Is “Shan Shui” Useful Today? —— Curate • Act ，Term I

Is “Shan Shui” Useful Today?

Curate • Act

Term I

“Shan Shui” is “You and I”: Tracing with Body and Mind – Roaming the Mountains Together

Director: PAN Wenxun & Alice CHEN

PAN Wenxun and Alice CHEN were classmates at the Affiliated High School of Zhejiang Academy of Art in the early 1990s.

Ms. Pan went on to focus her practice on traditional Chinese painting, while Ms. Chen became a contemporary artist.

In 2022, when Chen began to ponder the question “Is ‘Shan Shui’ useful today?”, Pan was the first person she reached out to, both as a longtime friend and as someone whom she deemed to have grasped the true essence of tradition.

Pan, however, was taken aback and immediately objected to the way the very question was formulated, “How could you discuss ‘Shan Shui’ in terms of ‘usefulness’ and ‘uselessness’?”

Nonetheless, Pan accepted Chen’s invitation to participate in a project with that exact title, because despite her objection to the phrasing of the question, she agreed with Chen on the question’s importance and urgency. In this way, the two “fellow travelers who had taken different paths” in art came together to direct the current installment of “Curate • Act”. Turning themselves in to a site for experimentation, they reflect on each other, stimulate each other, and probe the question together. Meanwhile, they invite everyone to take part in the project, engaging in critical thinking and practice through “questioning” and “answering”.

For PAN Wenxun, “Shan Shui” is “you and I”. She sees “Shan Shui” as another manifestation of life itself, a state of consciousness, a worldview, an attitude, a realm of self-reflection, and a “sacred vessel” for passing philosophical ideas down from one generation to another. It is life itself, unrelated to concepts of “usefulness”. In order for the participants to better understand her artistic philosophy, Pan first of all invites everyone to enter the actual “Shan Shui”, to “roam the mountains together” and “trace ‘Shan Shui’ with body and mind”, by retracing the footsteps of Song dynasty literati who wandered the mountains by the West Lake in search of hidden gems. The participants may engage in discussions, improvise along the way… turning the trip into something of a contemporary incarnation of the ancient Chinese “elegant gathering”. Back at PARC Hangzhou, Pan has selected a few of her paintings and photographs specifically for the project to share with the group, along with reading materials handpicked for their relevance to the topic.

With an emphasis on openness, the current term of “Curate • Act” invites everyone to collectively create and shape the project so that it can evolve constantly. As the project goes on, we will continuously reorganize and update the relevant documents and works on display. Any friends or colleagues who are inspired by the project after hearing about or participating in it are more than welcome to submit documents or works of suitable size to be displayed at PARC Hangzhou. During the exhibition, we will also hold a discussion session titled “Shan Shui Chat”. Mindful of the phenomenon and possibility of “the documentation itself becomes a work”, we will design and produce a catalogue at the end of each term of the project.

Stay tuned!

Proofreading :Jeff Crosby