一种关于景观的当代探讨——巴塞罗那Caixa Forum 展览《地平线与边界：景观视角》展评
撰文：黄梅
“如果我问你世界是什么，你可能会在一个或者多个参照系之中为我做出解释。但是，如果我让你告诉我，置身这些参照系之外，世界到底是什么，你该如何作答呢？“
——Nelson Goodman, 1978:131
人类对于自然与景观总是有着复杂的情感。当我们生活在被自然环绕着和包围着的村落时，我们想要建立方便人类的钢筋水泥建成的庞大摩天科技之城；在当人们生活在这些自我建立城市牢笼中时，我们又想要回归到自然的田野和丛林的怀抱中去，似乎那些属于自然的风景才是人类最诗意的归宿。
在Alan Weisman的名作《没有我们的世界 (The World Without Us)》中，他描绘了这样一种末世之后的景象：巨型的城市中已经没有人类的存在，有的只有被废弃的建筑和植被、森林与动物对曾属于人类的城市的重新占领2。这种景象Weisman并不是自己杜撰的，我们其实可以在废弃的郊区空镇中看到这样的光景——在破败的水泥钢筋中，绿色的植被野蛮的、并且具有侵占性的插入楼层的空隙中，这样潮湿和野生的环境很明显不再适合人类生活，但是不得不说，这样的景观的是震撼人心且美丽摄人的。这种具有颓废感的景观美学也影响了许多我们身边脍炙人口的作品，例如被很多年轻人奉为神作的游戏《最后生还者(The Last of Us)》第一部与第二部，以及由它改编成的Neflix剧集等等。
那么景观的意义是什么呢？它又是如何被呈现的呢？在Denis Cosgrove的《社会与变迁与景观象征》(Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape) (1984)中，他指出，景观并非仅仅存在于认知、研究、使用或享受的人外在的(out there)物理环境中。或许当我们想到“景观”一词时，我们通常都会想起呈现在我们面前的大地、河流、树木、天空、田野和牲畜3。但是Cosgrove认为，景观是特定的一种“认知方式”，自古至今，由于教育、文化、社会背景的不同，我们都是以特定的方式去看景观中显然的客观事实的。Edward Relph在他的《地方与无地方 (Place and Placelessness)》（2016）中也写到“ 现实的地理环境首先是由地方所构成的，包括人们记忆中的地方和景观，之后，才又了位置、区域、地形等正式的概念的出现4。或许这就是景观的魅力所在——它是通过每个人独特的视角、认知、理解与记忆，呈现出的独一无二的自然地理。那么我们身边的景观是什么样的？它又是如何被艺术的双眸而被呈现的？或许也正是因为景观这种独特的性质，也让人无比期待通过艺术家的视角而创作的当代艺术与景观结合的视觉盛宴。
在2024年5月，巴塞罗那CaixaForum 美术馆呈现的展览《地平线与边界：景观视角》通过视频、摄影、绘画和装置等多种艺术形式，提出了对当代艺术家如何呈现景观的广泛思考。展览由“La Caixa”基金会当代艺术收藏馆馆长兼展览的策展人Nimfa Bisbe与独立策展人Arola Valls联合策划。该展览汇集了61件艺术作品和39位国际艺术家的作品，展示了当代艺术家对自然的不同态度。该展览的艺术家包括 Anne Imhof, Tacita Dean, Patricia Dauder, Hamish Fulton, Ignasi Aballí, Joan Fontcuberta, Dionís Escorsa, Andreas Gursky, Bleda & Rosa, Andrea Galvani, Remy Zaugg, Luc Delahaye, Oriol Vilanova, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Perejaume, Danica Phelps, Hamish Fulton, Victoria Civera, Karlos Gil y Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg 等等。
从左到右：独立策展人Arola Valls, La Caixa”基金会当代艺术收藏馆馆长兼展览的策展人Nimfa Bisbe 与巴塞罗那Caixa Forum馆长 Mireia Domingo，photo©️La Caixa Foundation
《地平线与边界：景观视角》展览分为四个主题部分，探讨以下问题：景观的虚构、景观的体验、自然的框架以及人类对自然的影响。展览呈现了一个复杂而多元的视角，融合了批判性思考和责任感。本展览是之前Caixa Forum系列展览《地平线与边界》的续作，展览不仅仅囊括了La Caixa Foundation 的当代收藏，也在藏品的基础上添加和邀请了其他当代艺术家的作品，并在展览中使基金会的藏品与其它当代艺术作品产生诸多有趣而生动的对话。Nimfa Bisbe在ART POWER 100的采访中谈到：“这次展览的灵感来源于当代艺术收藏本身。尽管这些年来“la Caixa”收藏并没有特意集中在这方面的工作，但我们还是收集了一批具有自然景观元素的作品。然而，最近随着使用数字技术创作的艺术作品和关注环境问题的作品的加入，我们看到了举办一场引人入胜的展览的巨大潜力。景观是当今社会和文化中的一个重要主题，考虑到展览引起的兴趣，我相信我们做出了正确的决定来组织这次展览。”
展览突出作品
Highlight Artworks
