介入之辩 Arguing About Intervention

从这个历史巨变去看中国三十年的当代艺术历史，它集中显现了艺术作为一种特殊的社会存在的事实，不仅有丰富、鲜明、激进的艺术现象，也有足够研究的理论素材和可供讨论的理论问题，甚至这些问题的丰富性涵盖了从传统艺术到现代艺术以及当代艺术的一系列论题。作为问题之一，就是当代艺术与社会究竟处于何种有效的关系、艺术的功能在当代的新表现，或者说我们对艺术的社会化的认识是否值得反思。

If we view the thirty years’ history of Chinese contemporary art from this great historic change’s side, we will find it demonstrate the fact that art is acting as a special social existence, inside which has not only rich, brilliant and radical artistic phenomenon but also adequate theoretical materials to be studied and problems to be discussed. Moreover, such problems, with their richness, covered a series of topics from traditional art to modern and contemporary art. Among them are the questions that how effective the relationship between contemporary art and society is and how art shall perform its new functions in this era, or whether we shall reflect on art's being socialized.

不可否认，中国当代艺术的价值有着深深的社会性和对时代反应的政治性。很多艺术家对艺术的理解就是对中国的理解，而这种理解与他们在中国的文化教育、社会政治运动、社会变迁、历史巨变有关联。20世纪对中国文化的最大影响是中国与世界的关系的改变，中国如何实现现代化，成为繁荣富强的国家。20世纪是中国的国家意识居于主导地位的世纪，艺术从属于这个时代使命，它在不同时期有不同的表现形式和不同的社会关联，但其命运无疑没有摆脱艺术的功能主义。但艺术又是特殊的，它自身又显现为自由的化身和精神价值的诉求。所以，艺术的功能价值与美学价值一直是彼此分离与汇合的矛盾体。在艺术的标尺上，从最极端的形式主义到最极端的观念主义、功能主义都在中国的当代艺术里有所体现。当我们重新思考艺术的性质、价值及功能时，即不得不将之与中国艺术的脉络相关联，我们不是在脱离开中国的艺术现实与社会现实的语境中来抽象地言说艺术的功能或形式主义。

Undeniably, the value of Chinese contemporary art contains deep social awareness and political engagement reflecting the times. To a lot of artists, their understanding of art equals their understanding of China, an understanding that is related to their education received, social and political movements encountered, and social and historical changes they are undergoing in China. The greatest influence that the 20th century cast upon Chinese culture is: a change of the relationship between China and the world; a question of how China can realize its modernization and becomes a prosperous and powerful country. For the whole 20th century, China has put its national ideology at a dominating position, where art has to be subordinate to the mission of the era. Art’s expressions and its social attachments varied with the change of times, but its destiny can never be set free from the functionalism of art. However, art is on the other hand special and itself always appears as an incarnation of freedom and a pursuit of spiritual value. Therefore the functionalism value and aesthetic value of art have always been diverged and converged in a contradictory way. If valued from the benchmark of artistic theory，the most radical formalism, and the most extreme conceptualism or functionalism have all appeared in Chinese contemporary art. When we re-assess the nature, the value and the function of art, we have to attach it to the veins of Chinese art – we shall not detach the function or form of art from the context of reality of art and society in China.

在国际的艺术脉络中，当我们把目光聚焦于1960年代以来的艺术，在这近五十年的艺术历史里，除开新媒介、新材料的实验和引入外，始终有一条线索就是艺术如何结合在社会中，也即如何消除艺术与生活的界限。特别是从1990年代之后，艺术世界又出现了新的趋势——艺术家、策展人与批评家共同寻找社会与艺术的结合点来创作、制作、实施当代艺术（作品）。[36]这无形中就促使艺术更加紧密地与社会联系起来，出现了合作式、参与式、干预式介入艺术。[37]这是与消解艺术与生活（社会）的隔阂、界限一脉相承的，它超越于形式主义的架上美学，而进入到公民社会的合作对话领域中。

