Tourists dance on the harvested wheat field in Caijiapo Village, Enyi District, June 12. Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Yibo photographed Zhang Bin and Zhang Jian, reporters of this newspaper
This is a 5-year-long "art village construction".
In 2018, Wu Xiaochuan, a professor at the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts, led a group of experimental art students to Shijing Street, Enyi District, Xi'an City. At the foot of the Qinling Mountains, the rolling golden wheat fields become creative spaces, and wheat straw sculptures and installation art stand upright in the fields.
The villagers gathered and wondered, "What is art?" ”
In the past 5 years, fellow villagers, artist groups and local governments have worked together to explore, and symphonies, Qin cavities, and dramas have been performed one after another in the wheat fields; The sickle for cutting wheat, the corn cob that has been peeled, and the old jar of pickled sauerkraut are all photographed and displayed in the village's converted art museum; Art village chiefs, rural revitalization consultants, musicians, and tourists flock to the village, and the villages that are less popular are becoming more and more cheerful.
The inspiration from art allowed the local area to explore a high-quality development path for literature and art to empower rural revitalization, and also let the villagers gradually understand: "Cutting vegetables is art, cutting wheat is art, and life itself is art." ”
5 acres of wheat fields and a chance intervention
The first time he came to Caijiapo Village in Shijing Street, Wu Xiaochuan, a professor at the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts, fell in love with this village under the Zhongnan Mountain.
Caijiapo Village is built along the Qinling Mountains, with more than 1,000 households and nearly 4,000 people, and the leading industries are 1,100 mu of grapes and 600 mu of kiwi fruits. The villagers also grow wheat and corn.
"Leaning back on the Qinling Mountains, villages, wheat fields, and orchards dot them with a natural, pure sense of beauty." The teachers and students decided that "experimental art" would unfold in this village.
Compared with the well-known paintings, "experimental art" born in the early 20th century is more free, unique and abstract, with images, installations, photography, and action performances all belonging to it, and the viewing threshold is also high.
Teachers and students rented 5 acres of wheat fields and created a variety of works of art in the wheat fields. For example, the huge installation "Mai Ba" made of wheat straw and steel frame; A huge bird's nest made of branches and straw...
Everything is too strange, everything is too trendy. This "intervention" puzzled the villagers: "What are these 'outsiders' going to do?" ”
Teachers and students vaguely felt that something was wrong. They went to the villagers, and most of them said "I don't understand." It was originally expected that this kind of "local creation" could have a close emotional resonance with the villagers, but the overly artistic display was contrary to the way, but it gave rise to a sense of strangeness and alienation.
"You can't take care of yourself, you have to connect with everyone's daily life." Team members try to start with an art form that people love.
Some people have suggested that it is better to call it "Guanzhong Busy Art Festival". The so-called "busy" is the end of busyness. "Busy strike" is an ancient custom in the Guanzhong region of Shaanxi Province, after the summer harvest every year, taking advantage of the free time, the villagers visit relatives and friends and exchange production experience. However, with the increasing convenience of transportation and the continuous enrichment of material civilization, this tradition gradually faded.
The first performance was finalized. In the distance, the Qinling Mountains are the background; Nearby, teachers and students set up a 100-square-meter stage in the field after the wheat harvest, and the invited Qin Cavity Theater Troupe, aerobics team, and folk song group appeared in turn.
Qin sang into the hearts of the elderly, the young people hummed along with the tune of the folk songs, everyone felt funny, everything was harmonious, and everything became alive.
The long-lost noise has brought great shock to the local town and village cadres. The root of this touch is that at that time, including Caijiapo Village, many villages along the Qinling Mountains had just taken off the hat of poverty, but still lacked recognition and popularity, "as long as tourists step on the accelerator more, they will miss the intersection into the village." Even when Cai Jiapo is mentioned, many people will mistakenly associate it with the railway station a hundred kilometers away.
More importantly, because it is only more than 50 kilometers away from the main city of Xi'an, the "siphon effect" has gradually emptied the village, and some of the high-yield farmland that was once cherished has also been abandoned.
That year, the leased 5 acres of wheat field produced 3,000 kilograms of wheat, ground more than 1,000 bags of flour, and made more than 500 bottles of noodles. Wu Xiaochuan sells these "harvests" for free in art circles, hoping that "for every bottle of noodles issued, one more person will pay attention to the villages that produce these grains."
