“The History of Monuments” of Wang Qingsong

 

“The History of Monuments” of Wang Qingsong
by Giulia Pra Floriani.

June, 2015


Wang Qingsong, a photographer born in northeast China and currently living in the artists village of Caochangdi in the Beijing outskirts, implemented in 2001, the work Past, present and future. His aim was, by covering with mud, silver and gold three propaganda statues, such as one doesn't often sees nowadays, to portray his vision of the three world ages: the revolutionary past, the present marked by modernity, and the illusion of a brighter future.

Since then the search for a solution to the issue of historical and journalistic credibility has become one of the constants in his work, and returns over the years to influence his photographs. The artist, who graduated in 1993 at the department of oil paintings at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, decided in 1997 to switch to photography. That's because he considers this a more appropriate medium to describe the frantic speed at which China is actually running. The artist narrows his scope of work to the resumption of theater scene from his first years of experience down to: a particular type of photo-journalism, distrusting partial information are conveyed to us by the media, prefers to build a private world and recreating inside it, his conception of reality: the journalistic reporting achievable outside would in his view, be not as real and reliable as this is. Wang Qingsong's scenes are populated by dozens of actors and, given the difficulties that would require the recreation of such complex sets within several days, each shoot is made in a single day.

The originality of the Wang Qingsong's photographs emanates from his ability to create a kind of "Calm Chaos", the recovery and immobilization of the wicked movement that drags us down, which you can especially experience in China. Pointing to an unknown center; his work space is a semi-organized mess that fully expresses some of this countries features. Its a place where changes, shuffling and mixing are the rule, not the exception. He can stop, with the machine which par excellence has the power to block at an instant. This in perpetual motion vortex, is allowing us to discover a new perspective on the absurdity, the vulgarity and falsehood of some phenomena created by the continuous succession of the so-called "progress".

In 2010, as part of this analysis focusing on history, journalism and the challenge of developing the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood, Wang Qingsong shoot an enormous 42 meters long photograph, which is the maximum containable in a roll of film. He titled it The History of Monuments , and it´s main aim was to put a question mark to the idea of history.

The huge work, whose title grandeur in Chinese sounds even more resonant than the English translation (丰碑 Fengbei could be translated as "monumental", "immortal masterpiece"), was built in 2010 in Wang Qingsong's Pekingese study and aims to collect in a large but limited space anything in the world of art and knowledge, that is worthy of humanity memories.

Every centimeter of the photograph is a brick that builds our history. How to determine which are the basic blocks that constitute it? Wang Qingsong draws attention to the theme of the historical reality through the deployment of a long series of figures which have contributed to the formation of our past. The photograph, coming from more than fifteen days of work and a total of fifteen shoots, draws inspiration on one side of the tradition of changjuan - 长卷 - (it traces the long "roll" historically representative of Chinese painting and calligraphy) and follows on the other side the long ancient Greek bas-reliefs. The inspiration sources by the peculiar common habit in China to summarize and synthesize everything: summarize the profit of a business day, summarize the lesson or summarize the government's action plan. Following this trend, Wang Qingsong wanted, in a provocative form, to try to summarize the history of universal art.

At the center of the picture stands a huge chubby Buddha seated on a throne; this is one of the fils rouges that animates the photographer's work, and that accompanies him since his early work. In one of his first shots, Thinker (1996), a self-portrait characterized by the bright colors typical of the Beijing-nineties' current Gaudí, in which Wang Qingsong sits in the lotus position on a Chinese cabbage leaf, in his underwear and his chest marked by a huge Mc Donald's M. The artist wanted to point out at the misunderstanding Chinese society had in perceiving the multinational fast-food chains, ridiculizing in the meanwhile the act of falling in love with brands. The background is a mixture of light and color that runs away under the economy and society development speed. Being built in expensive and luxurious areas of the capital city, the American fast food has automatically been pigeonholed a "Western Restaurant". The quality of hygiene and service were better than the average Chinese restaurants, so eating there became a status symbol. Only after the first trip abroad Wang Qingsog realized that it was a big lie and began to criticize this false idealization of the West, which to him has no reason for being.

Following this line that analyzed the figure of the Buddha in Heilongjiangs photographer works, we went to see the 2003 work Offerings, in which thirty semi-submerged actors stretch in zealous worship in dark and dense water between a fabulous and impassive golden Buddha that they hold high above their heads. In the recent work Temple(2011), he expresses, through the image of an assembly of faithful and mud down on their knees devotes in adoration of a huge Buddha, the blindness which drives society to submit itself to religion and the lack of effectiveness that this submission plays in acting for social reform. Buddha, in Wang Qingsongs conception, is not necessarily symbol of a religion as such, but just a symbol that can effectively embody what he sees reflected in the present society. The subjugation of men, naked and folded, in front of a huge golden statue, is more open to interpretation than the religious one. The power of spirituality makes it to be infinitely great in the eyes of the people, allowing them to become golden and exercise a great control.

