傅文俊 Fu Wenjun

傅文俊的摄影《退场》系列作品，向观众展示了那些从“岗位”上退下来，已经废弃不用的机车、工厂等形象。“退场”的主题和作品的视觉效果都表明，作者是从一个现代之后的特定立场和视角，去呈现和表达现代工业文明这一对象的。这也就是说，傅文俊摄取的图像，以及对图像所进行的改造，不仅把仍然在场的工业文明给景观化、艺术化了，而且更为重要的是把他们给历史化了。这意味着，对于作者来说，重要的并不是这些机车、工厂在经历了漫长的使用之后，因老化或被更先进的设备所取代而退出历史舞台这一事实，重要的是摄影作者对这些象征着工业文明的对象所采取的文化、艺术和美学的立场与态度。

Fu Wenjun’s photographic series Leaving the Stage presents images of locomotives, factories, and other industrial forms that have stepped down from their “posts” and fallen into disuse. Both the theme of “leaving the stage” and the visual language of the works indicate that the artist approaches modern industrial civilization from a distinctly post-modern standpoint and perspective. In other words, the images Fu Wenjun selects—and the transformations he applies to them—not only aestheticize and monumentalize an industrial civilization that still lingers in our visual field, but, more importantly, render it historical. This suggests that, for the artist, what truly matters is not the fact that these locomotives and factories exit the stage of history after long periods of use—whether through aging or replacement by more advanced technologies—but rather the cultural, artistic, and aesthetic position and attitude he adopts toward these objects as symbols of industrial civilization.

我以为傅文俊对这些“退场”的机车和工厂的兴趣主要表现在两个方面：第一是它们形式上的美感。很显然，这种美感是通过傅文俊的摄影技巧，以及对照片进行艺术上的加工和改造来实现的。在《节奏》、《线形结构》、《从何而来，从何而去》等作品中，作者有意识地加强了画面的黑白对比，从而使在直硬的线条，黑白灰的几何色块之间构成了一种张力关系和视觉上的美感。我认为这种美感来自现代机器美学，即抽象、理性、秩序和冷峻的美，然而，这种多少有些冷漠的美，作为现代工业文明的产物，在傳文俊的摄影作品中，则是温馨和美好的，我想这与作者对其有着特殊的感情有关系。除了表达现代工业在视觉形式上的美感之外，傅文俊还对这些退出历史舞台的机车和工厂所包含的力量充满敬意。在《大隐》、《力量》、《凝结于此》、《脊梁》这些作品中，傅文俊强化了作品中的机车、工厂的沉重感和沧桑感，以此展现它们在人类历史进程中所承担的重任，所做出的贡献。所以，在形式美感上，傅文俊作品中的机车和工厂既是优美的，又是崇高的。

I believe that Fu Wenjun’s interest in these “retired” locomotives and factories is expressed mainly in two aspects. The first is their formal beauty. Clearly, this sense of beauty is achieved through Fu Wenjun’s photographic techniques, as well as through the artistic processing and transformation of the images. In works such as Rhythm, Linear Structure, and Where Came from, Where to Go, the artist consciously intensifies the contrast between black and white, creating a dynamic tension and a compelling visual aesthetic among rigid, straight lines and geometric blocks of black, white, and gray. I consider this beauty to derive from modern machine aesthetics—an aesthetics characterized by abstraction, rationality, order, and cool restraint. Yet this somewhat detached beauty, as a product of modern industrial civilization, appears warm and affirmative in Fu Wenjun’s photographs. I believe this is related to the artist’s particular emotional attachment to these subjects. Beyond expressing the visual beauty of modern industry, Fu Wenjun also holds deep respect for the power embodied in these locomotives and factories that have withdrawn from the stage of history. In works such as Reclusion, Power, Condense in the Time, and Backbone, he emphasizes the sense of weight and historical weathering of these industrial forms, thereby revealing the heavy responsibilities they once bore and the contributions they made to the course of human history. Thus, in terms of formal aesthetics, the locomotives and factories in Fu Wenjun’s works are not only graceful, but also imbued with a sense of the sublime.

从第二个方面看，《退场》系列作品中那些锈痕斑驳的机车和工厂，老照片的视觉特征，都仿佛在向观者倾诉和呈现这些对象的历史与人文意味。这种被傅文俊用艺术手法和叙事方式处理过的历史记忆，在《情节》、《从何而来，从何而去》，《国计民生》、《再次守望》、《退色记忋》、《大隐》、《遗留》等作品中表现得尤其充分。毫无疑问，这是一种怀旧，但因作者在作品中赋予机车和工厂以人格的内涵（如《再次守望》、《遗留》）而使这种怀旧充满人性的温度。

From the second perspective, the rust-stained locomotives and factories in the Leaving the Stage series, together with the visual qualities of old photographs, seem to speak to the viewer, unfolding the historical and humanistic meanings embedded in these subjects. This sense of historical memory—reshaped by Fu Wenjun through artistic strategies and narrative approaches—is articulated with particular force in works such as Story, Where Came from, Where to Go, The People’s Livelihood and National Economy and People’s Livelihood, On Watch Again, Fading Memory, Reclusion, and Leave Behind. Undoubtedly, this is a form of nostalgia. Yet because the artist endows the locomotives and factories with a sense of personhood (as in On Watch Again and Leave Behind), this nostalgia is imbued with a distinctly human warmth.

