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【展览现场】托比亚斯·卡斯帕：“丰饶角” | Tobias Kaspar: "Horn of Plenty"

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反复的光晕

Repeating Aura

1981年，皮尔·卡丹在北京饭店举办了新中国第一场公开的国外品牌时装发布会。这场走秀引发社会震动是理所当然的。当时，国人们隐隐地渴望着从沉闷色调的服装中解脱出来，却又怕自己走上“资本主义的歪路”，以至于在不可预测的时刻受到“自由”的惩罚。与此同时，精明的意大利设计师皮尔·卡丹闻到了这股纠结之中涌动的商机。他没有选择杀进法国设计界的精英圈子，转而到东方打开局面。他明白，市场化和大众化是一回事，在眼界被框死多年的人们的想象中，远方新奇的事物，无论在原产地是否已陈词滥调，都闪烁着令人眩晕的光晕。

In 1981, at the Beijing Hotel, Pierre Cardin held the China’s first foreign fashion show since the founding of the People’s Republic. It is easy to see how this show would have made waves at the time. At the time, the people of China thirsted for release from the drab clothing of their country, but were afraid of being “led astray on the capitalist path,” and of facing unpredictable punishment for “freedom.” At this moment, Pierre Cardin smelled a great business opportunity lying beneath the surface of this conundrum. Instead of storming straight into the elite circles of French design, he pivoted to open a new front in the East. He understood that markets and mass culture went hand in hand, and that in the minds of people whose eyes had been blinded for so many years, novelties from distant lands would glow with a dazzling aura no matter how much they had overrun their own homelands.

在2019年的今天，皮尔·卡丹在中国早已无人追捧。光晕暗淡了，便只能伺机回光返照。艺术家托比亚斯·卡斯帕寻找到一家在1960-1990年代向亚洲市场出口服饰花样的瑞士公司，并将那些由他们生产的、曾经受人青睐的布料样品拍摄成照片。照片中，身着芭蕾服或名牌服饰的女性，伦敦或巴黎的街景，以及英伦马球赛等纹样输出着彼时令亚洲消费者向往的西方生活方式。艺术家用摄影这种有距离感的图像攫取手法获得色彩明快、形制简洁的图案，将它们以艺术的名义“二次进口”到亚洲国家。

Now, in 2019, it’s been years since anyone clamored for Pierre Cardin. The aura has faded, and the brand can only bask in its past glory. Artist Tobias Kaspar found a Swiss company that exported embroidered clothing patterns to Asia from the 1960s to the 90s, and photographed their once highly sought-after samples. In the photographs, we see women wearing ballet costumes, the famous YSL Mondrian dress, street scenes of London or Paris, and polo players, markers of the aspirations of Asian consumers toward Western lifestyles. With the use of photography, a method for capturing images with a sense of distance, he has produced pictures with bright colors and clean, simple forms and is now “re-exporting” them to Asian countries in the name of art.

托比亚斯·卡斯帕，《Ballet Dancers》， 2019，艺术微喷，205 × 165 × 5 cm

Tobias Kas, Ballet Dancers, 2019, ultra giclee, 205 × 165 × 5 cm

凭摄影这一媒介，以及上文中的“光晕”一词，容易提起本雅明在《机械复制时代的艺术作品》中的“光晕”（aura）。当托比亚斯将其中的几幅照片放大到一定尺幅的时候，机械复制的本真性祛魅亦被强调。那些图案底部的针线和褶皱提醒着人们，他们眼前的图像可以被缝纫机无限地复制，而捕捉织物表面光影的，又是另一种理论上可以无限复制的器械。本雅明笔下曾寄生于宗教、仪式、祭祀的艺术作品，不再稀少而珍贵，成了大众皆可享有的图像。艺术的仪式功能被让渡给了展示价值。这种降落的过程，或许与皮尔· 卡丹在中国的情况具有可比之处。在上世纪七八十年的中国，服装锁住的那些文化信号，宣告着改革开放时代迎面而来，因而具备政治的功能——上世纪二三十年代，本雅明所断言的“新时代”艺术，也建立在这个维度之上。即便前者与后者的“政治”指代内涵不尽相同，复制均充当了传播某种理想化的意识形态的媒介。

The medium of photography, and the use of the word “aura” above, call to mind Walter Benjamin’s concept of “aura” in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. When Kaspar enlarges these photographs to a certain size, the inherent disenchantment properties of mechanical reproduction are enhanced. The threads and wrinkles below these images are a reminder that they can be infinitely reproduced by sewing machines. Meanwhile, the light and shadow on their surface is captured by another machine that theoretically capable of infinite reproduction. In Benjamin’s writing, the work of art that had once lived for religion, ritual and offering, was no longer rare or precious. It had become an image that could be enjoyed by the masses. The ritual function of art had been displaced by exhibition value. This fall from grace is perhaps echoed by the story of Pierre Cardin in China. In 1980s China, the cultural signs locked into that clothing announced the headlong surge of the era of Reform and Opening, and thus it carried a political function—the art of the “new era” that Benjamin had predicted in the 1920s and 30s was also built on this dimension. Though the former and the latter had different political connotations, for both of them, reproduction served as a medium for disseminating a certain idealized ideology.