Down through the international art vein, and focusing on art scene since the 1960s, we will find that in the recent fifty years’ art history, besides importing new medias and new materials in experimental forms, there is always a clue of how art is connected to society, ie. how we eliminate the boundary between art and life. Especially since the 1990s, art scene developed a new tendency - artists, curators and critics started to look for the joint point and intersection between society and art to create, produce and execute contemporary art works together. 36 This action imperceptibly linked art more closely with the society, which originated collaboration, attendance and “interfering intervention” forms of art. 37 This was coherent with the elimination of borders between art and life (society). It surpassed the formalistic easel painting aestheticism and entered into collaborative dialogue field of the civil society.

在中国，艺术始终被提倡要关注现实、反映社会、艺术为人民服务、在文革前更被强调为“艺术为政治服务”（这一口号在文革后的思想解放中因为它的过于简单化、行政化和非人道化而受到批判，逐渐淡出人们的视野[38]）等等，它在不同的时代体现了不同的党派意识（抗战美术、延安美术、文革美术、伤痕美术、主旋律美术），但从中国改革开放之后，艺术似乎更多被强调为自主性、独立性，充分体现的是艺术创作主体的个体性。随着中国经济发展、政治变革而逐步进入到公民社会时，艺术的这一参与功能又重新以当代艺术的方式体现出来，表现出不同于过去的新型艺术关系，这就是艺术介入社会的关系。它暗合了世界艺术在当前的发展轨迹，也恰恰说明了中国艺术家对社会的敏感度和责任感。

In China, art is always advocated to be concern for the reality, to reflect the society, to serve the people and even asked to “serve politics” in Cultural Revolution (such slogan was much criticized and later cast away for its over-simplicity, administrative appearance and inhumanity in post-Cultural Revolution ideology liberations 38) etc., reflecting different partisan ideologies in different eras (The second Sino-Japanese War fine art, Yanan fine art, Cultural Revolution fine art, “Scar” fine art, Main stream fine art). However, after the opening policy, autonomy and independence in art are much more highlighted, the subject of art being emphasized its individuality. With the economic development and political reform of China, the country is stepping on its way to a civil society, where art’s function of participating was once more presented in contemporary art’s method, a new artistic relationship differing from that of the past – an art-intervening-society relationship we wish to interpret and discuss here. It coincides with the developing track of international art today and proves the social sensibility and responsibility of Chinese artists.

艺术是构成现代社会的一个重要维度，但在中国的语境里，正如社会结构还远远没有现代化一样，当代的中国艺术也没有现代化。这里的现代化指的是一种普遍的现代意识、一种普遍的人文价值、一种普遍的对艺术的价值的认定，也是一种对艺术特殊功能与价值的认定。之所以我们还继续讨论很多不成问题的艺术问题，是因为我们有很多没有解决的社会政治问题；艺术是对社会政治有着强烈敏感关系的一种事物，在中国的社会里无需讳言这一点。在整个世界的艺术现实中，艺术与政治也都始终有着敏感而紧密的相关性。[39]

Art is an important dimension in structuring the modern society，while in Chinese context, just as the social structure is far from fully modernized, Chinese contemporary art is not modernized either. Here modernization means a common modern consciousness, a common cultural value, a common confirmation on value of art and also a confirmation on the special function and special value of art. The reason why we are still discussing a lot of artistic problems which shall not become problems is that we have a lot of unsolved social and political problems. In China we can not deny that art is something intensely sensible with society and politics changes. Even in the international artistic environment, art and politics has always been tied together by a sensitive connection.39

在当代社会中，那些发生重要影响与作用的，常常不是作为艺术的艺术，而多是超出现有艺术模式的“非艺术”的东西。其意义的肯定，不是来自陈旧的艺术规则，而是社会学理论。这里的社会学是一种广义的、具有分析与批判功能的社会学方法论和思想观念。

In contemporary society, what matters is usually not art appeared in art’s form but those “non-art” beings beyond the existed forms. The recognition of their meaning is not confirmed by those outdated artistic rules but the sociologic theories. Here sociology means a set of general methodology and concepts containing analysis and criticism functions.

