戏——现实与虚拟的镜像穿越
MISE EN SCÈNE, THE RECIPROCAL MIRRORING BETWEEN REAL AND VIRTUAL WORLDS
艺术家：刘若望Artist: Liu Ruowang
主办：渡渡美术馆Organizer: Dodo Art Museum
开幕 Opening: 2022.1.7 16:00
地点：北京市朝阳区金盏乡蟹岛路1号渡渡美术馆(渡渡国际雕塑园)Venue: Dodo Art Museum, No.1, Xiedao Road, Jinzhan, Chaoyang District, Beijing
展览“戏——现实与虚拟的镜像穿越”将于2022年1月7日(星期五)于北京渡渡美术馆开幕。此次展览为艺术家刘若望2022年的首场展览，接下来会在陕西榆林渡渡美术馆举办第二场展览。本次展览由渡渡美术馆主办。
在一个充满不确定性的巨变时代，思想的表达变得越来越艰难，功利的审美正在侵蚀着艺术的独立性和纯粹性。此种社会语境中，刘若望的新作《戏》是不合时宜的。反精致化的浓烈色彩和粗砺笔触，意味深长的场景构造，无不透露出艺术家对精神领地的自我坚守。
这组作品以传统戏曲脸谱为要素，虚构的戏曲人物和以真人为蓝本的世俗人物以互为镜像的状态出现在同一空间，英雄壮怀与平凡众生构建起一个意义分裂却不可分割的戏剧化场景。观者沉浸其中，意识和情绪被牵引在戏与现实之间反复穿越跌宕。
这种虚拟与真实相互映照、对立交织的场景，映射着艺术家少年养成的英雄主义情结和悲悯情怀。刘若望生长于几代人虔诚信仰天主教的家庭，在匮乏年代的偏僻乡村，流浪戏班为人们带来有限的欢愉，戏台上的英雄故事激荡着少年的心。但荒诞也在同时发生：台上是帝王将相和才子佳人，台下是三教九流和贩夫走卒。台前是戏中人的富贵风流，台后是卖艺人的艰难困窘。这种强烈而残酷的反差烙印于心中，成为艺术家创作《戏》的最初动因。
《戏》是刘若望对少年时代的反观和一次情感释放。但艺术家的表达意图不止于此。在《戏》所营造的场景中，所见未必真实，幻象亦非无相。戏是现实的折射，现实中的缺失亦可通过虚构的故事得到心理补偿。而现实何尝不是如戏?人们隐藏于无形的面具之下，以过度修饰的人格塑造着一个难辨真假的人际空间。
《戏》也是一个隐喻。自从人类诞生于这个星球，对虚拟世界的执迷似乎从未停止过，中国戏曲可谓旧时代的代表之作。及至互联网时代和正在到来的元宇宙时代，由科技搭建的虚拟世界更是登峰造极，现实与幻境的边界愈加模糊不清。在未来，现实与虚拟共存将成为常态。刘若望希望以此提示人们，与无限接近完美的虚拟世界相比，真实的、有缺陷的现实世界，才是人类存在的意义和根基。
In an era of radical changes filled with uncertainty, expressing ideas is getting harder and harder. Meanwhile, the vainglorious aesthetics is threatening artistic independence and integrity. Mise en Scène, Liu Ruowang's latest artwork seems anachronistic in contemporary social context. The unrefined grittiness of strong colors and rough brush strokes, along with symbolic spatial design all demonstrate Liu’s resolve to defend his spiritual territory as an artist.
Inspired by traditional Chinese opera masks, Mise en Scène places fictional opera roles and real-life characters in the same space to mirror each other, creating a multivalent and inseparable dramatic world out of symbiotic heroism and ordinariness. Shuttling in and out of immersive scenes, Liu takes the visitors on a cognitive and emotional journey.
The reciprocal mirroring, as well as antithetical while inextricable scenes reflect hero complex and compassion that Liu developed when he was young. Brought up in a devout Catholic family, Liu got awestruck by heroic characters on the makeshift stage, played by folk opera performers who hardly ever visited the godforsaken village. What initially motivated him to create Mise en Scène was the lasting imprint after witnessing farcical absurdity of the intense and relentless contrast between the on-stage ensemble of imperial court, charming intellectuals dating fair ladies, and ordinary countrymen from all walks of life off the stage. A backdrop curtain separated the affluent, glamorous fairyland from the real world, in which opera troupe performers were struggling to earn a living.
