在遗忘和不能遗忘之间——田太权《遗忘》展前言

      去年九月在平遥才认识田太权。当时他有个展，展览作品有想法，也有新意，但说不出是好还是不好。我知道持有这种状态的艺术家很多，不太好谈论。今年四月，田太权从重庆打来电话，邀请我去重庆，说在四川美院的艺术中心“坦克库”有一个个展，希望前往。我从来没有去过重庆，欣然应邀，好看看这个闻名的山城。

I met Mr. Tian Taiquan in the last year when he held a solo-exhibition in Pingyao. Frankly speaking, the innovation and thought of his works impressed me which was hard to say good or not. It is my first time to visit Chongqing, Mountain City, in April inviting by Tian Taiquan who invited me attend his solo-exhibition in Tank Loft Arts Centre.

      看展览的人很多，作品也保持了在平遥时的风格，只有四张特别，拍的是重庆仅存的一处“红卫兵墓”。当然不是拍那个墓，而是用那个墓为背景，前景加上穿红卫兵服的年轻女性的性感形象。

The exhibition hall was crowed of visitors when I came. Tian’s works succeed to the style displayed at Pingyao, but four pieces of them were especially. The only established Red Army Graveyard in Chongqing has been recorded. Certainly the hero is young sexy female figure in red army dress rather than the graveyard that acts the background.

      我当时眼睛一亮。一是，我一直知道这个墓，网上搜索过。二是，以这个墓为背景，却又加上性感女性形象，主题虽然暧昧，但视觉效果强烈。我当时就和一起看展览的几位从事美术研究的学者商量，觉得这个主题完全可以发展。第二天田太权陪我们几个去那个红卫兵墓上看看。现场的阴森感和墓碑上的文字让我们唏嘘不已，同时也坚定了就这个主题发展下去的信念。其实当时考虑的还不完全是作品风格，而是对一种有意识的遗忘的绝望。那个奇特年代的奇特事件，今天已经成为淡漠的痕迹，藏在历史深处，越来越不易被人发觉，更不用说细察近看了。如果田太权能够以这个唯一遗存作为题材，至少也是一种对抗失忆的方式。之后，田太权真的全力以赴投入对这个题材的创作上。到了九月份，田太权已经完成了他的第一组作品，近三十张，题目叫《遗忘》。他挑出其中九张在平遥展出，登时引起关注和争议。

It is a pleasant surprise to me. Firstly, I have known the graveyard for a long time, searching for the relevant materials many times. Secondly, the visual impact of sexy female figure in the front of the graveyard is out of expectation. I discussed with some scholars of arts research, arriving at the agreement that the subject could be developed sustainable. Tian Taiquan accompanied us to go to the Red Army Graveyard the next day. Should someone see the eeriness and carving characters on the stone yard, he would bless himself. Meanwhile, it is firmly that the subject should be developed, at least the manner of conscious forget and desperation, regardless the style of works itself. It was a peculiar event in such a peculiar age. It seemed has past as time goes by, impossible to be waked up, saying nothing of being analyzed. If it were the only subject chosen by Tian Taiquan, it must be regarded as one way to keep a promise. From then on, Tian Taiquan tried his best to the creation of such a subject. The series of 30-piece-photography, Lethe, came out in September. 9 of them have been selected to exhibit at Pingyao with lots of attention and disputation.

      关注和争议是正常的，说明中国还有许多人不愿意忘记那个一直有人希望忘记的日子。当我看到他寄过来的作品样片时，尽管我已经有所了解，但我承认，我还是被震惊了。尤其是其中的幽灵感和虚无感。我发现，一旦人们真的有意忽略一段重大历史时，其实那历史恰恰是无法被忽略的。结果，对历史的记忆就演变成一场无声的骚乱，这场骚乱浮现在历史的表象上，像幽灵一样不停顿地徘徊不停顿地踟躅不停顿地留连。

It is normal of all the attention and disputation that demonstrate many Chinese people are still unwilling to forget the period when some others wished time had expunged from our memory all recollections of the terrible events. I have to admit that I was deeply shocked, particularly for its spirit and nothingness; somehow I knew the truth before. At last, I found that once we meant to ignore a leaf of history, just the other way, it impressed deeper indeed.

      不断有人寻问田太权的创作动机，希望他对自己的作品做出恰当的解释。但是，田太权对我说，他真的不知道如何来解释自己的作品。他就是觉得那样去做了，然后就无法解释他为什么要那样去做。他面对一座仅存的墓，墓里埋了几百人。他们死于一场无聊且无辜的武斗。他们当中最小的十四岁，都是纯真的男男女女，有些日常生活都还没有过开，然后就躺在这里，被人遗忘，有意地遗忘和无意的遗忘。

People asked the motivation of Tian constantly, trying to get the right explanation from himself. But he told me that he really had no idea of interpreting the works somehow. He just thought he should do without thinking about for what. Tian Taiquan faces graveyard, the only existed one with several hundreds people buried. They were died caused by a boring politic violence during the period of Cultural Revolution, who were all innocent youth and the youngest one was at his fourteen years old. Some of them might have never been in the real society, but lied here. We let them go out of our memories intentionally and involuntarily.

      我知道田太权并不是要复原一座红卫兵墓，也不是要借机谈论什么重大问题。他所承受的是一种感性，介于失忆和记忆之间，介于遗忘的抗拒遗忘之间。他的作品叫“遗忘”，只是表明他无法遗忘。但他真的是对历史有所遗忘了，否则他不会制造出眼前和遗忘有关的图像。这说明他的图像是记忆，又不是记忆。我对田太权说，如果觉得无法解释，那就不要去解释。因为，正因为不要去解释，所以才需要在这里展出。

I knew that Tian Taiquan does not mean to rebuild a read army graveyard nor discussing big issue. He is trying to express a sense of sensibility between the forgotten and the unforgettable, as well as between the forgotten and the recollection. Lethe means it is impossible to forget at all. However, he forgot more or less, or he will never create the works relevant to Lethe. It is a sort of recollection somehow. I told Tian Taiquan that if you felt hard to explain, just let it to be, to display.

      解释在观者那儿，因为他们会有自己的判断的，哪怕这判断千差万别。

The explanation would be given by visitors, even if they are different in a thousand and one ways.