A Tale of Two Gardens: The General Principle of History

      In On Photography Susan Sontag stated that photography is "an art of spirit capturing," she commented on the essence of photography as " a world view denying contact and continuity, but endowing every moment with its mysterious nature "。 She stressed that "looking at something in the form of photos means to encounter with a very attractive potential thing. "Fu Wenjun’s work A Tale of Two Gardens: The World Will Marvel at It provides us with such a possibility of encounter. It seemingly focused on two architecture possessing no space-time continuity (The Old Summer Palace and World Expo), but Fu’s camera language has successfully bridged the historical and cultural gap between them. Therefore, when we are viewing these works, what comes to our eyes is no longer the building itself, but the general principle of history hidden beneath the pictorial representations.

      As we all know, in 1860, Anglo-French Allied Force invaded Beijing, destroyed The Old Summer Palace,the cultural treasures of China and even the world。 In 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijingand robbed various gardens in western suburbs including The Old Summer Palace, which was completely ruined. During the past hundred years, theSummerPalacehas become a prominent synecdoche for the pain of Chinese nation, those remnants of stone in the garden like Walter Benjamin’s "angel of history" who faces toward the past and turns its back on the future .

      However, 2010 Shanghai World Expo is another equally expressive synecdoche- the synecdoche ofChina’s national pride. Today,Chinahas risen peacefully and become a pivotal "energy field" for changing the world. More than 200 countries and regions came to set up their venues in Shanghai World Expo to activate their two vital lines-economy and trade on the platform of the world's "energy field". The eight western countries used to break the door of ancient in an extremely violent way as the Eight-Power Allied Forces. But this time, they become friendly guests ofChinawho sticks to the policy of reform and opening up.

      With his keen artistic intuition and ambition, Fu Wenjun grasped the enormous tension between two synecdoches-The Old Summer Palace and World Expo. With help of devices, Fu managed to reconstruct the forms of his own original photographic materials. This sort of reconstruction is not a simple anatomical juxtaposition, but a generation of a space capable of initiating historical dialogue. That is to say, At the site of exhibition, it seems that all the images of The Old Summer Palace and World Expo step out of the picture frame, and break the momentary solidification of photography. They make reciprocal reference and stimulation, creating a lingering rather than a momentary historical ideographic space.

      The name of the exhibition: A Tale of Two Gardens: The World will Marvel at It derives from one of Chairman Mao’s imaginative 安定prophetic poems. It goes like this:“ Till a smooth lake rises in the narrow gorges. The mountain goddess if she is still there. Will marvel at a world so changed. " Naming Fu 's exhibition by this poem undoubtedly has a dual perspective of interpretation: Firstly, the historical ideographic space produced by Fu Wenjun’s A Tale of Two Gardens echoes the historical prophesy in Mao's poem; Secondly, the three gorges predicted in this poem has become the reality inChongqingtoday, and Fu is an artist fromChongqing. The exhibition hosted inChongqingis not only a highlight on the tremendous changeChinawent through during the hundred years , but also an allegory of the thriving cultural scene bred inChongqing, the newly risen western city., Beijing,Shanghai in Fu’s works, and his hometownChongqing, these three locations constitute a thought-provoking geo-cultural prism。The interaction between history and current situation,between the nation and the world reflected in this prism will present a more meaningful aesthetic spectrum.


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  • Update:2016-03-03 14:02:03
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