prolazi. A to je vrlo znakovito za nove oblike kulturnerazmjene. Metode su to umjetnosti u njezinom križanju, preoblikovanju.Ne postoji hijerarhija između osjetilnog i razumskog, nema hijerarhije među umjetničkimrodovima, između prirode predmeta, sadržaja i forme. Postoji tvrda odlučnostda se ne umanji različito. A također, izlazak izvan racionalnosti i kategorija što ih onatvori. Poticanje duha kako bi mogao opstati u društvu koje sebe predstavlja i djeluje kaotehnicistička. Politička dimenzija je skrivena.Ustanovljenje razlika, hijerarhije, u središtu je umjetničkog sustava, posebice institucionalnogi zapadnog. Ono odgovara, razumije se. odvajanju tijela i duše, osjećaja irazuma, Visokog i niskog, elitnog i pučkog. pojedinca i društva, tako svojstveno našojkulturi. Od Platona nadalje, ta hijerarhija, njezini stupnjevi i razlike, temelj sutumačenja svijeta i odgovarajućeg društvenog poretka. Izmedu ostalog, onoomogućuje odvajanje zivota od umjetnosti. Chen Zhen. ipak, nastavlja.Albi, svibanj/lipanj 2000.(Z.W)Z9

Jackie-Ruth Meyer lntroductton tothe Jard in lavotr"Each degree that is reached is at the same time the preparation of the next one andtime is no langer an obstacle but the means whereby what is possible can be achieved."The Book of Changes -t-chtngExtract from Hexagram no. 1. The createrzxrenGerman version by Richard WilhelmUbrairie de Medi.cis • Parts- 1973Chen Zhen 's Jardi" lavoir ("Garden-Washroom"). was the last exhibition I organisedwith Jean-Claude Lattes. Although greatly enfeebied, he insisted on help/og us duringthe production and installation, and through to the private view on 25March 2000. Hedied on J June, Ascension Day. The Jardin lavoir accompanted him up to the end of hislife.This exhibition, and the work, have a very special meaning for me.Jean·Claude's illness is also a part of the context and the making of the experience ofthe Jardin lavoir.Jean-Claude was greatly attached to this project and, as usual, he gave it his all, ChenZhen showed a lot of respect andfriendship and stayed with him through his work,This text is a homage to Jean-Claude who, for twenty years, was passionately committedto the development of the art centre. l would like to thank all those who shared thelove and the labour of art, sometimes with him, and who paid tribute tohim with muchwarmth andfriendship.l wrote the text that follows before his death, after the private view. You wiJI find itunchanged.Producing a site-specific work with an artist is a process of fusion whose intensity isconstant1y maintained by the sharing of ideas, emotions, restrictions and possibilities,by predtctable and unpredictable elements, by coincidences that arise from theenergy deployed. This incandescence is at its peak when making the work on-site,and begins to fade with the opening of the exhibition, that fatefuJ date that nothingcan push back, not even the inevitably and always unexpected problems that unfailinglyoccur. And when they do, you have to surpass yourself go beyond the limits,bum with a final fever before the separation wrought by the work's materialisationand public presentation. The creation of the Jardin (avoir, both work and exhibition.was no exception to the rule.30

There were key moments when Chen demonstrated his remarkable capadty for makingthe work emerge through difficulties, moments of total exposure that called onthe whole team to surpass itself- Xu Min, his wife, Thomas Manin, his assistant, thestudents of the Lyon and Toulouse art schools and the staff of the art centre. Therewere 16 tons of grevel in the room, transforming the beds into tombs, with the sun atfive in the afternoon drawing crosses through the mesh of the openings and theimmediate calling into question of the form that had only just been decided. Therewas also a very close shave when an essential part of "NighUy Imprecation" wentmissing in transit and the miracle wrought by Chen as he recreated its meaning andproportions in 48 hours using whatever he could find and getting everyone pullingtogether day and night. Extraordinary energy and concentration.Generally, this proximity with the work and the artist develops over a year, onewhich has its before, during and after: three time-frames that are always replayedand never identical, that are adventurous, sometimes verging on the impossible andthe intolerable, and constantly intense. Then, the realised existence of the workabsorbs and erases them as it takes up position in a wider context, that of the artist'sapproach, that of the historical evolution of art and that of its public reception.Consequently even the production phase is both a material condition and subjectiveevent. This is something criticism rarely considers. It imposes the generalisation ofconcepts and objectivity of discourse - especially in France. That is why it took theamicable insistence of Chen Zhen to persuade me to discuss here the subjective historyof the production of the lardin tavoir, which, like his work, brings together modest,personal experiences and broad cultural trajectcries.Producing works of contemporary art enables one to reach out to a particular publicwith each new exhibition: institutional or private partners, craftsmen, customsagents, transporters, trainee students, workmen, technicians and tradespeople all getinvolved, not to mention the people at the art centre, and voluntary helpers. All contributeto the existence of the work and come into close contact with it, objectivelyand subjectively, socially and inti.rnately.We are particularly pleased to be organising this two-stage exhibition in collaborationwith the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb and Professor Zelimir Koscevic,thus forging virtual links between two towns, countries and structures. We haveworked on this project together, elaborating with Chen Zhen two "stations" of a temporalidea that touches on the body, life and death. The two stages and two places willcome together in a book.Our interest in the work of Chen Zhen was certainly due in part to our experiences ofChinese thought and art as teenagers, when Jean-Claude Lattes sought out the formativeinfluence of his spiritual father, Ivan Durand, who had a great interest inTaoism, and when I started experimenting with the j-Chtng as a philosophical exercisethat made it possible to interpret the world (this was when the Protestant andMarxist foundations of the education dtspensed by my parents proved inadequate,and out of curiosity).31

We both grew up with, and th:rough, a foreign influence, one sufficiently remote forus to make it our own without feeling its historical weight, through which we couldinvent ourselves. For us, China represented an experience of freedom and self-accomplishment,just as the appropriation of Western culture must have done for ChenZhen: an encounter with a radically different other, at a level of enhanced freedom.Chen Zhen would call this "transexpertence". The operative element is experience,where sensation and knowledge meet.That implies a change of attitude and context: it is no longer necessary to adopt thedominant artistic forms of the West, as it was at the time ot American and Europeanabstraction, The work of Chen Zhen suggests an extraordina:ry liberty, a capacity toelude Western and Asian diktats so as to keep only that which is fruitful, to inventcontents and forms that are both universal and singular, reflecting human nature ingeneral but also the specificity of his mu1ticu1tural approach, shaped by his experienceof life and his artistic singularity.The vocabulary of the Jardin Javoir brings into play metaphors and mental imagesthat can be understood by different cultures, through which it refers to the pnvateand social life of the body, while exploring the register of contemporary art.Chen Zhen dares to speak beyond form, to deal with images, the philosophy andintentions of his approach, with tremendous simplicity. He has no difficulty in takingup art's social responsibilities as a therapy, and is quite clear about the treatmenthe plans to administer: to change beings by transforming things, and our gaze,through lived experience. To put art back on the level of Being, without silliness ormystification, in a world where only having is valued, where even the friends of artthink in terms of a cultural capital needed for integration and social progress - that isno mean feat.When you talk to him about form, he answers with a laugh: "that's the great mystery."Here, once again, he displaces things: what is visible becomes unknown, whatis immaterial (meaning) is indicated quite openly. However, we can see that he playson the repetition of forms, on their physical presence, that he orders space and timeusing motifs that are phrased Uke music, that he invokes the recurrent modes of historyand sculpture and prolongs them, inscribing their possibiIities in duration.Residence, resonance, resistance: these three words of his can be used to sum up ChenZhen's approach. Here, I propose to interpret this in a specific context.To "residence" Chen Zhen adds: "invite me round and I'Il come to your place." TheJardin lavoirwas built with its setting, through the architectural, natural and artisticcontext. In turn, it reveals the place to Itself, illustrating still unobserved facets.Having dissolved the context, mastered it, not dominated or served it, the artist playshis own score of memory and becoming, in accordance with the spirit of place. Asmutual hosts, the two exchange identity.IIWater is at the centre of the Jardin lavoit, just as it encompassesthe space, as a riveron the outside and a spring on the inside. However, water is not just considered as the

natural, active element of the site, but also as the memory of the artist's personalexperience, when he came six years ago for "Paroles d'artistes", a colloquium with ascore of artists chaired by Jan Hoet, when a surprise spate flooded the place. To thiscan be added childhood memories of bathing in springs, by which the Chinese setgreat store, and the importance of water in Chinese artistic culture.Water has a dual dimension in this work: it washes the objects from everyday lifebrought together in the eleven saturated and encumbered beds representing theorgans of the body. The objects are formative and informative. Water brings themback to life, leaving in suspense the threat of their loss. Time, too, is double: for 15minutes the water flows, then it stops for 15 minutes, leaving the beds to becomecalm lakes, revealing the pictorial composition of the objects they contain, which ispropitious to inner silence, offering an escape from the turnult of frenzied action thatcharacterises our lives today.Another temporal indication is given by the unlimitedness of water, which is naturallyflowing, and by the limits of the figured body that receives it, a body that isorganic, mental, social. And again: the circulation of flows between beings andthings.Resonance: almost musically absorbing the echo of the context, integrating andtransferring it elsewhere. Getting mental images, metaphors, to move from one cultureto another, mixing and bringing them together, making meaning move aroundlike a sound, from one edge to another. Transmitting experiences from one individualto another, from one culture to another, sharing vitality. The friendly sharing andsensory resonance of an artistic project and experience lived by Chen Zhen and thosewho work with him. Inter-subjectivities interacting. The Jardi" tavotr brings intoplay metaphors of life and death, stages of life. We made our contribution to it at thevery moment when these terms had lost all abstraction, in what for my friend, companionin life and work, was physically and mentalJy a critical situation; a grave illness.We began to hope that the work would give us the strength to resist.Resistance: Chen Zhen accepts misunderstanding as a fecund part of the exchangebetween cultures, or persons. A matter of cultural resistance. Chen Zhen preserves hisChinese identity while abscrbing, by experience, all the cultures he passes through.And that is fairly emblematic of the new modes of exchange. These are the methodsused by art to mix its blood, to transform itself.There is no hierarchybetween the sensible and the intelligible, no hierarchy betweenartistic genres, types of objects. content and form. A real determination to not reducediversity and to go beyond rationality and the categories it forms. To schclt the mindso that it may exist in a society that represents itself and acts in the medium of thetechnical. There is an underlying political dimension here.The instituting of differences and hierarchies lies at the heart of the artistic system,especially in institutions; in the West. This corresponds to a separation between bodyand soul, emotion and understanding, bottom and top, high and low, the individual33

ody and the social body, which is specific to aw culture. Since Plato, these hierarchies,these divisions and these distinctions are the basis of our interpretation of theworld and of the corresponding social order. They are also what makes it possible toseparate life and art. Chen Zhen goes beyond them.Albi, May-June 2000(e, P.)34

Interview de Chen Zhenpar Jerome SansLe silencesonore ...J. S. Depuis le deport, vatre travail parfe du rapport deforce entre l'homme et la nature, A une epooue oli Janature est devenue conceptuette, reduite a quelquesrores signes dans la ville, celte dimension est plus quejamais a'octuoute.C. Z. Quand on pade de spintualitć on pense trop immediaternent a la religion. Mais l'espritde la nature comme celui de l'homme ont une force spirituelle inderuable. Cetteforce n'est pas une abstraction, c'est une rnatiere substantielle qui influence le systemeemotionnel et irnrnunltaire de notre corps. Le phllosophe AlJemand, Maitce Eckhart adit: "Le corps derne! de l'hornme est l'trnagtnation" Donc "l'esprit" ou la force spirituellede J'homme est l'ame de l'art: Je me suis engage dans cette sphere depuis longtemps. En1990 dans une interview avec vous, je sttuats deja le centre de ma reflexion autour du(apport entre l'hornrne. la nature et la societe de consommation. Dix ans plus tard, malgrel'elargissernent de mes territoires de preoccupattons, cette dimension reste toujourspresente. Si a l'epoque j'avais introduil Ja nature dans rnes ceuvres. c'etait comme pourla confronter avec notre monde artificlel et materialiste. Avec le temps, cet investissemenlde la nature s'est elargi. Je la consrdere aussi comme une puissance therapeutique,comme une balance urationnelle et pour sa dimension spirituelle et critique. J'essayed'tntrodulre la synergie rnytluque de la nature pour mon esprit et pour mon corps.J'emprunle cette force naturelle pour mon travail. Ce desir perpetuel de mettre la nature,au centre de ma reflexton me permel de retrouver cet engagement. En 1995. quand j'atrecouveJ1 de terre l'espace de la Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot atnsi qu'un certain nombred'objef s. c'ćt ait pour creer un lieu de purification: en 1997, le projet de Fu Doo/Pu Dao.Upside-down Buddha- Arrival at Good Fortune presente au CCA de Kitakyushu au Japan,questionnait la relation entre la tradition Bouddhiste, la nature et la prollferatton desprodutts astattques aux durćes dc plus en plus ćpherneres. En 1998, mon Hude pourParis Rive Gauche, S'ancrer dans reou. la terre et evoluer dans t'espace-temps, mettaltl'accent sur la situation de l'homrne dans les grandes rnćgalopoles et sur les relationsentre cycles de production et cycles de la nature. En 1999, Futr a rAng/Qlse? (Sneak away)a Breda en Hollande ironisait sur l'tnvitatlon cl faire de l'art sur une de-charge publiquede 350 hectares sur 50 metres de profondeur. Avec le Jardin lavoir au Centre d'ArtClrnaise et Portique a Albi, c'est l'uttltsatlon de l'eau comme "gućrtsseuse" ann dedepousslerer non seulement les objets quotidiens mais aussi l'espace lui-meme.Tous ces projets, realises en des lleux et des moments dtfferents. s'arttculent entre euxdans une continuation de conscience et de confiancc. C'est ce que ['appelle un "ralentissementrnorcete". un processus qui accumule des experiences dlfferentes sur le mčrnesujet dans le temps ct dans l'espace. Un processus qui me permet d'avotr un certainnornbre de chantiers que je peux rouvrir a n'irnporte quel moment. Comme une se-rie dedosstcrs informatiques que l'on peut rčacttver. reactualiser, telecharger,J. S. l.e mot "entre" me sembie une strateqie chez vous pour ne pas [txer de cib/e et tatssersuJJisamment de champ fibre pour la pensee čC. Z. Toul li fait. C'est aussl une question d'attltude. de facon de regarder le monde. Pourmoi, le monde n'est pas un objet. A I'inverse des Grecs qui ont ete les prerniers a pouvoir35

