Chen Zhen - Muzej suvremene umjetnosti Zagreb

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.