After four years, after experiencing the epidemic, the "100% - The Second East Lake International Ecological Sculpture Biennale" opened in Wuhan, the exhibition with the theme of "ecology", highlighting the forward-looking and important thinking, especially in Wuhan, making this thinking and presentation more meaningful; on the other hand, the concept of "ecological sculpture" was proposed and established, which also provided a new direction and possibility for artistic development, especially when cbD COP15 was held in China, "ecological civilization" Construction has become a national strategy, the focus of the world, but also provides an opportunity for the development of "ecological sculpture" or ecological art, which may be an opportunity for Chinese art to participate in the competition of world art, and more importantly, the presentation of artistic "diversity", just like "biodiversity", only diversified our world will be colorful.
2nd "Eco-Sculpture" Biennale: Presenting the "Diversity" of Art
On October 17, 2021, "100% - The Second East Lake International Ecological Sculpture Biennale", the exhibition was curated by Sun Zhenhua, Lu Hong and Ji Shaofeng were academic hosts, and Fu Zhongwang was appointed as the artistic director, showing 50 works, of which 23 works were exhibited in Shimenfeng Memorial Park, and 27 works were exhibited in Zhimei Space of Creative World, through these works we can understand what "ecological sculpture" is, and more importantly, present the diversity and frontier state of today's art.
Wang Huangsheng", "The Voice of Cuteness"
At the exhibition site, we can see that the form of the work is very rich and diverse, and unlike the regular "public art" exhibition, there are many new media works or works created by scientific and technological means, such as the artist Wang Huangsheng's "The Sound of Cuteness", with "red beans" as the creative shape and image, implying the meaning of life of lovesickness, nostalgia and emotion. The enlarged "red beans" can be provided to the public to sit and rest on the open lawn, and the public can listen to the budding sound from the inside of the "red beans" during the break, a wonderful sound of plant life germinating in the depths of the soil.
Zheng Da, "The Luster of Unknown Time and Space"
Zhang Shenghua "Smell the Wind"
Tang Xiao's "Picking Sounds"
Tang Xiao's "Sound" as a sound installation work, the use of sound to do creation, people not only look at art, but also listen to art; Zhang Shenghua's dynamic installation; Zheng Da's "The Luster of Unknown Time and Space"; Yu Jia and Wang Shenghua's pneumatic installation "Tide", etc., using different technical means, bringing rich possibilities to ecological art.
Fei Jun's "Water Day"
Artist Fei Jun's "Water Day" is an interactive installation that combines AI artificial intelligence technology, and participants can "talk" to water through intimate voice input, and water will respond in its native language. The work expresses the animistic view of nature by presenting the spirituality of water.
Zheng Jing's "Water Book"
Zheng Jing's "Water Book" cleverly uses the fluid characteristics of water and the principle of siphoning, through carefully designed underwater program control devices to make the water surface appear to sink the water character, as if an invisible magic pen on the water surface of the book "life" two words, into the night, the text shape of the interior of the underwater lamp will illuminate the container, the water surface appears luminous calligraphy pattern. And through the program control, the work appears from time to time in the entire water landscape, borrowing the special expression of water and communicating with emotions, poetically guiding people to find the meaning of life.
He Liping's Granite 2
There are also many works created in the exhibition, such as artist He Liping's "Granite 2", which uses red granite as a material design to make a parasol base, and writes a poem about the oil of life on each base; the artist exchanges the finished granite base with the cement pier base used by Wuhan vendors, and engraves their original place of use, category and use time on the cement pier base that was exchanged; at the same time, the production of the entire granite base communicates with its original owner. The process of the exchange, and the finished form of the final work, is fully documented with images; the design of the granite base, the cement pier that was exchanged, the process of the exchange, and the documentary about the whole event constitute this work.
Artist Hu Quanchun", "The Disappearing House"
Artist Hu Quanchun's "Disappearing House" uses discarded steel bars to weld out the state of growth of climbing tiger vines, and uses it as a spatial construction language to create the intention of "house", "house" as a metaphor for the former residence of the homeland, is the carrier of memory and emotion. When the climbing tiger is planted again, as the climbing tiger continues to grow and flourish, the image and memory of the old house will become clearer and clearer. One year old and one withered, this group of works will also show different states in the seasonal changes of the year, constantly triggering people's perception of time and life!
Chen Qi, "Vegetative Human BrainWave Project"
Of course, there are also many highly interactive works, such as Chen Qi's "Vegetative BrainWave Project", born in 1994, she is also one of the youngest artists participating in this exhibition, and her works are presented in zhi art museum in this exhibition, which is a functional art work aimed at art healing, which has received support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Neurosurgery Department of the Army General Hospital, combining new media art, computer science, brain-computer interaction, medicine, etc. In May 2019, in the coma and impaired consciousness ward of the Army General Hospital, the patient was tested, and the audience could see their brainwave activity trajectory through the device at the scene.