《三体问题 (The problem of three bodys)》(2022) 是艺术家Dionís Escorsa（1970年出生于Tortosa）和Albert Merino（1979年出生于巴塞罗那）共同创作的。它属于展览的《景观的虚构》这一主题。加泰鲁尼亚艺术家José Nogué于1910年绘制的浪漫主义风景画 La esfinge de Roscoff 被绘于三个分割的视频屏幕之上。屏幕中的绘画光芒闪烁，动画视频好似给绘画加上了生命一般：海水波光粼粼，天空云朵变幻，灿灿生辉。两位艺术家在这件装置上加上了三个运动的太阳，这也对应了Johannes Kepler 所创的三体天文学理论：在三维空间中给定N个质点，如果在它们之间只有万有引力的作用，那么在给定它们的初始位置和速度的条件下，它们会怎样在空间中运动。最简单的例子就是太阳系中太阳，地球和月球的运动。Escorsa与Merino在这件装置中，他们模拟开发了一个三体系统，该系统在这件装置中预测了三颗恒星运行轨迹的难度。随着三个星球的位置不断变换，对应着的三个视频的光线和明暗夜逐渐发生变化，场景忽明忽暗，原本平静的风景油画也随着科技和天文力学的加入而变幻莫测。
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Dionís Escorsa, Albert Merino; The problem of three bodys (2022); video installation, photo©️La Caixa Foundation
《皮夫恩瓦尔德边界（Perimeter Pfynwald）》（2018-2023）是另一件有趣的作品，它属于“景观的体验”部分。瑞士艺术家Marcus Maeder将声音融入了这件装置互动作品。观者可以站在装置中央，操控触摸键盘移动光标聆听环绕的屏幕中的声音。在这件作品中，艺术家结合了瑞士Pfynwald自然保护区的全景视图，并通过分布在数公里之间的自动录音系统捕捉到一系列景观中的声音而供观者欣赏。这些自然的声音中有河水流淌的韵律，也有小鸟的啼唱。人们站在环绕的科技屏幕之中体验着景观与声音所带来的视听享受。艺术家以十分钟的间隔捕捉不同环境的声音：森林本身、主要河流、山间小溪和一个湖泊。他通过这些记录压缩时间和空间而形成的声景，在气候变化的影响下发生的变化。
Marcus Maeder, Perimeter Pfynwald（2018-2023）, installation, photo©️ La Caixa Foundation
在“自然的框架”部分中，有一件作品引起了我的兴趣。在这件名叫《投影（上午/下午）(Projection (matin/soir)》(1990/2019) 的影像作品中，瑞士艺术家Rémy Zaugg在一幅巨大的白色画布前作画。这件画布太大以至于遮盖住了他要写生的风景，于是他使用了传统绘画的惯例技法，将风景使用投影仪投射在自己的画布上。这种在写生时投射且无视真实景观的做法无疑是矛盾且反讽的。值得注意的是，Zaugg使用的颜料是白色的，在视频中早晨的光线下，这件作品好似给他所描画的风景打开了一扇窗户。这件作品的矛盾和违和感使得观者不得不反思艺术家、或是是说人与景观之间的关系。
Rémy Zaugg, Projection (matin/soir) (1990/2019), digital transfer of a 16mm color negative 21mins 45s. “La Caixa” Foundation Contemporary Art Collection, photo©️ La Caixa Foundation
《Les Mées》(2006) 与 《时间降临(Timefall [Anarres]》（2023）是“人类对自然影响”章节中的突出作品。在《Les Mées》(2006) 这张摄影作品中，德国艺术家Andreas Gursky记录下了令人觉得有些不舒服(uncanny)的一幕——绿意盎然的草坪上，满满的的铺满了太阳能板。这本该是环保的一幕，但是却让人心生顾虑。这些太阳能板遮住了植被享受阳关的权力，而满满的人造和科技感也使人反思：虽然太阳能板本身是相对环保的发电方式，可是这种令人窒息的认为干预仍然让我们反思人类是否对自然和景观过分的掠夺了。
Andreas Gursky，Les Mées (2006), photographe, 220.9 x 367.2 cm, photo ©️La Caixa Foundation
《时间降临(Timefall [Anarres]》（2023）这件作品也是一样。西班牙艺术家Karlos Gil 的作品向观者展现了令人不适的一幕——粉紫色的人造日光充满了一个方形的玻璃器皿装置，装置中弥漫着白色的烟雾。这件作品的标题是艺术家借鉴了Ursula K. Le Guin 的小说《无主之地》(1974)的一个虚构星球的名称。在这件玻璃装置中，艺术家把金属元素用有机水逆混泥土包裹，并且使之经历加速衰老的过程。加入了经过处理的含钙和天然盐也使得被嵌入水泥中的种子发芽，并引发了覆盖整个结构的地衣繁殖。正如文章开头中《没有我们的世界》中提到的末世景象一般，人类废墟将被自然重新占领，人工破坏的环境也将重新归为景观。值得一提的是，这件作品也是 La Caixa 基金会Apoyo a la Creación ’22支持的一部分，旨在促进当代艺术创作。
Karlos Gil, Timefall [Anarres] (2023), bronze, steel, powder, plastic, pipes, timer, water, steam engine, rhizopus and LED light, 145x150x150cm, photo ©️La Caixa Foundation
在《地平线与边界：景观视角》展览中，能为我们带来思考的作品还有很多，因为篇幅限制，我只能列举一二。剩下就只能靠大家自己去发现了。正如本次展览的另一位策展人Arola Valls说道：“这个展览的主要目的是使观者注意到环境和景观的问题，特别是在当下全球变暖的大环境下，去审视由于人为因素对景观的影响以及我们即将面临遭受的结果。这个展览主要旨在通过La Caixa基金会的收藏的当代艺术品及其他相关的艺术家作品的研究和对话，用视觉艺术的方式呈现艺术家对于景观的再思考。” 不仅如此，Valls也在展览入口处制作了一系列彩色的小册子，引导观者阅读和反思自身、艺术、社会和文化与环境和景观的关系。
