存在于未来的现实
文／冯博一
译／柯瑾艺
旅德艺术家袁顺的系列作品，以装置、照片、影像、草图等不同的媒介方式为我们提供和展示了一个虚拟的景观。在他利用喷雾的烟气所笼罩的“景观”中，包括了对太空的、自然的、城市的、人文的种种想象，在“无形”与“有形”、“虚”与“实”的装置结构中，仿佛使观者融入到一个日益虚幻的境地。在我看来，这种虚幻正应合着中国人的某种欲望和对未来的憧憬。
今天的中国，城市似乎是一个从未来“借来”的城市。几乎到中国所有城市去的时候，都会发现城市的未来规划导引你指点江山。许多尚未建成的城市和象征性的地标在规划中变成了比真实的城市空间更真实的梦想，虽然是虚拟的，却又是一个实在的东西，对应着中国高速发展的趋势。这些城市的景观比我们具体地生活在其中的城市更像城市。这个城市无比的光洁，通透，没有任何一点混乱，具有高度的合理性。它让我们看到的似乎是一种奇怪的“未来主义”，它漏掉了现实城市的混杂、逼真的那种现实，而是找到了一个在他头脑中存在的虚拟的城市。这个城市在我们的心中毫无疑问比今天的我们身边的这个有诸多问题、不便和挑战的城市更加真实，它以另外的方式展现了另外一面的真实，比真实更加真实的真实。这好像正是电影《黑客帝国》的反面，《黑客帝国》里的人们对于电脑中的虚拟的世界有了疑惧，宁愿历经千辛万苦回到“真实的废墟”，但我们却需要虚拟的世界来帮助我们超越当下。而袁顺作品的现实针对性恰好在于它可以唤醒我们对于现实超越性的观察。因为中国的城市现在感到它的过去和现在还不足以象征它的现实，只有借助未来作为今天的现实。这未来现在变成了中国每个城市的象征。中国的创造性毁灭的热忱前所未有地高涨，急于在现实的空间加上一个属于未来的象征性的空间。这种热情来自于一个新的中国梦的生成和展开。这个中国梦不再仅仅是中国的百年强国梦的延续，而且是新的梦想的展开。这个梦想是个人寻找成功的机会，以自己的能力创造自己的未来的梦想。这个梦想只能是未来性的，于是，城市在虚拟的维度上建构自身就是不可避免的。
袁顺出国前在中国的生存经验与记忆，以及他旅居德国的十几年经历，显示了他在跨出了对似真性的追求之后，在一个新的语境中自由穿越的能力，凸现了一种对现实的无奈和无法把握的的无限冲突之中。“软着陆”作品系列的有趣之处在于它是以袁顺的经验、记忆、想象等心理和感情的节奏来处理时空关系，通过营造的展开提供给我们关于个人命运和生存空间的表现。在这里，具像的山峦、虚拟的道路、建筑的起伏跌宕不是点缀和装饰，而是其中的关键的线索。城市或城市化进程对我们与其说是一个场景，不如说是一种隐喻的显现。熟悉的街道、熟悉的历史、熟悉的生活细节和个人的成长环境，作为珍贵的个体经验和地域文化的记忆，在文化全球化如稗草生长的时代里，有意无意地成为人们保有“本真”、抗拒 “格式化”的重要资源，以及安全感的根柢。袁顺的作品不仅告诉了人们发生了怎样的事实，而且勾勒出历史与现实与未来的对比，以及背后的因果关系。我们可以强烈地感受到作品片刻瞬间所传达的意象：未来存在于现实的展开之中，现实存在于未来的承诺之中。于是现实和未来的混淆正是问题的关键所在。袁顺所表达的意义不仅在于用一种新的视觉观念和手段表现一个虚拟的城市，还在于为他心中的城市记录了精神的历史和情感的历史，以及处在难于名状的“ 城市化混响”之中特殊的感悟与营造。
生存空间的尴尬似乎是在夹缝中遭受生存与精神挤压的都市人，很难寻觅到真正活着的姿态和精神的栖息地。在这里，袁顺是一个城市的另类，他的敏感和积淀的独特的城市经验，他的反思、游戏化的幽默方式等等都是值得关注的。也许正因为如此，他作品的戏剧化效果使他的虚拟景观建立在这两个价值的确立之上。于是，我们看到了浮现在眼前的场景。它代表了一种前所未有的向前的冲力，代表了一种新的精神和冲动。它其实是每个个体寻找自己的成功，每个人为改变自己的生活而进行的努力。这里当然存在问题，从未来借来的时间可能让我们忘掉我们的历史记忆，也可能让我们忘掉真实的生活着的人们。但是，我们在召唤未来的时候也同样需要今天和过去。中国发展的这股冲力其实是这个国家和民族从未有过的，我们必须珍视这股冲力，我们也应该珍视中国人迸发的这股热情。没有这股热情和这股冲力，我们就不会有未来。而袁顺的作品对于当下和昨天以及未来，提供了最为敏锐的观察和思考，对中国的变化提供了一个有趣而独特的艺术想像和转换。[ [ ] ]
2007年3月
北京
Living in the Future’s Reality
Translation/Fiona He
German-based artist Yuan Shun’s series works uses different media such as installation, photographs, video and sketches to provide and showcase a fictional view. The smoke-enveloped landscape conjures up his imagination of space, nature, the city and humanity. It is set in a structure that’s between “form” and “formlessness”, “fiction” and “substance”, that seems to transport the viewer into an increasingly fictionalized realm. In my view, this fiction corresponds to a certain desire of the Chinese people, and a certain imagining of the future.