如今，我们谈论问题，已经失去了想象中的那张闲适、雅致、温和。这是一个焦灼、烦躁的时代，不论人们保持了高蹈的距离，还是喜怒哀乐的评说，都无法掩饰人们普遍的心理忧虑和现实焦虑。艺术与现实这对矛盾和冲突依然胶着在一起，并非经济的繁荣就自然地带来了艺术的自觉自为与非功利化，一切都恰恰相反，艺术依然沉重地裹覆在社会的禁忌与政治的惯性中。这就像我们在欢呼经济的繁荣时，问题却是环境恶化、资源浪费、空气污染、贫富分化严重等等。对于艺术，也有同样的情况。艺术的存在，每每意味着它不是艺术本身，而是指向艺术之外，即它受制于诸多社会、政治因素。对于今天的艺术如果不提社会性，而单一地从艺术的本体形式谈起，往往落不到实处，或者说指向了无意义的幻觉争辩，而不是艺术存在的历史价值和社会价值，只剩下纯然的商业价值和表面的审美价值。

In today, our discourse on problems has lost the envisioned casualness, grace and tender. We live in an anxious and annoying time in which people are not able to conceal their common psychological distress and social angst no matter they keep a tranquil distance or make emotional comments. Art and real life still stick together in a hassling conflict while the economic prosperity did not bring self-awareness and non-utilitarianism for art. Everything is just the opposite - art is still gloomily wrapped inside social taboo and whipped forward with political inertia. Things are the same as when we hail to the economic prosperity, we are at the mean time facing environmental deterioration, waste of resource, air pollution and polarity between rich and poor etc. Art is trapped in the similar situation. The meaning of artistic existence always lies outside art, instead of inside itself, for it is confined to multiple social and political factors. Today if we do not resort to its social engagement and merely discuss its ontology form, we will fail to touch its real essence or come to a meaningless illusive argument. We will fail to grasp the historic and social value of artistic beings, only leaving commercial values and facial aesthetic values.

在中国语境下，艺术的介入具有特殊的意义。这种意义不仅凸显了艺术家反省自身身份与作用的必要性，也指向了特殊环境下中国艺术家创作出创造性成果的可能性。除去艺术指向艺术史自身之外，它所能够富有意义、富有当代性的领域就是它的主动介入方式与姿态。介入，不是简单地对应于社会，或简单地图解或描述社会，而是将艺术家的自由与独特的思考加入到所针对的社会现象、社会环境、社会问题、社会体制中。在可见的中国短时段内，中国不缺少唯美的形式主义和教条的宣传艺术，而缺少来自于具有独立意识与批判精神的艺术家的自由表达。对于自由表达进行解读，其思维模式即是一种积极的介入姿态和方式，它力图将艺术的功能扩大并赋予其一种新的表现力和价值功能，正因为艺术家发挥了独立的批判精神和反思精神，才使得他们的艺术显得如此不同，如此地镶嵌在中国的当下语境中，它使我们有了时代感觉和特殊感觉。

In Chinese context, art intervention has distinctive meanings. Such meanings not only underlined the necessity that artists shall re-evaluate their own identity and function but also led to the possibility that Chinese artists could accomplish inventive works under special circumstance. Except from associating with the history of art, the most meaningful contemporary approach to art is that it stands in a position of active intervention. Intervention does not simply mean corresponding, illustrating or describing the society, rather, it means casting artists’ free and unique reflection onto the phenomenon, environment, problems and system it is aiming at. Within visible short period in China, we are not short of aesthetic formalism and dogmatic propaganda art; on the opposite, we need unfettered expression derived from artists’ unbiased critical spirit. To interpret such free expression, one’s pattern of thinking has already met with a proactively intervening position and method – it is trying to expand the function of art and endow it with a new expressive ability and value. It is the independent, critical and reflecting spirit that made their works so distinguished. If they are embedded in the present context of China, it will endow us with a special sense of this age.