如今在众多有关于现今环境和景观的讨论中，以人类干预环境景观而形成的“人类世 (the Anthropocene)”似乎已经成为一种trendy时髦的理论说辞。然而这种以“人类”而命名的地质时间中的位置，其实恰恰让我们能够在历史的纵深中审视现今的生态危机5。而《地平线与边界：景观视角》展览，合时的为我们通过当代艺术的方式，以视觉和听觉角度带来了对景观进行了互动与解读。（展览将持续到2024年9月1日）
[1] Noel Caster, Nature (2005), London: Routledge. p.1
[2] Alan Weisman, The World Without Us (2007), London: Penguin Random House.
[3] Denis E. Cosgrove, Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape (1998), Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
[4] Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness (2022), New York: SAGE Publications Ltd. p.8
[5] Jeremy Davies, The Birth of the Anthropocene (2018), California: University of California Press. p.2
A Contemporary Exploration of Landscape: Review of the Exhibition "Horizonte y Límite: Visiones Del Paisaje" at Caixa Forum Barcelona
By: Mei Huang
"If I ask you what the world is, you might explain it to me within one or more reference frames. But if I ask you to tell me what the world is outside of these frames of reference, how would you answer?"
—— Nelson Goodman, 1978:131
Human emotions towards nature and landscapes are inherently complex. When we live in villages surrounded and enveloped by nature, we aspire to build vast, technologically advanced cities made of concrete and steel. However, once confined within these self-constructed urban cages, we long to return to the embrace of natural fields and forests, as if the scenery of nature represents the most poetic destination for humanity.
In Alan Weisman's acclaimed book, "The World Without Us," he depicts a post-apocalyptic scenario where massive cities are devoid of human presence. What remains are abandoned buildings and the reclamation of these urban spaces by vegetation, forests, and wildlife2. This imagery is not purely a figment of Weisman's imagination; similar scenes can be observed in deserted suburban ghost towns where vegetation aggressively and invasively fills the voids in dilapidated concrete structures. These damp and wild environments are clearly no longer suitable for human habitation, yet the landscapes they create are profoundly moving and visually captivating. This aesthetic of decay has influenced numerous popular works, such as the critically acclaimed video game "The Last of Us" and its sequel, as well as the Netflix series adapted from the game.
