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2012年初春，“身与竹化——单凡艺术作品展”在苏州博物馆本馆展出，而今十二年之际，我们在西馆再度相逢。

In the early spring of 2012, “Oneness of Body and Bamboo: Shan Fan’s Artworks” was exhibited in Suzhou Museum. And today, twelve years later, we meet again in Suzhou Museum West.

单凡与已故的西馆建筑设计师、德国GMP建筑事务所创始合伙人冯·格康是多年知交，西馆融合了江南街巷传统与现代建筑风格，与单凡对东西文化交融的探索形成了有趣的共振。对于单凡而言，这是个体历程的不息探寻和对故人的眷眷追忆；对于苏州博物馆而言，这是一场重逢与前行的互相映照。

Shan Fan and the late Meinhard von Gerkan were old friends. Von Gerkan was the founding partner of von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects (GMP) in Germany, and as the architect of Suzhou Museum West, he blended the traditional pattern of streets in Jiangnan and modern architectural styles in the building, which, actually, resonates with Shan Fan’s exploration of the cultural integration between the East and the West. In this way, this exhibition is a fond remembrance of the bosom friend for Shan Fan as well as a course of his unceasing self-pursuit. While for Suzhou Museum, this exhibition is a mutual reflection of re-encounter and forward movement.

1959年，单凡出生于杭州，伴随他成长的是安吉的猗猗绿竹。单凡的老师郑德涵是章太炎在苏州国学讲学会的学生，他的艺术起点便源自于“章黄子弟”的传统文人教育，金石篆刻和书法绘画的浸染铺陈了他如今蓬勃创作的深韵底色。1984年，单凡赴德留学，开启了持续四十年的文化探寻之旅。2006年，他确定“竹子”为创作母题，这近二十年的探索趋近于一场心灵迁徙，或许从背身离去的瞬间开始，竹子就成为他寻求归宿的精神符号。

In 1959, Shan Fan was born in Anji , a county of Hangzhou, which is famous for green bamboos. Shan Fan’s teacher was Zheng Dehan, student of Zhang Taiyan at the National Learning Society in Suzhou. Educated as traditional Chinese literati by the “Zhang-Huang School”, he was exposed to epigraphy, seal cutting, calligraphy and painting since he started his artistic career, which laid a solid foundation for his current artistic creation. In 1984, Shan Fan went to study in Germany, and began his cultural pursuit that lasted for forty years. In 2006, he decided to take “bamboo” as the main subject of his creation. The exploration of culture in the past 20 years is kind of a spiritual migration for Shan Fan as to some extent the bamboo has become his spiritual sustenance from the moment he left his hometown.

《瞬时之作》和《缓时之作》是单凡关于竹子的现代化实验中最为丰富的两个系列，既是时间尺度上的不同进程，更是将东方故土记忆和西方生活经历相融相即的独特结果。

“Painting The Moment” and “Painting Slowness” were two of the richest series of Shan Fan’s practice on bamboos’ modernization, which are not only different processes in terms of time scale, but also the unique result of blending the memory of his homeland in the East with the experience of his life in the West.

《瞬时之作》延续了中国绘画传统，采用毛笔、水墨和宣纸等传统媒介，呈现了“急起从之，振笔直遂”的视觉笔法。然而，其后支撑的形式语言却是严谨清晰的包豪斯现代构成法度。在这须臾而成的挥墨阵洒中，东方感性与西方理性交叠验证，单凡年少时所习得的行笔经验和在德国积累的视觉逻辑在此刻也殊途同归。

“Painting The Moment” continues the tradition of Chinese painting, using the traditional mediums of writing brush, ink and Xuan paper to present a visual brushwork that is “quick to start and straight to finish” while the underlying formal language is the strict and explicit law of Bauhaus school for modern composition. In this quick painting, with Eastern sensibility and Western rationality interacting with each other, Shan Fan’s experience of brushwork acquired in his youth and the visual logic accumulated in Germany act together on his artworks.

《缓时之作》则选择油画材料进行创作，将水墨转化为油彩的过程中，艺术家瞬间的创作动态被延长为漫长的体力劳作。在这实验性的时间度量中，以西方视角解析东方意境，“墨竹”的传统概念得以突破，自由的色彩和束缚的时间宛若是精神和身体间的抗衡，这是单凡从个体出发回归个体的深邃对话。

On the other hand, “Painting Slowness” transforms ink paintings to oil paintings, by which way, the artist’s instantaneous inspiration is extended into a long period of physical labor. In this experimental measurement of time, the traditional concept of “ink bamboo” is broken by analyzing the oriental mood from a western perspective. The contrast between the free color and the fixed time is like the struggle between the spirit and the body, which is a deep dialogue of Shan Fan in the process of his self-pursuit.