当艺术世界中出现让艺术回到生活、回到社会而不是让艺术回到艺术的主张时，在中文语境里，我们特别需要重新认识“现实”二字所发生的艺术理论纠缠。为了某种简便的操作或策略，我们需要搁置那些已有的、被负载了太多矛盾的现实主义，而走向一种还原的、当下的现实存在的现实主义。这里的现实主义是一种态度和精神，即介入式艺术是针对了现实的问题与课题而进行的，是对现实或社会的一种干预、改造、质疑，是为了不混同于中国习惯的现实主义。介入不是反映论，而是主动论，它为真实的当代艺术寻求合法性与判断原则，它确立的是作为价值判断的当代艺术，而不是确立作为形式主义的当代艺术。介入作为主动姿态，是个体的自觉意识的体现，具有强烈的反思性，而不是被动的反应，重新主张现实反映论。这二者的区别是关键的，如果不是以独立的个体姿态出现，其微观的个体视角就无以体现，从而无以展示艺术是艺术家的艺术，而不是集体的艺术。

When the art scene proposed to let art come back to life and society instead of back to art itself，we especially need to reconsider the tangling artistic theory aroused by “reality”. For a handy operation or statistics, we need to lay down the existed realism which was endowed with too much contradictory, and go to with another realism which is restored to the present being. The realism mentioned here is an attitude and spirit, ie. art intervention is carried on in a way of pointing to problems and topics from real life. It is an interference with, adjustment of and interrogation on the society and shall not be mixed with the commonplace traditional Chinese realism. Intervention is proactive rather than reflective, looking for validity and judgemental principle for true contemporary art. It settled contemporary art as value judgment instead of formalism. Intervention, with its active attitude, is a demonstration of individual consciousness and intense reflective character; rather than passively react, intervening art re-advocate a theory of reflection. The difference between the two are critical – if art does not stand in an independent position, its micro-individual angle can not be illustrated so that art deteriorates to be a result of collective systems instead the creation by artists.

之所以说不是简单地把艺术当作艺术，而是要不把艺术当作艺术，而当作生活的一种表达和解释，这也是当作对生活的一种反思。今天的世界变化太快，来不及深入学习就又产生了许多新的知识和信息，介入的姿态也具有面对未知而给予实验、尝试的性质。如果不是保持了一种实验未知的新奇感，很多未来的前景就更加无法把握，而有了艺术的介入形态和集体行动，相反到确定了许多的不确定。年轻的一代因为其学习能力强、探索欲望高而有可能引导了这个时代。[40]

We shall not simply look on art as art; we shall esteem art as an expression and interpretation of life rather than regard art purely as art – this remark again comes from our reflection on life. This is a rapidly changed world, where dozens of new knowledge emerged before we are able to learn the old. Intervention attitude also has an experimental and examination character when faced with the unknown. Devoid of an experimental and unknown freshness, a lot of vision on future can never be handled. But, with the intervention of art and the collective activities, we are confirmed a lot unconfirmed on the other way. The young generation may lead this era by their strong study ability and exploring desires. 40

在今天，犬儒主义盛行，我们有理由怀疑、质疑那些伪劣的艺术说教，要确立基于正义的艺术道德，因为“正义是社会体制的第一美德”，[41]能够基于正义就是能够秉持艺术的理想和作为思想的艺术表达。这里的“伪”指向那些将艺术僵化的行为和态度，而以蒙昧的犬儒主义掩饰自我，忽视、掩饰、回避现实的真实和严峻。艺术介入就是对虚假艺术的批判和否定，这种批评与否定来自多方面的压力，既有商业成功的压力和诱惑，也有保守主义的围攻和牵制，还有自身批判能力的缺乏，从而导致作为一种积极介入姿态的艺术受到制约、限制和贬抑。

