乔纳斯:区志航作品打动我

为学日益，为道日损——老子

凌晨六点，在郑州市职业病防治所前，一位男子脱下他的外衣，跑出几米后，朝地面趴下，做起了裸体俯卧撑。于是，区志航又完成了《那一刻》中的“一刻”。《那一刻》是他的一部既令人印象深刻、又具有重大意义的作品。

区志航作品的明确性，他的勇气和坚持，还有我看到的独立精神，促使他成为了当今中国最前沿、与社会联系最为密切的当代艺术家中的一位。低调却坚定的区志航，始终关注身边的社会问题。无论所涉及的是劳教所、精神病院、违法的黑监狱、社会的不平等、法律的不一贯、房地产丑闻、食品欺瞒现象、腐败现象、警察暴力执法、媒体审查、内部丑闻，还是那些仅仅对普通百姓不公的事情，他都关注着。尽管他在进行艺术创作的场所始终保持低调，但他的作品已经在社会上引起了高度广泛的关注。区志航就像网络时代投身于社会的安迪·沃霍尔。

网络是区志航创作的核心运作部分。全力完成他的动作，拍下照片和录像之后，他利用网络作为其作品的一个传播系统。这和俯卧撑本身一样简单，并且有效。区志航在几大门户网站的微博和博客，赢得了超过亿万的访问量，他已经实现自己让“艺术影响人们”的目标。对于区志航来说，所有一切都和艺术的作用及功能息息相关。难道艺术只能是一件在艺术圈的小众范围内用来展示、用来投机的美学事物吗？区志航的答案是否定的，而且否定得坚决。他相信艺术是可以影响人们和社会的，可以让社会变得更好更完善，可以激发人们自己的想法和行动去做有益的事情。或许这只是空想，但区志航始终保持实现想法的意愿和决心。他创作的本身，自然成为了历史的一部分。当区志航谴责社会不合理的时候，他怀着这样一个信念——他的创作代表着正义之举，代表着普通百姓；他的创作不仅对中国和她的人民来说很重要，对中国的未来也是意义重大的。

这位艺术家对网络时代具有中国特色的信息制度的透彻理解，让他不仅能够把网络用作主要的传播源，还把网络用作主要的信息源。但不能因此将他视作概念艺术家。他的创作不能被局限于他所使用的媒介，不管是行为、照片、录像，还是网络。

如果说区志航的创作纯粹而客观，那么他做这一切不是要将自己与普通百姓对社会的关注疏离开来。他不想让自己的作品停留在一个平行于社会的小众艺术体系之中，反而是要让自己的作品“呼吸百姓的气息”。这样百姓才会和他一起继续他十二年前开启的长征。区志航对他的创作负责，对他的行为负责，对他作品的传播负责。我们都清楚，不是所有的问题、所有区志航创作所关注的事件，都能在发生的时候被揭露。有的需要等到更合适的时候......但是就像这个国家绝大部分事情一样，所有一切都是时间问题。他也是深知这一点的。不过，时间是站在他一边的，历史也是。是的，我们可以说，在其最深远的意义上，历史是区志航创作的主题。他所关注的是中国，是她的人民。在这一点上，他是一位纯粹的艺术家，并即将成为一个深受喜爱的传奇。假以时日，我们会看到那个境界。

区志航作品的简明风格体现在贯穿其每件作品的那个单纯的动作：裸体俯卧撑。区志航希望人们更关注的并非这个身体，而是身体作为突显事件的意象。那是一个极具象征意义的动作，通过事件发生的地点，吸引人们对事件真相本身的关注。俯卧撑和地点作为物质存在，促使我们关注事件的真相，以及更多被掩盖的社会问题。如果题材明显是事件本身，这位艺术家所真正要创作的则是更为深层的东西，也就是我们对事件的看法。我们的知识，我们所看到的，我们所知道的，是关于信息和我们自身。最终，是关于我们集体的记忆。

作为中小学体育课的一项普及运动，俯卧撑基本上是一种锻炼体力和耐力的体能训练，运动队和军队都使用这种训练运动。这项运动可以一个人做，例如监狱里的囚犯。不过通常这项运动是有指挥集体完成的，旨在增进集体凝聚力和纪律性。俯卧撑也被用作体罚。