“竹动·心动”展览呈现了单凡近年来的最新创作，关于竹子的实验选题不断向外触及。在各种载体和空间关系中，意象中的竹与现实中的竹相会一处，旧时的江南窗景和远涉重洋的踽踽独行在竹下交汇。这不仅是单凡在艺术耕耘中的面貌，更是他生活体验和思维智识的截面。

The exhibition “Rustling Bamboo or Ruffled Mind” presents Shan Fan’s latest paintings in recent years, in which his topics on bamboo continue to update. Through various devices and spatial relationships, the bamboo in mind and the bamboo in reality overlap in the hall, and against the shadow of bamboos, there appears the old window view of Jiangnan and the figure walking alone on the foreign land. This exhibition not only unveils Shan Fan’s artistic endeavors, but also reveals his life experience and intellectual thinking.

三月春盛，窗外已是青竹郁郁。望观众驻留此处，静听墨竹萧骚。

Now, spring is in full bloom in March, and the green bamboos are thriving outside the window. Why not stop for a moment and listen to the bamboos’ rustling in tranquility?

                                                                                                苏州博物馆馆长

谢晓婷

竹动中心动

Rustling Bamboo or Ruffled Mind

“身与竹化”是华裔德籍艺术家单凡的艺术理念。他成长于“中国竹乡”安吉，生活在“世界桥城”汉堡，推动中国和欧洲之间的双向文化沟通。跨国生涯里的思乡之情，全球视野中的美学趣味，凝聚于他魂牵梦绕的“竹”。以竹为载体，单凡不断演化出各式各样的艺术形态，释放他的情绪、观念乃至超验的信念。

“Oneness of body and bamboo”has been the artistic concept pursued by Shan Fan, a Chinese German artist. Grown up in Anji in Zhejiang Province, east China, which is hailed as the “Land of Bamboo in China”, and now living in Hamburg, which is known as “Bridge City of the World”, Mr. Shan Fan has made due contributions to promoting the cultural exchanges between China and Europe. His nostalgic feeling, global vision and aesthetic taste are fully reflected in his beloved bamboo paintings. He has resorted to bamboo-themed artworks in different forms and styles to express his feelings, concepts and transcendental convictions.

 以绘画为起点，单凡轻松自由地驾驭各种材料，表达他在时代风云中的综合感受。四十几年的艺术生涯中，这位创作欲旺盛的艺术家的作品涉及丰富的主题，手法多样，种类繁多。本次展览聚焦于他近几年来的新作。

Starting his career as a painter, Shan Fan is adept at making good use of various materials to express his overall feelings in the fast-changing era. As a prolific artist, Shan Fan has produced a number of works of diverse topics and styles using various techniques throughout his 40-year career in artistic creation. The current exhibition displays the works he has created in recent years.

“非风动，非幡动，仁者心动”是禅宗著名公案，外界和内心、感知和觉悟的复杂关系，指向生存处境和生命状态的普遍规律。一生一世，再微小的个体，也需要感悟和应对统摄人间的世界秩序。从竹的形状、态势入手，融入长短悬殊的时段，单凡将他对外界状况和内心状态的感触，转化为生动丰富的绘画语言。由绘画到装置，瞬间发挥和反复考量撑开了灵动的张力空间，因风而起，由竹到心，在对风吹竹动的敏感中保持内心的平衡。

The famous Taoist saying of “it’s not the fluttering banner in wind, but your perception of it that counts” well expresses the complicate relations between the outside world and the inner feeling, the consciousness and the perception, revealing the universal laws governing the living environment and the state of life. Even the most insignificant individuals have to perceive and follow the universal laws throughout their lives. Through different forms and postures of bamboos in periods of varying length, Shan Fan has converted his perception of the outside and inside worlds into lively and rich language of painting. From paintings to installations, both impromptu inspiration and careful pondering count in creating flexible and powerful works. At the sight of the rustling bamboos in the breeze, the artist achieves his inner balance.

 风吹竹动、变化无常中的洞察和自持，指向淡定从容或平安喜乐的生命状态，这种状态，是人生修行或锤炼的标竿，一如展厅中央悬浮的那根翠竹，微妙地动态平衡着。

Once the wind blows, the bamboo rustles. The self-insight and self-restraint in constantly changing conditions refer to the sate of being full of peace and happiness, which is an ideal state for self-cultivation and self-tempering, just like the green bamboo that always rustles but never bends in the center of the exhibition hall.

策展人

杜曦云