In a world that Cynicism prevails, we have right to question those pseudo doctrines on art. We shall establish an artistic moral based on justice, for “justice is the first virtue of social institutions” 41; the moral based on justice equals to the beholding of artistic ideal and taking artistic expression as thoughts. Here “pseudo” means those behaviors and attitude stiffening art and camouflaging oneself with unintelligent cynicism, ignoring, hiding and avoiding the true severe reality. By advocating art intervention we have criticized and denied fake arts. Such criticism and deny are faced with multiple stress – the temptation of commercial success, the besieging and hinder of conventions and also a short of self-criticism ability - a circumstance under which the active intervention attitude of art is quite limited and belittled.

社会发展带来的新问题与新现象，成为了各种学科、职业、领域共同关注的对象，艺术自然不例外，艺术介入其中予以关注和反映并不是庸俗的社会学，所谓艺术的庸俗社会学在中国语境里有其特指80年代以前的一种国家意识形态，它左右着艺术对社会的关系，以国家政治标准为主导，成为官方意识形态的宣传工具，并不是社会公共领域的社会学关怀。[42]介入是艺术的公共性的延伸，是公共性在当代社会的放大，也是体现主动性价值与主观意图的方式。应当赋予介入在中国当下语境中的合法性与必要性，而不是以所谓的庸俗社会学或意识形态的嫌疑而加以回避，或视而不见，或不予肯定，视为畏途。

The new problems and phenomena brought by social development have become the commonly concerned objects in various sciences, occupations and fields, and in the fields of art too. Art intervening these fields, showing concern and making reflection are not vulgar sociology. The so-called vulgar sociology of art in Chinese context especially means a national ideology before 1980s. It maneuvered the relationship between art and society, taking national political standard as a major guideline and performing as the propaganda tool of official ideology. It does not show any sociological concern on public area. 42 Intervention extends art into the public area. It is an expansion of public engagement into contemporary society and also a means of realizing the value of proactivity and subjective intention. Intervention shall be endowed with necessary validity in the present Chinese context and shall not be circumvented, ignored, denied for fear of the suspect of a vulgar sociology or ideology.

介入是一种态度，不是目的，是针对问题的一种手段，它是以行为和视觉的方式呈现出来。其要点具有强烈的现场干预性、互动性，在某些场合也体现出仪式性。但我们这里强调的介入活动不是一般的社会活动，它的执行与实施都有很强烈的艺术潜台词，甚至具有强烈的批判意识，但有时候作为介入的艺术与日常活动之间有模糊之处，如何廓清就要依赖实施者是否有艺术意图、有无艺术的方式、有无艺术的身份、后续效应是否成为艺术讨论的对象，等等。介入是一种立场和主动，它以艺术的方式来提出问题、反思问题、质疑现状。介入是无功利的功能在场，是改变我们观看艺术、欣赏艺术的原有的被动方式，但不是简单的机械互动。它甚至是以艺术的现有样式出现，它没有规则，没有艺术家的主体迹象，它不是简单的签名落款就意味着艺术主体的在场，而是艺术家改变了身份意义的一种姿态和一种应用艺术的态度。

Intervention is an attitude，a method aiming at problems instead of an objective. It is put forward in the way of behavior and visual form. Deep in its essence, there are strong on-site intercession and interaction characteristics and it also appears in the form of ritual in some cases. But we wish to indicate here that intervention is not an ordinary social activity. Its execution and implementation have strong artistic subtext and criticism consciousness. But sometimes intervention art can be muddled with daily activities. The judgment standard lies in whether the executor has artistic intention, method, identity and whether its successive effect becomes an artistic topic to be discussed, etc. Intervention is a kind of position with proactivity. It raises questions, reflects on them and interrogates the present status. Intervention is a non-utilitarian and functional “Anwesen”, changing our passive way of viewing art and appreciating art, but it is not a simple mechanic interaction. It even appears in the present form of art, but without a rule and the sign of artist as a subjective. A single signature of artist can not prove the being of a subjective of art. The artists have changed the view point on their identity and the attitude of using art.

