A replica is an authentic copy
The concept of "reproduction" in the East and the West is very different, which has led to different ways of protecting cultural relics. The West pays more attention to the preservation of authentic works, while the East focuses on the renewal and replacement of the originals, although the final result seems to be the same, the originals are replaced by reproductions, but they reflect different cultural concepts. "Phoenix Art" works with you, following in the footsteps of Byung-Chul Han, the author of the article, from the imitation of Zhang Daqian's ancient paintings to the mass production of terracotta replicas, to the reincarnation reconstruction of Ise Shrine in Japan every twenty years and the protection measures of the Freiburg Cathedral in Germany, comparing the different ways of restoration of Chinese and Western cultural relics, and feeling different cultural backgrounds. Here's a compilation report that Phoenix Art brings to you.
In 1956, an exhibition of outstanding works of art about China was exhibited at the Musée Cernuschi in Paris. But soon, museums discovered that the works were forgeries. The forger was none other than Zhang Daqian, the most famous Chinese painter of the 20th century. Zhang Daqian is known as the Picasso of the East by Westerners, and his meeting with Picasso at that time is also considered to be the collision between the top art of the East and the West. When the works were discovered to be forgeries, the Western world labeled him a fraudster, while Zhang Daqian said he never denied that they were not genuine. In any case, these works really should not be considered fakes, because they are based on ancient written records of lost paintings.
Zhang Daqian and his wife take a photo with Picasso
In China, many collectors are also painters. Zhang Daqian, who has more than 4,000 paintings, is also a big collector. Moreover, his collection is not lifeless, but gathers the works of the masters and gives them a living platform for communication. Zhang Daqian himself is also a vehicle for communication and change: he often changes roles and explores the works of his masters. As Fu Shen and Jan Stuart mention in their 1991 book Challenging the Past: The Paintings of Chang Dai-chien:
Zhang Daqian's success may be because his copying has not been discovered for a long time, and he has created "ancient paintings" that collectors are eager to discover. In some works, he will change the style of painting in unexpected ways. Perhaps a Painting of the Ming Dynasty became a work of the Song Dynasty after passing through his hand. Therefore, we can say that his work is undoubtedly original, because he carries forward the "originality" of the ancient masters while retrospectively extending and changing their works.
Zhang Daqian, "Imitation of Giant Ran Qingfeng", in 2016, China Guardian International Auction Co., Ltd. sold 103.5 million
In 2007, when it was known that the Terracotta Warriors, which had worked so hard to "fly" from China, were not the original 2,000 years ago, the Museum of Ethnology in Hamburg decided to close the exhibition and refund the cost of the visit to the exhibition to the audience. The curator, as an advocate of truth and authenticity, said: "We have the unanimous conclusion that in order to maintain the museum's good image, we must close the exhibition. ”
But in fact, from the very beginning, the production of terracotta imitations and the excavation of authentic works were carried out at the same time. A replica workshop was even set up at the excavation site. Rather than being a fake, we can say that Chinese is trying to restart the manufacture of terracotta warriors, because the completion of terracotta warriors is not created from the beginning but born by copying, as long as the original mold can still be used, this is a process that can be continuously carried out.
Terracotta Warriors and Horses
Inside the underground imperial city of the QinWangGong attraction in Dongyang Film and Television City, Zhejiang, tens of thousands of tourists rushed to see the replicas of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang displayed along the road
China has two different interpretations of "copy" ( copy " . Among them, "imitation" is understood as a kind of imitation, which is obviously different from the original work, it is more like a derivative of art, for example, a small model that can be bought in the museum memorial store is a copy. Another term is "reproduction", which is a beautiful restoration of the original work, and for Chinese, it is to a large extent as important as the original, and there is absolutely no negative connotation. Differences in the understanding of "reproduction" in Chinese and Western museums often lead to misunderstandings and controversies. China often uses replicas instead of originals to be sent abroad for exhibitions, and firmly believes that this practice is correct, and the rejection of this practice by Western museums is an insult to the Chinese.
World globalization does not seem to have enabled the West to have a deeper understanding of the "mysterious forces of the East", and the concept of oriental identity is still in the clouds, which may explain the reasons for misunderstanding and controversy. As an example, The Ise Grand Shrine is the supreme Shinto sanctuary on the Japanese island of Honshu with a history of 1,300 years and millions of Japanese make pilgrimages every year. But in fact, this temple is burned and rebuilt every 20 years, and such a religious practice has caused quite a headache for Western art historians. After much debate, the temple was eventually removed from the World Heritage List by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). For UNESCO experts, the shrine is only 20 years old at most.
Ise Jingu Shrine
In this case, which one is the original and which one is the replica? In fact, such reconstructions have made no distinction between authentic and replicants. This is more like the difference between old and new than the distinction between authenticity and reproduction. We can even say that the replica is more original than the original, or that the replica is closer to the original than the previous original. Because the older the temple is, the farther away it is from its original state, and the replica restores it to its original state, especially when it has nothing to do with a particular artist, which is a great way to preserve antiquities.
Not only the main body of the shrine, but also the treasures in the shrine will also be updated. Two identical sets of treasures are always displayed interchangeably in the shrine, so the problem between the original and the replica does not exist. They are indeed replicas, but they are also authentic. In the past, because of religious beliefs, when a new replica appeared, the old "authentic" would be destroyed. But because the value of the exhibition seems to be getting more and more attention, now every set of treasures is replaced, it will be displayed in the museum and will never disappear.