satsir l'objet en determinant la substance en tant qu'objet.la pensče chinoise oscille "entre" objets et elements.Une sorte de "non-objet" et de "non-lieu" qul, comme l'ainterprete Francois Jullien, decnt "l'ephemere ella rnouvanceininterrompue des choses, la fugactte et l'insubstantiallte des existenccs" Le Vide pour lc Tactsme n'estqu'une question "d'entre". Dans cette vision, le mondepeut etre considere comme une "occasion" dans l'espace,Alors. pourquoi ne pas envisager ran de la mčmcmantere?J. s. Dans votre instaJ!aUonJardins lavair presentee ci Albivous aoordez t'eau dans sa dimension puntscomce. Lapurification n'est.eue pas fina/ernenf un phenomenetransversaldans votre approche?HanqtnqlDe1achinq world, 1990Poumeres99 objects hanged in a burnt forest1000 rn 2 (about)Exhibition; (hine Demarn pour I-he,Photo, Chen Zhene, Z. Dans un monde ou la proprete et la poussiere ont perdu leur ventable sens "englnel". ou le vecteur de la moderrute est hyper proprete, toujours plus propre,le processusnature! de la poussiertsation permanente est evacue et gomme Iitteralernent. comme sic'ćtait posstble. Alors que c'est une plete invisible, Ineluctable et eternelle. Lorsque je"purifte" des objets et des espaces avec de la boue. et parfors. comme a Albi avec de l'eau.c'est avec des elements contraires aux dćsinfectants mdustnels quottdtens. des elements qui sont cortsideres comme sales (la boue, ..). Ce sont des elements naturels qui ontcette qualite de purifieretde desintecter la culture materia liste des objets et celJe de l'environnementartificiel. Quand j'ai visite Cimaise et Portique, ce centre d'art etait eompleternentlnonde. C'etait une oeuvre en sot. Devant eette performance troute s'esttrnposee l'tdee du Jardin Lavoir. Cette quallte de punflcatlon a non seulement une fonctionde cure ponctuelle dans mon travail mais aussi une fonction de "douche quotidienne" personnelle pour mon corps et mon esprit. une sorte de refroidissement rnedltatlfJ. S. D'atiteurs, tberapte et meditation se retrouvent toujours au centre de vos oeuvres,comme un systeme de diagnostic. N'est-ce pas, au-dela de vatre experience personnelIe deresistance par rapport ii votre matadie, une metaphoce de rart!36c. Z. t'art a besoin aujourd'hut de nouvelles rčststances. La notion de resistance a toujoursete primordiale dans toutes les grandes evolutrons et revolution s de l'histotre del'homme. que ce soit dans les domaines politiques. sociaux. sctentiflques ou culturels.Elle est aussi un element essentiel pour le chemin de vie de chacun. Aujourd'hut.le problemeest que la technologte et le systeme capitalisle se sont developpes a une tellevitesse et dans une Irresistible seductton que l'on n'arnve mčme pas a suivre. Nous nesommes ftnalement que des petrts suiveurs de cette realite. Ma resistance quotidiennea ma maladte pendant 20 arts mia donne une energie telle que cettc experience s'esttransforrnee en une resistance par rapport a la creation. La cure, la guerisonla thćrapteet la meditation .... toutes ces dimensions quotidiennes de ma vie sont devenues monunivers dans lequel s'artlcule la fusion entre I'art et la vie, La puissance rnentale et lasplnuallte sont des sources capabies d'influencer et de renforcer le systeme irnrnuru-

p-ayer Wheel - "Money makes theMare Go" (Chinese SlanqJ. 1997P. S. l Museum, New Yorkchinese abacus. calculators, cash registers, metal.wood, sound system600 x 700 x 280 cm(wheel: 240 x 240 x 250 cm)Exhibition Artist Projects. The Re-opening Showof P. S. l Museum, New YorkPhoto: Chen Zhentaire, D'apres les informations des dernieres recherchcs sur leprobleme du corps et de l'espnt. le systeme immurntaire est unesorte de "second rerveau", un reseau de cellules speoaltsees quidote le corps d'une ide nute flexible. Cette rdentlte sommatiquequi entrettent des hens partrcuhers avec Je reseau nerveux estdevenue aujourd'hut le facteur le plus important de la sante del'etre humain. Les ernotions perubles. comme le stress. peuventaffecter la sante et le corps. SI notre cerveau peut reguler cerlainesem ati om, quel agenl pourra ajuster les autres. el notammentle reseau nerveux? Le bouddhrsrne nous donne une ou verlureextraordinalre sur ce point. car il a pour objectif de transformerla perception et l'experience ainsi que de synchroniserl'espnt et le corps a travers la "meditation d'ettenuon" Cettematiere constante mais mvrsible est quelque chose d'mcroyablepour faire certains rruracles dans notre Vie, pourquoi pas dans1'art? c'est sur cette base, Iain de la conscience rellgieuse ou nostalgique. que je souhaiterais"exploiter" mes experiences personnelIes en les transposant dans une reflexion surrart. Dans une telle approcne. on ne peut plus aborder de la metne mame re l'histoire oul'histoire de l'art. L'art n'est pas qu'une question de concept mais aussi une expćtiencedc la vic, L'trnagtnatton n'est pas une usme. mats un laboratoire. Quand son propre corpsdevrent une sorte de labor atorre. une source d'trnagination et d'experf mentatlon, leprocessus de vre se transforme alors en art.J. S,L'incarnation des idees oostrones vers une concretisauon physique et visuelle dans ledomaine de t'art est une affoue tres subtite. Sila p/upart des artistes travail/en t en visualisantteurs concepts ou conceptuotisant leurs experiences, quelle est vatre aemarcne speciJ/que par rapport cltout ral Quelle est /a relation entre ceque vous oppetez une expenenceporttcvuere et les moyens plastiques que vous convoquez en uti/isant des objets et desmoteriauxjomiiierstc. Z, Dans le livre "Transexpenences" publie par le CCA de Krtakyushu j'a! integre unetres longue conversation avec un de mes vieux amis de Shanghai dans laquelle j'tnststaisSUTce concept que j'avals invente pour l'occaslcn. Je voulats mettre l'accent sur l'importaneed'expertences multiples et que ce ne soit plus le concept qui domine l'art. Desexpćrtenccs en mouvement dans l'espace-ternps. Les artistes depuis trois decenrues travallien t a partir d'un concept. le dislribuent et le developpent dans les lieux differents ouils sont invites a exposer. Ce qui m'tntćresse. est qu'en voyageant, qu'en etant perturbepar differents context es, dans ces espaces mterrnedtaues. je me nourrts d'tdćes et dc conceptsnouveaux. C'est "la stralćgie de l'eau" L'eau coule partout et nu Ue part. Elle n'a pasde forme propre. Elle se forme selon les ctrconstances. EHe est sou pie, flexible, transparente,changeante, mouvante, pćnetrante et circulante ... C'est une "colle" et un joint parfails pour rassembler tous les contments, L'expenence.Ia "transexpertence" est cette eauqui permet de creer a tout moment de nouvelles situations, des modes de pensee dlfferents.C'est une zone libre qui permet de ne pas tornber dans la rigidite et dans le sys·teme, C'est un mayen de ne pas se contenter. comme des vague s qUi ridentla surface deroce-an, sans remuer les eaux en profondeur. La puissance de l'eau est son volume La37

iches se de l'expertence de I'homme est son epatsseur. Le noyau de tout cela est la liberte.Je veux ćvttcr que le concept čcrasc rexpertence. l'art et la vie. Pour ce qui est dulien entre rnes experiences et mon travail. II s'agit simplement de transformations. Latransformation n'a ni frontiere ni limite. Elle peut atteindre a la fois la dimension conceptuelleet rnaterielle. Avoir un esprit libre. comme l'eau permet d'ernbrasser toutes lesrnatiercs. Je n'al pas peur d'utillser des objets banals, quotidiens. Au contraire. i\s permettentde passer des messflges qui concernent le plus grand nom bre de personnes.J. S. Est-ce lo raison pour taquette des ms, des chaises (d'enfants ou d'advttes) apparaissentsouventdans vos installations?C. Z. Les ltts. comme les chatses ou tout autre objet que je detourne et transforme sontdes elements qui accompagnent la vie. Transformer un lit dhčpttal d'adulte en unberceau, un lit en tambour ou encore en boite de loto, en bassin de lavotr. tous cesdetournernents sont provoques par des contextes drfferents et jouent avec I'histoire descontextes. Cest 1

C. Z. "Six Roots" est un theme bouddhiste qui decrtt lespnnopaux sens de notre corps: regarder {l'oell). cntcndre(l'oretlte). senti I (lr- nez), gouter (la langue); ressentir tle corps) et savoir (la conscience). Ces "r-apacttćs"essentielles dc l'homme reltent et refletent nos diverscornportements et nos pensčes. Ces SIX foncttonsevoluent en fonction de rage et des ditfercnts types df'temperaments.L'emprunl dc cc Uleme bouddhiste est un pretextepour m'tntenoger sur les "SIX etapes de la vie" quirefletent et impliquent des rornporternents hurnatnscontradtctcires. Selon lc bouddlusrne. ces six fonctronsd'evolution de l'hornrne peuvent faire ernerger lerneilleur, smon le pire.J. S. Comment inteorez vous vraiment le con texte (ocalde Zagreb. Comment vous situez-vous ici, selon le contextespec0~!que aux Balkans)C. Z. RIen n'existe par hasard C'est en visrtant respacedu MOCA de Zagreb avec ces six pieces successivesrehees par des partes que j'ar pense a ce chiffre. Parailleurs, cet espace a une dimension humaine qui m'afait penser a une serte d'orgnnes. Un corps en six parHes. une vie en six eta pes. Mais en travaillant sur ceprojet. fal ressenti la necessite de trouvcr quelquechose de plus retenu ct de plus profond. D'ou "SixRoots" qui eclatre parfaitement ce que Je developpe. JCIc'est l'espace physique qui impose sa proportion corporcllcct son Hombre. i:l c'est le lieu historique (lesBalkans) qui a suscite en moi des interrogattons,comme la signification du corps. les comportemenlsde I'homrne elle cercle de vie.Passage/Circuit 1990Poun.ćres2 tows of 12 m. metal. wood. paper. projector.aquanum. newspapers. water. sand. stone1200 x 1450 x 290 cmExtubmon Ctune Demam pour Illerphoto. chen zhenJ. S. Jue Chang - Fifty Strakes to Each, rnitlalementconcue pour le Tel Aviv Museum of Art dans un conlexte connu pour son conJilt nistonoue, a ete ensurte exposee ti la 48eme Biennale deVenise de 1999- Cette ceuvre qui n'a apporemment pos dp liens immediats avec ie ron texteen question, manifesteaufond une penetration extraordmatre dans la profondeur de I'en-Jeu historique uu MoyenOnent. I?arement dam vatre travail. la dimension potutaue ousociete esr immedtatement exphcite. Comment gerez vous ces ooromeirestc. Z. Le langage indirect

Light of Confession 1993Cenuaat Museum Utrecht. Utlt~cht250 pamtmgs of the Museurn's collection.wood, objects, clay2000 x 400 x 350 cmExhrbrtton.Light of ConfessionPhoto Centraal Museum Utrechtbreuses expositions, je prefere l'efftcacite et l'empire dela "seconde couche", cene derrtere le vlsuel. Cest unernaruere de creer un "piege visuel et conccptuel" parrapport ci ce que l'on voit. Autrement dil, la rćalitephysique de roeuvre dans I'espace n'est pas la seulechose qui compte pour l'oetl et t'ernotton. mais il fautquelque chose en plus, qut touche l'estornac. la circulationdigestive, le centre nerveux et l'espnt. Quelquechose qui declenche "une vibra tion imrnunttatre" "Leson hors de la corde (de !'instrument musical)" drt unproverbe chinois.Je rajouterais: "la forme en dehors duvisuel"Cest la que I'on retrouve la double transformation dontj'ai parte precedernrnent. La transformation de rarttstepar rapport a la creation atnsi que cene des spectateurspar rapport a la perception de I'

dhut au "centre", Je SUIS en train de reflechir ii une "rernarglnahsatton" La notion de "Residence-Resonance-Resistance" (R-R-R), issue de rnes experiences de cesdernieres annćes. affirment certaines poslttons que Jesouhuite developper. Reslder, s'ancrer dans dtfferentscontextes culturels: Resonner, dlalcguer avec les cultures"locales". Resister. diluer la "mono influence culturelle"occidentale dans mon esprit. Certes, il s'agitd'une maniere oelargir le champ d'inspiration artistique,mais surtout c'est un desir de continuer unc acttvttede plus en plus dense. une acnvtte basće sur l'humainet I'expenence. Ce n'est donc pas une question degestion ou de reaction a tous ces voyages lies ii des invitationsaux exposltions. C'est plulćt la volante d'accepter prtorttatrement les "invitations margmales" oude provoquer ce type d'invitation ii travers le monde.J'essale de ralentir le rythme des expositions el de donnerplus de temps pour de longs sejours sur differentscontinents.le veux contmuer a apprendre. La globalisationne peut pas etre une attitude d'expanston en sensunique, mais dott devenir une penetration mutuelle.Sinan chacun perd tous ses avantages.1.S. Comment envisaqez-vous dans un tel rythme effrened'tnvitations, le repos mental dont vous parlez et surtoutla concentration d'enerqie!Light of Confession 1993Cent raal Museum utrecht. utrecht250 parnungs of the Museurn's collection. wood.objects,clay2000 x 400 x 350 cmExhibrtion Light of ConfessionPhoto Centraal Museum UtrechtC. Z.II Y a vlngt ans en (hine, quand j'etais tres rnalade,les gens me posaient souvent la question "commentvas-tu rernonter la pente pour montrer ta volante?Votre question va presque en sens rnverse.J'ai toujours garde la merne mentallte. Je n'a!pas change. En (hine, il existc deux strategies par rapport au changement et au mouvement:"Dix rrulles changements ne modtfient jamais l'essence des choses" et "Gardersans changer face aux dix milles cnangements". J'at peut-etre un atout prtvilegle car mamaladie me reveillc chaquc matin aftn d'etre dans un silence sonore ..,41

