Zonghe
The "Suspected Plagiarism Incident of Artist Ye Yongqing" in early 2019 has attracted widespread attention in the cultural circles, and to some extent has had some impact on the ecology of Chinese contemporary art. Although Belgian artist Christian Silvain filed a lawsuit, Ye Yongqing has not responded positively so far, or even "his whereabouts are unknown". But in March this year, Ye Yongqing suddenly filed a lawsuit in the federal court of the Belgian province of East Flemish, claiming that Sylvain had caused him damage to his reputation, and on the morning of April 7, 2021, local time, Sylvan accepted questions from the local court.
Although whether it constitutes plagiarism and whether it constitutes reputational damage ultimately needs to be determined by law, Ye Yongqing's initial response from the "suspected plagiarism incident" to the argument that "he is trying to get in touch with this artist (Sylvain)" and "has a deep impact on him", and then close to disappearing, and then to counter-sue Sylvain for "reputation damage", is confusing.
In 2019, after belgian artist Silvain filed a lawsuit against Ye Yongqing for alleged plagiarism, artist Ye Yongqing initially responded from the "suspected plagiarism incident" that "he is trying to get in touch with this artist (Sylvain)" and "had a deep impact on him", but in the end did not respond. On October 13, 2020, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court issued an announcement at the People's Court that the trial would be held in public. It is worth noting that "service by public notice" is the service of litigation documents by means of public declaration, and the background is used when the whereabouts of the person to be served are unknown or cannot be served by other means.
In March, Ye Yongqing, who finally appeared, and his lawyer Chen Dingsheng filed a complaint stating: "Since February 2019, Sylvan has publicly accused Ye Yongqing of plagiarizing and reselling Sylvan's artworks through various media channels (newspapers, radio and television). Because this information was quickly translated into Chinese and English, it spread around the world. And claims that Ye Yongqing copied Sylvan's works for 25-39 years, earning millions of euros from them. ”
Ye Yongqing sued Sylvain for defamation and defamation infringement in the city of Kellersbergen and other parts of the Kingdom (Belgium) from September 2, 2019 to the present.
Belgian artist Christian Sylvain
Ye Yongqing
2019: "Ye Shuai" and Sylvain in the plagiarism sound
Looking back at this incident, before 2019, Ye Yongqing, born in 1958, was one of the representative figures of the "Southwest Art Group", a well-known curator, art activist, and professor of the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts. In 2018, Ye Yongqing held a solo exhibition "The Age of 1982-1992" at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai, showing his works from the 1980s to the 1990s, which was the first decade of his career as an artist, including a series of oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints and so on inspired by Impressionism, Cubism and natural landscapes. Among them, the "bird" element Ye Yongqing has been one of the important symbols in his works since 2000.
Left: Works by Belgian artist Silvain, 1989, right: works by Ye Yongqing
In February 2019, Sylvain told local Belgian media that he had discovered that Chinese artist Ye Yongqing had copied his 1980s creations and that the quality of the copies was not good. "Birds, bird nests, bird cages, red crosses, airplanes... Everything was there! It looks the same except for my name! ”
As for the alleged plagiarism, Ye Yongqing replied through the media: "We are trying to get in touch with this artist. He did not completely dismiss the connection with Sylvain and said that he had a deep impact on him. For how to explain the similarity of the two people's styles, Ye Yongqing did not respond for the time being.
Left: Works by Belgian artist Silvain, 1989 Right: Works by Ye Yongqing, 1995
Born in 1950 in Oypen, Belgium, Sylvan is a self-taught artist. Before 2019, his name was not known much Chinese, and from public information, in addition to several galleries in Belgium, Sylvain has held exhibitions in New York, Paris, France, cologne, germany, and participated in several art fairs in Europe and the United States, and the price of the works is about 6,000 euros. In contrast, Ye Yongqing's works were sold at auction for 600,000 euros.
Su Xianting, who had written articles for Ye Yongqing, in addition to apologizing, believed that Ye Yongqing's works were plagiarism and should be apologized for, and then the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, where Ye Yongqing had worked, also issued a statement ongoing verification. Sotheby's removed Ye Yongqing's upcoming "Bird", which was the first "leaf painting" to be removed, and "Leaf Painting" and himself have not appeared in public since.
Nearly a month after being accused of plagiarism, Ye Yongqing published an open letter claiming to have gone to Belgium, but did not see Sylvain. Sylvain, who accused him of plagiarism, publicly responded, confirming that "so far, I have not met with Ye Yongqing, nor have I communicated, nor have I received any contact from Ye Yongqing", and said that "I will not be bought by money".
Liu Yiqian, a Shanghai collector who spent tens of millions of yuan on Ye Yongqing's paintings, said after reading the open letter: "Not only did he not see guilt, but he also ignored the internal reasons why the public questioned him." He made it clear that he wanted to host an exhibition for Sylvain, hoping that the "plagiarized" works would be exhibited in the exhibition, so that the public could judge whether it was embezzlement or plagiarism. Liu Yiqian also revealed that the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, which has expressed "zero tolerance" for plagiarism, said that it was temporarily unable to contact "retired teacher Ye Yongqing" during the verification process.