相对于这些平常的用途，区志航的俯卧撑似乎是完全相反的。作品中的他独自一人。显然，这不是耐力或体力的测试。他只是独自一人赤裸着身体，迅速做几秒俯卧撑，然后离开。似乎他的行为与集体凝聚力、纪律性或是惩罚毫无关系。

然而，他所选择的地点和裸体进行的方式凸显了这一行为对某些事情的隐喻。正是这种在公共场所裸体做俯卧撑所展示的“不合现实的意象”向我们诉说着。所有可能的涵义都可以来诠释是什么将这一行为转变成了一种标志。它可以被诠释为一种集体凝聚力的表现，个体自由的表达，纪律的展示；可以被诠释为一种“呼喊与回应”的动作，表现力量和耐力，或是脆弱；亦可被诠释为来自社会和自我的一种惩罚。这是一个以相成象征相反的意象，正如阴阳。

另外，还有一个很重要的方面，那就是绝大部分的人都做过俯卧撑，每个人都能或多或少地说起它，会唤起自己在学校在军队或是运动时的回忆。简言之，这是一个人们都有所体会的动作，一个在理智和情感上都可以理解的动作。这是一个具有多层不同涵义的流行标志。人们对区志航俯卧撑可能的体会对其作品的效能和功能是十分重要的。

如果我们认为裸体照片在三十年前会招致死刑遑论社会批判，那么区志航的照片呈现的则是另外一种意义。虽然裸体模特会被用作绘画练习的对象，被用在中国行为艺术中，它还是一个敏感的话题，尽管从法国艺术家伊夫·克莱因用裸体女子作画的首部具有历史意义的作品《人体测量》(Antropométries)起，裸体被沿用至今。然而，区志航身体的裸露和约翰·伯格在其极具影响力的著作《观看之道》(Way of Seeing)中所描述的裸露是相反的。在区志航的作品里，裸体代表着暴露其极端脆弱的纯粹的人类。以其最具存在意义的表现展示的，是讲述当今社会和周遭世界中个体脆弱的方式。

要理解区志航作品的意义，我们只需要想像一下他若着衣或遮着身体创作同样的意象。显然，那样意象不会如此打动我们。正是这种在公共场所裸着身体的对比给予了这样的俯卧撑超越平常的深刻意义。这不仅加深它的象征意义，也让我们走近了人群，走近了发生在那一地点的事件，走近了那些与事件相关却并不在照片中的人群。这加强俯卧撑固有的纯粹的反抗意义，也加强了关于忍耐、自我惩罚和约束的双重涵义。公共场所的裸体以最具张力的方式吸引了我们对当前问题的关注。

对于此，区志航作品中的裸体还是一种“公共揭露”。它象征着对已发生的事情被隐藏被掩盖部分的揭露。区志航选择的事件和地点往往与那些被隐藏着试图不让公众知晓的问题相关联。那些问题的相关负责人努力掩盖，却因公众的关注和调查被揭露、公开。区志航裸露的身体不仅意味着掩盖的对立面，还体现了勇气，公开，完全透明，无需隐藏。这不仅是对于事故或是事件来说，更是对于生命本身。不遮蔽身体是区志航创作的中心，正如事故、事件和已发生的事情不应被掩盖。不遮盖身体和不掩盖事件是相似的。它们看上去简单，但背后却是引人关注，充满问题的。

在选择好要应对和纳入作品的事件之后，区志航便会到事件的地点，探察周围的情况，以选择进行裸体俯卧撑的位置。进行这一环节自然是有原因的，它对区志航的创作来说至关重要。他需要考量在那一时刻要如何进行俯卧撑；要选择一个地方能让他脱下衣服做他的俯卧撑而不被逮捕；尽量不要太显眼让路人、警察或私人保镖发现。同时，他还需要考量照片的构图，结构和角度，以及聚焦的目标。大家都能够明白，进行裸体俯卧撑需要详细的计划以及时机。

还要强调的，是区志航独自完成他的创作。在绝大多数情况下，他不能带着团队。首先这会吸引太多的注意，还会让他的创作有作秀的嫌疑。一切都需要自然，需要由他自己来完成。因此几乎没有人帮他，没有人帮他拍照录像或是提供任何可能的帮助。他甚至不会告诉任何人他要去哪里创作。创作路上，他独自一人。