Razgovor Jeromea Sansa sChen Zhen omZvonka tišina ... 1.5. Od samog početka vaš radgovori O odnosu snaga izmedučovjeka iprirode. U doba u kojemu je priroda postala konceptualna, svedena na nekolikorijetkih znakova u gradu. avaje dimenzija aktualnija no ikada.e.z. Kada se govori o duhovnosti, prebrzo se pomišlja na religiju. A duh prirode, jednakokao iduh čovjeka, imaju neporecivu duhovnu snagu. Ova snaga nije apstraktna, ona jeta bitna tvar što utječe na emocionalni i imunološki sustav našeg tijela. Njemački filozofMajstor Eckhart je rekao: UVjetno tijelo ČOVjekaje mašta." Dakle "duh" ili duhovnasnaga čovjeka je duša umjetnosti. U ovo sam područje ušao ima tome davno. 1990.godine II jednom razgovoru s vama, već sam središte svojeg razmišljanja postavio okoodnosa izmedu ČOVjeka, prirode i potrošačkog društva. Deset godina kasnije, usprkosproširenju područja mojih zanimanja, ova je dimenzija i dalje prisutna. Ako sam II tovrijeme uveo prirodu II svoja djela, to je bilo tako kao da je sučeljavam s našim artificijelnimi materijalističkim svijetom. S vremenom, ovo se ukljueivanje prirode proširilo.Za mene je ona takoder i terapeutska snaga, iracionalna ravnoteža, zbog njezineduhovne i kritičke dimenzije. Pokušavam uključiti mitsku sinerglju prirode u svoj duhi svoje tijelo. Pcsudujem tu prirodnu silu za svoj rad. Stalna želja da prirodu postavim IIsredište svojeg razmišljanja omogućuje mi da uvijek nađem ovo opredjeljenje: 1995. g.,kada sam zemljom prekrio prostor Galerije Ghislaine Hussenot, jednako kao i određenbroj predmeta, bilo je to zato da stvorim mjesto za pročišćenje; godine 1997. projekt PuDoo/Pu Dao, Upside-down Buddha - Arrival at Good Fortune predstavljen u CCA (Centarza suvremenu umjetnost, op. p.) u Kitakyushu u Japanu, propitivao je odnos izmeđubudističke tradicije, prirode i bujanja azijskih proizvoda, čije je trajanje svakim danomsve kratkotrajnije. G. 1998. moja studija za Paris Rive Gauche, Ueotvit! se Ll vodu, zemljUi kretati se Ll prostoru-vremenu, postavila je naglasak na položaj čovjeka u velikimmegalopolisima, kao i na odnos izmedu ciklusa proizvodnje i ciklusa prirode. Godine1999. Pobjeći potajice (Sneak away) li Bredi u Nizozemskoj, ironizirao je poziv da sestvara umjetnost na javnom smetlištu veličine 350 hektara na 50 metara dubine. Uradu Jardin lavoir" za Centre d'art Cimaise et Portique u Albiju, bilo je to korištenje vodekao "vidarice", kako bi se OSVježila ne samo svakodnevne predmete, već takoder i samprostor.Svi ovi projekti, ostvareni na različitim mjestima i u različitim trenucima, međusobnose uklapaju u jedinstveni slijed svijesti i povjerenja. Nazivam to "razlomljenim usporavanjem",procesom što sakuplja različita iskustva na istu temu u vremenu i prostoru.Proces što mi omogućuje posjedovanje određenog broja otvorenih projekata koje moguiznova započeti u bilo kojem trenutku. Poput serije informatičkih mapa koje je mogućereaktivirati, reaktualizirati, "skinuti"J.S.Riječ "između" fini mi se vašom strategijom u namjeri da ne odredite cilj i ostavitedovoljno otvorenog prostora za razmišljanje?e.z. Doista. Takoder je to pitanje stava. načina gledanja na svijet. Za mene svijet nijepredmet. Suprotno od Grka, koji su prvi mogli razumjeti predmet, određujući bit kao42• II slobodnijem prijevodu: Vrt-korito, Naplavljeni vrt, Ploveći vrt

predmet, kineska misao oscilira "između" predmeta i elemenata. Neka vrsta "ne-predmeta"i "ne-mjesta" koja, kao što je tumačio Francois Jullien, opisuje "efemernost ineprekinutu pokretnost stvari. prolaznost i nebitnost postojanja". Praznim) je zataoizam tek pitanje "izmedu" U tom viđenju, svijet se moze promatrati kao "prigodu"II prostoru. Stoga, zašto ne promatrati umjetnost na isti način?J.S. U instalaciji Jardin tavoir, predstavljenoj u A/biju, vodi pristupate kroz njezinu dimenzijučišćenja. Čišćenje, nUe li ono fenomen koji se provlači u vašem pristupu?Field of Waste 1994The New Museum of Contemporary Art. New Yorkashes uf newspaper. "carpet" of Churese andAmei iran flags sewn with clothes. sawmgmar-lune.meta!1500 x 1000 x ~80 cmExhibition: l-teldof Waste & Chinese taundryPhoto: wang {jong xmgC.Z. U svijetu u kojem su čistoća i prašina izgubile svoj istinski, "prvotni" smisao, u kojemuje vektor moderniteta htperćistoća, uvijek čišće, ispražnjen je i doslovno izbrisanprirodni proces stajne zaprašenosli, kao da je to moguće! A radi se zapravo o nevidljivoj,neizbježnoj i vječnoj kiši. Kada ja blatom "čistim" predmete i prostore, i ponekad, kao uAlbiju, vodom, radim to s elemenlima suprotnim uobičajenim industrijskim dezinficirajućimsredstvima, s elementima što ih se drži prljavim (blato ...). Upravo prirodni elementiposjeduju osobinu čišćenja i dezinficiranja materijalističke kulture predmeta iartificijelnog okoliša. Kada sam posjetio Cimaise et Portique, taj je umjetnički centar bioposve poplavljen. Bilo je to već djelo po sebi. Pred ovimneočekivanim performansom nametnula se ideja zaJardin lavoir. Ova osobina čišćenja ima osim funkcijepojedinačne kure u mojem radu. i funkciju osobnog,"svakodnevnog tuširanja" mojeg tijela i duha, nekuvrstu meditativnog osvježenja,J.S. Uostalom, terapija i meditacija nalaze se uvijek usredištu vaših radova, kao dijagnostički susta v. Nije li to,onkraj vašeg osobnog iskustva otpora bo/esti, metaforaumjetnosti?CZ. Umjetnosti su danas potrebni novi otpori. Pojamotpora uvijek je bio od najveće važnosti u svim velikimevolucijarna i revolucijama čovjekove povijesti, bilo tou političkim, društvenim, znanstvenim ili kulturnimpodručjima. On je takoder bitan element svačijeg životnogputa. Danas problem predstavlja činjenica da suse tehnologija i kapitalistički sustav razvili tolikombrzinom i neodoljivom pnvlačnošću da ih ne uspijevamoslijediti. Na koncu, postojimo samo kao mali pratiodte stvarnosti. Moje svakodnevno opiranje bolestitijekom dvadeset godina dalo mi je toliko energije da seto iskustvo pretvorilo II otpor u odnosu na stvaralaštvo.Liječenje, oporavak. terapija i meditacija .... sve tesvakodnevne dimenzije mojeg Zivota. postale su mojsvijet u kojem se ostvaruje stapanje umjetnosti i zivota.Mentalna snaga i duhovnost izvori su koji moguutjecati na imunitet i pojačati ga. Sukladno podacima

posljednjih istraživanja o problemu tijela i duha, imunitet je neka vrsta "drugogmozga". mreža specijaliziranih stanica što tijelu daje elastični identitet. Ovaj somatskiidentitet što ustanovljuje posebne veze s mrežom živaca postao je danas najvažnijičinitelj zdravlja ljudskog bića. Bolne emocije, poput stresa, mogu ugroziti zdravlje i tijelo.Ako je naš mozak sposoban upravljati odredenim emocijama, koji će to činitelj močiuskladiti sve ostale, a osobito nervni sustav? Budizam nam pruža iznimnu otvorenostna tom području, jer njegov je cilj pretvaranje opažanja i iskustva, kao i sinkroniziranjeduha i tijela pomoću "medittranja pažnje". Ovaj stalni a nevidljivi sadržaj nešto jenevjerojatno, čime postižemo neka čuda u našem životu. a zašlo ne i u umjetnosti? Natoj bih osnovi, daleko od religijske ili nostalgične svijesti, htio "iskorištavati" svojaosobna iskustva, prenoseći ih II razmišljanje o umjetnosti. Takvim pristupom ne možese na isti naćin pristupiti povijesti ili povijesti umjetnosti. Umjetnost nije tek pitanjekoncepta, nego također i iskustvo života. Mašta nije tvornica, nego laboratorij. Kadavlastito tijelo postane neka vrsta laboratorija, izvor mašte i eksperimentiranja, tada seproces života pretvara u umjetnost.J.S.Inkarnacija apstraktnih ideja nasuprot fisičeoj i Vizualnoj konkretizaciji na podrućjuumjetnosti vrlo je suptilan pothvat. Budući da većina umjetnika radi na vizualiziranjusvojih koncepata ili eonceptuatiziranju svojih iskustava, zanima me kakav je vaš specifičanpostupak spram toga? Kakav je odnos između onoga što nazivate osobnimiskustvom i likovnih sredstava na koja se pozivate koristeći materijale iz svakodnevice?c.z. U knjizi "rransexpenences" koju je objavio CCA U Kitakyushu, objavto sam vrlodugi razgovor sa starim prijateljem iz šangaja u kojem inzistiram na konceptu što samga iznaša u toj prilici. Želio sam istaknuti važnost višestrukih iskustava te da konceptviše nije dominantan u umjetnosti. Na iskustvima pokreta u prostoru-vremenu. Već tridesetljeća polazište umjetnika je koncept. kojeg prenose i razvijaju na različltim mjestimaII koja su pozivani na izložbe. Dok putujem i dok me uzbuđuju razne situacije, utim prijelaznim prostorima zanima me hraniti se novim idejama i konceptima. To je"strategija vode" Voda teče posvuda i nigdje: ona nema vlastiti oblik. Oblikuje seprema prilikama. Podatna je, pruživa, prozirna, promjenjiva, pokretna, prodiruća ikruže ea... Savršeno "ljepilo" i spojnica što okuplja sve kontinente. iskustvo, odnosno"trans-iskustva", to je voda što omogućuje stvaranje novih situacija II svakoj prilici,različitih vidova mišljenja. Ona je slobodno područje koje ne dopušta da se padne u krutosti u sustavnost. Ona je način da se ne postane zadovoljan, poput valova što nabirupovršinu oceana, a ne pomiču duboke vode. Snaga vode je njezin volumen. BogatstvoČOVjekova iskustva je u njegovoj slojevitosti. Jezgra svega toga je sloboda. Ja želimizbjeći to da koncept uništi iskustvo, umjetnost i život. Što se tiče odnosa između mojihiskustava i mojeg rada, radi se jednostavno o transformacijama. Transformacija nemagranica ni ograničenja. Ona može dosegnuti Ujedno konceptualnu i materijalnudimenziju. Posjedovati slobodan duh, poput vode, omogućava da se obuhvate svisadržaji. Ja se ne bojim koristiti obične, svakodnevne predmete. Naprotiv, onirnogućava]u da se prenesu poruke što se ticu najšireg broja ljudi.44},S.Je li to raz/og zbog kojeg se kreveti i stolci (djece ili odraslih ljudi) često pojavljuju uvašim instalacijama?

C.Z. Kreveti, kao i stolci ili bilo koji drugi predmeti što ih mijenjam i transformiran,prateći su elementi života. Transformirati bolnički krevet odrasle osobe u kolijevku,krevet U bubanj ili još U kutiju loto-igre, u posudu za pranje, sve te izmjene uzrokovanesu različitim kontekstima i poigravaju se s poviješću konteksta. Susret s novim prostoromi njegovo iskustvo oblikuju moje ideje. To je razlog zbog kojeg ni predmeti ninačin njihova transformiranja ne mogu postati "stil ",].S. U vašoj instalaciji u Albiju, kreveti su mjesta odmora tijela i duha za predmete, predmetekoji isami postaju unutrašnji organi ljudskog tijela, dok je prostor II središtu postaopravi vrt a voda dio rijeke Tam. lako je sve transformirano. svaki element zadržava svojprvotni identitet. kao da je riječ o zrcalu što odražava svoj odnos s ČOVjekom.Je li to duhkaji razgovara?C.Z. Da. To je sam proces umjetnosti. Transformacija se odvija II tri susljedne etape:proučiti probleme. postavili pitanja i razviti svoju maštu.].S. Zašto vaše instalacije često zadobivaju/ormu "inicijacijskih putovanja'?Resonance 1994Krolter-Multer Museum, Orterlometal bell. Ioud-speaker. broken and calcined chairs1000 x 1000 X soo cm (about)Exhibition: Heart of DarknessCollection; Krčller-Muller MuseumPhoto: Kroller-Muller MuseumC.Z. Zar život nije lanac "inicijacijskih putova"? Moj način života danas, budući da samUVijek na proputovanju izmedu dvije zemlje, između dva poziva za izložbe i boravaka,neka je vrst "prebivališta U nizu" Nastojim iskoristiti taj vid života kao novu "strukturu",strukturu što je osobito elastična i otvorena. Živjeti, proizvodeći izazove samomesebi, jedna je druga perspektiva života, jedan drugi pristup umjetnosti. Malo pomalo.ovaj lanac iskustava u različitim kontekstima pokreće produktivne "kratke spojeve"izmedu mjesta i mene, kao i između različitih projekata. Ne postoji jedinstven konceptšto bi povezivao sve te priče. Sama nit života oblikuje odredenu "logiku"J.S."Six Roots" (Šestvrela), izložba ostvarena u MSU u Zagrebu stič! na različite etape životnogciklusa. Šestdvorana. šest bitnih etapa. Možete li rasvijetliti ovaj pojam posuđen izbudizma? Kamo on vodi?C.Z. "Six Roots" budistička je tema što opisuje glavnaosjetila našeg tijela: gledati (oko). čuti (uho), mirisati(nos), okusiti (jeztk]. osjećati (tijelo) i znati (svijest). Ovetemeljne "sposobnosti" čovjeka povezuju i odražavajunaša različita ponašanja i naše misli. Tih šest funkcijarazličito su razvijene s obzirom na starosnu dob irazlićitost temperamenata.Posuđivanje te budističke teme izgovor je za mojepreispitivanje o "šest etapa života", koje odražavaju isadržavaju proturječna ljudska ponašanja. Premabudizmu, tih šest funkcija u razvoju čovjeka mogurezultirati najboljim ili najgorim.1.S. Katia zapravo UkljUCUjete kontekst u lokalnu sredinu.poput primjerice Za.greba.?Kako se odnosite spramspecijičnoglwnteksta Balkana? 45