In the blink of an eye, the northwest wind blew across the Guanzhong Plain, the continuous Qinling Mountains and continuous wheat fields were covered with winter snow, and the villagers were also wrapped in thick cotton coats and rarely went out.
Everything seems to be calm, but a more systematic "art village construction" is brewing.
"What is art?" Cutting wheat is art! ”
The touch never ends.
In the spring of the following year, the town and village cadres took the initiative to find Wu Xiaochuan to discuss whether they could do it again.
"Come, come, come in a few days!" It seems to be some kind of tacit understanding, and the two sides hit it off.
Enyi originally has a rich cultural soil, here is known as "the hometown of modern Chinese folk painting", the peasant paintings created by the villagers are thick and simple, vivid and vivid, not only printed on stamps, but also exhibited in dozens of countries and regions, collected by many museums at home and abroad.
After continuous discussion and a series of feasibility demonstrations, the systematic "art rural construction" began. The three major sections of the Zhongnan Drama Festival, the Land Ecological Art Exhibition and the Community Art Space have become the main "rural construction" methods.
Perhaps because the heat of the party had not dissipated for a long time, when they heard that the village was going to continue to hold an "art festival", many villagers asked to join, the reason was simple and simple: "Last year, the village was obviously lively, there were many guests, and the grapes alone sold for thousands of yuan." ”
The exhibition required a venue, and by design, a waterlogged pond full of garbage next to the wheat field was to be transformed into the Zhongnan Theater. Some villagers volunteered to draw the design drawings; There are villagers responsible for line measurement; Another villager called a transport team, truck after cart after cart to transport the garbage, and then truck after cart to pull back the loess and fill the foundation.
"It started at 5 a.m. and was built in 20 days." This speed made Wu Xiaochuan feel incredible, "Looking back, the fellow villagers have personally transformed the waterlogged pond full of stench into a beautiful outdoor theater, which is full of symbolic meaning in itself." ”
The village also held a press conference for the first time in the world. The press conference was held on the stage built by the villagers themselves, and the villagers took to the stage to recite their own poems, which were solemn and grounded.
"Take a leisurely step, take a turn at the Wheat Field Theater; Blowing a cool breeze to watch the show, praising and applauding the hands; Emotionally wiped away tears, excited to go crazy..." Wang Yan, 70, was once the secretary of the party branch in the village, and he was the first to take the stage, and the higher his voice became, and the villagers also applauded excitedly.
In 2019, Caijiapo Village carried out more than 60 cultural and artistic projects of various kinds, and 22 (groups) of domestic artists created more than 40 works of land art, community art, and video art, and these large-scale immersive art exhibitions born in the field attracted tens of thousands of visitors.
There are also some villagers who have volunteered to find artists who want to participate in the creation. "You will find that they are skillful and meticulous, and sometimes they build art installations and carve words much better than we do." The artists said.
The villagers' acceptance is constantly increasing, and their enthusiasm for art is infinitely stimulated.
The students took pictures of the villagers laughing with joy after the harvest, and then made a tall knife flag and planted it in the wheat field. Under the clear sky of Zhanzhan, the villagers looked at their huge portraits echoing with Qin Ling, and suddenly understood the connotation of this art exhibition: "What is art?" Cutting wheat is art, and we are the masters of the wheat field, part of art. ”
As a rule, these huge photographs and art installations are demolished after the exhibition, but the villagers approached the artist team and hoped to keep some. "Because seeing these works reminds us that this is the art we have done together and the contribution we have made to the village." Villager Sheng Yangdi said.
This year, there were also careful photographers who took a group photo of the villagers of the five groups of Caijiapo Village. In the photo, children crouch ahead, old people sit in the middle, and young adults stand in the back row in the background, with the village road stretching out into the distance.
It's a top-down photo of almost everyone smiling and looking up at the top, eyes firm and hopeful.
Art gives a bowl of noodles a sense of beauty
From bystanders, participation, and then continuous integration, "art rural construction" has gradually taken root in Caijiapo.
In 2021, Li Hua, then the mayor of Enyi District, led a team to find Wu Xiaochuan to discuss further expanding the practice radius of "art rural construction" and enhancing the artistic energy of the countryside.