However, the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts did not make further announcements after the official statements of "zero tolerance" and "verification". In fact, at this time, it has risen to the legal level. More than half a year later, Sylvan commissioned a Chinese lawyer to file a legal lawsuit involving plagiarism. At the same time, in November 2019, the "Memory 2019 - Sylvan Original Works Exhibition" was held in Shanghai, and the organizer was the newly established Shanghai Left and Right Art Museum (private), not the Long Art Museum, and Liu Yiqian no longer spoke out about it.
The scene of the Shanghai exhibition of Sylvan's works
However, a few days after the opening of the exhibition, Sylvain "protested" through social media: "Sylvain himself and the Foundation have received this exhibition plan, but neither he nor the Foundation have passed the relevant exhibition plan and finally participated in this exhibition, and for this "first exhibition" in Shanghai, Sylvan himself expressed regret and disappointment." ”
Ye Yongqing's work, Prophecy & Fragments
Sylvan works
In fact, if it were not for this exhibition, after April 2019, the public media would have rarely reported on the matter, and Sylvan's name would gradually be "forgotten". Many people also vaguely felt his change through the few statuses posted by Silvain on social media, and even thought that Sylvain was being used by some stakeholders in the country.
At that time, the "Convex/Concave: Belgian Contemporary Art Exhibition" was also being held at the Shanghai Oil Tank Art Center, which was displayed as a group portrait of Belgian contemporary art. In the exhibition, you can see 15 representative Belgian contemporary artists such as Francis Ellis, Harold Ancat, and Boymans, but there is no Sylvain.
2020 to date: Unaccounted for and indefinite delays
Time to 2020, in the face of the sudden new crown epidemic and the endless emergence of new social hotspots, ye Yongqing and Sylvan's names have gradually faded from the public eye. Ye Yongqing even gave people the feeling of being "invisible" in the human world, even if the court summons did not appear, but a photo circulating between the Internet made people see Ye Yongqing's "secluded life" in the Yunnan mansion seems to be good.
On April 14, 2020, after more than a year, the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts responded to the retired teacher Ye Yongqing's "temporary non-investigation", and in the face of Chuanmei's "inaction" Sylvain filed an administrative lawsuit at the Chongqing First Intermediate People's Court, asking the Chongqing Education Commission to supervise and organize Ye's academic misconduct and deal with the person in charge of the school's deliberate delay in the investigation accordingly. On November 12, 2020, the Chongqing Municipal First Intermediate People's Court accepted Sylvan v. Education Commission for adverse supervision.
Ye Yongqing has not responded to the "suspected plagiarism incident", although as early as 2019, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court accepted the "plaintiff Christian Sylvan v. defendant Ye Yongqing copyright infringement dispute case", but Ye Yongqing evaded receiving the litigation documents sent by the court. Even on October 13, 2020, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court issued a people's court announcement, it should be known that under normal circumstances, the service of the announcement is to serve the litigation documents by means of public declarations, and after a certain period of time prescribed by law, it is deemed to be served. In cases where the whereabouts of the person to be served are unknown or where service cannot be delivered by other means.
Announcement issued by the Beijing Intellectual Property Court at the People's Court
In other words, Ye Yongqing's status in 2020 was "unaccounted for", but by December last year, Ye Yongqing filed a "jurisdictional objection" at the Beijing Municipal Intellectual Property Court. The so-called "jurisdictional objection" simply means that "Lao Tzu now lives in Yunnan, and the courts in Beijing cannot control it", which can also be seen as Ye Yongqing's response to "the people's court announcement calling him to appear in court".
This also delayed the trial of the case again and again, but because Ye Yongqing's household registration was located in Beijing, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court rejected Ye Yongqing's jurisdictional objection. But on May 12 this year, Ye Yongqing once again appealed the jurisdictional objection ruling at the Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court. A "consuming" posture.
Unexpectedly, Ye Yongqing, who is nearly invisible at home, filed a complaint in the federal court of the Belgian province of East Flamão in March this year, claiming that Sylvain had caused him damage to his reputation. On the morning of April 7, 2021, Sylvain was cross-examined by the court. At this time, the "suspected plagiarism incident" is no longer beyond the scope of the "intellectual property law", but also needs the involvement of "international law".
However, whether it is the "defense" at home or the "attack" in Belgium, the word "delay" seems to be seen, and Ye Yongqing also changed from the initial response of the "suspected plagiarism incident" that "is trying to get in touch with the artist (Sylvain)" and "deeply affected him" to the counter-claim of "reputation damage".
Looking back at the more than 800 days of the whole incident, all parties took turns to appear on the stage, saw the process of artists being wrapped up and abandoned by capital, saw the vigilance of the contemporary art world such as "copying, appropriation, and copycat", and saw that artists continued to carry out repetitive productions in order to meet the needs of capital.
Perhaps in a way, the artist is passive. In the context of business, it is easy to be engulfed in power and capital and become less beautiful and pure.
(Note: According to a previous report by The Paper, some of the materials in this article are quoted from "the art of plagiarism.") ）
Editor-in-charge: Qian Xue'er
Proofreader: Luan Meng