c.z. Ništa ne postoji slučajno. Obilazeći prostor MSU-a u Zagrebu sa šest dvorana u nizu,povezanih vratima, pomislio sam na tu brojku. Uostalom, taj prostor posjeduje ljudskudimenziju, a to me je navelo na pomisao o dijelovima tijela. Tijelo od šest dijelova, životu šest etapa. No, radeći na tom projektu, osjetio sam potrebu pronaći nesto suzdržanijei dublje. Odatle "Six Roots", sto savršeno pojašnjava to što izlažem. Tu je fizički prostornametnuo svoje tjelesne proporcije i svoj broj. A povijesno mjesto (Balkan) potaknulome je da se upustim na takva propitivanja kao sto je značenje tijela, ponašanja čovjekai krug zivota.1.5.Jue Cang - Fifty Strokes to Each, početno zamišljen za Tel Aviv Museum of Art u kontekstupoznatom po povijesnom sukobu, bio je kasnije izložen na 48. venecijanskom bijenalu1999.9. Ovo djelo, koje naizgled nema neposrednih veza sa spomenutim kontekstom,izražava u biti iznimni prodor u dubinu histOrijskog zapleta na Bliskom IstaRU. Uvašem radu politička ili društvena dimenzija rijetko su posve očite, eksplicitne. Kako seodnosite spram tih parametara?C.Z. Indirektni jezik posjeduje osobitu snagu što u svijesti ČOVjeka prodire dalje od jednostavne"senzacionalne" slike. Strategiji "snage slika", termin koji je proizašao izrječnika komunikacije i medija (televizija, reklame), postavši modom na područjuumjetnosti, primjetnom na brojnim izložbama, radije pretpostavljam efikasnost icarstvo "drugog sloja", onog Vidljivog. To je način stvaranja "vizualne i konceptualnezamke", u odnosu na ono što vidimo. Drukčije rečeno, fizička stvarnost djela u prostorune tiče se samo oka i osjećaja, potrebno je nešto više, ono što osjećamo kroz naš želudac.probavni trakt. živčane centre iduh. Nešto što će zatltrati naš imunološki sustav. "Zvukmimo žtce (glazbala)" kaže kineska poslovtca. Dodao bih, "oblik izvan Vidljivog". To jeta dvostruka transformacija o kojoj sam ranije govorio. Transformacija umjetnika uodnosu na stvoreno djelo, kao i transformacija gledatelja u odnosu na opažanje umjetničkogdjela. Taj zvuk mimo žtce. i forma izvan vizualnog, dopušta gledateljima da ostvaresvoju osobnu transformaciju. Neku vrstu nastavka stvorenog djela. Posebno mezanima mogućnost razvoja j doprinosa od strane gledatelja. Zbog toga volim nesporazume,a to je općenito vrlo udaljeno od tri zapadne estetičke funkcije kako ih odredujeAnanda Coomaraswamy: kao denotaciju. konotaciju, implikaciju. koje odgovaraju prepoznavanju,tumačenju i razumijevanju.J,S.Povezati u ovom katalogu dVije iztoibe.fednu na zapadu u Albiju idrugu na istoku uZagrebu, osim povo/jnosti koprodukcije ove publikacije, ne proizlazi li to i iz onoga štozovete "trans-iskustvima", to jest iz želje da sepovežu različiti konteksti putem iskustava?e,z. Uvijek sam tražio iracionalnu nit vodilju, mimo teorije, mimo strukture i sustavakako bih se mogao slobodno ušuljati u svijet. smjestiti se nekako u tim seljenjima iidentificirati se s drugim. Pojam "trans-iskustva" dosta točno sažima moj način zivotaibavljenja umjetnošću. Svi mi II sebi imamo ta "trans-iskustva", tu zbiljsku mogućnost.46J.S.Dok govorite o važnosti iskustava kao umjetničkih procesa, kako pristupate različitimkontekstima kroz koje se krećete (od Japana do Johannesburga, od Te' Aviva doSalvadora, putujući Sjevernom Amerikom i Europom)? Kako u raspršenosti poziva za

izlaganje na izložbama širom svijeta gledate na kontinuitetrada i različitost izvora inspiracija, u svijetu u kojem globalizacijaidecetraiizacija postaju sve dominantniji?Round Table 1995United Nations Palace, Genevawood. chairs Irom S conturents. metal180 x 550 x s~o cmExhibition: Dialogue of PeacePhoto: Chen ZhenC.Z. Nakon deset godina iskustva izlaganja prije svega u zapadnomkontekstu, i nakon što sam prešao iz marginalnog položajana početku karijere do današnjeg položaja u "središtu",trenutno razmišljam o "ponovnoj marginalizaciji". Pojam"Residence-Resonance-Resistance" (R-R-R) (boravak, odjek,otpor), proizašao iz mojih iskustava posljednjih godina,potvrđuje određena stajališta što ih želim razviti. Boraviti,ukotviti se u različitim kulturnim kontekstima; odjekivati,voditi dijalog s "lokalnim" kulturama; opirati se, rastopitizapadnjački "kulturni mono-utjecaj" u mojem duhu. Doduše,radi se o načinu proširenja polja umjetničkog nadahnuća, ali to je prije svega želja zanastavljanjem sve zgusnutijeg djelovanja, djelovanja temeljenog na humanom i naiskustvu. Dakle, nije to pitanje geste ili odgovora na sva ta putovanja povezana spozivima za izložbe. Više je to volja da se prije svega prihvate "marginalni pozivi" ili dase potakne taj tip poziva diljem svijeta. Nastojim usporiti ritam izložbi i pokloniti viševremena za duge boravke na različitim kontinentima. Želim nastaviti učiti.Globalizacija ne može biti stav jednosmjernog širenja, nego treba postati uzajamnoprožimanje. Inače svatko gubi sve svoje prednosti.].S. Gdje vi u tom ludom ritmu poziva vidite mentalni odmor o kojem govorite, a posebnokoncentracijuenergije?C.Z. Prije dvadeset godina u Kini, dok sam bio vrlo bolestan, ljudi su mi često postavljalipitanje: "Kako ćeš se popeti uz brdo da pokažeš svoju volju?" Vaše pitanje ide gotovosuprotnim smjerom. Uvijek sam sačuvao isti način mišljenja. Nisam se promijenio. UKini postoje dvije strategije u odnosu na promjenu i pokret: "Deset tisuća promjenanikada ne mijenja bit stvari" i "Ostati nepromijenjen naspram deset tisuća promjena".Ja možda imam posebnu prednost, jer me svako jutro budi moja bolest, podsjećajući dapostojim II zvonko] tišini..(ZW)••7

Chen Zhen interviewedby Jerome SansSonorous Silence ... J. S. Your work hasalways been about thetensions and antagonism between man and nature. Now that nature has become "conceptual",reduced to afew rare signs in the city, this theme is more relevant than ever.C. Z. When we talk about sptrttualtty, we think too reađily of religion. But nature,likeman, has an undeniable spiritual force. This force is not abstract. it is substantivematter which influences our body's emotional and immune systems. The Germanphilosopher Meister Eckhart said that "Man's etemal body is imagination". Therefore"spirit", man's spiritual force, is the soul of art. I have been active in this sphere formany years now. Already, in 1990. as I said in an interview with you, I was centringmy enquiries on the relation between man, nature and consumer society. Ten yearslater, in spite of the broadening of my territories of concern, this dimension remainspresent. If, at the time, I introduced nature into my works, it was as if to confront itwith our artificial and materialistic world. Over the years, this concern with naturehas broadened out. I also consider it as a therapeutic power, as an irrational balaneingfactor, and for its spiritual and critical dimension. I try to introduce the rnythicalsynergy that nature has for my mind and my body. I bcrrow this natural force for mywork. This perpetual desire to put nature at the centre of my ideas allows me to maintainmy engagement. In 1995, when I covered the space of Galerie Ghislaine Hussenatin Paris with earth, plus a number of objects, the idea was to create a place of purification.In 1997, the Eu Dao/Eu Dao or Upside-down Buddha-Arrival at Good Fortuneproject, presented at the CCAin Kitakyushu, Japan, questioned the relation betweenBuddhist tradition, nature and the proliferation of Asian artefacts with ever shorterlife spans. In 1998, my design for the Paris Rive Gauche development, s'ancrer dansl'eau, la terre et evoluer dans l'espace-temps ("Ground yourself in water and earth,move in space-time"), put the emphasis on rnan's position in the megacities and onthe relations between production cycles and natural cycles. In 1999, Fuir a i'anqtatse(Sneak Away] in Breda, Holland, ironised about the invitation to make art on a 350-hectare, $0 metre-deep public dump. With the Jardin tavoir at the Centre d' ArtCimaise et Portique, Albi, water is used as a "healer" in order to freshen up not onlyeveryday objects but also the space itself. All these projects, done in different timesand places.Hnk together in the continuation of consciousness and confidence. This iswhat I call a "fragmented slowing-down", a process that accumulates different experiencesof the same subject in time and space. A process that enables me to have a certainnumber of works in progress that I can go back to at any moment. Like a series ofcomputer folders that you can reactivate, update and download.J. S. To me you seem to use the word "between" (entre] strategically, so as not to have tofix your target and to leave enough space/or thought.C. Z. Absolutely. It's a matter of attitude, of ways of looking at the world. For me theworld is not an object. which is unlike the Greeks, who were the first to grasp theobject, to determine substance as an object. Chinese thought oscillates "between"objects and elements. A kind of "non-object" and "non-place" which, according toFrancois Jullien's interpretation, describes "the ephemerality and uninterrupted48

movement of things, the fugacity and insubstantiality of existences". For Taoism, thevoid is simply a matter of what is "between". ln this vision, the world can be consideredas an "occasion" in space, So why not envisage art in the same way?J. S. In your Jardin Lavair installation at Albi you deal with the purifying dimension ofwater. In your approach, isn't purification ultimatety a tra nsversa 1phenomenon?C. Z. In a world where cleanliness and dust have lost their true "original" meanings,where the vector of modernity is hyper-cleanliness, cleaner and cleaner, the naturalprocess of permanent dust-gathering is evacuated, literally erased - as if that werepossible. When in fact it's an invisible, tneluctable and eternaJ rain. When I "purify"objects and spaces with mud, and sometimes, as at Albi, with water, it is with elementsthat are antithetical to the usual industrial disinfectants, elements that areconsidered to be dirty (mud, etc.). They are natural elements that have the ability topurify and disinfect the materialist culture of objects. the artificial environment.When I visited Cima ise et Portique, the art centre was completely flooded. It was anartwork in itself. The idea of the lordin iavo!r came to me when 1 saw this amazingperformance. This purifying quality not only acts from time to time as a cure in mywork, but also functions as a personal "daily shower" for my body and spirit. a kindof meditative cooling.Game Table 1996-97Shanghai All MUSf'llTn. Shanghai andSonje Museum of Contemporary Art, KwangjuCOJnSof Chinese and Korean money. wood,chamber polSoo x 360 x 120 rmExhibrtton .st Shanghai Biennale and ln betweenthe urrutsCollection Pierre Huber, GenevaPhoto:Chcn ZhenJ. S. One always finds therapy and meditation at the heart of your works. like a systemoj diagnoses. Looking beyond your personal experience of stTUggle against illness, isn'tthis a metaphor of art?C. Z.Art nowadays needs new forms of resistance. The notion of resistance has alwaysbeen vital in all the great developments and revolutions of human history, whetherthe domain is political, social, scientific or cultural. It is also an essential element foreach individual's path in life. Today the problem is that technology and the capitalistsystem have developed at such speed that we can't even keep up. We are just littlefollowers of that reality. My daily resistance to my illnessduring twenty years gave me such energy thatthis experience was transformed into resistance inrelation to creation. Cure, healing, therapy and meditation... all these everyday dimensions of my lifebecame my world, where the fusion of art and life wasworked out. Mental and spiritual power are sourcesthat are capable of influencing and strengthening theimmune system. According to information on the latestresearch into the problem of body and mind, theimmune system is a kind of "second brain", a networkof specialised cells that endows the body with a flexibleidentity. This somatic identity, which has particularlinks with the nervous system, is now the mostimportant factor in human health. Upsetting em 0-tions such as stress can affect the healthand the body.49

Round Table (side by side) 1997Marson de Lyon, Lyonwood. chair. metal180 x 630 x 450 cmExhibition: lyon BIennale, LyonPhoto' Chen ZhenIf our brains can regulate certain emotions, whatagent is there that could adjust the others, and in particularthe nervous system? Buddhism opens an extraordinarywindow on this point, and offers the experienceof synchronising mind and body through the"meditation of attention". This constant but invisiblematerial is an incredible means of working rniradesin life, so why not in art? This, quite without religiosityor nostalgta, is the basis on which I want to "use"my personal experiences by transposing them intoreflection on art. ln this kind of approach, history andart history can no longer be approached in the sameway. Art is not just a question of concepts but also anexperience of life. The imagination is not a factory buta laboratory. When our own body becomes a kind oflaboratory, a source of imagination and experiment,the process of life is transformed into art.J. S. The physical and visual concretisation of abstract ideas is always a subtle process.Most artists proceed by visualtstnq their concepts or conceptua.1ising their experiences,but what is your particular approach here? What is the relation between what you calla particular experience and the plastic resources you invoke by using familiar objectsand materials?50C, Z. In the Transexperiences book published by the CCA in Kitakyushu I recorded avery long con versa tion with one of my old friends in Shanghai in which I insisted onthis concept I had inven ted for the occasion. I wanted to emphasise the importance ofmultiple experiences and of the fact that concepts should no longer dominate art. Forthree decades now artists have been working from concepts which they distributeand develop in the various places where they are invited to exhibit. What interestsme is that, as I travel and am unsettled by different contexts, in these intermediarycontexts, I should be nourished by new ideas and concepts. That is the "strategy ofwater". Water flows everywhere and nowhere. It has no specific form. It forms itselfaccording to circumstances. lt is supple, flexible, transparent, changing, shifting, penetrating,ambient ... It is a perfect "fixative" and join for bringing together all the continents.Experience, "transexperience", is the water that makes it constantly possibleto create new situations, different modes of thought. It is a free 'Zone that makes itpossible to avoid falling into the rigidity of the system. Like waves rippllng the surfaceof the ocean, without moving the water's depths. The power of water is its volume.The richness of man's experience is its density. The core of aU this is freedom. Iwant to avoid having the concept crush experience, art and life.As fOTthe link between my experiences and my work, it is simply a matter of transformation.Transformation has no frontiers or limits. It can attain both the conceptualand material dimensions. To have a mind that is free like water means that you cantake up all kinds of materials. I am not afraid to use banal, everyday objects. On thecontrary, they allow me to convey messages that concern greater numbers of people.

