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my Nanjing impressions or the “great transformations”
Last March I was received as one of forty master students and
lecturers of the Dutch Art Institute at the airport in Nanjing by many friendly faces. From this moment on we were treated like rock-stars, we were allowed to behave ourselves badly, ask stupid questions. Each day we received countless invitations and were treated as Royal guests. It took me some days to understand what this meant. Part of it is the traditional Chinese hospitality, but also the fact that we were protected guests of an established academy of art played a role in this. They had to show us the beauty of China and that Western Contemporary art was not unknown to them. This was supposed to be the
"BIG COMUNICATION"!
It soon became clear to me that this is just a big show with many bad actors. It was not always easy to define whether we were spectators or took part as actors.
At the end of the first week in Nanjing I had the good fortune to get to know a few persons a bit better. During the following period Gao Lei and Yu Jie became genuine friends, who gave me the feeling to be normal and relaxed individuals outside the campus. Through them I finally got an insight in the Chinese culture, not only in the personal responsibility of the children towards their aging parents or the teaching methods in the Arts, but also in the normal daily banalities as that you should not order dumplings with every meal.
From this moment on I started to compare my life with the life of Gao Lei. In the end I realized that we share a vision. We could not be more different, we both come from completely different cultures to belong and he is 17 years younger, but still our dream is the same! In our art, we both search for an uncompromised expression of our visions and feelings. Our future as artists should not be tied down by the insecure financial prospects of this profession. I sometimes got very confused when I noticed that some of my fellow students and even tutors judged Chinese art with Western standards, but realized that sometimes this even happened to me.
It is simply impossible to judge China and the West along the same rules. In the end, I stopped trying and just accepted thing as as they were. This has nothing to do with nationality, it just means that there are people that you like and still accept as opposites. Art in China cannot, but more important, should not copy Western values. Both sides should accept their back-ground, learn from it and use it as a tool to construct a contemporary visual language. Everybody should use his personal tools and methods.
For me as a European, it is senseless to apply Chinese stylistic visuals as my work deals with Western issues. Nobody in Europe will understand me. On the other hand, it may make sense to use Chinese styles when I want to say something to an Asian public. For me, these five weeks in China have turned out to be the most important ones in my life as an artist, not because of the art I produced but because of everything that happened in my head and heart. I had the possibility to experience so many people, how they discussed and experienced art. As a spectator one can lean back and observe; something I really enjoyed! The period in China answered many questions even before I asked them. I know now what I want, which in a way I have to thank Gao Lei for. We have so much freedom, that he never had and perhaps never will have.
There is so much I can do without being worried about the consequences or the political situation. Freedom is priceless, and it is important to be aware of its value. For finding this awareness, I can only thank the many friends and people I spoke during my stay in China. This also implies that I should not keep this freedom to myself alone, or let the awareness fade away into something I take for granted. For me, the weeks of confrontations between Western and Chinese values and the different interpretations of art have revealed their real meaning:
Artists that have something to fight for, who aim for freedom and have a genuine concern for their environment, are able to make art that really touches people. In my work I have something to tell, and I try to say this in a clear and loud voice in every project, drawing, sculpture or installation.
Thomas Xaver Hascher Dutch Art Institute Enschede NL 2005