Mise en Scène is a reexamination of Liu’s boyhood and an emotional release, reaching even further into a state where what you see is not necessarily real, and illusion is not entirely signless. Fictional scenes mirror and make up the missing pieces of reality. What looks more like a scene than reality anyway? Hidden behind invisible masks, over-filtered personas have been shaping an ambiguous interpersonal space.
Mise en Scène is also a metaphor. Since the birth of mankind on this planet, we have been obsessed with the virtual world. From the epochal Chinese opera of a bygone era, to the Internet community and coming meta-universe, the virtual eco-system, now powered by science and technology, has been unboundedly evolving, ceaselessly blurring the boundary between reality and fantasy. The coexistence of real and virtual will become the norm. However, Mise en Scène is a reminder that even if the virtual world can get infinitely close to perfection, the imperfect real world is why and where humans exist.
《戏》油画创作期间(拍摄于刘若望工作室)
戏 MISE EN SCÈNE布面油画
Oil on canvas450 ×300 cm2021
戏 MISE EN SCÈNE布面油画
Oil on canvas230 × 230 cm2021
戏 MISE EN SCÈNE布面油画
Oil on canvas100 × 120 cm2021
戏 MISE EN SCÈNE布面油画
Oil on canvas50 × 60 cm2021
戏 MISE EN SCÈNE布面油画
Oil on canvas50 × 40 cm2021
刘若望 艺术家，北京渡渡美术馆创始人、榆林渡渡美术馆发起人、佳县峪口艺术小镇发起人，现居北京。
刘若望是中国改革开放以后成长起来的青年艺术家，2005年开始从中国艺术界脱颖而出，通过一组组极具震撼力的雕塑和绘画作品赢得了国际声誉，其作品除了在中国大陆北京、上海等地展出外，已经在新加坡、韩国首尔、新西兰皇后镇、意大利威尼斯双年展、都灵大学、那不勒斯市政广场、佛罗伦萨乌菲齐美术馆&圣母领报广场、美国纽约军械库艺术展、法国坎佩尔、瑞士巴拉特加茨及德国石荷州等地展出。代表作品有：东方红、狼来了、人民系列、天兵系列、高山流水系列、苍生系列、原罪系列、渡渡鸟系列等。其中由乌菲齐美术馆策展的“狼来了”佛罗伦萨展览，在乌菲齐美术馆&圣母领报广场同时展出，是“二战之后第一位享此殊荣的艺术家”。
德国总理默克尔、德国总统高克、新西兰总理约翰·基、韩国国防委员会委员长元裕哲、韩国副总理金秉准等均接见过刘若望，对他的作品表示赞赏。
Liu Ruowang
Liu Ruowang, a professional artist, is the founder of Beijing Dodo Art Museum, Yulin Dodo Art Museum, and Yukou Art Town in Jiaxian County. He lives and works in Beijing.
Liu Ruowang is a young artist who grew up after the Reform and Opening Up of China, he walked into the province’s capital city from a small poor village in mountain of western China to later continue his education in Beijing and finally become a professional artist. He has been seen as a shining star in Chinese contemporary art circles since 2005; with sculpture artworks, installations, and exhibitions he has become an influential artist with a constantly growing international recognition. Aside from major Chinese city as Beijing and Shanghai, his artworks have been exhibited around the world in Singapore, Seoul (Korea), Queenstown (New Zealand), in Italy at the 2015 Venice Biennale, the University of Turin, in Naples’ Municipal Square, in Pitti Square and Santissima Annunziata Square in Florence, at the Armory Show in New York (USA), Campell (France), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) and many other places.Liu Ruowang has created numerous series of higly recognized artworks, including Wolves Coming!, The East is Red, The People, Heaven’s Soldier, Lofty Mountains and Flowing Water, Original Sin, Dodo, etc. Lupi in Arrivo [Wolves Coming!], exhibited in Florence’s Pitti Square and Santissima Annunziata Square – with the sponsorship of Galleria degli Uffizi and Florence Municipality – is the first contemporary art installation that has ever been allowed to take place in Pitti Square, one the the most prestigious landmark in the city cradle of Renaissance, and it has become an important event in the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Sino-Italian Diplomatic Relationships.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, German President Joachim Gauck, New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key, South Korean Parliament Defense Commission Chairman Won Yoo-Cheol, South Korean Deputy Prime Minister Kim Byung-Joon have all personally express their congratulations to Liu Ruowang for his contributions and success in contemporary art.