J. S. Is that why your installations often have beds and (children's or aduIts') chairs inthem?C. l. The beds and chairs or other objects that l appropriate or transform are elementsthat accompany life. To transform an adult hospital bed into a cradle, a bed into adrum or a lotto box, or a wash tub, all these adaptations are prompted by specific contextsand play with the history of contexts. It is the encounter between a new spaceand its experience that formats my ideas. That is why neither the objects nor the waythey are transformed can be said to define a "style".J. S. In your installation at Albt beds are like spaces of rest for the body and spirit ofobjects, objects that in turn become "internal organs" of the human body, whereas thespace of the centre has become a veritabte garden, and the water a part of the Tamriver. Although everything has been transformed, each of the elements retains its originalidentity, as if they were mirrors reflecting their relations with humankind. Is thisthe spirit in dialogue?C. l. Yes. lt is the very process of art. The transformation takes place in three successivestages: studying the problems, raising questions and developing one's imagination.J. S. Why do your installations often take the form of "initiatory processes'?C.l. Isn't life itself a chain of "initiatory processes"? The way I am living now, alwaysin transit between two countries, between two invitations for exhibitions or residenetes.is a kind of "enchanted dwelUng". I want to use this way of life as a new "structure",a structure that is particularly flexible and open. A life full of challenges to oneselfis another outlook on life, another approach to art.Gradually, this chain of experiences in different contexts triggers productive "shortcircuits" between places and myself, and between different projects. There is not onesingle concept linking all these events. It is the string of life that forms their "logic".J. S. Six Roots, made at the MOCA in Zagreb, unites different stages in the cycle of Ilje.Six rooms, six essential stages. Could you shed some light on this notion borrowed fromBuddhism? What are you getting at here?c. l. Six Roots is a Buddhist theme which describes the main senses of our body: Iooking(the eyes), hearing (the ears), smelling (the nose), tasting (the tongue), feeling (thebody) and knowing (consciousness). These essential human capacities link andreflect our various ways of behaving and thinking. These six functions developaccording to cne's age and temperament.Borrowing this Buddhist theme was a pretext for thinking about the "six stages oflife" which reflect and imply contradictory human behaviour. According toBuddhism, these six functions of human development can bring out either the best orthe worst in us.Sl

J. $. How do you manage to really talle on board the context, the local, as in Zagreb?How do you define yourself here in relation to the specific context of the Balllans?C. Z.Nothing is there by chance. I thought of this figure when visiting the space of thezagreb MOCA, with the six rooms linked by doors. Also, the space has a humandimension that made me think of a series of organs: a body in six parts, a life in sixstages. But when working on the prcject I felt the need to find something morerestrained and deeper. Hence Six Roots, which shows very clearly what I am talkingabout. Here it was the physical space that imposed its ccrporeal proportions and itsnumber. And it was the historical setting (the Balkans) that prcrnpted me to get intothese questions to do with the meaning of the body, human behaviour and the circleof life.J. S. tue Chang. Fifty Stralles to Each, which was initially conceived for the Tel AvivMuseum of Art, in a location well known for its historical conflicts, was subsequentlyexhibited at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999. This work, which outwardly has noimmediate links with the context in question, in fact evin ces an extraordinarily deeppenetration of the historical issues in the Middle East. In your work the political orsocial dimension is seldom immediately explicit. How do you manage these parameters?C. Z. Indirect language has a special strength that goes further in human consciousnessthan a simple "sensational" image. To the strategy based on the "power ofimages", derived from the vocabulary of communication and the media (television,advertising, etc.), which is becoming fashionable in the sphere of art, as can be seenin numerous exhibitions, l prefer the efficacy and power of the "second layer", theone behind the visual. This is a way of creating a "visual and conceptual trap" withregard to what one sees. ln other words, the physical reality of the work in space isnot the only thing that counts for the eye and the emotions; something more is needed,that touches the stomach, the digestive system. the nerve centre and the mind.Something that trtggers an "irnrnunistng vibra tion". "The sound beyond the string [ofthe musical instrument)" says a Chinese prcve rb. l would add, ••the form beyond thevisual". The transformation of the artist in relation to creation and that of viewers inrelation to the perception of the artwork. This sound beyond the string, and the formbeyond the visual, which enables viewers to cany out their own transformation. Akind of prolongation of creation. I am particularly interested in this possibility ofdevelopment and engagement on the part of viewers. That is why I like misundersta.ndings,all of which is generally a long way from the three Western aesthetic functionsdefined by Ananda Coomaraswamy: denotation, connotation and implication,corresponding to recognition, interpretation and cornprehension,J. S. Whatever the practical considerations attaching to the coproduction of this publication,does the fact of linking two exhibitions in this catalogue. one in the west, inAlbi, and the other in the east, in Zagreb - relate to what you call "transexperience",that is to say, the attempt to always link different contexts through your experiences?sz

C. Z. J have always looked for an irrational Hnk, withouttheory, structure OI system, in order to be able tomove freely through the world, to position myselfwithin dtsplacements and identify myself with theother. "Transexpertences" sums up fairly well my wayof living and making art. We all have these "transexperienceswithin us", this real potentiality.J. S. You speak of the importance of experiences as anartistic process, so how do you deal with the differentcontexts you come into (from Japan to Johannesburg,from Tel Aviv to El Salvador, via North America andEurope)? Given all the exhibitions you are invited to allaround the world, how do you envisage the continuityof your work in relation to the diversity of sources ofinspiration? ln a world where globalisation and decentralisationare becoming increasingly dominant?ptee-e-rerre 1998vreux.Port de "-'\ontrealfishing boat, wood, metal, barrels, cans, variousobjects700 x 1300 x Soo cmExhibition [11 Biennale de Mont real 199RPhoto: Guy L'Heureur , Centre International d'ArtConternporatn de Montrei:lj and Chen ZhenC. Z. After ten years' experience of exhibition, mainlyin the Western context, and having gone from an initially marginal position to anactivity that is now in the "centre", I am thinking about a "re-margtnaltsation" Thenotion of "Residence . Resonance . Resistance" (R-R·R), drawn from my experiencesover the last few years, expresses certain positions that I would like to develop. Toreside, anchor oneself in different cultural contexts; to resonate, to hold dialoguewith "local" cultures; to resist, dilute the Western "mono-cultural influence" in mymind. True, it is a way of widening the field of artistic inspiration, but above all itreflects a desire to continue with an increasingly dense activity, an activity based onthe human and on experience. So tt's not a matter of managing or reacting to all thistravel linked to invitations to exhibit. It has more to do with a will to give priority to"marginal invitations" or to provoke that kind of invitation around the world. I amtrying to slow down the rhythm of exhibitions and to give more time to long stays ondifferent continents. l want to go on learning. Globalisation cannot be a one-wayexpansionist attitude; it must become mutual penetration. Otherwise both sides loseall their advantages.J, S. How, given thefrenzied rhythm of these invitations, do you go envisage getting themental repose you talk about, and above all the concentration of energy?c. Z. Twenty years ago in China, when I was very ill, people would often ask me, "howare you going to get back on your feet again, to demonstrate your strength of wim"Your question almost points in the opposite direction. I have always kept the samementality. I haven't changed. In China, there are two strategies in relation to changeand movement: "Ten thousand changes never alter the essence of things", and "Stayunchanged in the face of ten thousand changes". I perhaps have an advantage,because my illness wakes me up every morning and places me in a loud silence.(C.P.)53

Jue Cha.nq - fifty Strokes to Ea.ch 1998'rel AV1VMllsewn of Art Helena Rubmstem Pavrhon forContemporary Artwood. Iron, chairs. beds. leather ropes. nails. Vill10US objects244 x 980 x 1000 cmExhibition Jue Chang f F:fty Strakes to Each. Tel AVIV Museumof Art and Aperto over AU VCl\lCC BIennialco.lectron Annie Wong Art Foundation. Hong KongPhoto· Chen Zhen and Xu Mm

Interview de Chen Zhenpar Nada BerošL'artiste-medecin N. B. Votre conferencedwer: a lAcademie desBeaux-Arts de Zagreb a debute par ce que vous appefez votre premier proje! artistique, creeen 1990 dans (ajOTet au pied du Mont St. Victoire, cher ci Cezanne. Faimerais connottre cequi cl precede ce projet, ou, pour jouer avec le Utre de votre exposition zaqreboise ("SixRoots" - Six raeines), revenir sur vos mcines artistiques etfamilia/es.c. Z. Donc.je suis ne il: Shanghai, en 1955. a une epoque qu'on pourrait appeler transltoire.juste quelques annćes apres la fondation de la Republique Popu!aire de (hine. L'une desplus importantes experiences de ma vie est l'epoque passee en Chine au temps de la"revolution culturelle". entre onze et vingt et un ans. A la fin de cette epoque je me suisinscrit a l'unique ecole d'art de Shanghai. l'Bcole des Metters d'Art. dans la quelle je suisreste lrois ans (de 1973 a 1976). Depuis toujours j'aime trava iller avec mes propres mains.Mais, comme teute ma famille est orientee vers les sciences - tous sont rnedecins ouchercheurs dans differents domaines des sciences de la medecine ~j'avats la reputationd'etre une sorte de bre bis egaree. La decision de m'inscrtre a la prernlere ecole d'art autemps de la revolution culturelle etait a mottle une decision personneIJe, a mottte I'unlquepossibillte reelle, car c'ćtait bien la seule ecole d'art. Il n'y en avait pas d'autre a cemoment. Pour des raisons econorniques. la Chlne avait tenda nee a falre revlvre lessavoir-faire lraditionnels par la fabricatian des seuiptures en bots, en ivoire ,.afm de vendreces objets aux pays etrangers et se procurer des devi ses, d'ameliorer la situationeconomique.Certes, c'ćtatt une ecole lout a fait tradltionnelle, et j'etais au Departement de l'ivoirerie.Pour pouvoir se specialiser dans ce travail.j'ai du etudler la peinture traditionnelle, I'artde la gravure et comme base de tout. apprendre lc dess!n. petrtr la glaise. sculpter le boiset la pierre ... Retrosperttvement. cette ecole m'a permis d'acquerlr tous ces metiers.Aussf est-ce la que je suis entre pour la prerniere fois en contact avec l'art occidental.dans le sens d'toccidentaltsatlon" du dessin et de la sculpture.N. B. Pendant ce temps, aves-vous eu certaines cormaissances de l'art moderne et contemporaind"Occident?C. Z, Pendant la revolution culturelle, a cette ecole, l'impressionnisme etait constderecomme de l'art bourgeois, presque interdit. Nous avans eu le realisrne socialiste sovietiquecomme modele a suivre. Bien sar, nous ne savions rien de l'avant-garde russe et duCaneNoir de Malevitch.N. B. Vatre corriere artistique, a-l-elle commence en Chine?c. Z. Au vu de ma definition actuelle de ces choses-ci et de ma propre conception de l'art,qui pour moi slgnlfie le partage des transexperiences. il me sernble que l'on devientartlste au moment de la natssance. Tout de mon experience d'enfant. de jeune homme,peut etre constdere comme artistique ... Mes souvenirs d'enfance. par exemple l'ecouteattentive des sons d u nettoyage des pots de chambre que les femmes versaient dans lesrues. pourtant bien elolgnees de rnes prerogatlvcs actuelles. son l dcvenus tres Impor-• 22. OS. 2000. 55

tants pour mon idee de l'art. Aujourd'hui, je pense que toutes mes experiences et mestrans-experiences sont devenues la cle de voute de ma concepnon de l'art, Tout ce quej'ai vecu, tout a ete l'art. ou ii defaut, le materiel oi partu duquel mes creattons ont vu lejour.N_B. tonoue je vous al pose la ouesuon sur les debuts de votre corriere artistique, je totpensee selon fes parametrez ordtnotres. ocddentaux, autrement dil. je voutan savoir sivatre premiere expoutton a eu lieu en Chine ou en France?C. Z_ lorsque j'etars en (hine, je n'al montre que quelques ceuvres. Fal participe oiquelques exposilions de groupc ct. juste avant mon depart du pays, en octobre 1986, j'aimont re mes oeuvres creees en dix ou douze uns. C'etalt mon unique exposition personnelIea Shanghai. J'y ai expose une dnquantaine de pemtures. Elles etalent dtfferentesles unes des autres. Dans les dix ans qui ont suivi la revolution culturellc, apres l'ouverturede la nouvelle (hine reformee, nous avion s acces ii toutes sortes d'informations.Ainsi.j'ai prattque tous les styles: petnture classique, trnpresstonrusme. abstraction.N. B. Vous les avez toujours. cespetnturestC. Z, Malheureusement, je ne possede que quelques perntures de mes debuts. Puisque amon amvee a Paris. j'ai du en brader la plupart pour survivre.N. B. Pourquoi uvez-vous vous decide de venir dans ce Pans des onnees 80 qui. du pomt devue de ron contemporam,n 'etait pas un milieu de grande inspiration?c. Z. Quai qu'tl en soil, dans la (hine d'alors je n'avats aucun chotx, L'urnque raison quirn'a incite a partu ii Pans, etait que mon frere alne s'y trouvait. Il avatt une bourse dugou verne ment pour faire des recherches dans la domaine de l'hernatologie. Apres avoirmis a profit la bourse de trois ans. qui n'etett pas particulierernent elevee, II m'a invite aParis en me disant que je pouvais rester chez lui une annee et que si je voulais resterplus, je devrais me debrouiller seul Trouver la force et I'audaee pour partir dans un paysetranger dans le but de trouver une plus grande liberte pour la creation d'ceuvres d'art,c'etait le souhait commun de toute ma generation. Ces annees la, la Chi ne n'etait pasouverte .. Meme dans la Chine d'aujourd'hui. il m'auratt ete tres diffieile de developpermes Idees a la rnanleredont je l'ai fait en Ocodent.N. B. Pourrait on dire que ceton le hasard qui a determine votre residence actuenerC. Z. Peut-etre y avait-il aussl des raisons familiales et mconscientes. Mes parents sontdfplčrnes de rune des merlleures universites de Shanghai fondee par les Francais. Je merappelJe que lorsque rncs parents voulaient aborder un sujet que nous. les enfants, n'aurionspas du cornprendre. ils parlaient en anglals Quand nous avans appris l'anglais,alors lis sont passes au francais. Maintenant leur stratagerne ne fonctionne plus car Usn'ont plus leur langue secrete ...56N. B. Peut-etre qu'sis Tl 'ont plus de secrets pour vous?