介入作为一种开放的姿态和方法，不会守成某一类形式，也不固执于某一种思想表达，而是不断地以复杂、多样的生活、现实、社会为对象，进行着具体而变化的活动表达。能够保持介入的姿态，则一定会不断地寻求新的问题、表达的新视角，也促使这样的介入型艺术家不断保持敏锐的嗅觉和敏感的思考，紧紧抓住不确定的社会动态轨迹，用参与型的互动方式来揭示、呈现、思考、讽喻、批判、娱乐它们。在中国，我们希望多起来这样的介入、干预型艺术，也是为了这个社会的多样化表达而着想，当言论自由不能完全确证和保证时，以艺术的方式介入社会，就成为公民社会发表意见、表达观点、沟通理解的一种有效而曲折的方式。在中国语境下，其民主诉求的含义是不容忽视的，当介入之风起于青萍之末，未必不是公民社会时代来临的信号。没有公共意识，难以成就介入式艺术；以往我们特别强调艺术的个体性，认为是艺术家的个体性或个人主义成就了其艺术，而且要着力强调和提倡；但另一方面，个体性不能导致自我主义或自私自利，个人主义不是孤立主义，也不是脱离社会的封闭主义，相反，越是具有公民意识的公民社会，个人主义越是具有社会性和公共性，因为其背后的支撑点是民主与权利、公平与正义。

Intervention as an open attitude and method will not standstill in a certain form, neither will it stick to a certain way of expressing ideas. It will face the complicated and diverse objects in life and society and take specific yet variable activities as an expression. If artists can preserve an intervening attitude, they will certainly keep on searching for new problems and new angles of expression. This will also make those intervening artists keep their sensitive awareness and keen thinking abilities. They will snatch the uncertain path of social movement, and with the method of intervention, discover, illustrate, think about, mock, criticize and make fun of it., We hope to see in China more and more such intervention art, which will lead to a boom of various expressions on the society. When freedom of speech is not yet fully secured and affirmed in this country, intervening into the society in an artistic way becomes a winding yet effective way of speaking and communication. In Chinese context, its democratic appeal can not be ignored – while the fashion of intervention starts as a trivial being, it can well become a sign of civil society burgeoning. Without public consciousness, intervention art can not be fulfilled; in the past we especially highlighted art’s individuality and believed that it was artist’s individuality and individualism that accomplished his art. But on the other hand, individuality shall not direct to egoism or selfishness, individuality does not mean isolation, neither a shutting-down from society. On the contrary, the more civil consciousness a civil society has, the individualism in it has more public and social engagement, for its pivot is democracy and right, fairness and justice.

介入作为一种活动方式或思维方式，同时还代表着一种价值诉求和态度，它具有反思、理想、价值、批判、提问、游戏、怀疑、调侃的性质，而并不只是简单的活动。正如行为艺术的要义也不是单纯的行为举止，而具有强烈的意图、目的和观念，行为的目的具有社会性和语境的政治性。作为思维方式，艺术介入社会是一种对社会现实的干预，也是对寄身于其中的艺术的功能与意义的拓展和延伸，对任何问题的思考和反应也就是观念介入。艺术介入社会是今天的一种需要，艺术在不断变化，我们也需要那种透明的艺术，但是也需要关注艺术介入社会所带来的变化和开启的新的地平线。

Intervention, as a way of acting or thinking, has become a value appeal and attitude. It contained such natures as reflection, ideal, value, criticism, inter