“这条神秘之路是通往内心的。只有在这里，在我们心中，才存在着永恒的世界——过去与未来。”

——诺瓦利斯（Novalis）

　　"This mysterious road leads to the heart, in which there is an eternal world – the past and future."

– Novalis

俯视“生命场”刘商英个展现场

Overlooking of the "Living Natures – Liu Shangying"

夕阳下的“生命场-刘商英个展”现场

Exhibition view of "Living Natures – Liu Shangying" under the sunset

夜晚星辰下的“生命场-刘商英个展”现场

Exhibition view of "Living Natures – Liu Shangying"under the starry night

“生命场-刘商英个展”海报在荒漠

Poster of "Living Natures – Liu Shangying" in the desert

“生命场-刘商英个展”开幕式

Opening ceremony of the exhibition "Living Natures – Liu Shangying"

　　从北京飞抵银川再到达内蒙古额济纳旗，还需要在高山和荒漠间乘坐一架小飞机，辗转数次大巴，或不舍昼夜驾车穿越绵延不绝的戈壁无人区，无论何种方式，对初次到访的旅人都是极大的考验。然而艺术家刘商英却多次深入这片广袤的荒漠，连续三年、独自一人在黄沙漫天与满目孤绝中进行着大尺幅绘画写生。2017年10月21日，刘商英在额济纳旗汉代关隘遗址“红城”举办个展“生命场”，展出其三年间以额济纳死去千年却不腐不朽的胡杨林为创作对象的31幅大型油画作品。在经历了一场突如其来、几乎烧毁了全部作品的大火后，这个史无前例的野外展览的举办对于艺术家个人来说真正带有“灰烬中重生”的意味。

　　In order to arrive in E'jina Desert in Inner Mongolia, I went to Yinchuan from Beijing by airplane, and then took a small plane across the mountains and desert, as well as taking many times buses though you can drive a car traveling day and night through the continuous Gobi desert and depopulated zone, no matter what kind of transport you use, it is a great challenge for a novice traveler. However, the artist Liu Shangying has repeatedly penetrated this vast desert, for the last three years, staying alone in this lonely place where it is full of yellow sand and sketching large-scale paintings. On October 21, 2017, Liu Shangying held a solo exhibition of"Living Natures – Liu Shangying"at the ruins of the red town, an ancient pass of the Han Dynasty, in the E'jina Desert which features 31 large-scale oil paintings themed on the dead but immortal populus diversifolias in the E'jina Desert over the three years. After experiencing an unexpected fire which almost destroyed all of his works, this unprecedented field exhibition means a"rebirth in the ashes"for the artist himself.

　　早在2011年，刘商英就开始多次深入西藏阿里进行写生创作。对于典型学院派出身的青年艺术家，写生是十分重要的创作方式之一，而很早以前刘商英就明白了图像时代“写生”另外的意义——重要的不是描绘，而是能够跃然纸上的抽象感受。远离都市，将惯性和琐碎削减到最低，进入洪荒自然，是为了“离自己更近”。他享受被一种难以名状的、未知的神秘力量指引。

　　As early as 2011, Liu Shangying began traveling to sketch Ali in Tibet. Being distant from the city, the inertia and trivial things are reduced, entering prehistoric nature in order to be"closer to the self". He enjoys being guided by an indescribable, unknown mysterious force.

中央美院院长范迪安在展览开幕现场

Fan Di'an, President of CAFA, at the opening ceremony of the exhibition"Living Natures – Liu Shangying"

策展人奥利维耶·卡佩兰（Olivier Kaeppelin）在展览现场

Curator Olivier Kaeppelin at the exhibition"Living Natures – Liu Shangying"

艺术家刘商英、中央美术学院院长范迪安、阿拉善盟宣传部长田德志合影

Group photo of the artist Liu Shangying, Fan Di'an, President of CAFA, and Tian Dezhi, Minister of the Publicity Department of Alxa League, China

范迪安院长及众嘉宾观看作品

of Fan Di'an, President of CAFA, and honored guests visited the show

策展人奥利维耶·卡佩兰（Olivier Kaeppelin）

Curator Olivier Kaeppelin

“生命场-刘商英个展”开幕式外国嘉宾

The foreign honored guests at the opening ceremony of the exhibition "Living Natures – Liu Shangying"

　　全景自然：作为一种展览形式的实验性探索

　　A Panoramic Nature: An Experimental Exploration of an Exhibition

　　场地的选择仍然是本次展览最值得探讨的部分。当这个几乎没有先例的展览真正拉开大幕，带给观者异常强烈和复杂的感受，超越“宏大”。地处中国北疆的额济纳人迹罕至，古称居延，是古丝绸之路上的重要一站。土尔扈特蒙古语所称的“先祖之地”，在历史研究中常被作为北匈奴最早的首都，虽坐拥11万平方公里辽阔土地，常住人口仅3万有余，境内多为无人居住的沙漠区域。

　　The choice of venue is the part most worthy of exploration. When the unprecedented exhibition is unveiled, it gave the audience unusually strong and complex feelings, which were beyond the"magnificence". Located in northern China, E'jina Desert is an untraversed region, with the ancient name of "Juran", one important stop on the ancient Silk Road. It was called the "ancestral land"in Tuerhute Mongolia, which was often regarded as the earliest capital of the Northern Huns, with land of 110,000 square kilometers, and only 30,000 residents, the major part of the territory is covered by uninhabited deserts.

