谭平的语言是抽象的。看似极简风格的圆、线和点，大大小小，在饱满的色彩里面穿梭——宛如一个孩童的涂鸦，自由从容，讲述着他所迷恋的故事。对于孩童，应该并不知到什么叫“抽象”——每个形状和颜色都有具体的表征；也不会管什么是“极简”——故事中有最丰富的情感。

　　为了2012年底即将在中国美术馆圆厅举办的个展，谭平为这个特定空间度身订做了一件作品。在这件宽四十米的深灰色长卷中，什么都没有，只有一根白线——从头至尾一气呵成——像光芒一样划过画面的中心。仍是那个沿着墙面奔跑的孩童，留下一行顽皮的痕迹，圈点了这个中国最具官方权威性的美术馆空间。

　　在印制这张名为《四十米》的作品过程中，背在作品后面的垫纸上自然而然地出现了两行四十米长的油墨。在艺术家看来，这是另一件作品，并把它叫做《负四十米》——“虽为无意中的偶得，却像是经过精心设计和制作，充满着微妙的视觉变化及其在理性限定下而产生的严密逻辑。”那件没有“预见”的恰恰激发一次对“作品”的新的思考——真正自由的艺术往往潜藏在那些既定的章法之外。在本届广州三年展广东美术馆的展厅中展出的《负四十米》与“正本”同时独立存在，依旧那般抽象的言辞。作为同一个制作程序中所诞生的两件作品，原有的“主体”和“附件”之间的关系也已经悄然消失了。它们血脉相连，却不在同一个美术馆空间同时呈现；它们不仅在视觉上同时也在精神上互为补足，并能遥遥相望——以其中一个的“在场”验证着另一个的“缺席”。在美术馆的空间里，当我们回望那些“废纸”上的图像时，所有关于主次、正负、在朝在野的说教全都失去了力量，而那两行断续油墨间的留白又何尝不是一道更加耀眼的光芒。

　　The language of Tan Ping is abstract. His minimalist circles, lines and dots, large or small, freely and leisurely shuttle through the bright colours – as a child doodling to tell his own story. To a child, he wouldn’t necessarily understand what is so-called ‘abstract’, or care about ‘minimalism’, since each shape and colour must have been represented perfectly figuratively for the narratives with the richest sensibility.

　　For his solo exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in the end of 2012, Tan Ping tailored a new piece specifically for the Round Hall of the Museum. In this 40 metres long dark grey woodprint, there is nothing, but one single white line – carved from the left to the right in one go – as a beam of light swept through the centre of the scroll. It is still that child running alongside the curved wall of the Round Hall to leave the line of trace, as a huge ring, circling the most authoritative art space in China.

　　During the process of making this 40 Metres, there simultaneously appeared two parallel lines of marks on the paper sheets originally placed underneath the actual work to prevent the excessive ink. To the artist, these sheets became another piece of work, -40 Metres, which had been “achieved accidentally outside the proposed agenda, yet equally significant in terms of the subtle variety of visual presentation as well as the sense of rationality.” The unexpected piece urges us to re-think the notion of ‘artwork’, whilst the real freedom of art always lies beyond the constructed framework. Together with the originally envisioned work, the -40 Metres shown at this Guangzhou Triennial is respectively independent, again in an abstract form. Being produced at the same time, these two pieces had removed the boundary between the ‘original’ and the ‘attached’. They still have the kinship, but not to be shown at the same museum space; they are complementary not only visually, but also spiritually, when the ‘present’ can reflect the ‘absent’ in a distance. When one looks back at the image on those ‘waste’ sheets in the Museum, there becomes no distinction of the primary or the secondary, the positive or the negative and the authoritative or the non-authoritative, but only a even stronger and brighter beam of light between the ink marks.

作者：姜节鸿