The Carmen line is considered to be the dividing line between outer space and the Earth's atmosphere. Can human contemporary art break through the "Carmen line" and enter a new dimension? On November 5th, "Xu Bing: Art Carmen Line" opened at the Red Brick Art Museum, showing the artist Xu Bing's exploration of integrating his artistic ideas with aerospace technology.
On February 1, 2021, China's Jiuquan launched a rocket, the 6,025th space launch in the world, which was named "Xu Bingtianshu", the first rocket launched in the name of art. The arrow body of the "Xu Bingtian Book" is covered with "Heavenly Book", which is a "pseudo-script" in the form of Chinese characters but cannot be interpreted. According to the plan, these "pseudo-words" will show a new form of work in the reconstruction of natural forces such as firepower push, atmospheric friction, and arrow body fall as the rocket goes through the process of entering the sky and the earth.
The rocket failed after ignition and liftoff for technical reasons, but it produced a landscape different from the artist's original intention, for example, at the site of the fall site, a crater appeared, "If it is almost impossible to create such a 'crater' land art (work) by planned construction, but an ideal land art (work) appears." Xu Bing said.
A large number of design details of the "Xu Bingtian Book" and the huge arrow body of the "Xu Bingtian Book" falling back to the surface are exhibited at the exhibition site. Xu Bing believes that "this art rocket may just be an experiment and exercise for future space art, it is more like a transitional event." I hope it leaves a gene that waits and finds new soil to grow something different from the 'mother' that has never been seen before. ”
"In the early days of mankind's insoluble fear of 'heaven', our ancestors left a cultural imprint full of imagination, and crossed the 'art carmen line' with fantasy. In the face of the coming space age, people seem to have just changed their roles from the awe of God, aerospace science and technology workers have opened up the unremitting exploration of deep space, under the conditions of past achievements, artist Xu Bing has coincidentally become an explorer of space art, which has led to the artistic practice of 'Xu Bing: Art Carmen Line'. Curator Yan Shijie said. Academic host Wang Hui said, "The failure of the launch of xu bingtianshu is only one of the countless attempts of human beings to explore space, and the failure is not a stop, but rather a symbol of the endless efforts to advance into the unknown." ”
Xu Bing is an influential artist in the international contemporary art world and is widely regarded as an important conceptual artist in linguistics and semiotics today, and he has always expanded the boundaries of art with his breakthrough artistic creations. The exhibition also teases through the history of space art and will run until April 12, 2022.