区志航选择的独自一人创作的意义，我们可以从他的照片中感受得到。完全独立地进行创作，将通常集体进行的运动放在公共场所个人进行，自然有其意义。如果这样的意象和行为本身展示给我们的是孤独，那么它正要是强调独自行动的意义，这也是区志航作品中非常突出的一点。看着那些照片，人们感受到一种孤独。人们可以看到、感受到，这并不是有团队策划的作秀。它很简单，不过是一个人在一个地方完成一个动作。在照片的构图和结构中还可以进一步看到，一个孤独的男子，在巨大的废弃地里，在干旱的水库中，在摩天大楼前，在高速路上，在桥下，在纪念雕塑前，在建筑物顶上，在宽阔的人文景观中，正做着俯卧撑。那是一个人独自的行动，惩戒或历练自己，直面脆弱，带着一种挑战的精神，面对事件的发生地。脆弱因——暴露在公共场所的——裸体的柔弱愈加脆弱。这是人民反抗和人类勇气的终极意象，反抗那些用权力、地位和金钱支配人类和生命本身的事情。

区志航构图所强调的孤身一人、独自行动，也是一种加深可能的体会的方法，让观者与他共鸣，与这一行为共鸣，并接受这一行为。这也号召我们所有人作为个体对我们周围的世界做出反应，像他一样，共同形成一个集体。在此，他的作品起到了呼喊与回应的作用。而这还暗示着他的行为是由我们所有人共同完成的，是公民的俯卧撑，正如展览主题所示。

事件的地点和照片的顺序不是由区志航选择的，而是由事件本身决定的。这一点对理解区志航的作品非常重要。作品摒除了区志航自己很多的艺术审美化处理，而遵循马塞尔·杜尚在其极具历史意义的概念行为和作品《泉（Fountain）》[ 即一个现成的小便池。1917年，法国艺术家杜尚化名理查德·马特将一个现成的便池送至纽约军械博览会（Armory Show）的评委会。后来,杜尚称他不带任何美学判断地选择了那个便池，不认为它美也不认为它丑。]中所采用并发展的无等级观念。相似的无选择，无等级和无功用清晰地展现在区志航的作品里。没错，区志航照片里的风景可以是美丽迷人的，甚至像紫禁城的风景那样宏伟壮观，但它更多是普通、平常的景象，工厂的围栏，建筑的大门，狭窄的街道，摩天大楼和建筑工地，纪念碑，公安局，高速路，自然风景和市政府。重要的绝非视觉美感而是《那一刻》的概念。然而，仔细研究他的作品，你会在作品的构图、结构和角度中发现一种意识。区志航身体的方向或头部的位置总是指向其行为针对的目标，而他也总是注视着那个目标。

区志航的图像作品，和绝大多数同时期的、将图像用作其主要媒介的概念艺术家——例如辛蒂·雪曼或约翰·巴尔代萨里——的作品不同。题材和涉及社会的程度自然不同。与那些艺术家相比，区志航很少关注其作品的形式方面。在作品中，区志航已将形式最简化了。对于他来说，重要的是内容，是直接或深刻的主题。某种程度上，区志航用“视觉空白”创作，使照片成为记忆的媒介。

区志航的作品取决于很多因素。每一个因素在拍摄过程中都很重要。首先基本的问题是选址，或者说是要在作品中展示哪一个事件。哪一个事件是公众关心的，对公众来说很重要的。或者在更宽广的视角中，哪一个是历史关注的、意义重大的。他的题材是发生在那一地点的事件，是导致那一事件的行为，是我们看不到的部分，是无法定格在照片里的那一事件。在此，人们可以说区志航作品的主旨是视觉空白，是看不到却深深印在人们脑海里的东西。

对于引起公众的反应和议论的事件，区志航所选择的，常常是官方媒体或网络上报道的那些。譬如温州动车事故现场，香港特别行政长官候选人唐英年九龙的大宅，乌坎村，三鹿牛奶公司的总部和北京烧毁的央视大楼，四川地震的一处废墟，最近还有南方周末的办公大楼。作品中所有的照片都与媒体高度关注、对中国当代有所启示的事件相关。当然他也会选择有待引起关注的事件。区志航精心选择作品的对象，绝大部分的地点与当前的事件相关。也有一些是过去已经发生的，那是因为当时供当代社会处理或讨论的时机还未成熟。在此区志航需要依靠自己对实际情况做出判断。电视记者的工作经历，使区志航能够理智地保持自己所处的环境的判断。