In contrast, what the West insists on is the only authenticity. The preservation of old objects when restoring antiquities is very important in the eyes of Westerners. The East was not impressed with this primitive cult, and they developed a completely different method of preservation, which may be more effective than the Pure Western. They completely eliminate the difference between the original and the copy through the continuous reproduction of the original, and we can even say that the authentic copy makes itself permanent through the copy. Just as in nature, old cells are replaced by newborn cells to keep the organism alive, so that after a period of time, the organism becomes a replica of itself. In this respect, the question of the authenticity debate ceases to exist, and the use of such a technical way to prolong life, identity and renewal are not mutually exclusive, and reproductions are by no means as simple as reproductions.
Look at a living example in the West: in order to preserve its original appearance, the cathedral of Freiburg Minster in southwestErn Germany is scaffolded almost all year round, because the sandstone, the basic material for building the church, has long since fallen apart because it cannot withstand the natural erosion of the wind and rain, and the constantly eroded stones have been replaced.
Freiburg Cathedral
Fundamentally, this is no different from the operation of a Japanese shrine that is renovated every 20 years. It's just that in this case, the process of replacing the original copy is very slow. But after a certain time, when they have become "replicas", the shape of the shrine will not change much, and the cathedral needs to rely on people to look at pictures or imagine to know what it once was. It is worth thinking more about, if the last ancient stone of the cathedral is replaced, then what is its original handiwork? Replicas of Freiburg Cathedral can be found in various theme parks in China. So, are they replicas or genuine works? What are the characteristics of authenticity?
Perhaps materially, when the cathedral itself no longer has a single original part, its replicas are no different from those. To make a difference, it is the place and value of religious worship that distinguishes it from replicas in Chinese theme parks. However, if the value of their worship is completely removed in favor of their exhibition value, their differences may also disappear.
Such logical relationships also apply in the field of art. In the 17th century, the classical artworks that were discovered were restored in a very different way than they are treated today. They did not restore it in a way that was faithful to the original appearance, but instead added creative elements that changed the appearance of the artwork. Gian Lorenzo Bernini, for example, arbitrarily attached the hilt of his sword to the statue of Ares Ludolfs, the god of war, which itself is a replica of the Greek artifact. During Bernini's time, the Colosseum was reduced to a quarry for new buildings.
The preservation of historical sites in the modern sense should begin with the museumization of the industrial period, which coincided with the rise of tourism. The so-called "great travel" that began in the Renaissance peaked in the 18th century as a pioneer of modern tourism, when the exhibition value of ancient buildings and works of art was constantly increasing in the eyes of tourists, and as a result, the religious worship value of these authentic works has always given way to its exhibition value. For contemporary people, the establishment of ancient cultural relics protection measures is a matter of course, because the emergence of industrialization and the demand for museumization at that time further increased the demand for monument protection, and at the same time, the field of art history and archaeology discovered the emerging cognitive value of ancient buildings and works of art, and they refused any intervention that might change the original appearance of cultural relics and monuments.
This positioning is at odds with the far East, and it is perhaps this academic view that explains why Asians have fewer moral concerns about cloning than in Europe. Hwang Woo-suk, a South Korean cloning expert who became popular in 2004 for cloning experiments, is a Buddhist with many followers. Although his experiment was later debunked, he associated cloning with his religious beliefs: "I am a Buddhist, but I have no philosophical problems with cloning. And everyone knows that the basis of Buddhism is that the journey of life comes from. In a way, I think cloning makes life cycle again. ”
The same is true for Ise Jingu Shrine. The reconstruction of the way of preservation allows the life of the shrine to circulate continuously, avoiding the problem of vanishing. Death itself seems to be incorporated into the preservation system. In such a cycle, there is no uniqueness, no originality, no end, only constant repetition and reconstruction. Just as in the Buddhist concept of the cycle of life, there is no creation, only law; no innovation, only circulation; no authenticity, only patterns, which also determine the production process of Chinese.
As we know, even the creation of terracotta warriors relies on models and components. Such production creation does not focus on originality and uniqueness, but on modeled production that allows for change and difference, and improves the efficiency of continuous production and creation by denying uniqueness. Just as printing was not invented by chance in China, so was Chinese painting, which used patterned techniques. There are thousands of materials in the "Mustard Garden Painting Spectrum", which constitute different paintings through different combinations and compositions.
Inner page of "Mustard Garden Notation"
In such a production technique, the combination of elements with variation becomes particularly important because it represents a matter of creativity. In Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art, the German art historian Lothar Ledderose said: "Chinese artists never lose sight of the fact that a large number of works are also a way to express creativity. They believe that, as in nature, after doing ten thousand similar things repeatedly, something new will always be born. ”
Chinese art and nature have a mutually caring relationship, and people do not restore nature as realistically as possible, but learn how to operate and create like nature. As Professor Redhou said: "Many Chinese artists imitate nature from two aspects, creating an almost unlimited number of works through stereotyped composition, brushstrokes and themes, but in the end they also show their own unique and difficult to imitate styles in the cycle." ”
Article source: Aeon
Some of the pictures come from the Internet
(Phoenix Art Compilation Report Compilation / Ye Xiaoyi Editor/yxy)
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