c. Z. (Rire.) Maintenant nous sommes adultes, ma familie est tres dernocratique et nouspartageons tout...N. 8. Concernant votre ouverture rl dautres experiences, il me semble que votre "ntstotreJamiliale" a toue un role p/us dectstf cue le milieu social et lecIimat dans fa Chine reformee.Que signifiait pOlJr vous t'invitation rl venu en Croatie pour creer une ceuvre dans unmilieu tout afait inconnu? Trouvez-vous quelques ressemblances avecvotre pays. vu iefai:que nous aussi avans connu le communisrne?Puf r A l'Anqla.lse? (Sneak away) 1999Fundament Foundation et PraktijkbureauBeeldende Kunstopdrachten of the MondrianFoundationgarbage trud. metal. garbage plastic begs. supermarket plastic begs3S hectaresExhibition: Tales of the TipPhoto' Fundament Foundation, Hollandc. Z. Aujourd'hui, I'Europe de l'Est a pour moi deux dimensions. L'une est la dimensionhistorique, qui a des rapports avec la Chine, et va jusqu'a la chute du Mur de Berlin, etl'autre, qui est son present. les problernes que rencontrent les pays en transition. Je nevoi s pas beaucoup de ressernblances entre la Croatie et la Chine. Chez vous, le systemecommuniste etait constderablernent different de la (hine, rnerne il y a vingt. trente ans.Zagreb, et rnčme la Russte - il Y a deux ou trois ans. j'ai passe un mois a st. Petersbourg.travaillant sur une exposition - different tout a fait de la (hine, lorsqu'tl est question dereligion, histoire, architecture, urbanisme, moeurs. manieres de vivre ... La vie a Zagrebest sensiblement plus europeenne ... J'ai longuement parle aux etudiants lorsquc nousavons monte l'exposition zagreboise. lis m'ont raconte ce qui s'est passe dans differentesregions de vatre pays pendant l'agression de la Croatie et la guerre en Bosnie-Herzegovtne. Tout cela rn'a beaucoup tntčressć. J'ćtats partlculterernent curieux d'observer,enqueter, eprouver les changements de cette epoque et de m'ouvrtr a ce pays eta sa culture. la vie telle qu'elle est a Zagreb aujourd'hui. La ville possede tout cet heritagehistorique. J'etats curieux de savoir quels change ments politiques et economiques sontintervenus et comment cela affeete la culture.Aussl. l'exposition s'est faite comme la conjonctton de ma propre trajectoire artistiqueentre des rencontres avec des gens differents et un contexte culturel different. Haborerun projet dans ce pays, dans un environnement socio-polttlque particulier que je ne connaissaispas avant. etait pour moi le plus grand des defis. Lorsque Je suis dans un milieunouveau, mon travail repose sur deux experiences differentes. l.'une. c'est mon "expertenced'exposttion'', dans un espace d'exposition pre-cis.la rencontre avec le monde du musee et le contextelocal. I'autre. c'est la rencontre avec des gens ordinairesdans les situations de tous les [ours.Lorsque ['a! pade avec les etudiants, les jeunes artisteset cela m'arrtve dans tous les pays de !'Europe de l'Estqui ont traverse les experiences traurnattques de latransition, j'a! remarque qu'tls cherchent a garder leursracmes culturelles. mais s'efforcent aussi de percer dansle monde occidental. Les etudiants zagrebois m'ontdemande tres innocemment comment, en tantquartiste chinois. je pouvais reussrr en occident..N. 8. Je erois que cette question vous a ete posee aussiailleurs dans le monde. Voulaient-ils conna/tre la reeetteou eiaient-its stmplement curieux?57

c. Z_ lis rn'ont demande s'Il y avatt une recette secrete quels gens i! fallait rencontrer.Dans mes voyages je rais des conferences et souvent on me pose de telles questions,mais beaucoup mains aux Etats-Unis ou en Occident. car les contextes sont tout a faitdlfferents.N. B. VOUS appartenez ci la premiere generation des artistes chinois con tempora ins reconnusen Occtdent en tant que votx tmportante. Pendant la derniere Biennale de Venise, pour/a premtere fois les artistes chinois ont represente une nouveaute dominante. Selon vous.s'agit-il purement de Ja salj du marche artistique qUI cherehe in/assablement des nomsnouveaux, ou bien y-a-t-il un interet serteux pour connaitre les soi-disantes marges et lesmitseux meconnus dans le monde de /'art? Il y a dix cns. apres Taehuie du Mur de Berlin,les artistes de rturope de rEst avaient le vent en poupe, mais auiaurd'nui bien peu sontceux qui demeurent sous {es feux de la rampe: Kabakov, Komar el M{damid, Miros[awBa/ka ... Comment voyez-vcus le destin des artistes ctnnois dans einq ou six ans?58C. Z. Cest une question tres complexe. Personnellement. depuls deja une dizaine d'annees.au debut de ma presentation en Ocodent. j'etals consdent de montrer mon art entant que representant de mon pays, donc de la culture chinoise, bien que j"essayais dedevelopper une approche tres personnelle, une reflexton ... Je peux dire ouverte ment.sans aucune hesitation. qu'au debut de ma carriere. j'essayals de jouer le role dc tatresuppleer les besoins du marche pour de nouvelles choses. ou les besoins des institutions,musees el galeries pour le changement. la mutation ... "D!x annćcs d'une mode. dixprochaines annees d'une autre mode." J'etais conscient de tout cela, je savais ce qui s'etaitpasse avec les artistes rus ses. Cest comme apres un grand orage il y a peu de chosesqui restent. C'est pourquot j'a! forme ma propre strategte de developpernent.H y a deuxsortes d'approches: explosive et irnplostve. J'essaie de developper mon travail dans lesens de l'lmploslon. du mouvement vers l'tnterteur, l'introspection. L'approche explosivestgnifle la participation aux grandes exposittons. celle qui est trnplosive. la recherche.Patre de l'art ne signifie pas seulement fabrtquer des oeuvres d'art. c'est aussi se construire soi-mčrne. Cest pour cela que je desire devenir le me-deci n de Ja medecine traditionnelIechinoise. Ul. est mon idealMoi, pourtant. l'an dernier j'al participe a la grande exposition -ja Biennale de Venise. Jepeux dire que je ne SUIS pas un nom nouveau. mais je sats aussi que mon art contlnueralta croltre metne si je n'y avals pas participe.Ce n'est qu'une reponse partlelle a votre question. D'un cote. je suis consctent du besoinde paraitre. et de l'autre, que je dois continuer mon travail suivant une approche trespersonnelIe. C'est pourquoi. ces dernlers temps, j'al dćveloppć toute une suite detheories et de concepts. comme l'idee de la residence dans un heu, pour me farntltartseravec l'environnernent.I'tdee de la transexpertence, du virus culturel. de la re-marginalisation. d'un nouveau retour vers les rnarges. C'est pour cela que je travaille a present enArnertque du Sud, en Afrique ...J'ai essaye de developper toutes sortes d 'idees en mettantensemble les differentes cultures, a vrai dire, en integrant toute mon experience.Vralsemblablement.j'etats privilegie ces dix dernieres annees que j'ai passees a Paris. carj'al pu developper tout cela. a la difference de beaucoup de mes cotlegues qui ont persiste a cree r en Chine. Leurs ceuvres attendent que corrtmissaires ameri ea ins eteuropeens vtennent les decouvrtr et les presenter a travers le monde. Chez moi apresent. il se passe le processus inverse. j'alrnerais presque su sei ter et tenir la distance ...

N. B. Vous voulez de nouveau parvenir a une petition "en marge'?Couldn't Bananas be Black? 1999Project Raw 1-!01lSP, Houstonwood chairs. candles, African statue, Chinesechess, television set, drawmgs. p:::lper documentsdimension:vanableExhibition: Street UfePhoto: Chen Zhenc. Z. Tout a fait (rires). Un certain mode de vie deftrut notre facon de reflechir. nosattentes. nos espclrs ... Bien que mon esprit soit tres chtnots, bien que j'ate un passeportFrancais. je suis avant tout Chen Zhen, une personne unique portant ce nom (qui estpourtant tres frequent en Chme)N. B. rot t'tmpresston que la cnt/que OCCIdentaleJuge votre travail toujours a travers lepnsme exotique Leplus souvent, elJesou!lgne vatre rapport avec le bouddhisme tibetatn.la medecine chinoise noasuonneue et ains} de suite. Je trouve fon interessante. par contre,votre relation avec le contemporain, Le caractere socio-critique de vatre travail s'est imposea moi surtout apres vatre conference, pendant laquellevous uvez presente les CE'uvrescomme "Game Table"(Table de Jeu) pour Shanghai (a cause de taqueile,d'otneurs, t'e xposttion a ete revoquee au derrnermoment), eraune le travail pour les ouartiers nos-s ciHouston, "Couidn't Bananas Be Blacf?~;>(PourquoI lesbananes ne seratent-enes pas notresi) le projet que vousavez reouse avec {es enfants des fovetos de Salvador ..Meme votre ceovre celebre "Cinouan!e wups il chacun",presentee cl fa Biennale de Venise, aenote un tres fortarriere-ptan polilique.C. Z. Qui. Elle a ćtć realisee a Tel I\viv ct thernatise enquelque sorte la question du confht entre les Iutfs et lesArabes. Le proverbe tlbetaln "Cinquante coups a chacun"m'a sernble une solution sage rl ce conflit. A vraidne, mon oeuvre etait msprree par les battements dutambour incessants dans le voisinage dc mon hotel aTel AVIV. Plusreurs nuits de suite Je n'ai pas pu dormir acause de ce tapage. C'est dans cette tnsornrue que l'oeuvrea ete conc;:uc. En fait, elle est l'union d'une situationreelle et la rerniruscence d'un proverbe ubetarn ...Pour etre since re, je ne me consrderepas etre un "erttstepolltlque". a l'instar. par exernple. d'un Hans Haacke: jene suis pas non plus un dtssident poltttque en Occtdent,bien que mes ronvictions politiques soient fortes. Je nepeux pas el re mdifferent aux problemes des gens, Jesuis mu par le souo de l'homme. c'est un devolr pourI'artiste d'en parter. Je n'atrne pas les definitions stricteset les categonsatrons: ou ranger telle ou telle oeuvre.N'oubliez pas, je vien s dc la Chlne, et la Chi ne est unpays, en la grande mesure. determine par la politique.cequi est encore valablc aujourd'hui. Tout sirnplernent. jenf' peux pas tester eveugte sur des problernes qui y sontpresents. Le Bouddhisrnc, le Confucianisme et Ioutes59

sortes de cultures tradrtionnelles. circulent dans mon sang.Pourtant. lorsque je touche aux problemes des gens. je ne jouepas avec les cartes et les concepts poltttques. par contre, c'est Jadimension humaine de ces questions qui m'trnporte.N. B. Seriez-vous d'accord pour dlfe que I'irnpu/sion [cndamentatede vatre travail est la tentative d'etablir le diotoque, le ponaqereciprcoue des experiences?Daily lncantattons, 1996Deitch project. New YorkChinese chamber pot, wood. metal. foundobjects. sound700 x 350 x 230 cmExhibition Daily tnrantattonsPhoto: Tom Powelc. Z. Je suis d'accord. Mais il est difflclle d'en taire le resume enun mol. En fait. j'airne bien le mot "entre". Lorsqu'on parle dudialogue. quelque chose se trouve "entre" et dans l'essence del'entretien se trouve un rapport ...Mon travail est polymorphe: ilessate d'englober differentes choses en luf. mats en memetemps de garder les tndividuahtes.N. B. Quel est le probleme dont vous vous oreoccupez ac/uel/ement?c. Z. Si nous disons aimer la Terre. cette planete, notre monde, alors je crois que le plusimportant est de comprendre que sur le plan metaphystque.I'irnage la plus pure, la plusspintuelle est l'trnage de l'eau. et pas celle de la terre. Regardons la carte - les expostttonsse sont propagees a travers toute la planete, selon la formule toute faite. Regardez la listedes arttstes qui y participent! Tous ces artrstes font de l'art d'une la rnćme maniere, et onne trouve nulle part I'intelligence de l'eau. de quelque chose qui est partout, qui se rneutpartout. qui n'a pas de forme preetablie ...Une fois cela compris, nous atteindrons une liberte reelle: la vraie creation. Je pense quela creation est fondee sur le vide et sur la liberte. Il faut toujours lalsser de l'espace a l'inconnuct a l'incertain ...(z.w.)60

Hada Beroš Umjetnik-liječnik N. B. Juče,' ste svoje predavanjena Likovnojakademiji u Zagrebu započeli umjetničkim projektom iz 1990. godine, koJi je nastao ušumi podno slavnog Cezanneovoq brda Mont St. vtctotre, nazvavši ga svojim prvimumjetničkim projektom. Zanima me što je prethodilo tom projektu, ili, da se poigramnaslovom zagrebačke izložbe ("Six Roots" - Šest vrela), zanimaju me vaši umjetnfčki iobiteljskikorijeni?C. Z. Dakle, rođen sam II Šangaju, 1955. godine, II razdoblju koje bi se moglo nazvatitranzicijskim, svega nekoliko godina nakon osnivanja Narodne Republike Kine. Jednood najvažnijih iskustava II mojem životu je razdoblje koje sam proveo II Kini II vrijeme"kulturne revolucije". od moje jedanaeste do dvadeset i prve godine života. Na kraju tograzdoblja upisao sam se u jedinu umjetničku školu u Šangaju, Školu za umjetnički obrt,u kojoj sam proveo tri godine (1973.-76.). Oduvijek sam jako volio raditi stvari vlastitimrukama. Budući da je cijela moja obitelj znanstveno orijentirana, svi su liječnici iliistražtvaći u području medicinskih znanosti, bio sam smatran nekom vrstom crne ovce.Odluka da se upišem u prvu umjetničku školu u vrijeme kulturne revolucije bila je napolaosobna odluka, a napola jedina stvarna mogućnost.jer to je bila i jedina umjetničkaškola. Nije bilo nijedne druge škole u tom trenutku. Zbog ekonomskih razloga, Kina jetežila za oživljavanjem tradiclonalnth vještina, izradom skulptura II drvetu, bjelokosti ...kako bi te predmete mogla prodavati u stranim zemljama i doći do deviza, poboljšatisvoje gospodarske prilike.Dakako, bila je to posve tradicionalna škola u kojoj sam bio na Odjelu obrade bjelokosti.Kako bih se specijalizirao u tom poslu, morao sam proučavati tradicionalno slikarstvo,vještinu graviranja, a kao osnov svega učio sam crtanje, modelirao glinu, izrađivaoskulpture od drveta, kamena ... Kad danas gledam na sve to, škola je bila vrlo korisna zastjecanje vještina. Takoder, tu sam prvi put došao u doticaj s umjetnošću Zapada, usmislu "pozapadnjivanja" crteža i skulpture.N. B. Jeste li u to vrijeme imali nekih saznanja o modernoj isuvremenoj umjetnosti naZapadu?c. Z. U toj školi, u vrijeme kulturne revolucije, impresionisti su se smatrali građanskomumjetnošću, gotovo da su bili zabranjeni. Imali smo sovjetski socijalistički realizam kaouzor kojeg treba slijediti. Dakako, nismo imali pojma o ruskoj avangardi iMalevičevomCrnom kvadratu.N. B. le li vaša umjetnička karijera započela u Kini?C. Z. Kako danas gledam na te stvari i kako definiram svoj koncept umjetnosti, koji jeza mene razmjena trans-iskustva, čini mi se da se u trenutku rodenja postaje umjetnikom.Sve moje iskustvo, iskustvo djeteta, mladića, sve se to može promatrati kaoumjetničko iskustvo ... Moje sjećanje na djetinjstvo, primjerice osluškivanje zvukovaribanja noćnih posuda čiji su sadržaj žene istresale na ulicu, premda nije bilo povezanoni sa čime što bi se moglo nazvati umjetnošću, ili povezati s nekom idejom o umjet-• 22. 05. 2000. 61

