山水2010：H20
开幕：2010年11月20日星期六4pm
展期：2010年11月20日 – 2011年1月5日  10am – 8pm 周一参观请预约
地点：天安时间当代艺术中心，前门东大街23号前门23号院东南侧楼

艺术总监：翁菱
策展人：克里斯托弗·菲利普斯 (Christopher Philips)
参展艺术家：比尔·维奥拉（Bill Viola）、贾奈娜·查普（Janaina Tschäpe)、宋冬、王功新
特别项目：山水自然保护中心
年度合作伙伴：一汽-大众奥迪品牌

“山水”是天安时间当代艺术中心一年一度的绿色艺术项目。2009年获得热烈反响的“山水：综合艺术视界中的自然生态”涉及物种灭绝、气候变化、环保政治、绿植产业等多个主题，由林璎、汪建伟、周伟等参展艺术家创作的作品以及相关纪录片和主题论坛，都给观众留下了深刻印象。作为这个项目的延续，2010年，第二届“山水”展将集中关注“水”（H20）主题。展览由美国策展人克里斯托弗·菲利普斯策划，力邀四位活跃在国际艺术舞台上的影像艺术家参展：比尔·维奥拉、贾奈娜·查普、王功新和宋冬。本土专业自然保护机构“山水自然保护中心”亦贡献了特别艺术项目。这一系列以“水”为题的影像装置作品，旨在以“水”为线索，通过对人与水的关系的探讨，从不同维度激发关于人与自然以及人类生存环境可持续发展的思考和讨论。展览将于2010年11月20日拉开帷幕。

水是保证人类生存的必备元素，它覆盖了逾70%的地球表面，过半的人体组织也是由水构成的。水没有固定的形态，在自然界中以雨、霭、雾、云、冰、凌、雹以及海洋、湖、江河、瀑布等形式呈现，常被看作一种善变和易逝的符号，是对自然感兴趣的艺术家的“母题”之一。尤其在过去20年的中国当代艺术中，“水”是一个持续被关注的主题，出现在大量优秀艺术家的绘画、雕塑、摄影、录像和装置作品里。

“山水2010:H20”的四位当代知名艺术家，以带有各自鲜明风格的作品诠释了“水”这个主题。来自美国的先锋影像艺术先驱比尔·维奥拉带来其经典作品《洗礼》，这件原本为瓦格纳的歌剧《特里斯坦与伊索尔德》而作的双频影像作品，描绘了一男一女清洗身体的仪式，缓慢活动的画面和具有催眠效果的水流中弥漫着静谧、冥想的视觉情绪。对巴西裔德国女艺术家贾奈娜·查普来说，始自儿时的水下世界的幻境常年萦绕着她，此次参展的四频影像作品《血，海》展现了一场视觉盛宴，美人鱼、塞壬女妖等神秘女性游弋在阳光穿透的海底幻境中，该作品曾在蓬皮杜艺术中心展出过。中国艺术家王功新根据场地特别创作了影像装置《雨，或水》，他通过画面和音响精心营造了一个富有戏剧感的影像情境，让观众猝不及防地置身现实与非现实之间，收获真实而不寻常的心理体验。宋冬则根据最近从公共平台收集的1910年至2010年的100个历史人物与事件画面，创作了一条触手可即、却转瞬即逝的“历史的长河”，在充满怀疑论色彩的长短虚实之间，探讨人与记忆、时间、历史之间微妙而复杂的关系。

此外，展览上还会出现来自中国水源地的村民们独立创作的十部纪录片作品，选自山水自然保护中心发起的“乡村之眼”计划，作为人与自然关系的草根化表达，它们以真实而朴素的方式，探讨了全球水资源危机以及全球共同关注的自然资源保护问题，涉及人与自然、传统与现代、精神与物质等议题。“山水2010：H20”展览期间，相关主题讨论会和讲座亦将举行，并出版同名出版物。

天安时间当代艺术中心 / Beijing Center for the Arts 北京市东城区前门东大街23号, 100006    
T: 86 10 65598008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Shan Shui 2010: H20

Opening: Saturday, 2010.11.20, 4pm
Duration: 2010.11.20 – 2011.1.5, 10am-8pm (Mondays on appointment only)
Venue: Beijing Center for the Arts