The youngest artist in this exhibition is Wang Ran, born in 1995, who presents her work "Leap reading" and writes calligraphy on ice, which is also one of the highlights of this exhibition, that is, the unremitting support for young people.
"No one has ever stipulated that art can only be this way, not like that. Whether it is for artists or audiences, how big the heart is, how big the territory of art is, and good art always points to the future. Sun Zhenhua said.
Fu Zhongwang, art director of the exhibition, also said that ecology is actually to emphasize the diversity of organisms, the diversity of plants, and art is also like this, there must be a variety of expressions, so he believes that ecology is not only natural ecology, humanistic ecology, social ecology, as an ecological sculpture biennial, to follow the balance of nature and human ecology.
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The origin of "ecological sculpture"
Seeing this, you may have a certain understanding of what "ecological sculpture" is, but how the concept of "ecological sculpture" was proposed dates back to an exhibition in 2014.
In November 2014, the "Ecology - Jinjiang Wetland Public Sculpture Exhibition" opened in Chengdu, the exhibition was curated by Sun Zhenhua, with the theme of "ecology", invited more than 30 well-known sculptors from home and abroad, including Fu Zhongwang, to define sculpture art in a new way.
Fu Zhongwang", "A Hundred Flowers Blooming"
Deng Le's "All the Way to the Landscape. Sublimation》
Zhu Shangxi, "Forms of Life" / "Fragment Art Museum"
The exhibited works use ordinary materials and are also integrated into the surrounding wetland landscape in a low-key and organic way as possible, such as huge light bulbs welded with steel pipes, bamboo vessels like bird's nests hanging from tree trunks, local houses with round holes around the body, elegant branches spliced together from waste electronic parts, artificial pebbles that are polished and "restored" with building material waste, and so on. Every piece has an unexpected creativity.
Three years later, in 2017, Sun Zhenhua planned the first East Lake International Ecological Sculpture Exhibition at a "27-degree angle" in Wuhan, and for the first time explicitly put forward the concept of "ecological sculpture", at that time Sun Zhenhua said that the East Lake International Ecological Sculpture Biennale is an exhibition dedicated to promoting artistic change. At the same time, "the theme of the 27-degree angle provides us with an opportunity to rethink the relationship between man and nature from the perspective of man and in the form of ecological sculpture; to rethink the relationship between art and ecology." ”
Sun Shaoqun's "Reverse Growth"
Luo Xiaoping", "Consummation"
Ge Pingwei's "Homeland"
Lu Zhengyuan "Keep Smiling"
Works by Zhi Min
From the current point of view, the holding of this exhibition is undoubtedly very forward-looking, especially after wuhan experienced the epidemic, the reflection and discussion from the perspective of "ecology" is even more precious.
Therefore, this also strengthens the determination and confidence of the exhibition team to do a better job in the brand exhibition of "ecological sculpture", so the theme of the second East Lake International Ecological Sculpture Exhibition is set as "100%". In explaining this theme, Sun Zhenhua said: "100% of the way" is first of all an attitude and a determination; it expresses the attitude of the Ecological Sculpture Biennale to spare no effort to promote ecological civilization and innovatively lead ecological art in China. "100%" is still a perspective, is a vision; it advocates a comprehensive ecological perspective, emphasizing ecological awareness, ecological care, ecological behavior, and ecological aesthetics; "100%" is also the medium of ecological art and a means of ecological aesthetic expression; the exhibition advocates ecological expression in an all-media way. "100 percent" ends with an ideal and a desire; it expresses the ideal of social mobilization, the desire for broad public participation.
If the initial discussion of "ecology" was based on the presentation of the development law of art itself and the discussion of new directions, then today, the re-discussion of "ecology" is not just a matter of art.
What is Eco Sculpture?
So, what exactly is "ecological sculpture"? How do we understand that?
Sun Zhenhua said that the so-called "ecology" is the state of living organisms. Here, ecology is not only natural ecology, "nature is the inorganic body of man", nature has always been closely related to humanities and art; at the same time, human survival, human society as a living organism, itself has its own ecological problems. Therefore, "ecology" includes natural ecology, human ecology and social ecology.
The "sculpture" mentioned here is no longer a narrow concept of art taxonomy, it is an expanded concept of art, it is a new behavior and process of post-industrial society accompanied by the construction of contemporary ecological civilization, with ecological philosophy as the main purpose, ecological aesthetics as the method, ecological art as the means, and ecological matter as the material to re-understand life, create art, and shape society.