nosti, danas su ta vrlo rana sjećanja postala jako važnaza moj umjetnički koncept. Danas mislim da su svamoja iskustva i trans-iskustva postala središnjimmjestom mojeg shvaćanja umjetnosti. Sve što samdoživio. sve je bilo umjetnost ili umjetnički materijal.materijal od kojeg se kasnije stvarala umjetnost.N. B. Kad sam vas pitala o počecima vaše umjetničkekarijere, imala sam na umu prozatčne, zapadnjačkeparametre, drugim riječima, zanimalo me jeste li prvuiz/oibu imali u Kini ili u Francuskoj?Htght1y lmprecattcn 2000Art & Public. Genevachamber pots. wood, metal. plextglas. bed.ventilator, motion-sensor, ball of Loto (sagex)245)( 910 X380 cmExhibition: Nightly ImprecationPhoto: Art & Pubhc. Geneva N. B. Imate li još uVijek te slike?'-c. Z. Pokazao sam svega nekoliko radova dok sam živiou Kini. Sudjelovao sam na nekoliko grupnih izložaba, aneposredno prije mojeg odlaska iz domovine, ulistopadu 1986. g.•pokazao sam radove koji su nastajalitijekom 10-12 godina. To je bila moja jedina samostalnaizložba u Šangaju, na kojoj sam pokazao pedesetak slika. Bilo je tu različitih slika. U razdobljuod desetak godina, neposredno nakon kulturne revolucije. nakon otvaranjanove reformirane Kine, imali smo sve vrste informacija. Tako da sam prakticirao svestilove. od klasičnog slikarstva, preko impresionizma sve do apstrakcije.c. Z. Na žalost, imam tek nekoliko najranijih slika. Na samom početku mojeg boravka IIParizu, najveći dio tih slika morao sam vrlo jeftino prodati kako bih preživio.N. B. Zbog čega ste se odlučili za Pariz, kaji je sredinom osamdesetih godina. barem sgledišta suvremene umjetnosti, bio ne odveć poticajna sredina?C. Z. U svakom slučaju, u to vrijeme u Kini nisam imao nikavog izbora. Jedini razlogzbog kojeg sam se odlučio za Pariz bio je taj što je u njemu boravio moj stariji brat. kojije imao Vladinu stipendiju za istraživanje u području hematologije. Nakon korištenjatrogodišnje stipendije. koja nije bila osobito velika, on me pozvao u Pariz s riječimakako mogu ostati kod njega godinu dana, a ukoliko želim ostati duže, moram se samdalje pobrinuti. Naći snage i odvažnosti da se ode II stranu zemlju II namjeri da se ostvariveća sloboda u stvaranju umjetničkih djela, to je bila zajednička želja čitave mojegeneracije. Kina tih godina nije bila otvorena ... Čak i u današnjoj Kini bilo bi mi vrloteško razviti svoje ideje na način na koji sam ih razvio na zapadu.N. B. Bi li se moglo reći daje slučaj odredio vaše današnje stalno boravište?c. Z. Možda je tu ipak bilo nečeg II obiteljskoj povijesti i podsvijesti. Moji su roditeljidiplomirali na jednom od najvažnijih sveučilišta u Šangaju, tridestlh i četrdestih godina,kojeg su osnovali Francuzi. Sjećam se kad su roditelji htjeli razgovarati o nečemu štomi djeca ne smijemo razumjeti, onda su razgovarali na engleskom. Kad smo naučili6Z

engleski, onda su prešli na francuski. Sad više ne mogu ni to jer danas više nemaju svojtajni jezik. ..N. B. Možda više nemaju ni tajni pred vama?e, z. (Smije se). Od kad smo postali odrasli, moja obitelj je vrlo demokratska i sve zajedničkidijelimo ...N, B. Cini se kako je za vaše otvaranje spram drugih i drukčijih iskustava bila presudnavaša "obite/jska povijest', njezini intelektualni poticaji, a manje sira društvena sredina iklima u reformiranoj Kini. Štoje za vas znaćio poziv da dadete u Hrvatsku i kreirate radza posve nepoznatu sredinu? Nalazile li neke sličnosti s vašom domovinom, s obzirom načinjenicu da smo ijedni idrugi živjeli u komunizmu, premda u vrlo različitim verzijama?C. Z. Istočna Europa danas za mene ima dvije dimenzije. Jedno je povijesna dimenzija,koja ima bliskosti s Kinom, sve do propasti Berlinskog zida, a drugo je njena sadašnjost,problemi s kojima se susreću zemlje II tranziciji. Ne vidim mnogo sličnosti izmeđuHrvatske i Kine. Komunistički sustav bio je znatno drukčiji kod vas nego II Kini, čak iprije dvadeset trideset godina. Zagreb, pa čak i Rusija - proveo sam prije dvije-trigodine mjesec dana u St. Petersburgu, radeći na izložbi - posve se razlikuju od Kine, kadje riječ o religiji, povijesti, arhitekturi. urbanizmu, društvenim obtćajama, načinu života... Život u Zagrebu je znatno više europski... Dugo sam razgovarao sa studentima doksmo postavljali zagrebačku izložbu. Pripovijedali su o tome što se sve događalo IIrazličitim krajevima vaše zemlje u vrijeme agresije na Hrvatsku i rata II Bosni iHercegovini. Sve me to jako zanimalo. Posebno me zanimalo promatrati, istraživati,iskusiti promjene koje su nastale u tranzicijskom razdoblju. Kakav je zivot u Zagrebudanas, gradu koji ima svu tu povijesnu baštinu, iotvoriti se prema zemlji i njezinoj kulturi.Zanimalo me kakve su se ekonomske i političke promjene dogodile i kako to utječena kulturu.izložba je i nastala kao rezultanta moje vlastite umjetničke putanje i putanje susreta srazličitim ljudima, drukčijim kulturnim kontekstom. Raditi projekt u odredeno] zemlji.II određenom društveno-političkom kontekstu koji prije nisam poznavao, za mene jenajveći izazov. Kad radim u novoj sredini, moj se rad temelji na dvama različitimiskustvima. Jedno je "izložbeno iskustvo", iskustvo određenog izložbenog prostora, susrets muzejskim svijetom, s kontekstom mjesta. Drugo je susret s običnim ljudima usvakodnevnim životnim situacijama,Kad sam razgovarao sa studentima, mladim umjetnicima, a to mi se događa u svimistočnoeuropskim zemljama koje su prošle traurnatlćna iskustva tranzicije, uočio samkoliko se oni bore da sačuvaju svoje kulturne korijene, ali i trude da naprave prodor uzapadni svijet. Zagrebački studenti vrlo nevino pitali su me kako sam kao kineskiumjetnik mogao uspjeti na Zapadu ...N. B. Vjerujem da su vam to pitanje postavljali idrugdje u svijetu. Jesu li tražili "recept"ili su naprosto bili znatiželjni?63

C. Z. Pitali su postoji li neki tajni recept? Koje je ljude potrebno sresti? Kad putujem,držim predavanja. često mi postavljaju takva pitanja, ali znatno manje u SjedinjenimDržavama, odnosno na Zapadu, jer su ti konteksti posve drukčiji.Human Constella1ion 1998-2000metal. atummturn casting (hans1280 x 950 x 600 cmTramway sculpturc collection of the City ofMontpelllerPhoto: Chen ZhenN. B. Vi pripadate prvoj generaciji suvremenih kineskih umjetnika koji su prepoznati naZapadu kao važan glas. Na prošlogodišnjem venecijanskom Biennalu po prvi put su kineskiumjetnici bili dominantni novum. Mislite Ji da se radi naprosto o gladi umjetničkogtržišta koje neprestano traži nova imena ili postoji ozbiljan interes za tzv. margine inedovoljno poznate sredine II umjetničkom svijetu? Prije desetak godina, nakon padaBerlinskog zida, vladala je "glad" za istočnoeuropskim umjetnicima, ali je svega nel?olikoimena ostalo trajno na sceni, poput Kabaeova. Komar i Me/amida, Miroslawa Balke ...Kakvom vi vidite sudbinu kineskih umjetnika kroz petšestgodina?c. Z. To je vrlo kompleksno pitanje. Osobno, već prijedesetak godina, na početku mojeg izlaganja na Zapadu,bio sam svjestan da pokazujem svoj rad kao predstavniksvoje zemlje, dakle, kineske kulture, premdasam pokušavao razviti vrlo osobni pristup, razmišljanje... Mogu jasno reći, bez ikakvog oklijevanja, da sam napočetku karijere pokušavao igrati ulogu popunjavanjepotreba tržišta za nečim novim, ili potreba institucija.muzeja i galerija, za promjenom, mutacijom ... "Desetgodina jedne mode, sljedećih. deset godina drugemode." Svega sam toga bio svjestan, znao sam što sedogodilo s ruskim umjetnicima. To je kao kad nakonvelike oluje malo toga ostane. Stoga sam razvio vlastitustrategiju razvoja. Postaje dvije vrste pristupa:eksplozivan i implozivan, Pokušavam svoj rad razviti usmjeru implozije, kretanja prema unutra, promatranjasebe. Eksplozivni pristup znači sudjelovati na velikimizložbama, irnploz.ivan znači istraživati. Baviti seumjetnošću ne znači tek proizvoditi umjetnička djela,već graditi sebe. Zato sad i želim postati liječnikomtradicionalne kineske medicine. To je moj ideal.Doduše i ja sam prošle godine sudjelovao na velikojizložbi - venecijanskom Biennalu - i mogu reći danisam novo ime, ali također znam da bi moja umjetnostnastavila rasti i bez tog sudjelovanja.To je tek djelomičan odgovor na vaše pitanje. S jedneshane, svjestan sam da moram nastupati, s druge damoram nastaviti svoj rad na vrJo osoban naein. Zbogtoga sam u posljednje vrijeme razvio čitav niz teorija ikoncepata, kao što je ideja o boravku na nekom mjestuda bi se saživjeti s njegovim kontekstom. ideja transiskustva.ideja kulturnog virusa, ideja o remarginal-

izaciji, ponovnom vraćanju na rubove. Zato sada radim u Južnoj Americi, Africi...Pokusao sam razviti sve te vrste ideja spajajući različite kulture zajedno, integrirajućizapravo čitavo svoje iskustvo. Po svoj prilici bio sam privilegiran posljednjih desetakgodina koje sam proveo u Parizu jer sam mogao razviti sve te ideje, za razliku odmnogih mojih kolega koji su ostali živjeti i stvarati u Kini. Oni su stvorili djela kojačekaju europske i američke kustose da ih otkriju i predstave na svjetskim izložbama.Kod mene se sada događa suprotan proces, gotovo da želim stvoriti i održali distancu ...N. B. Pokušavate ponovno zauzeti poziciju "na rubu"?C. Z. Upravo tako (smije se). Određeni model zivota definira naš način razmišljanja.naša očekivanja, naše nade ... Premda je moj duh vrlo kineski, premda imam francuskipasoš, ja sam prije svega Chen Zhen, jedinstvena osoba s tim imenom (koje je doduševrlo često II Kini).N. B. Imam dojam kako zapadna kritika vaš rad u velikoj mjeri još uVijek promatra krozoptiku egzotičnosti. Nojčeiće ističu vaš odnos spram tibetantskog budizma, tradicionalnekineske medicine i tome slično. Meni je, naprotiv, iznimno zanimljiv vaš odnos spramsuvremenosti. Društveno-kritička crta vašeg rada osobito mi se nametnula nakon vašegpredavanja u kojem ste pokazali radove poput "Game Table" (Kartaški stoJ) za Sangaj,(zbog kojeg je, uostalom, izložba bila u posljednji čas otkazana), ratim rad za crnačkučetvrt u Houstonu, "Couldn't Bananas Be Black'? (Zar ne bi banane mogle biti crne?), projektkoji ste radili ti djecom uJave/ama u Sa/vadoru .... Čak i vaš slavni rad "tue Chang -Fifty strakes ta each"(Jue Chang - Pedeset udaraca svakome}, pokazan na venecijanskomBiennalu, ima jaku politicku pozadinu?C, Z. Da. On je nastao II Tel Avivu i na neki način tematizira pitanje sukoba Židova iArapa. Tibetanska izreka "Pedeset udaraca svakome", činila mi se kao mudrorazriješenje tog sukoba. Zapravo sam rad bio je potaknut neprestanim bubnjanjem ususjedstvu mog hotela II Tel Avivu. Nekoliko noći zaredom zbog tog bubnjanja nisammogao spavati. U toj nesanici nastao je taj rad. On je zapravo spoj realne situacije i prisjećanjana tibetantsku poslovicu ...Da budem iskren, ne smatram se "političkim umjetnikom", poput primjerice HansaHaackea, niti sam politički disident na Zapadu, premda imam snažna politička stajališta.Ne mogu biti ravnodušan na ljudske probleme, pokreće me briga za ČOVjeka.Dužnost je umjetnika progovoriti o tome. Ne volim stroge definicije i kategorizacije -koji rad pripada kojoj kategoriji. Nemojte zaboraviti, ja potječem iz Kine, a Kina je jednaod zemalja kaju je u najvećoj mjeri odredila politika, a to vrijedi i za današnju Kinu.Naprosto ne mogu biti slijep na probleme koji tamo postoje. Budizam, konfucijanizami sve vrste tradicionalne kulture, sve je to duboko u mome krvotoku. Međutim, kad sebavim ljudskim problemima, ne igram se političkim kartama i političkim konceptima,već mi je važna ljudska dimenzija tih pitanja.N. B, Biste li se složili daje temeljni pokrefač vašeg rada pokušaj uspostavljanja dijaloga,uzajamne razmjene iskustva?65

