YEA!宋庄当代艺术文献馆“潜行者计划”之行动纲领

一、为什么要做“潜行者”?

美术馆是什么?——是艺术品的秀场?还是艺术市场的晴雨表?——是艺术的神殿?还是艺术精神的坟墓?

自有美术馆以来，艺术的功能和属性已经逐步脱离了原先的沙龙化所代表的社会精英阶层小圈子，而越来越具备了大众化和社会化的公共性特征。一方面是随着公共美术馆对于社会大众的开放，打破了原先某些社会精英群体对于艺术品占有和欣赏的特权;另一方面，以公共美术馆为平台，使那些实验性的艺术探索和先锋性的社会思考成为了可能。但是，随着美术馆行业的专业化和标准化的行业规范建立之后，由这种“专业性”和“规范性”所体现出来 的美术馆制度也越来越走向了它自身的反面的。美术馆成为了明星艺术家的秀场，成为了艺术市场的封神殿，成为了压制艺术实验精神的行业权威机构，甚至成为了一座精致而豪华的艺术坟墓。

为了打破这种行业性的特权所带来的对于艺术实验精神的桎梏，美术馆必须要实现自我革命，接纳新的思想，输入新的血液，导入新的空气。所以，我们需要那些潜行在美术馆体制中的异己和他者。

二、什么是“潜行者”?

潜行者应该就像是一个计算机病毒，或是一段DNA基因组，通过植入或侵入的方式潜行在美术馆固有的肌体中，激活或改变我们此前略显沉闷并渐失活力的体制化机制，并进而冲击我们业已定式化的思维模式。同时，潜行者计划也是在目前市场萧条、学术低迷的大环境下的一个“偷渡者”，让那些此前被市场，以及被市场所裹挟的艺术体制所压制的、所忽略的、所轻视的想法和实验精神得以合法化，以期在下一轮的艺术高涨期到来之后，让它们生根发芽、发展壮大，并随之而占领下一个社会时代的文化制高点。

所谓“潜行者”的特征应该是年轻(Young)、实验(Experiment)、态度(Attitude)，“YEA!”是它的行动口号。所以，潜行者不仅仅是一种是通过自我革命方式来实现对于旧体制的解构者，更是新文化和新艺术的建构者!它是通过潜行的方式来实现在旧机制的壁垒中对于新思想和新艺术的“偷渡”。

三、如何“潜行”?

1、空间属性的不确定性。它既可以是我们的某一个展厅，也可以是某几个空间包括楼梯、过道、室外等这些非常规展览空间的组合。甚至也可以在我们的图书馆和文献库中，利用那些空间的属性来使之成为某种作品语境和互文对象。

2、时间的不确定性，它既可以是一种常规意义上的“作品”展示，也可以是一个想法的片段，甚至可以是一件作品从想法到实现的过程，可以在和观众的互动过程中慢慢成长和成型。

3、形式的不确定性。它既可以是一个独立的展览，也可以利用其他的展览或环境来作为“互文”对象，让意义在互鉴、互动中逐渐显现。甚至是通过一件作品也可以完成一次完美的“偷渡”。

4、方式的不确定性。它可大可小、可繁可简;可以是一个物质性的实体，也可以是一个虚无的思想片段;可以是一个常规意义上的作品展示，也可以是一个学术交流和研讨;既可以是主角，也可以是配角;既可以是他者(对象化的作品)，也可以是我者(艺术家自己)。

四、如何加入“潜行者计划”

本项目是宋庄当代艺术文献馆的一个长期的公益性的艺术实验计划，欢迎国内外的艺术家，特别是年轻艺术家们踊跃参与。你可以将你的想法通过草图或观念描述的方式，发送到：wuhong@scaacn.com，我们可以在讨论的过程中使你的方案最终成型并实施。

“潜行者”，你还等什么?

宋庄当代艺术文献馆

2019年8月11日

YEA!An Action Plan for the Songzhuang Contemporary Art Archive’s Potential Actor Project

I. Why become a Potential Actor?

What are museums? Are they showrooms for art? Or are they barometers for the art market? Are they temples to art? Or are they graves for the artistic spirit?

After museums came into existence, art’s functions and properties gradually moved away from the small circles of social elites exemplified by salon culture, and increasingly shifted toward popular and socialized public institutions. As public museums opened to society, they disrupted the privilege of owning and appreciating artworks that was originally the sole province of social elites. With public museums as a platform, experimental artistic explorations and avant-garde social ideas were made possible. However, with the professionalization and standardization of the museum industry at scale, the museum system embodied by this specialization and standardization came to play a different role than originally intended. Museums are now showrooms for celebrity artists, temples to the art market, authoritative institutions that suppress the experimental spirit in art, or even delicate and luxurious artistic graves.

In order to break the shackles placed on the artistic spirit by industry privileges, museums must revolutionize themselves, accept new ideas, receive infusions of new blood, and introduce new breath. We need outsiders and others that move below the surface of the museum system.

II. What are Potential Actors?

Potential Actors should be like computer viruses or gene groups. Through implantation or invasion, they move into the existing parts of the museum, activating or changing our rather depressing institutional mechanisms whose vitality is draining away. In this way, they attack our established modes of thinking. The Potential Actor Project is like a stowaway in this depressed market and academic environment, legitimizing ideas and experimental spirits that had been suppressed, ignored, and shunned by the market or by an art system swept up in the market. We hope that, when the next high tide of art arrives, they will take root, sprout, grow, and flourish, and occupy a commanding cultural height in the next social era.

Potential Actors should be young, experimental, and have attitude. “YEA!” is their call to action. Potential Actors deconstruct the old system through internal revolution, but they also build a new culture and new art. These Potential Actors are infiltrating old mechanisms, bringing new ideas and new art.

III. What are the characteristics of a Potential Action?

1. No defined space. The space could be one of our exhibition galleries, or it could be any combination of several spaces, including the stairs, corridors, outdoor spaces, and other unconventional exhibition sites. The space could even be our libraries and archives, using the properties of these spaces as context for the works.

2. No defined time. The project could be the presentation of an artwork in the conventional sense, a fragment of an idea, or even the process of a work moving from idea to realization. It could also be a piece that gradually grows or is shaped through interaction with viewers.

3. No defined form. The project could be an independent exhibition, or it could use other exhibitions or environments as context, with the meaning being gradually revealed in the process of learning and interaction. Artists could even complete a perfect infiltration through a work.

4. No defined method. Projects can be large or small, complex or simple. They can be material objects or fragments of ideas. They can be works presented in the conventional sense, or they can be academic exchanges and deliberations. Methods can take the primary or the secondary role; they could be the Other (an objectified artwork) or the Self (the artist).

IV. How do I participate in the Potential Actor Project?

This project is a long-term, non-profit series of artistic experiments initiated by the Songzhuang Contemporary Art Archive. We welcome artists from around the world, particularly young artists. You can send your ideas in the form of sketches or concept descriptions to wuhong@scaacn.com, and we will discuss how to shape and implement your proposal.

Potential actors, what are you waiting for?

Songzhuang Contemporary Art Archive

August 11, 2019