“山海新經”里的東方智慧

栗子

中外藝術家共同解讀

（一）

神話是民族生命力的源泉，是民族文化的精神所在。

2020年10月，浙江美術館“山海新經——中華神話元典當代藝術展”正式開幕展出。

古本《山海經》集地理志、方物志、民族志、民俗志于一身，是中國記載神話最多的一部元典，也是一部地理知識方面的百科全書;其內容光怪陸離、龐博紛雜，涉及植物、動物、礦物、巫術、民俗、海洋等諸多領域，汪洋恣肆，包羅萬象;其文本所表現(xiàn)的恐怖猙獰之美、死而不屈的悲劇之美及天人合一、戰(zhàn)勝自然、生死循環(huán)的生命美學意識，集中體現(xiàn)了中國古代先民的生存意志與原初智慧。

《山海經》作為記載中國古代神話的重要文獻，全書內容于先秦時期成型，其中包含著上古人民關于自然氣象、文化發(fā)明和物種起源等方面的認識。然而，該書內容在歷史上又存在各種不同的解釋，或為地理、或為宗教、或為小說，不一而足。之所以造成這一現(xiàn)象，并不是說《山海經》內容發(fā)生了哪些變化，而是不同歷史時期的接受者，基于各自時代背景和思想意圖，對該書內容乃至“山海經概念”作出迥異的理解與闡釋。今天，倘若把《山海經》置于當代及當代藝術的視角，不僅能解讀出古代神話在中國知識體系中的演變軌跡，激發(fā)觀眾的審美共識，領略中華優(yōu)秀傳統(tǒng)文化的浩瀚與魅力，更能激活當下人們的想象力。

“傳統(tǒng)文化的傳承，并非是一招一式的模仿，而是探本尋源，思考發(fā)問，找到其中歷經時間考驗而不變的內核與支撐，并將其轉化為處理當下探索未知的能量與動力。用當代的視角，重新認識和理解中國傳統(tǒng)文化?！边@是當下熱播的紀錄片《以古為友》的節(jié)目宗旨，筆者認為恰好與此次展覽的初衷不謀而合。

“‘山海新經——中華神話元典當代藝術展作為浙江美術館自主策展品牌‘東方智慧系列的第四場展覽，正是依托《山海經》所孕育的原始審美與上古神話體系，從中提取的全新展覽視角?！闭憬佬g館館長應金飛說。

中華優(yōu)秀傳統(tǒng)文化是中華民族的文化根脈，其蘊含的思想觀念、人文精神、道德規(guī)范，不僅是我們中國人思想和精神的內核，對解決人類問題也有重要價值。

因此，“山海新經”展覽在“東方智慧”系列展覽的主旨延展中，以民族信仰的文化積淀傳遞“東方式想象”，進而深刻體現(xiàn)中華優(yōu)秀傳統(tǒng)文化的當代意義、現(xiàn)實意義與世界意義。

（二）

此次展覽整體來說是一次多元文化元素并置的當代藝術展覽，策展方以開放的文化視野，針對當代藝術與傳統(tǒng)文化的融合碰撞，集結近50位國內外重要藝術家，刻畫東方式想象力的視覺體系和圖像語意以豐富當下藝術形態(tài)建構。其中，或以水墨、油彩和版畫等表達宇宙初開的生命意識;或以雕塑、裝置等重塑人類對未知物象的豐富想象;或以影像、新媒體等擴充人與自然和諧相處的生態(tài)圖景。把生命初開的質樸與天真，熔鑄到古老且深邃的“東方智慧”中，以精神的“鄉(xiāng)愁”重喚智慧的“能量”。