　　作为首个利用与现世隔绝的异域场景作为展览现场的艺术家，距今2000年历史的汉代红城遗址在为期15天的展期内，成为这批创作24小时不间断展出的空间场域。这个天马行空的想法源自刘商英一次画作拍摄的偶然经历，当已完成的作品摆到在这个沙漠里兀自屹立的残破城墙前，历史、现实、自然、文明的瞬间交汇所产生的能量极大地激发了艺术家的想象力与决心——“好似生长在一起了”。

 　　As the artist who first used an isolated exotic scene as the site of the exhibition, Liu Shangying presents the show at the ruins of the red town of the Han Dynasty 2000 years ago, for 15 days, the use of creations to form a 24-hour non-stop display space field. This unrestrained idea came from a rare experience of Liu Shangying's when taking a photo of the painting, when the finished works were placed in front of the broken walls in the desert, the energy generated by the instant intersection of history, reality, nature and civilization greatly stimulated the artist's imagination and determination – "like growing together."

　　对于千里迢迢赶来的人们，仍有被吞噬之感。古老的城墙遗存与无垠的戈壁大漠，无不让人感到怅然。时间在如此广阔的空间中似乎静止了，人之渺小形如蝼蚁。尽管是如此强有力的画作，伫立在这远古荒原中仍觉吃力，好似刘商英作画途中被风暴不由分说地裹挟——艺术家把创作现场强烈的情感激荡和失真的体验同样带给了来到展览现场的观众，“笔触行动的痕迹似乎与流淌的额济纳大地具有同构的关系。”自我、画布、颜料，就是这广袤宇宙中微尘一般的存在。它们从自然中生发，最终回归自然。

　　It seems to swallow up people coming from afar. The artist brings the audience who is present at the exhibition a passionate and distorted experience of the on-site creation "the traces of the strokes seem to have an isomorphic relationship with the flowing earth of E'jina." The self, canvas and pigments are like the dust in the universe. They are born in nature and eventually return to nature.

“生命场-刘商英个展”作品局部

work displayed at the "Living Natures – Liu Shangying", details

　　这个遗世而独立的户外场域，偶然出现的“人”已不是最重要的观者。天地、日月、星辰从黑夜到黎明的守望与阅读，风沙、霜露的肆虐与纠缠，与作品构成了最重要的互动关系。刘商英将自己对“生命场”的理解通过此种绘画方式与展览方式表达出来，他舍弃了传统美术馆展览空间会带来的公共性探讨，承担着作品随时可能被摧毁的风险，虔诚地将作品献给天地，以完成一场与自然的真正对话。从这一层面来看，无论从绘画行动的出发点还是绘画观看的完成度，艺术家刘商英都属于极为纯粹和理想主义的代表。

　　尽管这是一件极具挑战性的工作，刘商英和他的工作团队还是克服了重重困难让这次展览得以实现。他们不断寻找在巨大风沙下更有效的固定方式，并尽最大努力掌握好作品在这个自然空间的节奏——作品与城墙之间的关系，作品与宽广荒漠之间的关系，作品与作品之间的关系，人在作品间穿行的路线与进出城墙的感知，画面的朝向、顺序、内容与时空文明的交流……他们运用等比例缩小的模型尝试各种作品摆放的方案，像一个作曲家演奏音乐，在辽阔大地和古城墙边创作出或短促跳跃或深远长鸣的音符。

　　This unique and independent outdoor field, the "man"that occasionally appeared is not the most important viewer. The watching and reading of the heaven & earth, sun & moon, and stars from night to dawn, raging & entanglements of the wind & sand and the frost, together with the work constitutes the most important interactive relationships. Liu Shangying expressed his understanding of the "Living Natures" through the paintings and exhibition, abandoning the exhibition space of traditional art museums to bring an exploration of nature, bearing the challenge of the works which may be destroyed at any time, devoutly offering his works to heaven and earth, to complete a real dialogue with nature. Seen from this perspective, regardless of the starting point and the extent of completion of the painting, the artist Liu Shangying is one of the representatives who is extremely pure and idealist. Although it is a very challenging job, Liu Shangying and his team still overcame the difficulties to finish the exhibition.