"We have rich natural resources and rich cultural endowments in our local area, and after completing the poverty alleviation, we have always hoped to further transform these resources so that our fellow villagers can drink a cup of coffee under the Qinling Mountains, listen to a concert in the wheat field, and live a quality life." Li Hua, who is now the secretary of the Enyi District CPC Committee, said.
Caijiapo Village is indeed more eye-catching. At the mouth of the village, the seven characters of "Guanzhong Busy Strike Art Festival" stand steadily beside the road; Inside the village, the walls are painted with happy smiling faces of the villagers; The village's remodeled art gallery welcomes waves of visitors.
Open the exhibition manual of the "Busy Art Festival", from May to October, a variety of art exhibitions and cultural events will continue to be staged.
On summer nights, the red carpet has been laid out in the harvested wheat fields, the artists in dresses are ready, and a symphony concert in the wheat fields begins. Under the stage, there are villagers from nearby villages who come on bicycles, as well as art lovers who drive more than an hour from the city.
There are obviously not enough seats, but this does not affect the pleasure of watching. Mountain winds blow from the Qinling Mountains to drive away the heat; In the ear, the tune is sometimes exciting, sometimes soothing.
Possibilities in the wheat fields are constantly being tapped. Guanzhong people like pasta, and "eating noodles" has also become an artistic display. On the wheat field, the long table is set up, and the newly harvested wheat is ground into flour, and then it is rolled and turned into a bowl of fragrant noodles. The stars are shining, the surrounding is lit with fireworks, and "a bowl of noodles has a ritual and a sense of beauty."
Each art exhibition and performance is closer to the fellow villagers, and more opportunities for development are also generated. Whenever the village organizes cultural and artistic exhibitions, Chen Meng, a 60-year-old villager, always keenly prepares more meals. He has been running the farm for 10 years, and in those two years, his business has become more prosperous, and he attributes it to the growing cultural and artistic activities in the village.
"From the income of 30,000 to 50,000 yuan in the past year to the current annual income of more than 200,000 yuan, the continuous activities have brought tangible benefits, and the business of 18 farmhouses in the village is very good." Chen Meng said, "In the past, the kiwi fruit planted had to be sold for two yuan per kilogram, and now 4 yuan per kilogram should be booked in advance." ”
Wang Yan, a 70-year-old villager in Caijiapo Village, feels that saying goodbye to a rough life, the influence of art is bringing greater internal driving force to the villagers.
"In the past, the villagers worked in the field in the morning to wear a dress, and when they came home, they still wore this dress, and no one would pay attention to the mud on the legs of their pants; Now it's different, after returning home from the field, everyone rushes to wash and change into clean clothes, how can the people in the art village be dirty! Wang Yan said, "This change is not dependent on the external coercive forces of 'red and black list' and criticism and education, but is gradually shaped in the atmosphere of culture and art, which is a change from the heart." ”
This year, under the leadership of the local government, Liyuanpo Village, Xiazhuang Village and Liyukou Village in Enyi District have gradually begun to explore their own cultural and artistic characteristics and enrich the cultural tourism industry.
What exactly art brings to the village
If this rural revitalization practice from the most grassroots is regarded as a sample of a fieldwork, the tacit interaction from fellow villagers, artist groups and the local government is the most impressive.
Over the past 5 years, each party who has been deeply involved in it has been harvesting continuously.
"The biggest change is actually the improvement of confidence, the industry has confidence, and life has confidence." Chen Meng said.
Last year, the per capita income of Caijiapo Village exceeded 17,000 yuan, and in August of the same year, Caijiapo was selected into the "Third Batch of National Rural Tourism Key Villages List".
Entering the countryside, observing the countryside, and participating in the countryside, Wu Xiaochuan is also constantly completing his artistic value turn.
"In the past two years, many people have asked me, what can art really bring to the village?" This question has rarely been asked before, and after years of practice, Wu Xiaochuan's answer has gradually become clear: "Art is not only the art of auctions and art museums, it also contains deep concern for the current social transformation, and the countryside is an important scene of transformation, we need to be present to explore new possibilities in this broad field, and use art to promote new social power." ”
At the end of the South Mountain, this unfinished exploration continues...
Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph