Marlene, King of the Ridiculous, 2010
On October 31, artist Ma Liang's solo exhibition "Private Myths" opened at the Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum and will continue to be on display until March 31, 2022. What is the mystery of this private myth? Harper's Bazaar Art interviews artist Ma Liang and Zhong Weixing, curator of this exhibition and founder of Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum, to take you to listen to "private myths" up close.
Dreams are private myths
Growing up in an artistic family, Ma Liang was deeply influenced by art from an early age and was a typical "second generation of art". In 2004, as an advertising director, he picked up the camera by mistake, and thus began to create unconventional photography art, "making images" with infinite absurdity and drama.
Artist Ma Liang
"Private Mythology" is his largest solo exhibition to date, divided into eight sections, including seven different series of works and eight documentaries, with an unprecedented number of exhibits. The American cultural scholar Joseph Campbell once said: "Dreams are private myths, and myths are public dreams." "The exhibition takes this as the title to tell the story of Maryan's maverick art world.
© Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum, Scene Of Ma Liang's solo exhibition "Private Myths", 2021
Marlian, Sonnet of Life and Death, 2020
Stepping into the exhibition hall, the first thing that catches your eye is "Sonnets of Life and Death". The artist shows the "reality of death" and "the illusion of life" through the two worlds inside and outside the mirror, conveys the poetry of life in a moment of hesitation and misjudgment, and brings the audience into this labyrinth of "dreams".
Multiple career experiences have given Ma Liang a unique cross-media perspective, and he has combined various elements at will to create a highly recognizable style. This point is reflected in "The King of Absurdity", which integrates elements such as calligraphy, photography, and English, deconstructs photography and art in a playful way, and triggers the audience's thinking on blindly chasing and imitating the chaos of Western contemporary art from a critical perspective.
Marlene, Your Portraits, 2020
"The Way You Are" and "The World" met the audience for the first time in this exhibition. The former deeply explores the inevitable connection between human weakness and war conflict, while the latter brings together the insights of people around them and strange netizens to answer the eternal question of "what is the world" in the form of video collage.
Ma Liang, Portrait of Mr.World, 2019-2020
In addition, the exhibition also includes two "studios", one is a reproduction of Ma Liang's studio in Shanghai in 2015 at the exhibition site, and the other is an allegorical photographic work - "Portrait of Mr. World". The man with the breathing helmet shuts himself in the chamber, which Ma Liang uses to express the increasingly common estrangement in the world today.
The whole exhibition is like a labyrinth, where the audience tries to interpret through vague clues and find the final destination. Everything is doomed to have no standard answer, but everyone will find their own exit, which is the charm of Ma Liang's works.
Ma Liang, The Last Knight in Shanghai, 2020
The "insight" behind the absurdity
From 2004 to the present, Ma Liang has created nearly 40 series of works, although the style and content are different, but they are not left behind. His works travel on the boundary between nothingness and reality, and behind the superficial absurdity is the combination of Western contemporary art and the spirit of Classical Chinese culture, and photography is not "peeping" but "insight" for him.
Harper's BAZAAR ART interviewed Ma Liang about his creative feelings and future plans.
BAZAAR: You revealed that the exhibition had 20 days to set up, why did it take so long?
Ma Liang: On the one hand, the number of exhibits is relatively large, and it takes a lot of time to make detailed adjustments on the spot. On the other hand, I hope to take this opportunity to learn some knowledge of the exhibition. I had the privilege of viewing the exhibition at the Chengdu Contemporary Video Museum before, and I thought it was very professional in terms of exhibition, and this exhibition also taught me a lot from it.
The scene of the opening ceremony of the exhibition "Private Myth", 2021
BAZAAR: In addition to the photographer, you also have multiple identities such as essay writer, stage director, documentary director, etc., which one do you like the most?
