When the car drove into the curving village road in Gulao Water Town, what came into view was an ordinary afternoon in an ordinary southern village. In the Ren Art Museum, also called the Ink Fangtang, an ink-painted building completely different from the surrounding rustic red brick houses, I met the visual artist Daniel Kocev Pazamat from Macedonia.
In a slightly closed Guangdong village, there stands an art space with a contemporary avant-garde style from the outside to the inside. A "foreigner" artist with big eyes and deep contours walks in it, always like some unexpected "appropriate" outer".
"Your name is like mine! Both have'Dan!" Daniel is very enthusiastic, and he actively expresses himself in Chinese, but his Chinese is a bit clumsy. Daniel came to China 9 years ago, lived and created in Guangzhou, and is now an executive curator and team leader of "Art Guangdong", a social organization that provides a stable platform for the development of contemporary art in Southeast China.
In the exhibition hall on the third floor of the Ren Art Museum, standing in front of the contemporary installation art work that Daniel has not yet arranged, looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows, you can see the villages, paddy fields and working villagers outside the art space. They seem to have formed a certain rift with the contemporary art in front of them, and they seem to be closely related to the ink and wash colors.
Why did a Macedonian artist come to a remote village in Guangdong to do a contemporary art exhibition?
Outside of appropriateness
This time Daniel came to the Ren Art Museum to set up the two-person art exhibition "Outside of Appropriateness" co-organized by him and another Chinese artist, Zhuang Pan.
The artist Zhuang Pan, who graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, met Daniel during a job. At that time, the staff who worked together took special care of Daniel, the "foreigner". When buying coffee, he only bought a cup for him. Daniel didn't understand the twists and turns, but just upholds the consistent upbringing of kind thoughts, thinking "we are all staff, why only have a cup of coffee? If there is only one cup, then the lady should be the priority", and gave coffee to Zhuang Yan.
From this trivial matter, Zhuang Pan gradually began to understand this young artist from Macedonia, an ancient European civilization, and his works. She found that the works of this humble European "foreigner" seemed completely different from her usual works. Daniel has strong hands-on skills, and his works emphasize the diversity of expression methods, the full sense of strength, and the flexible use of materials, while Zhuang Pan especially likes to pay attention to the actions of ordinary people and reproduce them through his own creative art.
After seeing the appearance of the Ren Art Museum, he almost agreed to come over and set up the exhibition immediately—he liked it very much, including this quiet village and the art space where his works were about to be displayed in front of him.
When discussing holding the exhibition, Zhuang Pi suddenly thought of Daniel. "My works are more uniform in form. Daniel's works have installations, videos, and paintings with different materials, which are relatively rich." Can I make a very different exhibit in the Gulao Water Town where the Ren Art Museum is located, in the countryside of Guangdong, A two-person exhibition of contemporary art with strong conflict?
Daniel, who came to "look at the venue", almost without hesitation, after seeing the appearance of the Ren Art Museum, he agreed to come over and set up the exhibition immediately-he likes this place very much, including this quiet village, and the art that is about to show his work in front of him. space.
Daniel found it very fresh, an exhibition experience he had never had before. "Different venues will have different chemical reactions." Putting highly contemporary works of art in such a village and such an art gallery, waiting to be appreciated by people who do not know what kind of art is good and well-trained. "This is a great game, and we can better exhibit art by creating this span."
In this exhibition, Daniel discovered that his installation art work "Pillars of Creation" (Pillars of Creation) has a new meaning in the collision of Ren Art Museum. This installation has a Lego-like concept at the time of creation, and can be fine-tuned according to the size of the exhibition space. Unlike the traditional art galleries and galleries, which are cramped and cramped with few panes in the past, the Ren Art Museum has a large and bright space, and its multiple functions also make its space and artwork blend with each other, which is provided by the flexible "Pillars of Creation". Opens up more possibilities.
"I think this time, my work can breathe."
Within appropriate
With the gradual improvement of the exhibition arrangement, Zhuang Pan discovered that he originally thought the highlight of this exhibition was the extreme difference brought about by the contrast and collision between himself and Daniel’s works. Unexpectedly, with the arrangement of the exhibits, the two people’s creative ideas deepened The point of fit, on the contrary, is highlighted by breaking through the encirclement.
Zhuang Bin’s painting "Fireworks Maker" is exhibited side by side with a 6-meter-long painting of special materials by Daniel. Although one expresses the beauty neglected by the welder at work, the other abstractly conveys the natural phenomena and phenomena in the universe. The process of energy change, but the collision of light and electricity, and the fascination with dark space make the two works complement each other.
Zhuang Di found it very interesting. "Through this exhibition, we actually found some coincident points."
"Everything in the universe is related to each other, and the existence of one thing has an inevitable correlation value with the existence of other things." This expression, which sounds very similar to the core of Chinese Eastern philosophy, is the creation that Daniel has always adhered to. idea.
Living in a priest’s family since childhood, Daniel grew up listening to philosophy and religion. The Eastern philosophy that he came into contact with when he was in college made him feel that "this is it". After that, he was born in pursuit of art all the way, and the charm of Eastern philosophy guided him to China secretly, which also constituted his first understanding of China.
The vast rural land on the Chinese land and the urban village environment seen in Guangzhou not only reminded him of his hometown far away in Macedonia, but also gave him a re-examination of his artistic creation.
Daniel prefers the country to the stereotyped city. Even in the intersection of urban and rural areas like the village in the city, walking in it will trigger his thinking about social status and interpersonal relationships. "People are actually the same. They have eyes and noses. They eat and walk." During the 9 years of living in China, Daniel discovered, "No matter which country you are in, the same topics are discussed at the dinner table: work. , House, land..." No matter which country the old man passed away, his family members would still argue in sorrow about the ownership of the inheritance.