As in Wang Qingsong earlier work, in The history of monuments, the Buddha is given a central position: although it is now often commodified, it remains one of the most important figures in hundreds of years of history and spirituality of China. It is precisely this one message communicated by the artist: the attack on the materialization of what should belong to the sphere of the spirit. At the side of religion, even large objects of art history are transformed into a mere bargaining chip, placed on a pedestal, exposed under a film of brown sludge, treated in a single plan.

On the big Buddha's immediate right we find a terracotta army soldier (the great army accompanying Emperor Qin Shihuang's tomb -221-206 BC-, the first emperor of China after the unification of the Empire), followed by the Statue of Liberty, while on the left appears a discus thrower and the statue of Mao Zedong that greets the crowd wearing a working helmet. From the first statues gathered at the center we perceive symmetry. Wang Qingsong looks to put together his composition: China and the West are both present, alternate exposed, as in a huge museum showcase, we can see the so-called key figures in the history of global art: from the classicism of Canova's statues to Michelangelo's David, from the portrait of an Egyptian pharaon and his bride to the Soviet Union's propaganda monuments, from the Nike of Samothrace to the Degas' ballerinas, Botticelli to a Duchamp latrine: Wang Qingsong seems to place under review, stopping it in a small world exhibition, anything that has been handed down as art history. With the combination of these elements, Wang Qingsong created a new form of language that can communicate to the viewer, through the image, which one of his major concerns.

The epic proportioned work has found, an excellent venue at the "Photography Festival of Alrles” in 2011, where it was displayed along the entire length of the walls of a church. Unleashing appreciation by artist and audience, the work seemed primed to be exhibited in this space, color and form didn't create any disagreement with the surrounding environment, they appeared as in their natural space, while only approaching the photograph one could feel the contrast between the contemporary photography content and the historic location. A questioning of the sacredness attributed to this place, that communicates a progressive deconstruction and blending of the two concepts of art and religion, a place where we see a connection between different cultures, different perspectives, using a language that shares some symbols. It therefore is not a coincidence, that a work with such a strong message was exposed in a place that has been sacred: if it is a desecration or a new blessing in the name of another faith, each visitor can decide according to his own point of view, the extraordinary visual effect that is obtained by mixing two styles and two worlds remains, anyway, undeniable.

Both in the West than in the East, History is one of the fundamental building blocks of the cultural identity. Let us reflect for a moment on the diversity of what "to hand down the History" means in China and Europe: the Greek etymology of the word Historia (ἱστορία) is related to the two ideas of "seeing" and "knowing": the root is common to the two verbs "idein" (ἰδεῖν, see) and "eidenai" (εἰδέναι, know), demonstrating how the two actions are inextricably linked to each other within the European conception: just after taking note of the situation, having analyzed in first person, the historiographer can proceed to his transcript, and that is how the historian par excellence, from Thucydides ot Plutarch until the present day, is the one who experiments and is researching. On the other hand, the Chinese term for history can be analyzed as the union of the two characters "experience" and "register, annal" (历史, LiShi): This is primarily the transcript of what happened. While the idea of experience is remaining present, the focus is not so much pointed on the questions that history can ask, but much more on the answers it can provide. If the priority of an European professor is to start from the sources, and then broaden the conversation to a full explanation which also includes theories, legends and stories, a Chinese teacher, will use concrete evidence as the vehicle as to document the past events only in support of legends and stories, not as the main element, so we can observe that in both the worlds, and in an higher degree in the case of China, the History with capital H is often explained from legends and common beliefs.

The main reason why we pass down the History is the construction of a fundamental cultural and national identity. Starting in primary school we study our past, so that this teaching contributes over the years to the formation of our background, it becomes a kind of "skin" that, once worn, is very difficult to change, even more because it makes us feel aware and proud to belong to a defined cultural background.

The educational system is another one of Wang Qingsong's main focal points, which is closely linked to the Chinese imperial examinations history. In the past it mend to access to the political and academic career: indirectly taken into account into this work, it was deepened in Follow you ( 2013), one of the most famous artist's works. In the giant poster that captures a huge lecture hall full of dozing on thick piles of books students, an old fed by a drip (the artist himself) is awake. The walls recite famous Maoist era slogans that incite to the study, but the artist attaches them a question mark: is this type of mechanical, rote study, the one actuated without getting a deep understanding of the matter, the one which is really going to lead to progress? The critique of the tight system of Chinese education is clearly emerging from the multitude of students, who look exhausted, destroyed by the infinite classes in the schedule, where many do not go for personal gain, but mainly to fulfill external will and pressures.

Reflecting on the theme of education, we will notice that the mystification and the silting of some important historical facts are well known in both the Eastern and Western world, while today's approach to historical research is changing. If the Great Cultural Revolution in China, which took place between the seventies and eighties (the period of Wang Qingsong's childhood) deliberately deleted or covered up large parts of Chinese history. By destroying testimonies of the past both from earth and the memory of people, it was scoring the lives of all those who have gone through this period. Today we can see a new born interest in historic research, an increasing awareness of the importance of archaeological preservation, one of the fundamental contributions not just to the national identity construction for the citizens themselves, but also to the international perception.

