Screenshot on Weibo on April 26
Hello, please retract the expressive empathy
Text/Sun Ce
A few days ago, I looked through the circle of friends and found a performance art live show. Click to learn that it is a member of the band New Pants who broadcast the performance art of eating, drinking and sleeping for 14 days at a gallery in Beijing. The "14 days" of these two years already had a specific meaning, so I understood what the general meaning was. I think back to the last time I had a bird flu, an artist performed a chicken show in a gallery or the last time. As a painter (some describe it as the right wing of the artists), I have always been very concerned about the physical experience in this kind of art, and in order to avoid my own prejudices, I did not comment on it after the cynicism of the circle of friends.
Screenshot at 12:29 a.m. on April 26
Yesterday a friend sent a related comment, I think it is better to nag a few words.
First of all, I don't think this work should be seen by the quality of art. Especially at this special time. What does it mean that "writing poetry after Auschwitz was cruel"? There was a big disaster before, and a friend would like to beat his heart out and say, Oh, how cruel! But it's good for you artists, you can paint it! Just a good piece of work! Whenever I suffer this kind of treatment, I will laugh awkwardly, and then scold in my heart, you are sick!
There is a joke in detective Conan that Conan has seen too much and does not understand where Conan went to solve the case or where conan committed the crime? The best way to eliminate the crimes of the Conan universe is to eliminate Conan.
What is the meaning of suffering? This is a heavy question. But the meaning of suffering must not be to produce a fucking work of art. If that's the case, I'd rather not have a work of art than suffering. If this suffering is someone else's suffering, it is really more hateful.
So take suffering as a subject, be careful. For this is not just a question of beauty and ugliness but a question of good and evil. Don't try to give meaning to suffering, suffering itself has no meaning, it is an abyss of meaning.
Picture source A curator/critic circle of friends
The source of the picture is the circle of friends of the person in charge of a space
Performative empathy
The basis for manifestation of suffering (though I hate the word performance) is empathy.
Compassion, the art of conscience is a true empathy, that is, when you see others hurt, you will also hurt yourself. When you see others being treated unfairly, you feel as if you are being violated. True empathy is tinnitus after the pain, shock, licking of the wound. True empathy is a natural reflection of human beings, a conscience without consideration, a feeling of fragility in life, a sense of human humility.
Some people may say that this is too fragile, right?
Yes, isn't fragility the truth of life? And I think it's only this fragility that can give rise to compassion, love, and all the best human emotions, doesn't it?
Look back at this performance art, the square white high platform, the chic reading chair, the neatly arranged mineral water and red wine. Popular pale sense of performance art form.
The separation of mother and child in special circumstances, the fear of marriage for hunger and death, the fear of stripping to an uncertain place, the fear of incurable illness are squeezed out by the minimalist aesthetic style of post-minimalism.
As for courage! I don't find it more courageous and risky than the Big-Eyed article.
Graph source network
As for triggering thought, it does not provoke more thinking than reality; or it does not provoke any real thinking, but rather conceals real thinking with a false sense of ritual.
I was very impressed by a Q&A before, to the effect of how artists should react after facing a major disaster. One answer is this: Grieve like a human, cry like a human. Then (don't expect this then) to think like a human being.
Paul Celan (1920–1970) German-speaking Jewish poet