In today’s China, cities seem to have been “borrowed” from the future. In almost every city one goes to in China, the urban mapping for the future makes you want to offer your own ideas. The planning of many not yet built cities or representative landmarks are transformed into dreams that are more realistic than the actual urban space. Even though it is fictional, it is also real, reflecting China’s rapid speed of development. The views of these cities are more city-like than the ones we are actually living in. These cities are extremely clean, fluid, free of chaos, and highly logical. They reveal a kind of strange “futurism”, without the chaos of a real city – a vivid reality, but the fictional city exists only in the mind. Nonetheless, this city is unquestionably more realistic than the ones we are surrounded by, with their various problems, inconveniences and challenges. This other city shows us the alternative reality with an alternative method, a reality that’s more realistic. It seems to be the contrary of the film Matrix, those living in the Matrix were fearful of the simulated world in the computer, and spare no efforts to return to the “ruins of reality”. Yet, we need this simulated world to help us transcend immediacy. The reality Yuan Shun’s work targets could be precisely that which allows us to transcend reality. Because current Chinese cities thinks their pasts are not sufficient to symbolize their reality, but instead borrow from the future to represent the present. The future has now became the symbol of every city in China. The fervor for destroying Chinese creations is at its peak, there is a desperate imposition of symbolic images of the future to the present. Such an impulse comes from the formation and realization of a new Chinese dream. This Chinese dream is no longer the extension of the hundred year dream of self-strengthening. Rather, this dream is of a search for success, the applying of one’s own ability to actualize a dream for the future. This dream can only be futuristic, thus it is inevitable that cities construct themselves in a stimulated dimension.
Yuan Shun’s experience and memories before going abroad, and his more than ten years of living and traveling in Germany have revealed that after pursuing a move beyond the lifelike and self-transcendence in a new discourse, he now demonstrates a sense of helplessness towards reality and a loss of command over this endless contradiction. The interesting point in the Soft Landing series is its spatial relationship, resulting from Yuan Shun’s own experience, memories, imagination and other rhythms, both psychological and emotional. Through expansion, it provides us with a representation of one’s fate in the space in which one exists. Here, the figurative mountains, the rising and falling of simulated roads, and the buildings are not only decoration, but are key clues. Cities and the process of urbanization should not be considered as scenery, but are actually an allusive representation. The familiar streets, familiar histories, familiar life details and childhood environments, are parts of precious individual experience and memories of regional culture. In an era when the globalization of culture is progressing like wild grass, whether consciously or not, these have become important sources with which to safeguard “originality” and rebel against “categorization”, to provide a base for “security”. Yuan Shun’s work not only conveys to others a reality that’s taking place, but also delineates a contrast between history, the present and the future, as well as the cause effect relationship behind it. We can strongly and rapidly sense the idea the artwork expresses: the future exists an expansion of the present, and the present exists in the promise of the future. Therefore the mix of the present and future becomes the key to this problem. The meaning expressed by Yuan Shun is not only limited to the new visual concepts and methods applied to this simulated city, a city to him is also a record of spiritual and emotional history, as well as a unique awakening and creation existing within the hard to identify “reverberation of urbanization.”
Living in awkwardness seems, for urban dwellers, to be living in a gap - compressed existence and spirit. It is difficult to find a place for honest living or for the spirit to rest. Here, Yuan Shun is a different type of city-dweller. His sensitivity to the accumulated urban experience, his reflections, his musing in humoristic ways are all worth our attention. Perhaps it is also for this reason that the dramatic effects of the simulated landscape in his works are built on these two values. Thus, we can perceive what is before our eyes. This represents an unprecedented force forward, a new spirit and impulse. In fact, it is each individual’s search for his own success, and every individual’s efforts to improve his own life. Of course, the problem here is that a time borrowed from the future probably makes us forget about our memories of the past, and perhaps also about those living real lives. However, as we call on the future, we still need the present and the past. The force of Chinese development is unprecedented for this country and nation, and we must treat it with care; the same is true for the impulses of Chinese people. Without such impulses and forces, we can’t welcome the future. Yuan Shun’s work, vis-à-vis the present, the past and the future, has provided extremely incisive observation and reflection. It reveals an interesting and unique artistic imagination and a transposition of changes taking place in China. [ [ ] ]
Beijing, March,2007
【编辑：贾娴静】
