Recently, the 59th Venice International Art Biennale in 2022 officially announced the list of artists participating in this year's theme exhibition and the list of exhibitors in the national pavilion.
A total of 213 artists from 58 countries and regions participated in the biennale theme exhibition, as well as 80 national pavilions. Among them, the theme of the exhibition of the China Pavilion is "Yuanjing", with Zhang Zikang, director of the CAFA Art Museum, as the curator, and the assistant curator is Sun Dongdong.
In an interview with Red Star News today (12), Zhang Zikang said that the inspiration for this topic came in part from the exquisite translation of the word "virtual reality" by scientist Qian Xuesen in 1990. As early as 30 years ago, Qian Xuesen had his own unique understanding of this term, which is still a new concept in the minds of most people.
Zhang Zikang, director of cafa academy art museum
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A combination of art and technology, a combination of young creators
As the "Olympic Of the Art World" and the "Mother of the Biennale", the Century-old Venice International Art Biennale is not only a biennial event in the international art world, but also has always played a role as a bellwether in the field of contemporary art.
This time, four artists (groups) were invited to participate in the Exhibition, namely Liu Jiayu, Wang Yuyang, Xu Lei and the AT group (the group artists are: Li Yan, Chen Zhi, Guan Yiming, Chen Houwen, Lu Fei, Peng Jiayuan, Lei Jianhao, Liu Yichen, Yan Liangliang).
Zhang Zikang told The Red Star News reporter that one of the more prominent commonalities of these 4 (group) artists is that they have a relatively in-depth thinking and artistic practice of new media art represented by artificial intelligence.
"Innovation is one of the main directions of the Venice International Art Biennale, which will present the latest art trends in the world and the spiritual outlook of the art world." Zhang Zikang said, "And artificial intelligence and digitalization are also the more cutting-edge and avant-garde elements in current artistic creation." For this, young artists are generally more sensitive and more prominent. ”
Among them, the "AT group" composed of 9 members is particularly fresh - when we have become accustomed to artists basically participating in the exhibition as individuals, a group of artists like a project research group is undoubtedly curious.
Assistant curator Sun Dongdong told Red Star News that the members of this group are all from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and they create on the basis of the cooperation between the Central American Academy of Science and Technology and the Brain and Intelligence Laboratory of Tsinghua University. AT is the acronym for "Art" and "Technology" in English.
AT Group Work "Jungle"
"The members of the group are mainly responsible for artistic creativity, while Tsinghua University mainly provides high-tech equipment and scientific concept support, through such cooperation, the organic combination of art and technology is realized, and a refreshing work of art is presented." According to Sun Dongdong, the work "Jungle" that the AT team will exhibit at the China Pavilion was completed by artists guiding artificial intelligence.
"First, the artificial intelligence deep learning, learn to recognize the image of the plant, and then through the visual way, the artificial intelligence to recognize the plant image reproduced." Sun Dongdong said, "Of course, this kind of reproduction is different from plants in nature, but reflects the artificial intelligence's cognition of plants." "Through this work, the audience can intuitively see what plants look like in the 'mind' of artificial intelligence."
The images of these "plants" are printed on the mirror surface, and when the audience approaches the work, they will see that their images have also invisibly entered the "jungle" in the mind of artificial intelligence. In this way, the artists also offered the biennale's audience another way of looking at themselves.
Wang Yuyang's "Snowman"
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Qian Xuesen's "spiritual realm" and the context of Chinese cultural traditions
The theme of this year's Venice International Art Biennale is "The Milk of Dreams". The theme comes from a children's book by Mexican surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. In this book, life is constantly reimagined through the prism of the imagination. Based on this setting, the Venice Biennale will also invite participants and visitors to embark on a journey of imagination.
The theme of the exhibition at the China Pavilion is "Meta-Scape". From dream to realm, quite echoed. Zhang Zikang told Red Star News that the "yuan" in "Yuanjing" has both the meaning of the beginning and the beginning, and also represents an infinite concept, just as artistic creation has unlimited possibilities. At the same time, it is easy to think of the latest concept of "metacosm".
"Part of the inspiration for this theme was a letter written by Mr. Qian Xuesen in 1990 in which he translated 'virtual reality' as 'spiritual realm', which is quite subtle." Zhang Zikang said, "Traditional Chinese art and cultural aesthetics have always emphasized artistic conception and spirituality, and from ancient times to the present, the interpretation of artistic conception is also extremely rich. So we think that since most of the works in this exhibition are related to digital and virtual technology, then 'Yuanjing' will be a more suitable theme. ”
Xu Lei's "Clouds and Mountains of the World"
In fact, about Qian Xuesen's letter and this translation, at the end of last year, it became hot news - 2021 is the 110th anniversary of Qian Xuesen's birth, and while commemorating this scientific giant, the topic of Qian Xuesen's naming of VR (virtual reality) "spiritual realm" has also been raised again.
On November 27, 1990, Qian Xuesen wrote a letter to his disciple Wang Cheng, naming vr technology "Spirit Realm". In October 1994, he mentioned in a letter to Dai Ruwei, Wang Cheng, Qian Xuemin and others: "Lingjing technology is another technological revolution after the revolution in computer technology, which will trigger a series of changes that shock the whole world, and must be a major event in human history." ”
Zhang Zikang said that under the current background of the times, the "Metaverse", as the theme of the exhibition, creates and presents a cosmic consciousness of symbiosis, and its starting point for thinking is completely different from the popular concept of "Metacosm". Instead, it starts from China's unique cultural context and poetic spirit. "The purpose of 'creation' is not to establish new divisions, but rather, its purpose is to transcend the boundaries of reality and re-establish a universal way of reflecting on the self, and the common future of mankind constructed from it."
Red Star News reporter Qiao Xueyang Editor Jiang Qing
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