Interview｜On Behalf Of: Li BinYuan

2021/3

I based the material of the works of 16 artists (excluding me) in this exhibition, including the stories of some of their creations, and I made a fictional story of them. On this basis, the works of the 16 artists were strung together into a story. Through re-interpretation and creative change, the work was read out on site again.

Actually, when we talked, there were some changes in the middle, right?

Yes, yes.

I remember that this was actually a proposal we talked about in the middle of the conversation, about an oral narrative to tell a content, but we didn’t know what the content was at that time. And then later you also gave me some other options for a piece like a film. But I think, because of the film, maybe people think of a masterpiece, that is, to choose a representative thing. But I prefer this kind of storytelling, and once you talked about it, because I was also talking with other artists at that time, I felt that there were a lot of stories in the exhibition, in fact, every exhibition has one, maybe the exhibition itself is a story. So I think in the exhibition you chose a line to exhibit it in this way, and I think this form is quite good.

Yes, I have not tried this kind of work before. I changed my plan in the middle of the exhibition because I didn’t know what to do, and I felt that I wanted to respond to the exhibition “Masterpiece” in a positive way because it was an unfamiliar way of creation in such a short period of time. I wanted to change my plan in the middle of the exhibition, but after I talked with you, you also talked about some of the artists in the exhibition, so I thought I could give it a try, and then I did it, but now I am still changing it, and there may be some, so I will give it to Wan Ruiqing tomorrow.

because I think that positive response is actually quite serious, probably very serious

Yes, slightly more conventional.

But I think the tone of our whole exhibition, not that we are not serious, but we all have a little bit, after everyone hears the masterpiece, they may not hand in a masterpiece like a homework. Some people are more humorous and fun, while others have a story line, right?

Yes, I also think that this way is more in line with the temperament of our exhibition, is a kind of response from another angle, right.

And I think your story, I remember when you showed me this story, at that time you were worried that your story was too much like a schoolboy’s, but I think there is actually a very good point is that it does not have a very artistic string, it just rises to a concept and finally unifies them. The story is relatively hard-wired together, and then the middle is a particularly imaginative jump.

Yes, I actually think the framework is quite interesting, it’s a dream, and it ends with waking up from the dream. Anything can happen in the dream, and it all holds true.

And another thing is that I was also chatting with people in the nature of talking about the work when I was preparing this time, and I actually talked a lot. I think one interesting thing is that when I was talking, for example, we were very free to imagine and talk about all kinds of possibilities, it seems that the closer we are to what we imagine, the more language has this ability to bring this kind of thing over, or bring you to a thing, so I really like these stories, there is some fiction, and then maybe slowly the reality and fiction come together.

Tell us about your story.

Basically, every artist’s work has been brought to and written in. There are a few key ones that are developed a bit more. Tomorrow I asked one of their staff members, who has been a presenter, to tell this story. And tomorrow is his birthday. 17 masterpieces, born on March 13, 2021, which is a good match with his tomorrow date. I think it’s better for him to tell this story.

Is this the first time you’ve used a play in your performance art? Have you done it before?

No, I haven’t. I think because language itself is a very good material, including narration, oral narration, because many things we hear and pass on through oral narration. So it’s like trying to make up or shape a space and form in this way.
This form is a very traditional way, using storytelling to express, I guess. And I use some ready-made products, and then through my understanding to string together into a thing that I think can be established.

Why is it a story? Because story is a very old thing, human beings have had it since the very beginning, such as mythology. I think from your point of view what is storytelling to you?

For me, the artist has reached a certain level, and I also want to be like that. Because artists themselves are autobiographical, in the end, they want to be remembered by future generations for a few things.

Can you tell us more about the “autobiographical nature of the artist”?

The artists we have heard of, the masters of the past, have reached a certain level of success and are remembered for a long time because they have done something, something specific, that can be remembered. So stories are able to penetrate time and space, they have this magic, they transcend matter or ideas, and they can be passed on orally. Ancient Greek myths, for example, they are untraceable and may have been imagined by the author, but they have been passed on by people. I also like Shakespeare’s plays, that is, the stories themselves have the ability to be passed down, that is, they are passed down from generation to generation. I think the artist himself, if he can leave his name in the history of art, he must have done a lot of wonderful…just his life was wonderful. On the contrary, his works may only be a few points in his life. The artist himself is a storyteller, I think, and he came to direct his life. How can I put it, think of yourself as an experimental object.

In the past few years, you were often seen doing some impactful acts, but what have you been doing lately with the epidemic in recent years?

During the epidemic, I did a work in Nanjing last year, the Golden Eagle Art Museum, and I joined their construction team and worked as a worker for two months while they were building the museum. I built that art museum, hahaha. I’m going to make an experimental film about that performance, and I’ll probably show it in May. The work is also a bit like Sisyphus, where you are faced with a very large building, and then you work a little bit to build it up. Because he is in a fifty-story building in the air, inside a high-rise building, a bit like Chaplin’s Modern Age, very industrialized. And then in the past two years, my interest is also in this kind of film, script, writing and narrating with images. I’m very interested in narrative. Video or narration or performance is with me. (End)