无用之用
——说说周文斗的装置作品
唐尧

周文斗在西班牙当了10年的艺术家。

这件事听起来容易，实际上挺不容易。因为西班牙的忧伤和热烈，那是个富产艺术家的地方，从巴塞罗那到马德里，空气中都是艺术的味。

文斗的东西在西班牙办过几次个展。这些作品初看起来好像一些轻松愉快的大玩具，但随后开始令人困惑，因为它们是智力向习惯的挑衅。

我去看文斗的工作室，那些墙上地下的东西各个都是脑筋急转弯。

悖论是周文斗最主要的特征。

他因此看上去并没有西班牙的痕迹甚至艺术家的气息。

但木讷其外，灵机其中。

他生活在生活的背面。

仅从方法论看，使用现成品做装置在中国当代艺术中已经成为相当普遍的手段。

但文斗仍然给我一种新鲜的感觉。

比较起来，他不像中国当代艺术家那样具有普遍强烈的社会学“问题意识”，没有政治波普的批判色彩，不是当代国际语境中，被期待的那种姿态轩昂的斗士。

对文斗而言，重要的是艺术。也许他的微不足道正是他的力量所在。

然而，文斗的作品仍然是一种“破”。就艺术的颠覆性力量而言，他的“破”更日常，是一种与日常统治相抗衡的游击状态。

让身边明白无误的事物重新成为谜语，一成不变的东西摇身而变回可能和神秘。

“破”是禅宗最重要的动词之一。禅的顿悟是什么？明海说是颠覆，连戏剧带舞台一起颠覆掉。

有无执的“破”然后有透脱的“逸”与澄明的“在”。

因此，文斗的作品也是亲切和开启的——比如几件普通的体育用品，在他的异化转换中，丧失了使用功能，却呈显了物质材料的存在本身及其戏剧性和诗性。

惠子说：我有一个大葫芦，太大了，没法切开当水瓢用，只有扔了。庄子说：笨，你可以乘着它漂游江湖呀。

惠子说：有一种大树，木质虬结，做不了家具，木匠看都不看它。庄子说：像这样的大树立于广袤旷野之上，没有人砍伐它，真是太好了！我们可以躺在它巨大的树荫下，享受从虚无中吹来的微风。

物我同春，不但是物我的通感，而且是物我的更生同新。当艺术家更新一个乒乓球台、两个网球拍、五个篮球框或一堆羽毛球的时候，他自己也会随之更新。

西班牙的艺术家毕加索、米罗、达利、塔皮埃斯诸人，皆形神诡谲之辈，与法兰西之激荡、德意志之厚重相比，于欧洲现代艺术中独领一种迷幻色彩。文斗学出西班牙，其作品颇得其中三昧。

回国不久，文斗的创作又有新说——在一黑一白两个球体上，许多组时针各自走动；几坨普通的石头，在霓虹灯中发出钻石式的光芒。这两个机械抽象装置旨趣玄远，禅机清越，或可以谓之当代“逍遥游”与“齐物论”。

这样，北京人周文斗遭遇了西班牙和庄禅，艺术就变成好玩的事情。

各种理论上的主义和专业用语都可以赋闲了，我们仅仅相会于心（笑脸）

Exhibition: The Use of the Useless
Curator: Tang Yao
Artist: Zhou Wendou
Duration: Aug 7th – Sep 7th
Venue: Other Gallery l Beijing Space 　3rd street North 706, 798 Art District , Beijing

The Use of the Useless
—— Remarks on Zhou Wendou’s Installation Exhibition
Tang Yao

Zhou Wendou has lived and worked in Spain as an artist for ten years.

That sounds like an easy thing, but it is actually pretty difficult, because Spain has a melancholic and tense atmosphere, making it abundant with artists. From Barcelona to Madrid, the sense of art is everywhere.

Wendou had several solo shows in Spain. The works on show seem like easy big toys at first glance, but then audience would feel perplexed because they challenge intellectual custom.

I paid visits to Wendou’s studio, seeing each and every piece of work on the ground and wall being a brain teaser.

Paradox constitutes the main character of Zhou Wendou.

Therefore he does not look like having lived in Spain. He does not even look like an artist.

But under the dull exterior lies his inward smartness.

He lives at the back side of the life.

Readymade as an artistic device has been widely adopted in contemporary Chinese art making.
But I still feel a novelty in Wendou’s work.

In contrast, he does not possess the “social awareness” that is often seen in contemporary Chinese artists, nor the critical challenge seen in political pop art. He is not the kind of vigorous fighter expected in the international context.

What really matters for Wendou is art. Maybe his strength just lies in his trivialness.

That being said, Wendou’s work still represents a “breaking off”. In terms of subversive power of art, his “breaking off” takes effect on a daily basis, being a guerilla attack to the authority in daily life.

Converting daily items into riddles, invariable things changed back into possibilities and mysteries.

“To break” is among the key verbs in Zen’s language. What is epiphany in Zen? Ming Hai finds it in subversion, in subversion of drama along with the stage.

“Breaking off” does away any persistence, and unchained “leisure” and transparent “being” ensues.

Therefore Wendou’s work is also kind and inspiring – by his conversion, ordinary sports equipments lose their function; but the being of materials, as well as its dramatic and poetic characters, is revealed.

Hui Zi said: “I have a huge calabash. I have to throw it away because it is too big to be used as a water scoop.” Zhuang Zi replied: “How stupid you are! You can just use it as a bout and drift in rivers and lakes.

Hui Zi said: “There is a tree whose wood quality is too low to be used for furniture making. Carpenters won’t even look at it.” Zhuang Zi replied: “A tree like this is able to inhabit the open plain without being cut for timber. How wonderful! We may lie in its shade and enjoy the breeze coming from nothingness.”

To use an easy and equal perspective to look at the world is not only communication between the subject and object, but also the process of synchronizing renewal of the two. When an artist renews a table tennis table, two tennis rackets, five basketball hoops and a heap of badmintons, he renews himself as well.

Spain boasts artists such as Picasso, Miro, Dali and Tapies, who are all smart and wizard-like. Compared to the passion of French art and heaviness of German art, Spanish art is well-known for its sense of mystery among modern European art. Educated in such context, Wendou manages to convey the essence of Spanish culture.

Soon after returning to China, Wendou came up with new inventions. Many sets of clock hands operate on each of the balls, one being black and the other white. Several ordinary stones sparkle in neon light like diamond. The two installations have a metaphysical interest, and their allegory of Zen is crystal. Thus they might be considered as “Happy Excursion” and “Equaling the Being of the Subject and Object” in contemporary times.

Hence, art is changed into something of fun when Beijing native Zhou Wendou encounters Spain and Zen of Zhuang Zi.

We can let go of all theories and terminologies, and encounter each other just via the mind. (Smiling face).