Artistic Director: Weng Ling
Curator: Christopher Philips
Artists: Bill Viola, Janaina Tschäpe, Song Dong, Wang Gongxin
Special project by: ShanShui Conservation Center
Annual Partner: Volkswagen Audi

Beijing Center for the Arts (BCA) is pleased to announce “Shan Shui 2010: H20”, the second annual Shan Shui exhibition, which will be held from November 20, 2010 through January 5, 2011. Curated by Christopher Phillips from the United States, the exhibition will present works by four globally active contemporary artists -- Bill Viola, Janaina Tschäpe, Wang Gongxin and Song Dong -- all of whom explore water as an artistic theme. The exhibition is a continuation of the “Green Art Project” launched by BCA in 2009 with the exhibition “Shan Shui: Nature on the Horizon of Art” that addressed the issues of extinction of species, climate change, environmental politics and green industry etc. through site-specific works from Maya Lin, Wang Jianwei and Zhouwei, as well as documentary screenings and symposiums. “The Green Art Project” aims to encourage discussion of ways for humankind to create a sustainable balance between the natural environment and the needs of human society.

Water is a constant element of human existence. It covers more than 70 percent of the earth's surface, and makes up more than half of the composition of the human body. It is also a substance without a fixed form, appearing in nature as rain, mist, fog, clouds, ice, sleet and hail, as well as oceans, lakes, rivers and waterfalls. Because it is a symbol of all that is changeable and fleeting, water has long fascinated artists who take a special interest in the natural world. Water has been a recurring subject in Chinese contemporary art over the past twenty years, as evident in the paintings, sculptures, photography, video, and installation works by the country's leading artists.

“Shan Shui 2010: H20” encompasses works by four well-known contemporary artists who demonstrate an unusually wide range of approaches to water as both a subject and a material for art.

Bill Viola, a pioneering American video artist, will present Ablutions (2005), a video diptych originally commissioned to accompany a production of the opera Tristan und Isolde, a 19th-century masterpiece by the composer Richard Wagner. The high-definition video portrays the ritual of bodily cleansing performed by a man and a woman, with slow-motion imagery and a hypnotically flowing stream of water used to create a calming, meditative visual mood.

Blood Sea (2004), a four-screen video installation by Brazilian-German artist Janaina Tschäpe, provides a visually extravagant ocean fantasy involving mythic aquatic creatures such as mermaids and sirens. The video features haunting glimpses of female figures wearing colorful, flowing gowns, who float underwater as dazzling sunlight pours down from the water's surface. The work has been exhibited by Centre Pompidou in 2007.

Beijing artist Wang Gongxin will continue his exploration of innovative new forms of video in the new commissioned installation piece Rain, or Water (2010). Using multiple video projections to direct a carefully syncopated sequence of images onto the gallery floor, the work employs startling visual effects to suggest the ways that a rain shower might transform objects of many different kinds. The artist attempts to take audiences in between realities and unrealities to present unexpected theatrical experiences.

Touched 100 Years (2010) is a new work by Beijing artist Song Dong that was commissioned for this exhibition. He has collected a series of publicly-available images concerning historical figures and events that took place from 1910 to 2010. By showing each image reflected on a watery surface that he sometimes touches with his hand to "dissolve" the image, he suggests the instability and transience of human memory. With an inclination towards skepticism, the work explores the subtle and complicated relationships between humans and memory, time and history.

Also on view at BCA will be 10 documentaries from “Through Their Eyes” -- a community documentary project from China’s water head sites initiated by the Shan Shui Conservation Center. Devoted to the emerging global water crisis and the conservation efforts that are now being introduced in China and around the world, the project gave support to communities by providing them with video cameras to document their own views on the environment and culture, thus reflecting a grassroots perspective about man’s connection to nature. It also poses questions about the contemporary relations between humanity and nature, tradition and modernity, as well as the spiritual and the material. 

“Shan Shui 2010: H20” will be accompanied by discussions and an illustrated catalogue.

Beijing Center for the Arts 
No. 23, Qian Men East Street, Dong Cheng District, Beijing 100006
T: 86 10 65598008   F: 86 10 6559926