Ma Liang: I am very sober in this regard, only the title of "photographer" makes me feel at ease, and it is also my only "competent" identity, and everything else is a false title. I have made a lot of cross-media attempts in my creation, and they have enriched the space and language of my photographic creation, which is indeed my biggest gain.
BAZAAR: In the art project "Mobile Photo Studio", you spend ten months traveling through 35 cities across the country, taking photos of strangers, and nearly 1600 people participating in the project. What does this project bring to you?
Ma Liang: It's been nine years since Mobile Photo Studio, and many of the participants are still my friends, and we've watched each other grow and witness important moments in life. This work made me more aware of the wonderful reaction between photography and time, art and life, these subtle emotions allow us to resist the nothingness of life and feel the meaning of giving.
Ma Liang, Mobile Photo Studio, 2012
Talking about the next plans and expectations, Ma Liang admitted that he would like to restart the project in 2022, the tenth anniversary of "Mobile Photo Studio", but he is still waiting to see due to the epidemic. Two other long-awaited new photography projects are underway, which are expected to be completed by next year's Spring Festival. At the same time, he also said that most of the current art institutions have added more icing on the cake for the "big guys" and less charcoal for the cold soldiers, calling for more attention to promoting local projects in the future.
Myth-maker
This exhibition is the first curatorial experience of Zhong Weixing, the founder of Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum, what are the considerations and attempts behind it? Harper's BAZAAR ART interviewed Zhong Weixing for an in-depth analysis.
Zhong Weixing, curator of "Private Mythology", founder of Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum, and life co-chairman of the jury of the "Wilhelm Klein Photography Award" of the French Academy of Arts
BAZAAR: Taking this exhibition "Private Mythology" as an example, what factors do you pay the most attention to when choosing artists?
Zhong Weixing: I greatly appreciate and value Ma Liang, his creation is not limited to photography itself, fearlessly integrates various media and cultures in his creation, and to some extent guides the development direction of photography art, which is a great test of the artist's knowledge base and practical experience. "Private Myth" is not only an exhibition of photographic works, but also an art scene with comprehensive expression, as long as it bravely "embraces" other art categories and forms of expression, the potential of photography will be infinite.
Zhong Weixing participated in the second "William Klein Photography Award" award ceremony online at the Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum
BAZAAR: Recently, the second "William Klein Photography Award" was presented to Anne Leibovitz. As the lifetime co-chair of its jury, what are your thoughts on the future of the award?
Zhong Weixing: All art categories need a judgment value system, and we can explore and promote the development of photography art through awards. In fact, to make a respected award, it first depends on whether the rules are open and transparent. Some awards were originally very good, but then gradually humanized, how can it be possible to award a high level of awards? Therefore, a good award has extremely high requirements for the judges, and must do a good job of "people" and "things" at the same time.
Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum
BAZAAR: What is the biggest significance of opening a video museum in the southwest region? What are the considerations in the overall layout?
Zhong Weixing: I believe that the establishment of this platform is of great significance to promoting the development of Chinese video art, excavating and encouraging young video artists, and promoting public aesthetic education. In terms of overall layout, first of all, Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum must become a world-class image museum, able to dialogue with the West on an equal footing; secondly, it must strictly control the exhibition level in accordance with first-class standards, so that it can lead the aesthetic orientation and let photographers know the really good works, so that the art museum naturally has the power of the brand.
Talking about the core concept of the exhibition, Zhong Weixing said: "Life is a dream, on the road of lonely exploration, only you are the creator of your own myth. "This exhibition takes romanticism to the extreme, and Ma Liang's story is visualized as a labyrinth, leading the viewer into a path of exploration of mythology. What is a private myth? Ma Liang is still exploring, and your answer is waiting for you to reveal.
It is on display
Exhibition: Ma Liang's solo exhibition "Private Mythology"
Date: October 31, 2021 - March 31, 2022
Address: Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum Hall E
Editor, Wen Yang Yihan
This article is original by Harper's Bazaar Art Department and may not be reproduced without permission