Curated by Mathieu Borysevicz & Steven Harris
m97 Gallery Shanghai is pleased to present "EXQUISITE CORPSE: China Surreal", a dynamic group exhibition of photographic works by BAI Yiluo, CHEN Wei, DONG Wensheng, FANG Er, HAN Lei, HONG Lei, JIANG Zhi, LIU Ren, LI Wei, LU Jun, MA Liang, MAO Yu, MENG Jin, SHENG Qi, SUN Ji, YANG Yi, YU Ji, WANG Ningde, ZENG Han, and ZHANG Dali. Co-curated by Mathieu Borysevicz and m97 Gallery, this exhibition uses the Surrealists’ game of Exquisite Corpse as a means to explore the collective subconscious of contemporary Chinese artists through the medium of photography. Twenty emerging and established artists present uncanny images arranged in a delicately composed sequence of non-sequiturs that reveal the surreality of today’s China.
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“Poetry must be made by all and not by one." - Comte de Lautréamont
The Exquisite Corpse game began in France in 1925 around a table of poets and artists. In this improvisational game a player would write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold the paper to cover part of it, and pass it on to the next player for their contribution. “The exquisite/corpse/will drink/the young/wine” was the poetic result of the first round played and hence the game’s name was born. While many initially condemned it as a frivolous game, others were quick to praise its significance for illuminating what Nicolas Calas deemed as the "unconscious reality in the personality of the group" or the group’s collective subconscious. Max Ernst identified these subconscious outcomes as the result of the process called "mental contagion." The game was quickly adapted to the visual realm of drawing and collage by assigning a section of the human body for each player to imagine.
In the exhibition "EXQUISITE CORPSE: China Surreal,” an eclectic array of work by artists of different generations and backgrounds expose the “mental contagion” in today’s China, whereby culture, tradition, the body and imagination have all been jarred by rapid social transformation. Drawing from China’s shared grab bag of surrealistic inspiration, artists have produced works that unintentionally inform, influence and question one another’s. Each work in this exhibition is linked to the next by visual or conceptual themes, sometimes subtle, sometimes explicit, to produce one communal Exquisite Corpse. It is a succession of cryptic insights that only China’s present reality could have shaped and which, in the end, yields only more enigmas.
Artists, Dong Wensheng, Han Lei, Hong Lei, Lu Jun and Wang Ningde construct neurotic testimonies to the growing sense of historical amnesia and individual alienation in today’s society. Through Han Lei’s alarming portraits of rural stage actors, Hong Lei’s digital montages that mix cultural myth with political myth, and Wang Ningde’s disturbing film-still narratives, we see that the past is still in front of us, waiting to be contended with. This sense of historical amnesia is also evident in works that deal with China’s continually morphing constructed environment. Urban transformation becomes the metaphorical crux in the work of artists Zhang Dali, Fang Er, Yang Yi, Meng Jin and Li Wei. While Li Wei and Zhang Dali’s works are documents of actual urban interventions, Meng Jin, Fang Er, and Sun Ji reconstruct fictional spaces from existing ones; artists Liu Ren, Ma Liang, and Yang Yi use the city as a stage for their own fantasies to play out. As in the Exquisite Corpse’s original visual adaptation, the human figure in this exhibition is also a means to explore the substratum of corporeal existence. Bai Yiluo, Sheng Qi, Mao Yu, Yu Ji, and Zeng Han all posit the figure at the intersections of nature, myth and imagination to produce results that are violent, disturbing and mesmerizing.
Exquisite Corpse: China Surreal brings together twenty artists that represent the vanguard of artistic production in China today to explore the imaginary possibilities of a collective subconscious.
For additional photos, interviews or other media queries, please contact m97 Gallery at: info@m97gallery.com or by phone: (+8621) 6266.1597. Tuesday-Sunday 11am-7pm (Monday by appointment only).