What, then, is the significance of the landscape? How is it represented? In Denis Cosgrove's "Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape", he posits that landscapes do not merely exist in the external physical environment that people perceive, study, use, or enjoy. Perhaps when we think of the term "landscape," we typically envision the earth, rivers, trees, sky, fields, and livestock before us3. However, Cosgrove argues that landscape is a specific "way of seeing," shaped by education, culture, and social background throughout history, guiding us to view the apparent objective realities in a particular manner. Edward Relph, in his "Place and Placelessness" (2016), also writes, "The real geographical environment is primarily composed of places, including those in people's memories and landscapes, before the emergence of formal concepts such as location, region, and terrain4." This may be the charm of the landscape—it is a unique natural geography presented through each person's distinct perspective, cognition, understanding, and memory. Thus, what do the landscapes around us look like? How are they presented through the artist's eyes? Perhaps it is precisely because of the unique nature of landscapes that there is great anticipation for the visual feast created by the combination of contemporary art and landscape through the artist's perspective.
In May 2024, CaixaForum Barcelona presented the exhibition "Horizonte y Límite: Visiones Del Paisaje (Horizon and Limit: Visions of the Landscape),” which explored how contemporary artists depict landscapes through various artistic mediums such as video, photography, painting, and installations. The exhibition was co-curated by Nimfa Bisbe, Director of the Contemporary Art Collection at the "La Caixa" Foundation, and independent curator Arola Valls. The exhibition featured 61 artworks by 39 artists from different countries, showcasing diverse attitudes towards nature. Notable artists included Anne Imhof, Tacita Dean, Patricia Dauder, Hamish Fulton, Ignasi Aballí, Joan Fontcuberta, Dionís Escorsa, Andreas Gursky, Bleda & Rosa, Andrea Galvani, Remy Zaugg, Luc Delahaye, Oriol Vilanova, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Perejaume, Danica Phelps, Victoria Civera, Karlos Gil, and Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, among others.
The exhibition "Horizonte y Límite: Visiones Del Paisaje" is divided into four thematic sections, exploring the following questions: the fiction of the vision, the experience of the vision, the framing of nature, and the human impact on nature. The exhibition presents a complex and multifaceted perspective, blending critical thinking with a sense of responsibility. This exhibition is a continuation of the previous CaixaForum series "Horizonte y Límite." It not only includes the contemporary collection of La Caixa Foundation but also incorporates and invites works from other contemporary artists, creating numerous interesting and dynamic dialogues between the foundation's collection and other contemporary artworks.
In an interview with Artpower 100, Nimfa Bisbe discussed the inspiration for this exhibition: "The inspiration for this exhibition comes from the Contemporary Art Collection itself. Although it is not a line of work of “la Caixa” Collection, over the years we have gathered a significant group of works that incorporate the natural landscape. However, it was recently, with the addition of artworks created with digital technologies and pieces addressing environmental issues, that we saw great potential for a compelling exhibition. Landscape is a significant theme in our society and culture today, and considering the interest the exhibition is generating , I believe we made the right decision in organizing it."
Highlight Artworks
"The Problem of Three Bodies" (2022) is a collaborative work by artists Dionís Escorsa (born 1970 in Tortosa) and Albert Merino (born 1979 in Barcelona). This piece falls under the exhibition's theme of "The Fiction of the Vision." Catalan artist José Nogué's 1910 Romantic landscape painting "La esfinge de Roscoff" is projected onto three segmented video screens. The painting shimmers, and the animated video seems to imbue it with life: the sea sparkles, clouds shift across the sky, and everything radiates brilliance. The artists added three moving suns to this installation, corresponding to Johannes Kepler's theory of three-body astronomy, which explores the movement of N bodies under mutual gravitational attraction in three-dimensional space. The simplest example is the motion of the Sun, Earth, and Moon in the solar system. In this installation, Escorsa and Merino simulate a three-body system, demonstrating the complexity of predicting the trajectories of three stars. As the positions of the three celestial bodies change, the light and darkness of the corresponding three videos also shift, making the scene alternately bright and dim. The originally serene landscape painting becomes unpredictable with the addition of technology and astronomical mechanics.