C. Z. Slažem se. Ali teško je sažeti sve II jednoj rijeći. Zapravo, vrlo mi se sviđa rijec"između". Kad govorimo o dijalogu, nešto je "između", a u biti je razgovora neki odnos ...Moj je rad polimorfan, nastoji Uključiti različite stvari U sebi, ali istodobno sačuvatiindividualnost.N. B. Koji vas problem trenutno najviše zQokuplja?c. Z. Ukoliko tvrdimo da volimo Zemlju, ovaj planet. naš svijet, mislim da je tada najvažnijeshvatiti kako je na metafizičkoj razini najčistija, najrnisaonija slika, slika vode,a ne kopna. Pogledajmo zemljovid - izložbe su se raširile po cijelom planetu. Sve izložbesu sastavljene na isti način, po istoj formuli. Pogledajte popis umjetnika kaji sudjelujuna svim većim izložbama! Svi ti umjetnici na isti način stvaraju umjetnost, ali nigdjene postaji svijest o vodi. Nesto što je posvuda, što se svuda kreće. nešto što nemaprethodnog oblika ...Kad to shvatimo dosegnut ćemo pravu slobodu, pravu kreaciju. Mislim da se stvaranjetemelji na praznini i slobodi. UVijek je potrebno ostaviti prostora nepoznatom i neizvjesnom...66

Nada Beroš Artist-doctor N. B. Yesterday", youbegan your lecture atthe Academy of Fine Arls in Zagreb by talking about an art project in 1990, which cameto be in a forest at the foot oj the famous Cezanne's Mont St. Victoire, and which youcalled your first artproject.l am interested in what preceded that particular project, orrather· if 1 may be allowed a small exercise in semantics with the title o/your Zagrebexhibition (Six roots) - J would like to learn something about your artistic and familyroots.C. Z. Well, to begin at the beginning, I was born in Shanghai in 1955in a period thatcould be termed transitional, since it was only few years after the establishment ofthe People's Republic of China. One of the most important experiences in my life wasthe period that I spent in China at the time of the Cultural Revolution, between myrrth and arst years. At the end of that period I enrolled at the town's only art school.the School for Fine Arts and Crafts, where I spent three years (1973-76), I've always hada penchant for making things with my own hands. And since my whole family wasscientifically oriented - they are all doctors or researchers in the field of medical science- 1was regarded as a kind of black sheep of the family. The decision to enrol intothe first artistic school during the Cultural Revolution was partially personal and partiallybecause it offered the only real option, bearing in mind that it was the only artschool there was. In those days no other such school existed, For economic reasons,China wanted to revive traditional skills - carving sculptures in wood, ivory ... - inorder that they could be sold in foreign lands for hard currency, thereby improvingthe country's economic circumstances. Needless to say, it was an utterly traditionalschool, and where I attended the Department for Work in tvory. So as to specialize inthe craft t was obliged to study traditional painting, and the art of engraving, and tobe able to do that I had to learn to draw, to model in clay, to carve sculptures in wood,stone .., Looking back on it today. the school was very useful to me in that it enabledme to acquire all those skills. But it also provided me with my first contact with theart of the West, in the sense of "Westernisation" of drawings and sculptures.N. B. At that time, did you possess any information about modern and contemporaryart in the West?C. Z. In the time of the Cultural Revolution the school regarded Impressionist art asbourgeois; it was as good as proscribed. The art we were supposed to model ourselveson was Socialist Rea1ism of the Soviet style. Of course, we knew absolutely nothingabout the Russian avant-garde, or about Black Square by Malevich.N. B. Has your artistic career begun in China.?c. Z, In retrospect, and bearing in mind my perception of art - which for me is anexchange of trans-experiences, it seems to me that one becomes an artist at themoment of birth. My entire experience, experiences as a child, as a young man - anthat can be viewed as artistic experience ... My memories of childhood - like, for• 22. OS. 2000. 67

instance,listening to the sound of chamber pots beingscrubbed after the women had emptied their contentsout into the street . aJI those very early memories,although not linked to anything that could be calledart, or indeed linked to any idea about art, have todaybecome really important to my concept of art. Today, Ibelieve that all my experiences and trans-experienceshave become the pivotal point of my comprehensionof art.N. B. When 1asked you about the beginnings of yourartistic career.1had in mind prasak, Western parameters;jn other words, what 1actually wanted to knowwas whether you had your first exhibition in China orin France.Beyond the Vulnerabi1ity 1999·l.000Museum of Modem Arl of Bahta. Salvadorcandles. glass. metal wood. plexrglas.drawrngscollege800)( soo x no emExhibition The Quret ln the Land everyday life.contemporary art and Projeto Axe.Salvador lnBahiaPhoto' Chen Zhen and Xu MmC.Z. While living in China J exhibited only a few of myworks. I took part in several group exhibitions, and just before I left my homeland, inOctober 1986, I exhibited works that had been created over the course of ten or twelveyears. That was my onJy solo exhibition in Shanghai, where I presented some SO ofmy paintings, different kinds of paintinga. In a period of about ten years, immediatelyafter the Cultural Revolution, when the new, refonned China opened up, wewere able to obtain all kinds of information. Consequently, I practiced all styles . fromclassic painting, through Impressionism to abstract art.N. B. Doyou still have those paintings?c. Z. Unfortunately,l have only a few of my earliest works. At the very beginnings ofmy stay in Paris I had to sell most of them- and very cheaply - in order to survive.N. B. What made you decide on Paris, which in the mid·eighties was not exactly andover-inspirinq environment, at least not from the aspect of contemporary art'C.Z. At that time, in China there was no choice whatsoever. My only reason for decidingon Paris was that my elder brother, who had won a government scholarship forresearch in haematology, was there. Following his three-year scholarship, which wasnot particularly rewarding in pecuniary terms, he invited me to Paris. He told me thatI could stay with him for one year, and if I wane d to stay longer I would have to fendfor myself. Finding the strength and courage to go to a foreign country with theintention of achieving greater freedom in creating works of art - that was the cernmondesire of my entire generation. In those years China was not an open country ...Even today I would find if difficult to develop my ideas in the way I developed themin the West.N. B. Could it be said that chance infact determinedyour present permanent residence]68

C. Z. Family history and sub-consciousness may actually have played a part. My parentsgraduated in the thirties and forties from one of the most prestigious universitiesin Shanghai, which was founded by the French. I remember that when theywanted to discuss something we children were not allowed to hear, they would talkin English. When we leamed English they switched to French. Now, they can nolonger do that either, they no longer have their secret language ...N. B. Perhaps nowadays they have no secretsfrom you?C. Z. [Laughing] Since we've all grown up aw family has become very democratic. andwe share everything ...N. B. It seem s that your "[amily history", its intellectual inspirations, played a morecrucial role in your being open to others and to different experiences than did yoursocial environment and the general climate in the refarmed China. What did the invitationto come to Croatia,and to create cl workfor cl total alien environment, mean toyou? Doyou find any similarities with your native land, bearing in mind thefact thatboth peoples have 1ivedundercommunism - even though its versions differed greatly?c. Z. For me, Eastern Europe today has two dimensions. One is the historical dimension,in which there are similarities with China - all the way to the fall of the BerlinWall. The second is its present, the problems faced by countries undergoing transition.Here, I do not see many similarities between Croatia and China. The communistsystem you experienced was vastly different from the one existing in China, eventwenty or thirty years ago. Zagreb, and even in Russia (two or three years ago l spenta month in St. Petersburg working on an exhibition) things were so different fromChina in so many ways: in religion, history, architecture, urban life. social customs,way of life ... Life in Zagreb is so much more European. J talked a lot with studentswhile we were setting up the Zagreb exhibition. They toId me about all the thingsthat were happening during the war in Croatia and in Bosnia &: Herzegovina. J wasvery interested in all that. I was particularly interested in observing, investigating,indeed experiencing the changes which occurred in this transitional period. What lifeis like in the Zagreb of today, this city with its entire historical heritage; what it's liketo open up towards the country and its culture. I wanted to find out which economicand cultural changes have occurred, and how they were affecting culture.The Zagreb exhibition also came about as the result of my own artistic orbit, and thepath of encounters with different people, different cultural contexts. I find workingon a prcject in a particular country, in a different social and political context, whichpreviously I knew nothing about, enormously challenging. When l'rn working in anew environment, my work is based on two different sets of experience. One is the"exhibition area experience", Le. experience of specific exhibition premises; encounterswith the world of museums, with the context of the place. The second is encounterswith ordinary people in daily life situations. In my discourse with students,young artists - and that happens in all East European countries that have undergonethe traumatic experiences of transition - I noticed that they are striving to preservetheir cultural roots, while at the same time endeavouring to make inroads into the69

western world. Zagreb students asked me, in all innocence, how I· as a Chinese artist- managed to succeed in the West ...N. B. I believe that you have been asked the same question elsewhere in the world. Didthey want a 'recipe', or were they just curious?C. Z. They did ask me whether there was some secret reci pe. What kind of people doesone have to meet? When I travel, and give lectures, l'm often asked such questions,though much less in the United States, or rather in the West, since those contexts areso totally different.N. B. You form part of the first generation of contemporary Ch inese artists to be recognizedby the West as an important voice. At the last year's Biennale in Venice Chineseartists were for the first time the dominant novum. Do you think it is merely hungermanifested by the art market which is constantly looking for new names, or is there areal interest for what is known as thefringes and insufficiently known environmentsin the world of art? Some ten years ago, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, there was a'nunqer'for East European artists, but only few names remained on the staqe - such asKabakov, Komar and Melamid, Miroslow Balka ... How do you view the fate of Chineseartists five or six years down the road?70C.Z. That is a complex question. Personally speaking, when I started my exhibiting inthe West some ten years ago, I was aware that I was showing my work as being representativeof my country, that is, of Chinese culture, and that despite the fact that Iwas attempting to develop a highly personal approach and way of thinking. l cannow say, clearly and without hesitation, that at the beginning of my career I was tryingto play the role of somebody fulfilling the market need for something new, or forthe needs of institutions, museums and galleries for a change, a mutation ... 'Tenyears of one fashion, the next ten years of a different fashion.' I am fully aware of allthat, and l know what happened to the Russian artists. It's like after a great storm -very little is left. That made me formulate my own strategy of evolvement. There aretwo types of approach: explosive and implosive. I myself am trying to develop mywork on the lines of implosion, moving inwards, observing myself. The explosiveapproach entails participation in grand exhibitions; implosion entails research.Being engaged in art does not mean the mere production of works of arti it involvesthe building of oneself. That is why I now want to become a doctor of traditionalChinese medicine. That is my ideal.True, last year l also took part in a great exhibition - the Venice Biennale - and I cansay that I am not a new name. But l also know that my art would continue to groweven without my participation at that exhibition.This is but a partial answer to your question. On the one hand I am aware of the needto exhibit: on the other I know I must continue my work in a highly personalizedmanner. That is why l have lately developed a whole range of theories and concepts-like the idea of staying in a place in order to become acclirnatized to its context; orthe idea of a cultural virus, the idea of re-rnarginalisation, of returning to the fringes.This is why I am now working in South America, in Africa ... I have tried to develop all

those kinds of ideas by bringing together differentcultures, indeed, by integrating my entire experience.ln alllikelihood, l must have been rather privilegedover the last ten years, which I have spent in Paris,since that allowed me to develop all those ideas - asopposed to my colleagues, who remained living andworking in China. They have created works that arestill waiting to be discovered by European andAmerican curators, and to be presented at exhibitionsaround the world. As for me, I am now going througha reverse process. I almost want to create, and maintain,a certain distance ...N. B. Are you again trying to take up a position on the'margin'?c. Z. That is precisely what I am trying to do [laughs].A specific way of life defines our way of thinking, ourexpectations, our hopes ... And although my spirit isvery Chinese, and although I hold a French passport, Iam first and foremost Chen Zhen, a unique person ofthat name (which, I hasten to add, is very common inChina).Beyond the Vulnera.bility 1999-2000Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, Salvadorcandles, glass, metal, wood, ptexjglas. drawtngscollage800)( 500 X 220 cmExhibition: The Qulet in the Land everyday life,contemporary ari and Projeto Axe, Salvador lnBahtnPhoto Chen zhen and Xu MinN. B. I have the feeling that to a great degree Westerncritics still view your work through the prism of exoticism.Most often they underline your relations towardsTibetan Buddhism, traditional Chinese medicine. andsimilar issues. I, on the contrary,find your approach tothe contemporary exceptionally interesting. The social and critical aspects of yourwork became particularly dominant when I listened to your Iecture in which youshowed works like Game Table. prepared for Shanghai (and which, in fact, was thecause of the cancellation of the exhibition at the last moment), the work entitledCouldn't Bananas be Blackfora black neighbourhood in Houston, the project that youdid with the Fa vela children in Salvador ... Evenyour famous work Fifty Strokes to Each,exhibited at the Venice Biennale, has CI strong political background.C. Z. Yes. It was born in Tel Aviv, and in a way it thematises the issue of conflictbetween Jews and Arabs. The Tibetan saying Fifty Stroees to Each seemed an appropriateresolution to the conflict. ln fact, the work itself was inspired by the persistentdrummtng in the neighbourhood of my hotel in Tel Aviv. lt kept me awake severalnights and it was from those sleepless nights that the work was born. It is a combinationof a real situation and a reminiscence of the Tibetan maxim ... To be quitefrank, I do not regard myself as a "polrtical artist" like, for instance,Hans Haacke, noram I a political dissident in the West, although I do hold strong political views. I cannotremain Indifferent to human problems; my concern for human beings is my spir-71

itus movens. It is an artist's duty to speak out about such things. I am not keen onstrong definition cmd categorizations - like which work belongs to which category.Don 't forget, 1come from China, and China is one of the countries which, to a greatdegree, were defined by politics, and this pertinentfor present-day China. Ifs just that1 am unable to turn a blind eye to the probleme that do exist there. Buddhism,Confucianism, and all kinds of traditional cultures run deeply in my bloodstream.However, when I deal with the problems of human beings I do not play with politicalmaps and political concepts. What matters to me is the human dimension of thoseproblems.N. B. Would you agree that thefundamental drivingforce of your work is the effort toestablish dialogue, to inspire a mutual exchange of experience?C. Z. Yes, I would. But it is difficult to encapsulate it in one word. Actually, I very muchlike the word between. When talking about dialogue, there is something between,while the essence of a discourse is a relationship ... My work is polymorphic; I try toincorporate different things within myself, while at the same time preserving myindividualism.N. B. What problem do you find most absorbingat this point in time?C.Z. If we claim that we love the Earth, this planet, this world of ours, then I believeit to be most important to understand that the purest, the most conternplative image. at the meta physical level- is that of water, not of land. Take a look at a map - exhibitionshave spread themselves over the whole planet. AU of them are conceived inthe same way, according to the same formula. All those artists are creating art in thesame way, but awareness of water is nowhere. And that is something that is everywhere,which is in motion everywhere, something that has no previous form orshape ...Once we have come to realize that, we shall have achieved true freedom, true ereation.It is my belief that creation is based on emptiness and freedom. It is alwaysnecessary to allow space for the unknown and the uncertain ...(T. iV. D.)7z