有些人讲起区志航的作品，可能会使用“重复”一词。因为他把裸体俯卧撑作为构图的特质不断重复。然而，我们应该使用“坚持”这样的词语，因为他的艺术作品不仅是传统意义上的创作。尽管重复在构图中，或是作为当代艺术的一个概念，被安迪·沃霍尔、河原温等艺术家使用过并频繁使用，它还可以有很多不同的涵义。重复的意象或者艺术家的艺术风格，影响着我们对意象的认知体会，基本上让我们的记忆重新运作。大众媒体的炒作与宣传也是同理运转的。这些不同但相似的媒体，通过重复所构想的欲求，每天影响着我们的思想。但数量不多，信息也很局限，将很简单的意象与简化的信息关联起来，像性感女郎与炫目汽车，政客与微笑的人民等。20世纪60年代，安迪·沃霍尔重复使用明亮的色彩，著名的人物、奶牛和亨氏番茄罐头汤。他对这种宣传策略和广告模式的使用（最多只是）反映了新的消费主义时期以及深深印刻在六十年代美国的那些宣传。

区志航在他的作品中使用“重复”,但那不是构图上的重复,也不是修辞上的重复,而是一种具有不断改变且明显的题材。这是关于事件本身的概念行为。当然他的行为本身也是一种存在，存在于公共场所而不是在艺术家的私人工作室里。他的行为固然令人有所体会，被意识到，而行为的意图并不是要吸引人们对区志航的注意，或是将艺术作品当成一种商业的东西吸引人们的关注，其目的在于吸引人们关注对象本身。那是一个重复且坚持的动作。因为每一次都是新的情况，常常变化，所以区志航作品的背景情况和位置从来都是不一样的。

如果区志航的系列作品《那一刻》是以历史为其时间主线创作的，那么其创作的过程分为四个分线。首先是调查、准备和实地考察，其次是完成动作和拍摄，第三是在网络上面向大众媒体传播作品，最后则是广泛地对作品涵义展开诠释与发展。最后一个时间线是非常重要的，因为他的题材和变化以及现时情况会让他的作品和作品的未来持续不断地被赋有意义。这些时间线相互依赖，并取决于事件当前的情况和发展。尽管调查、准备、计划和实地考察占用了绝大部分的时间，但是拍照本身却是迅速完成的。

人们可以在区志航的录像记录中看到，他脱下外衣，裸着身子跑向确切的位置，趴下，摆上几秒俯卧撑的姿势，而不是上下做俯卧撑，然后跑回去，穿上他的衣服。这个过程让我们想起了游击战术。虽然为他动作的施行和拍摄对现场准备了很久，但区志航随后所做的可以说是“闪电动作(snap-action)”，就像拍快照一样，但迅速做出反应的，是人本身。区志航动作的时长取决于他能在公共场所裸体呆多久，但他的照片全都具有画像或是全家福照片从容平静的特点，似乎那个在城市或自然风景中裸着身体以水平的姿势背对着我们的人总在那里。

虽然区志航的动作只用几秒钟，但那个快速的动作和瞬间完成的照片将永远与我们同在。这也是他作品的焦点所在，它将构成中国历史上具有变革意义的短暂时刻的历史。事实上，区志航的创作围绕的是历史的记忆，不是被书写的历史，而是记忆本身，也是我们共同的记忆。也可以说他的创作涉及记忆的政治意味，即事件被铭记、被记录或是被遗忘的方式。区志航强调着艺术影响集体记忆，影响我们如何记住或忘记所发生的事情。在他的作品中，没有阐释的言语，而是把作品开放给人们自己去记忆，开放给事件去展开、发展，让作品获得新的信息和解读。