To put a contrast to the idea that sees history as imparted and stored without the need for sufficient concrete evidence, but mostly just as passed down by stories and legends, Wangs opera The history of monuments, doesn't just fit characters which were codified in the official texts of the so-called Universal History, but interposes faces of ordinary people, the ones who built the essential everyday life that, in its becoming, forms part of the main pages of history. So, alternate to the great history of arts monuments, from the mud emerge a man with a long curly beard who's shouting into a loudspeaker, another guy pushing a drinks cart, a bicycle, a water container and scattered garbage. "Aren´t these people a fundamental part of our history?" asks Wang Qingsong, "These are elements belonging to the daily life, they are the informal we can trace in the official history, or perhaps I should say they are the Official traceable in the vagueness of the legend, surrounded by informal history. "

The history of monuments suggests, through the combination of those who have been inscribed in the history books and the people who do not appear in the annals, a reflection on the possibilities of the historical reality. This question puts the emphasis on one of the great contradictions intrinsic into the man, pointing out that fine line that separates reality from fiction. The fundamental problem of the work of Wang Qingsong is that it is not easy to discern, inside the enormous cauldron of History, the staging, the hypocrisy of the actors, the plot of deception and complexity of inventions, because each one of those who contributed to the writing of this so-called History would like to see themselves portrayed as a bright and shining effigy, while throwing dust and mud on others. If to turn the history in a sweet story that would be appropriate to their expectations, making sure that posterity will make a memory of it.

In the study of historical events, we are inextricably shackled to the official version, since we have no way to verify them through eyewitness accounts (especially in China, where the Cultural Revolution inflicted incurable wounds to historical known artifacts), the research is therefore standing in a dangerous balance on the line that distinguishes true and false. The blend of legends, annals, myths and history books have given rise to what we believe to be history, but Wang Qingsong suggests that it may not be anything else but a script which was shredded and regulated to please the audience, or maybe the director.

The artist's perspective wants to communicate the impossibility, whether it's a film of 42 meters (most achievable length in a single press) or 100, to sum up the entire History of the humanity: no matter how many books we read, how many people we know, how many of the so-called things that are worth knowing we know, we will not be anyway given the ability to reliably distinguish the true from the false.The characters we find in the work are placed in a floor covered by mud and clay. The choice of material for the background draws once again the viewer's attention on the changeability of history: The clay is the material that for excellence allows to be molded to shape everyday objects and statues, it must be regulated by human hands so that it can give rise to a usable item. Clay is a great metaphor of the malleability of History: only if channeled and its course is diverted by human hands, will be useful for some purpose. It's precisely in this history’s utility that lies one of the issues Wang Qingsong poses in the monumental work's background: if the human can shape the history according to his liking, making it play the role he prefers, the space of historical reality is flattened to zero. When we take into account another of the properties of the clay, once it is dried, or cooked, it will, if not violently destroyed, maintain its shape for centuries, its shape will retain and just a hammer blow would be able to affect its solidity. The history is shaped by the big hands of humanity, and once it's dried in people's mind, it is difficult to eradicate from the common culture, it settles and solidifies in the conscience, it remains unchanged until a new discovery breaks it into a thousand pieces. Human beings are the countless potters who contribute to the construction of this history, working on it every day, shaping the conscience of society in small fingerprints, on the one hand through the action itself and on the other through his record, depicted in The history of monuments through the monuments chosen by the artist.

The choice of color follows the trend of the most recent works of Wang QingSong move to shade off: compared with the giant poster of 2000 Night Revels of Lao Li, a work that takes a classic Chinese to analyze the difficult role of the intellectuals in the society during the course of history. We note that the use of color changes from bright colors and deep contrast to a monotone color, interrupted only by a few splashes of clearer mud. Wang's 2000 work is inspired by the work The feast of Han Xizai, one of the traditional "changjuan" (long rolls, 长卷) that describe the educated and socially active man's life during the period immediately following the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), called "Five years and ten states "(907-970 d. C.) because of the territorial fragmentation that characterizes it: banquets and worldly honors are reserved to the so-called man of science, but they are not allowed to talk too loudly. We discern a set of different court life scenes, after which the intellectual finds himself helpless, depressed, debased in his adversarial role that sees him on the one hand as the glory of the country and on the other as a possible threat to the public stability. In the blow-starring role of the intellectual Xizai Han (902-970 d. C.), stands the father of Chinese contemporary art Li Xianting.

Following this line of relationship drowned between history and modernity, and the parallel of the past and the present which, even looking so far away, eventually intersect and mingle, Wang Qingsong in The History of monuments approaches figures from all ages without following any chronological order, reporting their flattening down to a flat historical memory. In contrast to the splendor of the materials usually chosen in creating commemorative or celebratory pieces of art, the protagonists are completely watered mud up to homologate to a dirty brown flat, demonstrating the fact that the Human history might be mixed and remodeled to reach a neutral and tasteless zone where it becomes difficult, if not impossible to distinguish facts from tales, ordinary from extraordinary, the official form from what is happening underground, the true from the false.

Giulia Pra Floriani.
Beijing, Xi'An june 2015.

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