绯色之乂
Crimson Spirit
文/宋克西
By Song Kexi

很久有个梦想
去古巴
于是有了这个摄影展

绯色，红色一种。因为古巴，绯色在我们眼里不仅仅是颜色的名词，更是被历史打磨后时空跨度的积淀色。纯粹，肌理，明艳的表象背后却是刺眼的空白，像多重叠加的滤镜，白的缥缈，强烈，进而转换成游离不定的炫目之象。不真实，但可以触碰，这种强烈把感官的视网膜击成了碎片，碎到无法与我们当下的自身联系在一起。熟悉和陌生贴得如此之紧，又如此相悖。不同的文化，价值的差异，并没有让我们产生些许的陌生，唤起的是久远模糊的记忆，以及那种和我们记忆重叠的思考。相同的社会制度，相同的信仰，和曾经相似的经历引起的共鸣给了我们一种莫名的亲切。一如S.A阿列克谢耶维奇在《二手时间》里写到“我们这类人，全都有社会主义基因，彼此相同，与其它人类不一样。我们有自己的词汇，有自己的善恶观，有自己的英雄和烈士。”这就是我们想去古巴，解读古巴的初衷。这感受是那样难以言表，以至我们不想做分切，不带情绪倾向，只做瞬间地捕捉，原素呈现，将这份熟悉的陌生存留下来，用一个个独立的碎片为大家呈现出一个久违的古巴。
摄影在视觉上的表述比其它艺术形式来得更直接，更少依靠材料的介入。今天呈现的作品与传统摄影概念不同，我们更想借助镜头背后的个人积累来完成瞬间的感悟。看似在场的纪实，更在其纪实的本身意义，用镜头来回答心中的诘问。真实也好，虚幻也罢，绯色背后是看得见历史的斑斓、重叠和熟知。采用摄影的表达有别于我们日常所从事的绘画、装置和雕塑的语汇，这种表达相对“常规”语汇更具有不可控性，因为舍弃预案，我们不确定能看到什么。一切纪实过程的背后价值都是感受力的重新认识，关于自己，也关于他者。参加本次展览的艺术家在作品中表述了社会形态“痕迹”，这些记述终将成为个人情感中最相关的表达。摄影具有对物的时间性、空间性、叙事性及情感伦理边界的特殊语境，很多时候，在这个语境下的作品决定了一个艺术家一次次切片记录的相互关联，相互位移，它搅合着社会意识形态、物象的历史性、个人经验问题等等与之无法分离的原始认知。社会主义曾经是我们的全部，我们所经历的无人可以复制，这是属于我们这个时代的，但那个特定的年代没有参照，故我们很少讨论，我们以为我们就是世界的全部。今天我们在讲述着与我们曾经相似的故事，我们由镜子里的人变成照镜子的人，当我们意识到它曾经是怎样一回事时已经不重要了，只因为它曾经就是我们已经就足够了。这里记录的仅仅是一部分的古巴，我们的足迹包括哈瓦那，西恩福格斯，巴拉德罗，克戎，霍韦亚诺斯。当然不可能通过展览改变什么，只想通过摄影的语汇表达个人的情绪、感受、记忆、观念。以 “绯色之乂”带给人们开放阅读的可能性，绯色寓意的特别价值就在于此。

2017年4月12日

For a long time, I have had a dream to go to Cuba. Now, this photography exhibition gives me some of this experience.  

Crimson, the red color. Because of Cuba, crimson does not only represent a color in our eyes, but it is the color that represents the accumulated time span that has been polished by Cuba’s history. Behind the pure texture and vibrancy is dazzling blankness, which resembles multiple overlapping filters. The white is ethereal, intense, and turns into the dazzling image of uncertainty. It is not real, but it is touchable. Such intensity smashes the retina of our senses into pieces, which are scattered to the point that they can not be connected again by ourselves. Familiarity and strangeness are so close, yet so contradictory. The differences of culture an value do not make us feel unfamiliar. Quite the contrary, it evokes the fading memory of the past and the kind of thinking that comes with this memory. The echoes from similar social systems, beliefs, and past experiences make us feel the unspeakable affection. As what S. A. Alexievich wrote in her book, “We all have socialist genes that are identical to each other, unlike any other human being. We have our own vocabulary, our own good and evil views, our own heroes and martyrs.” It is the reason why we want to go to Cuba and interpret Cuba. The feeling is hard to describe with words and we do not want to divide, we just want to capture the moment and display the original without being emotionally biased. To save the familiar strangeness and use individual pieces to display a long lost Cuba.



Photography is visually more direct than other forms of art, and less dependent on materials. The works presented today are different than the traditional concept of photography, and we would like to use the personal experience behind the lens to complete the moment’s perception. It seems like the documentary, but it is more of the recording itself that serves the purpose: to use the lens to answer the questions in mind.



Whether it is true or false, it does not matter. What is behind the crimson is the visible sediment, overlapping and familiarity of history. The expression from photography is different than the vocabulary of our daily painting, installations, and sculptures. This kind of expression is more uncontrollable compared to the “conventional” vocabulary, because we are not sure what we could see if we abandon the plan. The value behind the documentary process is the renewed acknowledgement of sensibility, about ourselves and about others.



The artists that participate in the exhibition express the “traces” of social form into their works, which will eventually be the most relevant expression of personal feeling. Photography shows the special context of an object’s temporal, spatial, narrative, emotions, and ethical boundaries. Most of the time, the context of a work determines the interconnection and displacement of the records by an artist. It stirs up the social ideology, the historical images, the personal experiences, and more which could not be separated from the original recognition.



Socialism was once all that Cuba had and what we have experienced can not be replicated. It is our time. There is no reference to that particular period of time, which is why we rarely discuss it. We think we are the whole world. Today we tell stories similar to ours. We change from the people in the mirror to people looking at the mirror. It is not important to realize how it used unless we realize that it used to be us.

What is recorded here is part of Cuba. Our footprints cover the areas including Havana, Sean Ferges, Radero, Charon, and Howe Janos. There is nothing we could change through the exhibition, but we only wish to express personal emotion, feelings, memories, and viewpoints through photography. “Crimson Spirit” provides the possibility for open reading and that is what the special value of crimson resides in.