提问、质疑的勇气和责任决定了区志航作品的简明风格。问题是复杂的，区志航的作品也比最初的呈现更复杂而深刻。正是这种视觉和概念的简明性以及多方面的双重性让作品如此出众。简单和勇气是明显的，思想的深度默默地展现。这一点在区志航的作品中是很清晰的。印证了德国戏剧家贝尔托·布莱希特在20世纪30年代早期说过的一句非常正确的话“最难达到的就是简单”，也印证了另外一位学者林语堂非常正确的一句话“简朴是思想深刻的标志和象征”。

显然，区志航是中国新世纪的艺术家。很高兴能够在“优游当代艺术中心”的启动展上推介他与他的作品。这是全新开放的标志，展示一部突出的、有争议的、前沿的、人性的，最重要是贴近普通百姓的作品。这是一个新的开始。

（翻译：樊林、吴忻悦）

OU ZHIHANG : PUSH-UPS  

OF MEMORY

curator Jonas Stampe

To attain knowledge, add things everyday;

to obtain wisdom, remove things everyday. Lao Tse

At 6 o'clock in the morning in front of medical institute of Zhengzhou city (Henan provnce)  a man takes off his overcoat, runs a few meters, goes down to the ground and makes a push-up - naked . Ou Zhihang, has just realized one of his Events, a body of work which is as critical as it is impressive.  

The simplicity of Ou Zhihang's work, his courage, perseverence and I should say independence, makes up what today probably is one of the most cutting-edge and socially engaged contemporary artists in China. Low profiled and resolved, Ou Zhihang just can't stop to bring up the societal problems that surrounds him. Whether it concerns subjects such as work camps, mental hospitals, black prisons (private companies keeping people imprisoned illegaly), social inequalities, legal inconsistencies, real estate scandals, food scams, corruption, police brutality, media censorship, insider affairs, or just simple injustices to common people ; he is there. Although keeping a low profile on the art scene, his work has today become high profiled and reknown in society. Ou Zhihang is like a socially engaged Andy Warhol in the internet age. 

Because internet is at the heart of his work. Working thoroughly with his actions, taking photos, videos, he follows it up using the internet as a distribution system. It is as simple as the push-up itself, and it is efficient. With several hundreds of millions of visits to his blogs and microblogs, he has reached his objective to let "art influence people". Because for Ou Zhihang everything is about the role and function of art. Shall art only be an aesthetic object presented and speculated on in the secluded small circles that makes up the art world ? Ou Zhihang says no, and does so vehemently. He believes that art can influence people and society, to make it better, to improve it, to stimulate people's owns minds and actions to do good. Maybe he is an utopist, but he has the will and he is determined. And of course in making art, it naturally becomes a part of history. When he denounces the dysfunctions in society, he does so with the conviction that his work stands up for a just cause, and for ordinary people, that his work is not only important for China and its people, but for its future. 

The artist's total understanding of the information system with Chinese characteristics in the internet age, makes him not only use the internet as his principal source of distribution, but also of information. However, it is not for this reason that he should be described as a conceptual artist more than anything else. His work  just can't be limited after the media he uses, whether it is performance, photography, video or for that matter the internet. 

If Ou Zhihang's work is as pure as it is self-disinterested, he does everything not to alienate himself from the preoccupations of ordinary people or society. He doesn't want his work to be contained in a parallel secluded art system, but rather let it "breath the air of the people". So that common man can be with him in the long march that he initiated more than twelve years ago.  Ou Zhihang takes responsability for his work, for his actions, and its distribution. It is clear that all issues, all his works can not be unveiled when they happen. Some have to wait until better days... But as most things in his country, and he knows it very well, everything is a question of time. And moreover, he has time on his side, history is with him, yes one can even say that history is in its most profound sense the subject of his work. It is China and its people that he is concerned with. It is in this sense that he is a pure artist, and in the making of becoming a popular legend.  Give him ten more years and you will see...

The simplicity of Ou Zhihang's work is manifest in the pure action he perpetuates in each of them : a naked push-up. It is not the subject matter, but the created image used to highlight the events he is concerned about. It is an action with a strong symbol value, that draw attention to the real issues, themselves mediated through the location of where they happened. The push-up and the location, functions as physical realities that makes us relate to the real event, and the broader underlying societal issues.  But if the apparent subject matter is the event itself, what the artist really works with is on a more profound level : it is our understanding of it. Our knowledge, what we have read, what we know, it is about information and ourselves, finally it is about our collective memory.