额济纳旗汉代关隘红城遗址“生命场-刘商英”个展现场

Exhibition view of "Living Natures – Liu Shangying"at the ruins of the red town, an ancient pass of the Han Dynasty, in the E’jina Desert

　　从仰望天空到俯视大地：近年来的创作脉络

　　From Looking at the Sky to Overlooking the Earth: the Creative Context in Recent Years

　　从西藏阿里无人之境到内蒙古额济纳旗荒漠，不断深入极端自然环境让刘商英的脸越发黝黑，神情亦难掩艰辛。近三年来，刘商英以每年一次个展的密度高强度工作，2015年在中国美术馆举办“空故纳万境”，2016年于常熟美术馆举办“青山半入城”，2017年在内蒙额济纳红城举办“生命场”。马路教授认为，“商英的画，一直都有一个很强的‘生命’的线索。”

　　In the past three years, Liu Shangying has held a solo show every year, including"Myriad Vision Rise from the World" held at the National Art Museum of China in 2015,"Blue Mountains Loons into the Town"held in Changshu Art Museum in 2016, and"Living Natures – Liu Shangying" held at the ruins of the red town in the E'jina Desert in 2017. Prof. Ma Lu said that,"Shangying's paintings have always had a strong clue of life".

　　西藏部分的画被学者认为是“相对经典传统的写生”，尽管2011年阿里写生的经历是他近年来创作转折的起点。这批作品呈现出抽象表现主义的风格，我们仍能依稀找到天际线、远山、湖泊、蓝天这些具体的物象。第一次面对广袤洪荒，刘商英感到绘画彻底失语。深入其境，他不得不放弃掉传统的绘画经验，不再拘泥于绘画语言形态或风格样式的考究，而投身于身体力行的“朴素劳动”之中，平静下来的过程让他“感到踏实”。这是他与自然对话的开始，亦成为绘画生涯的转折。

　　Part of the paintings themed on Tibet is considered as "the relative classic traditional sketch" by the scholars, although these works show an abstract expressionist style, we can still vaguely find specific objects such as the skyline, mountains, lakes and blue sky. When Liu first faced the vast prehistoric place, he felt that paintings were totally dumbfounded. Going deep into the place, he had to abandon the experiences of traditional painting, failed rigidly in adhering to the form of painting language & an elegant style, and engaged in the practice of "simple labor",while the calm process made him"feel at ease". It was the beginning of his dialogue with nature, which has also become a turning point in his painting career.

　　常熟系列是刘商英创作中的一个形同“疗伤”的插曲。一次噩梦般的经历，使得常熟之行之展成为他重新出发的过渡期。2016年春天，应常熟美术馆馆长吴文雄之邀，刘商英来到江南常熟进行写生创作。创作进行到一半，一个雷雨交加的夜晚，电路导致的一场大火将工作室的所有存画烧毁殆尽，包括所有西藏时期作品、内蒙古额济纳旗的写生以及常熟已完成的作品。作为大火的亲历者深知现场之惨烈与触目惊心，刘商英多年的心血付之一炬。经历一段时间的消沉与低落，他终于艰难地重拾画笔。虽是江南小景，但刘商英在常熟的创作却融入自己对地域历史、文化、生活的感知，呈现出一个偏离大众视觉经验的深邃厚重的江南。

　　Changshu series is an episode which is similar to"healing"for the artist's creation. In the spring of 2016, Liu Shangying was invited by Wu Wenxiong, Director of the Changshu Art Museum, to visit Changshu in the regions south of the Yangtze River to sketch. During the creation, all the paintings stored in his studio were destroyed by a fire which was caused by the circuit failure during a thunderstorm including all the works finished in Tibet, the sketches in E'jina, Inner Mongolia, as well as the works finished in Changshu. As a witness to the fire, he experienced the tragic and the shocking, losing all the creations he had made over many years. After a period of depression, he finally recovered and started drawing. Although it is only the refined landscapes of the regions south of the Yangtze River, Liu Shangying's creation in Changshu was blended in his own perception of geographical history, culture and life, showing the deep & heavy regions south of the Yangtze River which deviate from the public visual experience.

额济纳旗汉代关隘红城遗址“生命场-刘商英”个展现场

Exhibition view of "Living Natures – Liu Shangying"at the ruins of the red town, an ancient pass of the Han Dynasty, in the E'jina Desert

　　如果说刘商英在西藏阿里是仰望天空，来到内蒙额济纳则是俯视大地。策展人奥利维耶·卡佩兰（Olivier Kaeppelin）谈到刘商英这批绘画的三个层面，第一层面是他受到中国传统绘画、诗歌及哲学观念的影响，中国古人天人合一的理想，人在宇宙自然中的渺小；第二层面是类似于行动绘画的实验，不同于印象派的户外作画追求光线与物象本身，行动绘画所强调的是身体介入在绘画表达中的拓展。相对于画面留下的痕迹，观看的感受、身体力行的体验以及自然变化在绘画过程中的参与更为重要；第三个层面是艺术与自然的交织，“艺术创造属于它本身的自然，即拥有独立领地、空间与法则的‘第二自然’”，而由绘画或雕塑行为所创造的属于生命的场域，正是刘商英本次展览的核心。

