学会歌唱吧，我的灵魂！

Learn to sing, oh my soul!

—— 尼采 Nietzsche

对某特定物的追寻是一种特定类型的追寻，与对其他物的追寻不同在于追寻过程中主体的所作

所为，而不是主体找到的东西。

The search for a particular thing is a particular kind of search, and differs from a search for

something else because of what one does while searching, not because of what one finds.

—— 维特根斯坦 Wittgenstein

思想要被看到的所证明是思想的悲剧。因为真实是被它的媒介谋杀的。

The very fact that thought has to produce visible evidence spells out its tragedy, for truth has

been murdered by its medium.

—— 吴山专 Wu Shanzhuan

从平面上一个任意的点开始发生，七个圆形共同划定了它的领域。这是一次化圆为方的荒诞

几何学的演习—— 它的周长等于外接圆，它的面积等于圆的内接正方形。这个被亲昵地称为“小

肥姘”的图形，是一个无法被艺术—— 知识透视的莫名事物。

Starting from a random dot on a certain plane, the inner tangent lines of seven circles define its

realm. This is an exercise in absurd geometry that attempts to turn circles into squares – its

circumference equals that of its circumscribed circle, and the area of the circle is infinitely

approximating that of the foursquare inscribed. The shape, intimately named the ‘Little Fat Flesh’,

is an ineffable object inscrutable by means of art-knowledge.

这是关于某物的报告，通过这份报告，吴山专&英格‧斯瓦拉‧托斯朵蒂尔，向我们展现了一种艺

术史之外的神秘与疯狂。

This is What a Form: A Reportage, with which Wu Shanzhuan and Inga Svala Thorsdottir

demonstrate for us a kind of mystery and madness beyond the history of art.

观念如何在世间现身？ 如何据有其形式？ 如果世间真的存在一种“观念艺术”，这是它必须解决的

问题。近年来，吴山专& 英格的工作慢慢超出了艺术史的既有领地，逐渐趋向于一个更为古老的

观念—— 形式传统。在思想史上，柏拉图最终没有把揭示理念世界的任务交给艺术家，因为艺术

滞留于“形”的制作。而吴与英格的工作逆转了柏拉图的知识阶梯—— 由视觉出发，以手工演绎的

方式达成一种不可言说的造物的知识：它既是一种Formulation，公式化的构成，又是

Incarnation，具体化的实现，也即“道成肉身”。创造这个图形的七个步骤，与上帝的创世保持着

某种荒诞的一致性。

How does a concept appear in the world? How to appropriate its form? If there does exist a kind

of ‘conceptual art’ in the world, then this is the problem it is obliged to solve. In recent years, Wu

Shanzhuan and Thorsdottir’s work has gradually spilled over the territorial boundaries of art history,

and inclined towards a more ancient conceptual – formal tradition. In the history of ideas, Plato

eventually does not charge the artist with the task of explaining the conceptual world. For it

seems to Plato that art remains trapped in the creation of forms. Wu and Thorsdottir’s work has

subverted Plato’s epistemological hierarchy – departing from the visual and attaining to an

ineffable knowledge about creation by means of manual deduction: It is at once Formulation,

i.e., realization of embodiment, and Incarnation, i.e., ‘the Way made Flesh’. The steps leading

to its creation maintain a rather absurd identity with the God’s agenda of creation.

关于某物的报告，将我们带回现代性方案中的“抽象”问题。二十世纪初，抽象问题正处于哲学与

艺术之间那场逆向的历史运动的交汇点—— 当现代哲学开始全面去除精神科学中的抽象之时，

现代艺术却将抽象当作一个新的创造性议程。这个议程在现代艺术史中被误识为形式主义化的

抽象艺术，在其源头处，隐藏着一个形而上学的神秘基点。在构成主义的地基上， 吴山专与英格

以一种接近中世纪经院哲学的运思方式，回应了黑格尔关于艺术命运的预言。于是，关于某物的

报告，也就逐渐演化为一种途中的知识， 一种朝向现成世界的剩余物的精神现象学。

What a Form: A Reportage brings us back to the problem of ‘abstraction’ in the scheme of

modernity. At the beginning of the 20th century, the problem was caught at the cusp of the

reversed historical movement between philosophy and art – just as modern philosophy started

to rid itself of the abstraction in Geisteswissenschaft, modern art adopted abstraction as a

new creative agenda. This agenda was misconstrued as a formalized abstract art in the history

of modern art. Yet a metaphysically mysterious origin remains hidden at its fountainhead. This

mysterious origin lends support to the spiritual foundation of ‘constructivism’ or ‘abstractionism’ .

Taking this origin as their point of departure, Wu and Thorsdottir have responded to Hegel’s

prediction about the destiny of art in an approach close to the scholastic philosophical

tradition of the Middle Ages. Therefore What a Form: A Reportage has gradually evolved into

a kind of knowledge on-the-move, a Phänomenologie des Geistes about the remnants facing

the ready-made world.

这就是关于某物的报告，而此“某物”尚未为人所知，依然是大地上陌生的某物。

Such is What a Form: A Reportage, this form or something remains unknown and something

strange to the earth.

联合报告人按/ 杭州/ 2013 年5 月

Co-Reporters note / Hangzhou / May 2013