梁紹基專門為展覽創(chuàng)作了集視覺、聽覺、嗅覺于一體的多媒體裝置作品《醉日》，以獨特的蠶絲藝術語言進行詩意冥想，重構了遠古渾沌初開時的神話之境;許江的油畫作品《葵陣》以渾茫天地的“葵”重燃“詩言志”的文論傳統(tǒng);應金飛的版畫作品《呼吸》，以紅綠色系交織凸顯二元對立的視覺張力，遙想遠古蒼?；煦缰匀痪辰?鄔建安的裝置作品《征兆》與《白日夢森林》，把異常的動物置于形象奇異的發(fā)光森林當中，共同構成了一種雖不可見卻又活生生的“真實”;郝量的紙本水墨作品《搜異錄——續(xù)夷堅志》，借古代文人的精煉文字表現(xiàn)對周遭世界的再認識和對不可知世界的主觀解釋;美國藝術家馬克·萊登（Mark Ryden）的《超靈動物系列》，展現(xiàn)出一種在精神與現(xiàn)實兩個世界之間交錯徘徊的景象，既有對往昔的懷念，由此延展的記憶和死亡又始終存在。

形式是冷靜的，內核卻是激烈的。其實，從作品中我們不難看出藝術家們對生態(tài)環(huán)境的焦慮、對人類生存的拷問?？此瓶陀^冷靜的作品被賦予了強烈的情感。

展覽中間，黑色幕布隔開，光影變幻。幾個家長帶著小孩子斜靠在沙發(fā)上觀看一部水墨動畫電影，恍然間以為走進了電影院。原來這是邱黯雄系列作品《新山海經3》。

（三）

電影把現(xiàn)實投射到未來，描述了在未來信息社會中互聯(lián)網給人類帶來的迷思——在一個被虛擬全息圖像包裹的廢墟一般的城市里，人們有著虛擬存在與現(xiàn)實存在的雙重角色，虛擬的娛樂和虛幻的世界讓人沉溺，而真實生活卻枯燥乏味，最終虛幻的世界在與現(xiàn)實的矛盾中崩潰。作品通過對虛擬和現(xiàn)實的矛盾糾纏的描述，提出了人在信息社會的存在悖論。

另外值得注意的是，德國藝術家邁克爾·納賈爾（Michael Najjar）的攝影作品關注了我國已故天文學家“天眼之父”南仁東的畢生偉業(yè)——500米口徑球面射電望遠鏡（FAST），這是中國科學院于2016年9月在貴州建成的巨型建筑，以其龐大體量與周圍群山形成鮮明對比。理論上說，F(xiàn)AST能接收到137億光年以外的電磁信號，這個距離接近于宇宙的邊緣，在靈敏度和綜合性能上，創(chuàng)下了世界之最。攝影作品《F.A.S.T》以該事件為題材，記錄隱喻的是從人類到宇宙誕生間不可估量的時間與空間跨度。

此外，展覽現(xiàn)場以山西博物院藏忻州九原崗北朝墓室壁畫的《升天圖》為藍本，復原了1500年前彩繪的壁畫場景。還有浙江圖書館藏《山海經》古籍、南陽市漢畫館與徐州漢畫像石藝術館藏《山海經》主題拓片等。悠遠的歷史回響與當代藝術展開深入對話，共同尋找中華文化的基因譜系。

“該展覽的現(xiàn)實意義在于以神話敘事與當代藝術展開互文性對話，探尋人類幼年時期的文化記憶，解構中華文明起源與中華文化特質的精神‘基因?！庇嘘P業(yè)內專家表示。古本《山海經》作為學術界公認的研究中國神話的第一手材料，具有中華神話“元典”的深刻意義。但相比于西方神話獨立的人神譜系，中國神話散落在浩瀚的經、史、子、集中，一度被西方誤認為中國是沒有神話的民族?！吧胶Ｐ陆洝闭褂[通過對中華神話的精神溯源著重梳理了“中國文化基因的理念體系”，彰顯中華文化持續(xù)發(fā)展的生命力與自信心。

Apocalypse from the Orient

A Modern Reexamination of The Classic of Mountains and Seas

By Li Zi

The living fossil

October 1， 2020 saw the grand opening of -at Zhejiang Art Museum. The two-week exhibition was the 4th episode of the museums “Oriental Wisdom” theme designed to reexamine the connation of the ancient classic in the social context of the present and future.