As a popular component of physical education in primary and secondary school, the push-up is basically a training exercice of strength and endurance, used collectively by sports team and in the military. It is an exercice which can be done individually for instance by prisoners in penitentaries, but it is usually realized collectively in a leader directed group with a customized "call and response" routine, in order to increase group cohesion and discipline. It is also used as a physical punishment. 

In respect to these normal uses, Ou Zhihang's push-up  appears to be the complete opposite. He is there alone, and it is clearly not a test of endurance nor strength. He is just doing his push-up naked in solitude by his own free will for a few seconds, and then dissappears. It seems that his action have nothing in common with either notions of group cohesion, discipline or for that matter punishment.  

However, the location of choice and fact of doing it naked emphasises the symbol value of the action, as a metaphor for something else. It is this unreal image of someone doing a push-up naked in public space, for everyone to see, that  speaks to us. It is what transforms his action into a symbol open to all its possible significations. To be interpreted as both an expression of collective cohesion, of individual freedom, of discipline, as a call and response action, of strength and endurance, of vulnerability, or for that matter as a punishment, self-inflicted or by society. It is an image that signifies its opposites, in an action that reunites them. Like yin and yang.

One crucial aspect in regard to the push-up is that most people have realized it at least once in their lifes, so everybody can refer to it in one way or another. Evoking personal souvenirs whether it is from school, sports or the military. Briefly, it is an action with which people can identify, and that can be understood both emotionally and intellectually. It is a popular icon with different and multi-layered significations. This possible and common identification with the artist's action is vital for the efficiency and function of the work.

When we consider that naked photography, not to speak about social criticism,  thirty years ago could lead to capital punishment, the photographs of Ou Zhihang take on another meaning.  Although nude models are still used in painting classes as a subject of exercice, the naked body when used in Chinese action art is still a sensitive subject. This despite it being utilized in performance art since Yves Kleins's first historic work Antropométhries when the French artist used naked women models as his paint brushes. However, Ou Zhihang is using his body following the notion of the Naked, in opposition to the Nude, as outlined in John Berger's influential book Ways of Seeing (1973). In Ou Zhihangs' work it is a representation of the pure human being, exposed in its extreme  fragility. It is so to speak the vulnerability of the individual in todays society and surrounding world that is presented in its most existential expression. 

To understand its importance in Ou Zhihang's work, we just have to imagine the same image with the artist dressed or his body covered. It would clearly not touch us in the same way. It is this contrast of the naked body in public space which gives the action a transcendant signification, going beyond the ordinary. It not only enhances its symbolism, it brings us closer to the human and to the subject matter of what happened at the location. To those involved, but absent in the photograph. It strengthens the meaning of pure resistance inherent in the push-up, as well as its double connotations to endurance and to self-punishment or for that matter confinement. The naked body presented in public space draw our attention to what is at hand in a most expressive way. 

In respect to this, the naked body in Ou Zhihang's work also functions as an uncovering in public. It is a representaton of an unveiling of  what is hidden and covered-up in regard to what have happened. The events and locations selected by the artist is quite often dealing with incidents related to an event in which attempts have been made to hide it from public knowledge. Something that the perpetuators or responsible agents have tried to cover-up, but that have been revealed and made public. Because of the citizens concerns and investigations. The artist's naked body, denotes as such not only the opposite of the covered-up, but embodies furthermore concepts like courage, openness, and a total transparency, having nothing to hide. Not only in respect to the incident or the event, but to life itself.  The uncovering of his own body is central in Ou Zhihang's work, as is the uncovering of the incident, the event, of what has happened. This parallel, between his own uncovered body and the uncovered event, appears simple, but is as dramatic as it is problematic.  

 After having chosen which event he wants to confront and include in his work, the artist goes to the location of the incident and scouts the surroundings to select the spot for his push-up. This part is of natural reasons crucial to his work. He has to consider at that very moment how to realize it. To chose a place where he can dress off and do his push-up without being apprehended, or being too visible for bypassers, police or eventual private guards. Simultaneously he have to consider the composition of his photograph, its framing and perspective, and of course its focused target. As anyone can understand, its realization is a matter of detailed planning and of timing.  