"Perimeter Pfynwald" (2018-2023) is another fascinating work, featured in the "Experience of the Vision" section. Swiss artist Marcus Maeder incorporates sound into this interactive installation. Viewers can stand in the center of the installation and use a touchpad to move a cursor and listen to the surrounding sounds on the screens. In this piece, the artist combines panoramic views of the Pfynwald Nature Reserve in Switzerland with a series of landscape sounds captured by an automated recording system distributed over several kilometers. These natural sounds include the rhythm of flowing rivers and the songs of birds. People standing amidst the encircling technological screens experience the audiovisual pleasure brought by the landscape and its sounds.The artist captures different environmental sounds at ten-minute intervals: the forest itself, major rivers, mountain streams, and a lake. Through these recordings, he compresses time and space to create a soundscape that reflects changes occurring under the impact of climate change. This immersive experience allows visitors to engage deeply with the natural environment and its acoustic properties, highlighting the dynamic relationship between nature and technology.
In the "Framing of Nature" section, one artwork particularly caught my attention. The video piece titled "Projection (matin/soir)" (1990/2019) by Swiss artist Rémy Zaugg depicts the artist painting in front of a large white canvas. This canvas is so enormous that it obscures the landscape he intends to depict. To overcome this, he uses a projector to cast the image of the landscape onto his canvas, employing traditional painting techniques. This method of projecting and ignoring the actual landscape while painting is inherently paradoxical and ironic. Notably, Zaugg uses white paint, and under the morning light in the video, the piece seems to open a window onto the landscape he is depicting. The contradictions and dissonance in this work compel viewers to reflect on the relationship between the artist—or humans in general—and the landscape, or about the construction of the imagined versus the actual one. This reflective approach challenges conventional perceptions and encourages a deeper contemplation of how we frame and interact with nature through art.
"Les Mées" (2006) and "Timefall [Anarres]" (2023) are prominent works in the "Human Impact on Nature" section. In the photograph "Les Mées" (2006), German artist Andreas Gursky captures an uncanny scene—a verdant lawn densely covered with solar panels. Although this scene represents an environmentally friendly effort, it evokes a sense of unease. The solar panels obstruct the vegetation from receiving sunlight, and the overwhelming presence of artificial technology prompts reflection on whether, despite the relative eco-friendliness of solar energy, such human interventions constitute an excessive exploitation of nature.
"Timefall [Anarres]" (2023) is another notable work. Spanish artist Karlos Gil presents an unsettling scene—an artificial pinkish-purple light fills a square glass container installation, which is suffused with white smoke. The title of this piece references the name of a fictional planet from Ursula K. Le Guin's novel "The Dispossessed" (1974). Inside the glass installation, the artist encloses metallic elements in organic hydro-cement and subjects them to an accelerated aging process. The inclusion of treated calcium and natural salts causes the seeds embedded in the cement to germinate, triggering the proliferation of lichen that covers the entire structure. As depicted in the apocalyptic scenario of "The World Without Us" mentioned at the beginning of the article, human ruins will be reclaimed by nature, and environments disrupted by human activity will revert to landscapes. Notably, this work is also part of La Caixa Foundation's Apoyo a la Creación '22 initiative, aimed at promoting contemporary artistic creation.
There are many thought-provoking works in the "Horizonte y Límite: Visiones Del Paisaje" exhibition, but due to space limitations, I can only highlight a few. The rest will have to be discovered by visitors themselves. As Arola Valls, the other co-curator of this exhibition, stated: "The main purpose of this exhibition is to draw viewers' attention to environmental and landscape issues, especially in the context of global warming, to examine the impact of human factors on landscapes and the consequences we are about to face. This exhibition aims to present a rethinking of landscapes through visual art, based on the contemporary artworks in La Caixa Foundation's collection and other related artists' works.” Furthermore, Valls has prepared a series of colorful booklets at the entrance of the exhibition, guiding visitors to read and reflect on the relationship between themselves, art, society, culture, and the environment and landscape.
In the myriad discussions about today's environment and landscapes, the concept of the "Anthropocene"—a geological epoch characterized by significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems—has become a trendy theoretical discourse. This human-centered geological timeframe allows us to examine the current ecological crisis within a historical depth5. This exhibition offers us the chance to reflect on the footprint of human existence in nature and landscapes, giving an interactive and interpretative approach to landscapes through contemporary art, engaging viewers visually and auditory.
The exhibition will run until September 1, 2024.
[1] Noel Caster, Nature (2005), London: Routledge. p.1
[2] Alan Weisman, The World Without Us (2007), London: Penguin Random House.
[3] Denis E. Cosgrove, Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape (1998), Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
[4] Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness (2022), New York: SAGE Publications Ltd. p.8
[5] Jeremy Davies, The Birth of the Anthropocene (2018), California: University of California Press. p.2
