In 2017, on the cold and humid northern seaside on New Year's Eve, Liang Chen and the earth watched the countdown with 24 icicles. Every hour, Liang Chen will throw an icicle into the sea, just because modern science tells us that every hour, a time zone on the earth enters the n

In 2017, on the cold and humid northern seaside on New Year’s Eve, Liang Chen and the earth watched the countdown with 24 icicles. Every hour, Liang Chen will throw an icicle into the sea, just because modern science tells us that every hour, a time zone on the earth enters the new year. I was fascinated by this story. It is romantic and rational, practical and concrete, full of ritual, and carries the emotional ground. Looking back many years later, Liang Chen said that project could be regarded as the starting point of his career as an artist. Even at that time, it was just an artistic practice of his own research on " Land Art " for many years.

I am fascinated by this story. It is romantic and rational, practical and concrete, full of ritual, and carries the emotional ground. Looking back many years later, Liang Chen said that project could be regarded as the starting point of his career as an artist. Even at that time, it was just an artistic practice of his own research on "land art" for many years.

Liang Chen is an architect, artist and curator. He is the founder and co-founder of the Aleph Institute of Space and Time and the contemporary art curatorial group "Space Institute". He has a long list of TITLE and has participated in a series of classic projects. Architecture and art projects, such as the "Lonely Library (Project Architect)" regarded as a landmark in Aranya, the Baita Temple Courtyard in Beijing, and a private residence tailor-made for the musician Chen Hongyu on the Ergun grassland. "Chronicles of All Fangs", a series of personal art projects titled "Project Aleph" at Aranya Beach, the "Liang Chen: Aleph" solo exhibition at the A4 Art Museum, and the exhibition project "Space" curated at Shanghai OCAT "Discipline", he also participated in a series of exhibitions space design , and as early as 2011, outside of his work as an architect, he began his own research on land art, which pushed him to form a personalized working methodology.

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White casual suit

Orange short-sleeved sweater

Both are Boss

Brown suede loafers

John Lobb

Inspired by mathematician Georg Cantor (Georg Cantor) and historian Influenced by Fernand Braudel's theory, we explore the infinite within the finite, or conduct long-term and multi-term observations of the scene, and realize the current transformation and transformation of reality through the multiple superpositions of history and humanity. Reappear. He boils all his work down to the same core, that is, starting from a starting point of in-depth research and gradually expanding into a network, while satisfying multiple demands, he realizes individual artistic expression, and the container of thinking is thus infinitely filled. Time is a collection of finite and infinite, in which Liang Chen is like a traveler with infinite patience. He has done 11 years of research and investigation on land art, exploring the history of Dandong . Liang Chen spent at least 5 years completing it. Self-reflection, and Aranya's New Year's Eve project, which has been unsuccessful for three consecutive years, has each time extended the connotation of time with a substantial humanistic background.

On March 12, "From Andong to Dandong: Rafts, Broken Bridges and Passers-by on the Yalu River" curated by Liang Chen opened at 798 Ten O'clock Sleeping Art Space FINITE and INFINITE. This exhibition discusses Liang Chen's personal research starting from his personal childhood memories and the history of his native family. From point to point, it extends to Dandong with the help of a richer combination of external perspective samples from people who are from Dandong or who have lived in Dandong. The city's changes and renewal in multiple dimensions of history and humanity. This is a report on the results of a case study methodology, and it is also a personalized exhibition with Liang Chen's brand from a comprehensive identity perspective. Liang Chen was born in Dandong, a border city that combines geopolitics and Northeast Asian history. More than thirty years later, he decided to use this as a starting point to see where he came from and look forward to the future.

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Hongxing

Hong Xing

《Maybe there will be an explosion in my hometown》

Might Get Bombarded in My Hometown

Installation

Installation

Size variable

Size variable

2022

Geometric print short-sleeved shirt/Canali

It’s like some kind of fate, from the lonely book on the seaside Museum, to the chronicles of the pastures on the Ergun grassland, to today’s research on Dandong, Liang Chen has always developed his own narrative around the border or edge. Perhaps this coincides with Liang Chen’s obsession with “Aleph”. The advancement of these projects in politically, culturally or geographically marginalized areas are realizing Liang Chen’s vision of infinite possibilities within limited boundaries.