傅文俊创作的第二批系列作品为《十二生肖》。对重大事件的回应和摄影的观念性是这批作品的两个主要特征。前者与今年发生的一件事情相关联：佳士得在2009年2月23日至25日在法国巴黎举办“伊夫;圣罗兰与皮埃尔;贝杰珍藏”专场拍卖，拍品中就包括1860年英法联军自圆明园掠走、流失海外辗转多年的鼠首和兔首铜像。这一事件引起了中国人的强烈反应，也引起了中国政府、中国文物界的高度关注，原因在于这是一个超出了拍卖的经济范围而涉及到中国历史和民族情感的一件大事。正是这一点促使傅文俊从艺术的角度来表现圆明园十二生肖雕塑与圆明园，以及上述发生的事件之间的关系。从某种意义上说，对事件的及时反应，甚至能与事件同时发生和出现，正是摄影，特别是纪实摄影、新闻摄影的长处和优势，就此而言，傅文俊用摄影回应当下发生的重大事件，并没有什么可称道的。然而，傅文俊这批作品的意义在于，它们并不像新闻摄影那样记录当时发生的事件，而是在这一事件发生之后，把它置入一个更深广的历史中去对它进行反思。这显然与他采取了观念摄影这一当代艺术的方法来回应这一事件有关系。

The second series of works created by Fu Wenjun is Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs. Responding to major events and the conceptual nature of photography are the two defining characteristics of this body of work. The former is closely connected to an incident that occurred that year: from February 23 to 25, 2009, Christie’s held the special auction The Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé Collection in Paris, France. Among the lots were the bronze heads of the rat and the rabbit—artifacts looted from the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) by the Anglo-French Allied Forces in 1860 and subsequently dispersed overseas for many years. This event provoked a strong reaction among the Chinese public and drew close attention from the Chinese government and the cultural heritage community, because it went far beyond the economic realm of an auction and touched upon issues of Chinese history and national sentiment. It was precisely this context that prompted Fu Wenjun to explore, from an artistic perspective, the relationship between the Twelve Zodiac sculptures of Yuanmingyuan, the site itself, and the events described above. In a sense, responding promptly to events—or even appearing simultaneously with them—is precisely the strength and advantage of photography, especially documentary and news photography. From this standpoint, there would seem to be nothing remarkable about Fu Wenjun using photography to respond to a major contemporary event. However, the significance of this series lies in the fact that it does not document the event in the manner of news photography. Instead, after the event has occurred, it places it within a broader and deeper historical context for reflection. This approach is clearly connected to Fu Wenjun’s adoption of conceptual photography as a contemporary artistic method in responding to the event.

傅文俊对这一事件的反思是通过把过去与现在联系起来，或者说是让当下切入到历史之中的方式进行的。为此目的，傅文俊在《十二生肖》的十二幅摄影品中，通过重复圆明园遗址的形象，强化了佳士得这次拍卖活动后面深层的历史意味；而被作者强行置入圆明园遗址前面的十二个手提电脑，以及这十二个手提电脑中的十二个圆明园生肖图像和中英文对照的说明文字，则无疑掲示和呈现了圆明园作为历史留传下来的遗址与当下世界的联系，或者说当下发生的拍卖事件在重构和叙述那段历史中的重要作用。在此意义上说，《十二生肖》对当下重大事件的回应，作为一种历史观，无疑强调了现在对于重新理解和反思历史所具有的重要意义和价值。

Fu Wenjun reflects on this event by forging a connection between past and present—more precisely, by allowing the present to intervene in history. To this end, in the twelve photographic works of Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs, he repeatedly incorporates images of the ruins of the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan), thereby intensifying the deeper historical implications underlying Christie’s auction. The twelve laptop computers forcibly placed before the ruins, along with the twelve zodiac images displayed on their screens and the accompanying bilingual Chinese–English captions, unmistakably reveal and articulate the connection between Yuanmingyuan—as a historical site handed down through time—and the contemporary world. They also point to the crucial role that the present-day auction event plays in reconstructing and narrating that historical episode. In this sense, Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs, as a response to a major contemporary event, articulates a particular view of history—one that emphatically underscores the importance and value of the present in reinterpreting and rethinking the past.

关于作者：邹跃进，艺术批评家、中央美术学院教授。

About the Author: Zou Yuejin, art critic and Professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.