art forum 关于<新中国>的提问 --采访孙逊

n In what way did working at the site affect this installation? Are there any specific elements in the work that you think are inspired by the space, or you trace to creating this piece in the Hammer, or in California, or in America?



用什么方式在场景工作会影响了这个装置？在这个作品中是否有一些独特的元素你认为是被这个空间启发了你的灵感的，否是你创作这个作品会描绘到在翰墨美术馆，在加利福尼亚或在美国？



Question 1
This space was prepared for Da Vinci’s works. Now it is a site for art museums to hold contemporary exhibitions. The form of the space has a style of its own. Unconventional space and dome give people infinite imagination space. It is suitable for interpreting the idea of New China because many forgotten stories happened in China. Today when I face these again, I find history is round and infinitely recurrent. We are used to divide the boundary or unit of history or the past. Actually history has no boundary.
I wasn’t so sure about this works, because all the work is done on the pot, scenario, lens, the style of picture and spot effects. I only carry the book called New China which was printed long ago to the art museum. Another point is I know I have a month to work. So the space is very important to my work. I hope my work will have relationship with the space. Animation is like history. Animation shows the most external thing. Actually the creation process of animation is full of fraudulence. The combination of this work and space is an imaginary world.


答：这个空间原来曾经是专门为达。芬奇作品准备的，现在成了一个美术馆专门举办当代艺术展的场地。这个空间的形式别具一格，非常规的空间和穹顶会给人无限的遐想空间，这对诠释曾经的“新中国”这个概念非常的适合，因为中国发生了太多被人遗忘的故事，我今天再去面对这些的时候会感觉历史是圆形的，是无限循环的，我们习惯给历史或者过去划归界限或者划归单元，其实历史是没有界限的。

关于这件作品，之前我并不能确定太多，因为所有的工作都是在现场完成，编剧，镜头，画面的风格，现场的效果，，，，，，我仅仅是带着这本很久以前印刷的叫做《新中国》的书来到美术馆的，另外一点就是我知道我有一个月的工作时间。所以这个空间对于我的工作是非常重要的，我希望我的工作能和这个空间发生关系，动画很象历史，动画成片后呈现的永远是最表面的，其实动画的工作过程中充满了欺骗性，这样的工作与空间现场的结合是一个虚拟的世界。

-- Are there inspirations or sources you turned to for the way this piece looks? What about the text: Where does the text come from?

为了作品以此方式呈现，您是否截取了一些灵感或资源？那些文字呢：文字是从哪里来的？



Question 2



All the inspirations of this works are from a small book called New China given by a friend of mine. The print time of this book is probably before the Second World War. This book is written by a missionary who lived in China for many years and knows China very well. The general content of this book is telling people how to love their country, how to construct their country, how to be a useful person and about China’s revolution at that time.

Everyone knows that China is called New China after 1949. But there used to be the appellation. It is very interesting. After I read through this book, seeing China’s Modern history, I found this country actually runs around a circle. They can stop at any point to do some more valuable things. But maybe there are many unknown stories that behind it have changed its result. While what about China now?
All the words on the wall are from that small book.


答：这件作品所有的灵感来自一本朋友送的小书----《新中国》，这本书的印刷时间大概在第2次世界大战之前，是一个在中国生活了很多年，对中国非常了解的美国传教士写的，大概的意思是告诉人们如何去热爱这个国家，如何去建设这个国家，以及如何成为一个有用的人和关于中国当时的革命。

所有人都知道，1949年后的中国才叫做“新中国”，但是在很久以前就存在这个称呼，这个很有意思，当我通读了这本书后，纵观中国的近代历史，我发现其实这个国家其实一直在绕着一个圆圈跑步，其实可以在任何一个点上停下来去做些更有价值的事情，但是可能这背后有很多很多我们并不知道的故事改变了事情的结果，反观现在的中国呢？

所有墙上那些文字全部来自那本小书。





-- Most of your work is animation, right? What led you to create this mixed-media work? How often do you work with materials that are not animated film?



你的大部分作品是动画，对吗？ 是什么让你创作了这个混合媒体的作品？你会经常创作非动画电影的作品吗？



Question 3
Yes. All my works are animation or something related to animation. I established my own animation studio in 2006. In my opinion, all the things can be changed to animation. I don’t think animation is only in the mode of studio. It can be connected with any tools. About the medium works, I hope that my animation have relationship with space and time. However animation is not an important thing. Only breakthrough all the limitation can the most precious thing of animation turns up. I won’t only try this kind of things. I will try any way I think interesting.


答：是的，我所有的作品都是动画或者与动画相关的。2006年我建立了自己的动画工作室，制作的也是动画。

在我的观点里，我认为任何东西都可以成为动画，我不认为动画仅仅是工作室状态的，它可以与任何手段结合。关于这个媒介的作品，我更希望我的动画与空间和时间发生联系，其实动画本身并不是一个很重要的东西，只有突破了动画的种种限制，动画本身最珍贵的东西才能体现出来。

不仅仅这类作品我会尝试，任何我认为有趣的方式我都会去挑战的。



n It seems like you are taking on a big challenge to be a Chinese artist making art about China, at a time when both Chinese artists and China are truly coming into international focus. Do you find this as hard as one might expect, or easier? Why?

n

在现在这种中国艺术家和中国越来越被国际真实地关注的时代下，这样好像看来你作为一个中国艺术家，创作关于中国的作品是不是肩负着很大的挑战？你是否发现这个事情和人们预想中的一样困难，或者更简单？为什么？



Question 4



I think art is not the only culminating purpose. See our history, not only history of China, but also history of world. There is culture behind art. There exits evidence behind culture. Then in comparison, artist is an important role, but will never be the primary. Discussing this kind of topic, artists’ self-judge is a vital premise. Today in China, artists are likely to be the position as that of China in the world. It’s good that China and Chinese artists are concerned, but how to do is more important for us. Being concerned can’t be our purpose.

In this premise, it is hard to create works about China. Because the target you challenge is powerful enough. The attempt on art is more like the revolution on civilization fort one by one. Successful hope is uncertain. Probably artists failed again and again for art seems to be the dream accumulated by failures. But this dream will have irreplaceable value forever and ever.



答：我认为艺术不是唯一的终极目的，看看我们的历史，不仅仅是中国的历史，而是世界的历史，艺术的背后有文化，文化的背后更有文明的存在。那么相形之下，艺术家是一个重要的角色，但永远不是主要的。讨论这样一个话题，艺术家自我判定是一个重要的前提，在今天的中国，艺术家可能很象中国在世界中的位置，显得特别的重要，但我不那么认为，因为这是一个很表面的现象。中国和中国的艺术家被关注是一件非常好的事情，但我们怎么做才是最重要的，被关注不能成为目的。

在这样的前提下，创作一个关于中国的作品确实是艰难的，因为你挑战的对象足够强大。艺术的尝试更象在文明的堡垒上展开的一场接一场的革命，成功的希望渺茫，可能艺术家一直在失败着，因为艺术本来就是很多的失败堆积出来的梦想。但这种梦想永远有不可替代的价值。