For you, is there some clear boundary between "architectural design" and "artistic creation"?

I think we should first sort out the artistic issues of architecture. In terms of subject classification, architecture is actually a part of engineering, but it is very different from engineering . I think architecture includes three dimensions, namely engineering, art and humanities. Architecture must have a starting point, which may be an individual or a public need, but there is always an initial desire, and this desire is the original intention of the architecture. Once desire is involved, it has a relationship with people, so it cannot be a purely engineering project.

Architecture is an artistic engineering project?

Be it engineering, art, or humanities, they cannot be left behind. Every building has a site, and the site is the only one with longitude and latitude on the earth. Everything done by architecture needs to have a context. This is not to emphasize some specialization, but to remind us to respect it. "Context" may be culture, living habits or aesthetic habits, and architects must have a constant dialogue with them. Therefore, my understanding is that architecture is a house plus art, with some inspiring or creative definition given through art. A building without art is a pure structure. Is

concrete and artistic?

architecture is a particularly specific space-time coordinate. When doing any building, you must first have a place. Even if you are decorating your own home, there are specific floors and numbers, which is the "base". What can be seen outside each window is different in the same building. Therefore, the initial working conditions of the building are actually very specific, and this specificity means the importance of "presence". I have always believed that physical presence is particularly important, because once you are not present, it will be difficult to discover something special. The ultimate goal of artistic creation is to find something interesting, unique, and something that others have not discovered. I think part of the architect's artistic creation work is to avoid these things that everyone can think of - of course, it is not to deliberately seek novelty and strangeness, but at least in terms of insight, capture and refinement, I personally think that we should be aware of ourselves. More demanding. In fact, any environment is originally balanced. The architect's job is to intervene, add new things, and let them reach balance again in the dialogue.

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Brown plaid leather trench coat/Bally

Orange short-sleeved sweater/Boss

Do architects, artists and curators all need it?

special space, or specific space, represents specific content. Whether I am a designer, an artist, or a curator, whether I am observing or feeling, my body and personality must be felt in this space, and I must conduct on-site analysis. There is a danger in not being physically present, in which case the work becomes abstract.

revolves around architects. Your identity is very diverse. You are an artist and a curator. How do you balance it?

I think if you know my general working methodology, you will understand. Many people think that having a long list of TITLEs indicates that this person is not doing his job properly, and that he may not be good at everything, or that he is just a cross-border person.In fact, I have been trying to turn these things into one thing. People cannot have separate careers. It is impossible for me to be an artist in the morning and an architect in the afternoon - although these multiple identities are indeed integrated in my individuality. , but there is a difference. I am first and foremost an architect by profession, this is my core profession. The identity of the artist is additional and comes from the works I actually realized in Aranya’s three-year New Year’s Eve project from 2017 to 2019. Those works were seen by the curator and invited to participate in the exhibition. Only in this way can I With the identity of an artist. But when I created that series of works, it was not as an artist, but as a practice of a series of artistic ideas generated through long-term research on land art in addition to my identity as an architect, so my working method is consistent. of. Therefore, I feel that architects and artists are the same thing to me, but the "scale" is different. For example, on a large scale, it may be land art, on a smaller scale, it may be architecture, and on an even smaller scale, it may be exhibitions or displays, but my working method is the same. Therefore, when looking at them all as a scale, the so-called pluralism of identities becomes simple.

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Brick red casual suit/Bally

Geometric print short-sleeved shirt/Canali

Black lace-up leather shoes/John Lobb

What inspiration did you get from this diverse identity transformation?

For example, when comparing artists, curatorial thinking will give me a lot of macro enlightenment - artists may care more about the world in front of them, and it is difficult to jump out and see the whole world, but curators have this vision. Of course, artists also have characteristics and advantages. I think artists don’t solve problems, they only raise questions. I think architects should learn this kind of problem awareness, because the way architects work is to accept projects, so it is impossible to always receive projects. When looking at an architect's portfolio of work that you are interested in, sometimes you will feel very jumpy. I understand that very well. Artists are relaxed in this respect and are absolutely free in choosing propositions, but architecture is not. Are there different evaluation criteria for the identities or career directions of

?