Traditionally ascribed to the mythical figure Yu the Great， ?（third century B.C. to second century A.D.） brings together a treasure trove of rare data and colorful fiction about the mythical figures， rituals， medicine， natural history， and ethnic peoples of the ancient world. The ancient book narrates episodes of 204 mythical figures， notably the gods Foremost， Fond Care， and Yellow， and goddesses like the fearsome Queen Mother of the West and the doomed Girl Lovely， the nurturing solar and lunar goddesses， and many others unknown outside this text. This eclectic work also contains crucial information on early medicine （with cures for impotence and infertility）， omens to avert catastrophe， rites of sacrifice， and familiar and unidentified plants， animals and minerals.

In sum， ?is a spectacular guided tour of the known world in antiquity， moving outward from the famous mountains of central China to the lands “beyond the seas”. The encyclopedia is also a literary crystallization of the sense of survival as well as primeval wisdom of ancient Chinese， as is fully expressed in the text that is permeated with lingering chill and tragic beauty.

The classic has been an inexhaustible inspiration for the exploration of geographers， religious scholars and literary critics throughout the centuries， forever titillating the aesthetic nerves of mythological researchers as well as the imagination of ordinary readers.

Multi-culture and Crossover

Bringing together the works of about 50 artists from all over the world， the exhibition takes a truly multi-cultural and multiform approach， including Chinese ink paintings， oil works， prints， sculptures， installation arts， and new media creations.

Liang Shaojis multimedia installation， ， strives to reconstruct the mythological chaos of ancient times. The oil work by Xu Jiang illustrates a similar theme through the fierce colors of sunflowers. Ying Jinfeis Breathing， filled to the brim with the visual tension created by the striking contrast between red and green， is the artists bold imagination of the very beginning of the world. In his two installations， ?and ， Wu Jianan brings the viewers into a surreal world of luminous woods and the frolicking adventure of bizarre， unearthly animals. ， by Mark Ryden from the U.S.， is a fantasy about the overlapping of two worlds and the eternity of memory and death.

For the more sensitive among visitors， the surging undercurrents of anxiety about environment and the ultimate issues of human existence underneath the calmness are easy to capture. One of the exhibits is ， an animated movie by Qiu Anxiong. The water-and-ink animation depicts the confusion caused by Internet technologies in a futuristic world that is reduced into a wasteland of holographic images. In the movie， city dwellers get lost and weary in the illusory thrill of a virtual world that eventually collapses in a losing battle against reality. The movie sounds the alarm and reminds modern people of the hazards of the information age today.

Whats worth special mentioning about the exhibition is the photography by Michael Najjar， from Germany. His work， ?draws inspiration from the lifetime endeavors of Nan Rendong， the astronomer behind the 500-meter aperture spherical radio telescope （abbr. FAST） unveiled in 2016 by Chinese Academy of Sciences， as the largest single-dish radio telescope in the world， in the Dawodang depression in Guizhou Province， China. The telescopes superior sensitivity is expected to lead scientists to great scientific breakthroughs in research on astronomical phenomena including pulsars， hydrogen in the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies， and fast radio bursts. Theoretically， the telescope can receive electromagnetic signals from beyond 13.7 billion light years， a distance that is considered as verging on the edges of the universe. Taking the superb size and power into consideration， the telescope promises to help systematically expand human vision of the universe and discover a completely new unknown world. In this sense， the photography by Mark Ryden is a metaphor of the infinite possibility of time and space.

Another highlight of the exhibition is a remake of the mural work from the Northern Dynasties. The exhibits also include ancient copies of ?and rubbings that suffice to break the misunderstanding and prejudice that China is a “mythless” nation.

The exhibition is a dialogue between mythological narrative and contemporary arts， and an exploration of the cultural memory of human civilization in its infancy. It is a genetic reexamination about the origin as well as the spiritual essentials of Chinese culture.