　　While the works of Ali in Tibet look up at the sky, the works of E'jina in Inner Mongolia overlook the earth. Curator Olivier Kaeppelin talked about the three dimensions of Liu Shangying's paintings. Firstly, he was influenced by traditional Chinese painting, poetry and philosophy, the ideal of the ancient Chinese theory that man was an integral part of nature, the minute of people in the nature of the universe; secondly, it was similar to the experiments of action painting, which were different from the Impressionist outdoor painting that was in pursuit of the light and image itself, the action painting emphasized the expansion of the involvement of the body in the expression of painting. The experience of watching, the experience of action, and the natural changes involved in the process of the painting were more important than the traces that remained on the screen; thirdly, the interweaving of art and nature,"art creation belongs to its own nature, namely the 'second nature'that possesses an independent territory, space and laws", and the field of life created by the painting or sculptural actions, was Liu Shangying's core to this exhibition.

俯视“生命场”刘商英个展现场

Overlooking of the "Living Natures – Liu Shangying"

　　神秘之路通往内心：刘商英的绘画观

　　A Mysterious Road Leads to the Heart: Liu Shangying's View of Painting

　　作为最古老也是当代艺术中最难走出新路的艺术形式，绘画的发展及可能性是数字时代全球文化语境共同面临的难题。刘商英关于绘画的思考及其创作方式的探索，不仅在个人实践层面具有突破性意义，更是对当代绘画问题的一种有效回应。

　　As an ancient artistic form which is difficult to develop a new road in contemporary art, the development and possibility of painting is the same problem that is common and faced by all people in this global cultural context of the digital age. Liu Shangying's thought on painting and the exploration of his creative way both has a significance of breakthrough in the individual practice, and an effective response to the problem of contemporary painting. Within an original chaotic ecology, Liu Shangying found a new creative way for landscape painting. He stressed on "at the scene"rather than"painting the scene". Whether he was in a plateau or a desert, overcoming the great physical difficulties on-site to create large-scale paintings, in order to perceive and enter nature through the paintings, and then move towards the heart, searching for the self, rather than to describing the landscape itself.

　　在原始混沌的生态中，刘商英找到一种新的风景画创作方式。他强调“在现场”却不是为了“画现场”。不论是高原还是荒漠，克服体力上的巨大困难进行现场大尺幅创作，并不为了去描绘风景本身，而是通过绘画感知自然、进入自然，继而走向内心、寻到自我。与自然的博弈能够将他的感受放大，从而更专注于直觉，在可控与不可控的边缘，人与画便成为自然的一部分……“所有行为都是自然形成的，相互融合，所有的体验都令人激动，近乎完美。”

　　Olivier Kaeppelin questioned himself and the artist about"nature and art, which is more viable?"Olivier Kaeppelin believes that works of art are a projection of nature on the human mind, allowing the"death"to have an eternal life, so that art has a longer life than nature. Liu Shangying believes that the vitality of art lies on the spiritual level, with some kind of inspiration for the future; while the natural vitality has always been in the same place with the same form. They are mysterious and holy, quietly living hidden in the objective phenomenon, over and over again.

　　“自然与艺术，究竟谁更有生命力？”奥利维耶·卡佩兰向自己发问，更向艺术家发问。他认为艺术作品是人类心灵对自然的一种投射，能让“死亡”永生，因而艺术比自然具有更长久的生命力。而刘商英认为，艺术的生命力更多是精神层面的，具有某种对未来的启示；而自然的生命力在于它永远在那里，始终如一。它们都带有某种神秘和神圣，悄悄隐藏在客观现象之后生生不息。

　　German philosopher Friedrich Schelling saw both the"spirit of the world"in nature and people's minds, while the nature and spirit is actually the appearance of the same thing. Therefore, the romantic poet Novalis revealed to the secretary that: "A mysterious road leads to the heart".It means that all of nature exists in the hearts of people, if one can enter his own heart, he will be close to the mystery of the world.

　　德国哲学家弗里德里希·谢林（Friedrich Schelling）在大自然中看到了“世界精神”，但他也在人类心灵中看到同样的“世界精神”，自然与精神事实上都是同一事物的显现。故而浪漫主义诗人诺瓦利斯（Novalis）道破玄机：“神秘之路通往内心。”意为，整个大自然都存在于人的心中，如果人能进入自己的心中，将可以接近世界的神秘。

额济纳旗汉代关隘红城遗址“生命场-刘商英”个展现场