Li Zhanyang,"Eating Rice"
Zhang Wei "Lake"
Yi Chao, "Animals Seen Backwards"
Xu Yibo "One"
Therefore, "ecological sculpture" has no established schema, no fixed form, and no unchanging scope; it is more of a position and attitude, a vision and method, and a posture of exploration.
Sun Zhenhua also said that "ecological sculpture" means that for artists, they regard all things as an organic whole, have an attitude of respect and awe for all life, listen to the sound of the earth, and perceive the nature of all things. Through his own works, he enhances people's understanding and perception of the state of life of all things in the world; resists and criticizes those acts and phenomena that violate and harm life; always maintains the sensitivity and conscience of an artist, and maintains his own sensitivity, imagination and compassion.
"Ecological sculpture" is a call for participation for the audience. From now on, try to look at art in a different way, experience the world in a different mood, and experience life in a different way. The sky, gas, water, grass, trees, and flowers can all become the carriers of art; of course, discards, waste, and garbage can also be regenerated in the name of art, and can be re-added to the cycle of life. In this exhibition, some of the virtual images and digital landscapes created with the help of new media technology are undoubtedly ecological, and they replace the existence of traditional art with the virtual reality of immaterial entities, indicating the possibility of the most dynamic and imaginative art existence in the future era.
Fang Yang", "Wrapped Life"
Jing Xiaolei "Wangyue"
Wanlichi "Dependence"
"Ecological sculpture": an art that points to the future
At the same time as the opening of the exhibition, a seminar was held at the event, and Yin Shuangxi, as an expert attending the meeting, said that his understanding of "ecological sculpture" is to return to the original origin of art, the relationship between man and nature.
"After COVID-19, we are becoming more and more aware of how important it is to coexist with nature and the environment. So, today's public sculpture, no matter what material is used, we have to turn our eyes and emotions to nature, to the earth and the sky. Because in the past, art, especially sculpture, paid more attention to the relationship between people themselves and people and society, and art expressed more the relationship between people to survive, and ignored the relationship between people as a whole and nature. I personally believe that ecology should become a general guide for the development of Chinese sculpture. Yin Shuangxi said.
Art critic Wang Chunchen also said that "ecological sculpture" should be a new direction or new concept for the development of our art today.
Seminar site
Academic host Ji Shaofeng
Curator Sun Zhenhua
What is "ecological sculpture", we can't say it clearly at once, this is an open proposition, it involves more than just the problem of art, from this point, we have expanded our thinking about the overall situation of today's world.
He also suggested that when we discuss "ecological sculpture", we can not focus on the perspective within the discipline, philosophy, theology, naturalism, etc., if they can be included, it will make the connotation of this theme more abundant, because when viewing the works presented in the exhibition, the visual and connotation is more of a public art feeling, for the public, the ideas we advocate are still difficult to understand, so in the future planning, so that the public can participate in or even appreciate the topics we discuss. Crucial.
"How to develop ecological sculpture is an open proposition, and artists always have to think about the most pressing issues of the moment in creation, and at the same time, to transcend form and even art, artists are to develop in the direction of transcendence." Wang Chunchen said.
Artistic Director Fu Zhongwang
Artist representative Fei Jun
Sichuan University School of Art Doctoral Supervisor Peng Wei in recent years pay special attention to ecological art, she said that since the 1990s, with the process of industrialization and urbanization, ecology has become more and more the focus of people's attention, but there are not many sculpture exhibitions with ecological consciousness as the theme, so the holding of this exhibition has broken through a lot of limitations and filled some gaps, which also makes ecological art a very important trend of thought at present, becoming a theoretical term, especially in the era of globalization, the visual cultural phenomenon of cultural exchange between the East and the West.
In the development of ecological sculpture, there have been a variety of visual themes, such as criticizing environmental alienation, overcoming the desire for unlimited development, and the relationship between natural harmony, in which how we analyze and display the discursive forms presented by ecological sculpture to look at these works has very good theoretical value for us to understand the relationship between today's visual culture, cultural thought and creation, especially the history of contemporary art.
【Conclusion】 Diversity should be the background color of this world, and only diversity is interesting whether it is the world we live in or life itself, so is art, if you can only appreciate oil painting or sculpture, it will be a boring art world, this exhibition allows us to see the diversity of art, even like air, sound and other invisible natural elements can become the material of artistic creation, greatly enriching people's imagination, stimulating people's creativity, this is what art should look like, It's also what people need art to look like.
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