上海m97画廊很荣幸举办《精致的尸体：超现实中国》展，这是一次充满活力的摄影作品群展，参展二十位艺术家包括白宜洛、陈维，董文胜、方二、韩磊、洪磊、蒋志、刘韧、陆军，李伟、马良，毛宇，孟瑾、盛奇、孙骥，余极、王宁德、杨怡, 曾翰，和 张大力。本次展览由马修与m97画廊共同策展，利用超现实主义者的《精致的尸体》游戏，通过摄影这一媒介，探索中国当代艺术家们的集体潜意识。二十位新涌现的以及已成名的艺术家展示了出奇的影像，用一种不合逻辑的巧妙编排顺序来排列，揭示出当代中国的超现实性。
“诗必须是由所有人创造出来的，而不是由一个人”——洛特雷阿蒙
1925年，《 精致的尸体 》游戏开始在法国的一群诗人和艺术家中间出现。在这个即兴游戏当中，一个参加游戏的人在纸上写下一个短语，将纸折起来，遮盖住这个短语，然后把纸传给下一位参加游戏的人。第一轮过后，有了这样一句诗：“精致的尸体将要喝新葡萄酒”（The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine），从此游戏就以该句的主语命名了。尽管很多人已开始谴责这是一个无聊的游戏，但是一些人很快就盛赞其意义，充分阐释了尼古拉·卡拉斯所谓“群体个性之中的无意识现实”或者群体的集体潜意识。马科斯·恩斯特（Max Ernst）确定这些潜意识的结果是一种称作“心理感染”的过程形成的结果。这个游戏很快便适用于绘画和拼贴的视觉领域，用人体局部的图片让每一位参加游戏的人来想象。
在《精致的尸体：超现实中国》展中，精选出的不同时代、不同背景的艺术家们的一批作品，充分揭示了当代中国的“心理感染”，文化、传统、身体和想象力都已经受到社会飞速变革的震撼。从中国林林总总的超现实主义灵感出发，艺术家们创作了无意对别人作品予以鼓励、影响和质疑的作品。展览中的每幅作品在视觉或观念主题方面都同接下来的作品有联系，有时候是难以觉察的，有时则是显而易见的，共同构成了一个共有的“精致的尸体”。这是一连串只有当今中国才能造就的隐秘的洞察，最终只会变得更加不可思议。
艺术家董文胜、韩磊、洪磊、和王宁德构架了对于越加强烈的历史健忘症和个人在当今社会中疏离孤立的感觉近乎神经质的见证。通过韩磊令人震惊的乡村剧团演员肖像、洪磊将文化神话同政治神话融合在一起的数字蒙太奇以及王宁德令人烦扰的电影画面叙事，我们看到了过去仍然在我们眼前，等待着我们去面对。这种历史健忘症的感觉在其它着眼于中国不断变异的建设环境的作品中也是非常明显的。都市的变革在艺术家张大力、方二、杨怡、孟瑾，李伟，陆军和孙骥的作品中成为隐喻的要点所在。尽管李伟和张大力的作品都记录了真实的对都市的干预，而孟瑾，方二，陈维，陆军和孙骥则从现存的空间当中重建了虚构的空间；艺术家刘韧，杨怡和马良则利用城市当作他们自己的幻想上演的舞台。就像在《精致的尸体》最初的视觉改造中一样，本次展览中的人物形象也成为一种探索物质存在根本的手段。白宜洛、盛奇、毛宇、余极和曾翰都将人物定位在自然、神话和想象的交叉点上，创造出暴力、令人烦扰和令人迷惑的效果。
《精致的尸体：超现实中国》集中了二十位代表最前卫中国当代艺术家，而同时在探索一种集体潜意识想象的可能性。
额外的照片、访谈或媒体其它方面需要，请洽m97画廊：info@m97gallery.com 或电话： (+8621) 6266.1597. 星期二至星期日，上午11时至晚上6时（星期一仅接待预约）。