I think the evaluation criteria are the same. It depends on whether they have contributed to their respective disciplines and whether they can provide some breakthroughs and new understandings of the core content of each discipline. For example, no matter how many curating projects I do, if they do not advance my architectural career in the end, then I think these curating projects are ineffective for architecture. Does

have the same energy investment?

actually has the same amount of energy invested, and is close in terms of working methods and thinking scale. For example, my previous research on Dandong was basically based on my childhood and the building in my home as a case study. This established the starting point for my subsequent work at different scales, which is equivalent to me thinking from a large scale, such as how the landscape of Dandong was formed, how the city was formed, how the streets outside my home were formed, how my building was formed, and how our home was formed. How to form, form a hierarchical concept of scale, so that I will always have an experiential origin, or starting point of work. This starting point of work has both the rational aspect of the space level and the perceptual aspect, such as memory, childhood, subconscious, etc. wait.

Your system is self-consistent.

In fact, everything I do is in this system. I really don’t do one thing today and another thing tomorrow. For me, that would be quite consuming, and I don’t have that much energy to do it. It would be more like holding three jobs. The reason why I think those previous tasks are important is because I have combined the several things I just did into one thing through one method. I am trying to sort them all into one thing, so that it becomes easier for me.

How was the new exhibition "From Anton to Dandong" planned?

Although Dandong is very topical now, involving geopolitics and the history of Northeast Asia, the preparation and planning of this exhibition happened a long time ago. I still started this project from my personal memory and research.For this new exhibition, I invited about 2/3 of the Dandong-born artists, hoping to extract interesting points of concern through their Dandong experiences and real experiences. In addition, there are also several non-Dandong-born artists, hoping that they will use their on-site observations and Creation, in this exhibition, also presents an other's gaze - I think this is necessary, which will increase external observation, making it more comprehensive and interesting. So this curation is also a part of the system that I am familiar with, and it is also an extension from the origin or starting point. Therefore, although I may become a "curator" when I do an exhibition, this identity is not what I want. It's a cross-border thing to do, but it's very reasonable to say it this way.

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Drawing Architecture Studio

《Fragments of North Korea》

Shards of North K.

Stained glass

Stained glass

91.5cm×91cm×6

2022

Gray striped cloak/Thom Browne

White trousers/Canali

Black lace-up leather shoes/John Lobb

How many times has this been curated? How do you view your identity as a curator?

Actually, I have only planned two exhibitions in total. The first one is my Dandong research, which is equivalent to sharing my previous personal experience in Dandong with more people through exhibitions to gain resonance; the second one is an architectural exhibition at OCAT in Shanghai called "Space Planning" "Training", we found a dozen of the more interesting young architects born in the 1980s in China and asked each of them to provide two clues. One was a building that had a profound impact on them when they were young, and the other was an ordinary, undesigned building. buildings, and then find a work they designed as an architect, that is, a work they influenced others. So it was a commissioned exhibition, which means that even though I am a curator, I am using my own working methods and my own research methods to commission more people to become samples for continued research.

Is such curation completely different from cooperation with curators?

Many times it is purely about creating space, because the exhibition designer cannot decide which artists' works. When others ask me to participate, I must be doing the construction, otherwise why would they ask me? However, when I curate and set up my own exhibitions, I will keep them to a very low level, based on my subjective wishes, because you can decide the artist’s works. I will try to use the works to differentiate instead of building partitions. I think a good exhibition is first of all natural, rather than being pieced together into something with a sense of space by display. In fact, when I curate my own exhibition, I prefer to leave the budget to the artist and the work itself, and try to use my spatial sensitivity to make the work and space to complete the narrative I want.

Do you emphasize individual value?

Isn’t the era composed of a series of related individuals? In any case, the first thing I can do is to figure myself out. I can't remain confused and talk about the times every day. So it is very simple, just create an coordinate system , and know very clearly what the situation of my home was like in 1986, 1995, and 2004. Only when you figure out your own coordinates can you start the comparison. These studies are actually very simple, and in the end they become a ruler or a coordinate axis. All my subsequent construction and curation projects became clear. Everyone has his own history. If everyone understands their own history, there will be great history. I definitely don’t want to represent anyone. I can’t represent Dandong, let alone Northeasterners, but I can represent myself. I will share this part of my work clearly with everyone, and everyone may pass my work or analysis. , or experience, is really projected onto everyone, and I am unimportant.