An important factor in this regard, is that Ou Zhihang usually realizes his work by himself, without having a team around him. First of all it would draw too much attention, but also give a staged quality to his action. It all has to be natural and realized by himself. So he has nobody there to assist him, either for the photography, video documentation or any kind of possible help. He doesn't even tell anyone that he is going somewhere to do a work. He is there on his own.  

It is a self chosen solitude and carries with it a meaning which we all can feel in his pictures. Realizing his work in complete solitude, making what normally is a collective exercice in public space and on his own has of course a signification. If the image and the action itself presents us with a solitude, it emphasizes the signification of individual action which is so poignant in his work. When looking at the photographs one senses a loneliness. One can see and feel that this is not a staged work with a team surrounding it. It is kept simple, it is just one action being realized in one place, by one man. This is taken further in the composition and the framing of the photographs, with one lonely person doing a push-up in a huge waste land of ruins, in front of a skyscraper, on a motorway, under a bridge, in front of a monumental statue, on the top of a building, in a vast natural landscape, etc. It is a single man in solitary action, punishing or strengthening himself, confronting with fragility, the location of the event, facing it in defiance.  A vulnerability accentuated by the fragility of the naked body exposed in public space. It is the ultimate image of civil resistance and of human courage. A resistance to an event where power, position and money in some way have dominated the human, and life itself.  

Ou Zhihang's compositional emphasis on the single individual's own action is also a method to enhance a possible identification, which enables the viewer to identify with him, with the action, and embrace it. It is a call to all of us to react to our surrounding world, to do like him, as individuals and in that sense as a collective.  It is here that his work functions in itself as a call and response routine. But it can also suggest that his action is made by all of us, common people's push-ups, as the title of the exhibition suggests. 

It is essential for the understanding of his work, that the location and the subsequent photograph is not chosen by the artist, but by the event itself. This eliminates much of the artistic aesthetization on his own part, and adher to the non-hierarchic position taken and developed by Marcel Duchamp in his historic conceptual work and action Fountain.  A similar non-choice, of non-hierarchy and functionality, is clearly present in the work of Ou Zhihang. Yes, the scenery in his photographs can be beautiful, even exceptional like in Forbidden City but it is ususally quite ordinary if not banal. Whether it is a fence to a factory, an entrance to a building, a narrow street, a skyscraper, a construction site, a monument, a police station, a high road, a natural landscape, a city hall, etc. what is important is not the visual beauty but the concept of the Event. Nevertheless, studying his work closely it is possible to detect a consciousness in its composition, its framing, perspective, with the direction of the artist's body or the position of his head usually turned to and looking at the target of his action.  

His photographic work differ from most of his contemporary conceptual artists using photography as their main media. Whether we speak about a Cindy Sherman or for that matter a John Baldessari.  Of course the subject matter and the social engagement is not the same. Unlike most of them Ou Zhihang  is much less concerned with the formal aspects of his work, which he has reduced to a minimum. What is of importance for him is the idea, and the direct or transcendant subject matter. In one way, Ou Zhihang works with the visual void, using the photographs as agents of memory.

If his work depends on many variables, each is important in the process leading up to the actual shooting. First the basic question is which location to choose, or rather, which incident to showcase as a part of his work. Which event is of interest and importance to the public, and in a wider perspective to history.  His subject matter is what happened at the location, the actions that led up to it, what is invisible for us all, the event that can't be fixed in a photograph. It is here that one could say that his motif is the visual void. What is visually absent, but highly present in peoples minds. 

The events that he choses are usually mediatized either in official media or on the internet, as events that have led to a public reaction and discussion. Whether his chosen location is the Wenzhou railway accident, the Kowloon home of Henry Tang (former contender to the Chief Executive office in Hong Kong), Wukan village, the headquarters of or the  Sanlu milk company, the burned down CCTV skyscraper in Beijing, or one ruin of the Sichuan earthquake, or more recently the building of the Southern Weekly news magazine, his pictures have all a relation to an event with a strong media attention and implication in respect to a moment in contemporary Chinese history. But of course he also choses events that haven't yet reached a national attention. Selecting his subject with care, most are locations of recent incidents, although some can be Events that have happened in the past, but not yet been ripe for contemporary society to handle or discuss.  Here Ou Zhihang has to rely on his own judgement about the actual situation.  He is of natural reasons, as a former TV-journalist, aware about the context in which he acts. 

Some would maybe use the term of repetition in relation to Ou Zhihang's work. That he is repeating the naked push-up as a compositional quality. However, we would rather use the term persevering, since his art work is not only a created object in the tradititional sense. Although repetition have been and is frequently used in the composition or as a concept in contemporary art, by artists like Andy Warhol or On Kawara and many others, it can have several different significations. The repeated image or artistic "style" of the artist, influences our cognitive identification of an image, basically reworking our memory. The same can be said about how mass media, propaganda and publicity works. These different but similar media influences our minds everyday, through repetition of supposed desires, needs, wants. But they are all quite minimal and limited in their messages, associating simple images to a simplified message : sexy girls with shiny cars, politicians surrounded by smiling people, etc.  Andy Warhol's use of publicity strategies and advertising formats in the 1960's in his repetition of bright colours, famous people or for that matter cows and Heinz tomato soup cans, mirrored (at best) the new age of consumerism and publicity which so heavily marked the US in the 1960's. 

Although Ou Zhihang uses repetition in his work it is not as a compositional repetition, not a rethorical repetition, but rather as a conceptual action.  With an ever changing apparent subject matter, the event in question. His action is of course a reality in itself, taking place in public space and not in the privacy of the artist studio. Yes, it is identifiable, and it is conscious. But it doesn't have the intention to draw attention to the person, or the art work as a commercial object, as much as to the subject itself. As such it is both an act of perseverance and repetition, since each situation is a new one, and quite changeable. The contextual situation and the position of his work is never the same. 

If Ou Zhihang series Events work with history as its principal time line, the process of his work are related to four other. One is concerned with the research, preparation and travel to the location, a second with the realization of his action and the photography, and a third with its distribution on the internet and towards mass media, and a fourth which goes beyond his own control of course, the interpretation and development of signification in relation to his work. This latter timeline is quite important since his subject matter and its transformative qualities open the work and its  future  continuous significations. These timelines are all dependent on each other and on the current context and developments in relation to the event. Although the research, preparation and planning and travel is what takes most time, the shooting of it goes fast. 

As one can see in Ou Zhihang's video documentation, he takes off his overcoat and runs naked into the exact spot of his action, goes down, makes a static push-up for a few seconds, than rises up again, runs back and takes on his over-coat. Its a procedure that reminds us of guerrilla tactics. Although preparing the spot for his action and his camera, he then do what we could call a snap-action, like a photographic snap-shot but inverse. If the timeline of his action is dependent on how long he can be naked in public, his photographs do all transpire the calm and static quality of a portrait or a family photo. As if the naked man with his back turned to us in his horizontal position in the urban or natural landscape has always been there.  

Although Ou Zhihang's action only takes a few seconds, the snap-action and the one-shot photograph will be there with us forever.  And it is this that his work focuses on, the history of a transformational short moment in China's history. He works in fact with its memory, not its written history, but its memory, our collective memory. One could say that he actually works with the politics of memory, i.e. the means by which events are remembered and recorded, or for that matter discarded... He is addressing the role of art in shaping the collective memory and how we all do remember, or forget about, the events as they happened. In his work there is no stated truth, he leaves them open, to the citizens to remember by themselves, and to the events to unfold and develop, with new information and interpretations.

The courage and responsability towards its context is invigorating in its simplicity. Of course the issues are complex, and Ou Zhihang's work is more complicated and profound than it first appear. But it is this visual and conceptual simplicity and multilayered duality that makes it so outstanding. It is clear in the work of Ou Zhihang that simplicity and courage is apparent and depth of thought quietly present. Confirming what the German playwright Bertoldt Brecht so correctly stated in the early 1930's : "it is simplicity that is difficult to make", or like another intellectual Lin Yutang so correctly stated : "simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of thought".  

Ou Zhihang is clearly an artist of the new millennium in China, and it is as such a pleasure to be able to present him and his work in this inaugurational exhibition at the YouYou Contemporary Art Centre. It is a symbol of a new opening-up, with a work that is singular, controversial, cutting-edge, human and most important, close to common people.  It is a new beginning.

 （文章作者：乔纳斯·斯坦普）

本文来源：网易艺术 责任编辑：尹培佩_NQ4750