托比亚斯·卡斯帕，《Paris》， 2019，艺术微喷，205 × 165 × 5 cm

Tobias Kaspar, Paris, 2019, ultra giclee, 205 × 165 × 5 cm

复制暗含了两种结果：一是廉价和随之而来的生产过剩，一是无聊：即便复制能满足对数量上接近无限的渴望，它却不是个具有创造性的概念，或者说，如果无法创造新的需要的供给，复制只会让人感到厌倦。资本需要另外一种引领时尚潮流的“光晕”来维持生产和消费的循环——我们常常将消费的行动归咎于人们的欲望，但事实上，正因为人们延续生命所需要的生存资料是有限的，如何制造令人挥之不去的幻象，以激发和扩充欲望，才是能让复制不朽的命题。当托比亚斯拍摄那些摄影时，他亦在锚定一个这种幻象即将脱离物质表皮的时刻，也就是时尚“光晕”即将褪去的那一刻，并将其捕捉住。可想而知，这一临界的时刻，具有这样的特点：它既不是梦幻的，也不是坐实的，徘徊在从这一边到另一边滑落的边缘。所以，这种捕捉过程，需要远方的观众共同完成：当我们的目光接触到那些略显呆板的纺织物图像时，它们既是遥远的（它们是几十年前西方世界的时髦样式）又是熟悉的（进口之后，大众迅速地接受了这一类图像）。不再流行之后，这些图像被丢进了记忆的垃圾堆，可从未全然消失。托比亚斯寻找那些貌似被遗忘之物，拂去表面的灰尘，再次展示。

Reproduction implies two kinds of outcomes: one being cheapness and the overproduction that it brings, and the second boredom. Though reproduction can satisfy almost infinite demand, it is not a concept that possesses creativity, which is to say that if it cannot create new demand, reproduction can only result in fatigue. Capital needs another kind of “aura” to lead fashion trends in order to maintain the cycle of production and consumption. We often ascribe the act of consumption to people’s desire, but in fact, since there are limits to what people need to sustain life, the eternal question for reproduction is how to produce compelling fantasies that spark and expand desire. When Kaspar took those photographs, he captured the moment these illusions were casting off their skin, that moment the “aura” faded, and fixed it in place. That critical instant, as one can imagine, is in a liminal state, neither magical nor substantive, but wavering along the boundary between the two. Thus, this process of capture must be completed by the distant audience: when our gaze meets these somewhat dull textile patterns, they are at once distant (patterns from the Western fashion world decades ago) and familiar (these images were rapidly accepted by the masses upon import). Once they were no longer popular, these images were tossed into the rubbish bin of history, but they never completely vanished. Kaspar has found these seemingly forgotten objects and dusted them off to display them once again.

托比亚斯·卡斯帕，《YSL Mondrian》， 2019，艺术微喷，205 × 165 × 5 cm

Tobias Kaspar, YSL Mondrian, 2019, ultra giclee, 205 × 165 × 5 cm

在北京，托比亚斯收集来鸟笼——这类清代贵族常用于圈养观赏鸟的笼子，在2019年北京老人的生活中依旧可见，却再也激发不起青年一代的兴趣——并为它们披上时尚、优雅的“新衣”。在作品《Delivery》中，快递运输车这一商品流通过程中必不可少的环节象征物被罩上棉布。托比亚斯用遮蔽的方式让它们显现，又美化这种遮蔽，似乎在对这些可怜之物施以关怀。在《Chanel boy》《Aspirin and Marlboro Gold》等作品中，艺术家根据草场地街边捡拾来的包装垃圾，制作等大小的、形制极为接近原物的铜质雕塑。它们散落在展厅之中，像丧失了灵魂的躯壳。

In Beijing, Tobias Kaspar collected birdcages—these cages used for raising and enjoying birds by Qing dynasty elites can still be found among Beijing’s elderly in 2019, and are now attracting the interest of a new generation of youth—and adorned them with elegant, fashionable “new clothes.” In the artwork Delivery, the vehicle and symbol of express package delivery, that indispensable facet of commercial circulation, has been draped in cotton. Tobias uses concealment to render it visible, while also beautifying this concealment, as if he is showing pity for them. In such works as Chanel Boy, Aspirin and Marlboro Gold, the artist picked up packaging waste off the streets of Caochangdi and created nearly identical, life-sized replicas in copper. Scattered around the exhibition space, they resemble so many empty shells that have been drained of their spirit.

托比亚斯·卡斯帕，《Women with Necklace》，2019，birdcage，cotton cover, acrylic paint,ink,

(H)111 x Ø 32 cm

Tobias Kaspar, Women with Necklace, 2019, 鸟笼，棉布鸟笼罩，丙烯，墨, (H)111 x Ø 32 cm

与这些作品的“落魄”相反，托比亚斯·卡斯帕将这次展览命名为“Horn of Plenty”，中文名大致可以被翻译为“丰饶羊角”。丰饶羊角源于希腊及罗马神话，为丰收的象征。在时至今日的感恩节中，它常以装满果实和鲜花的形象在西方大众媒体中出现。“Horn of Plenty”亦是2009年时装设计师亚历山大·麦克奎恩生前发布的最后一次秋冬时装的系列名。这一里程碑式的时装发布会中，设计师以批判的角度审视过度奢侈的时尚行业。然而，即便麦克奎恩在这场秀中将一些剩余废料融入了制景和服装，他的产出还是魅惑的。

In contrast to the diminished state seen in these artworks, Tobias Kaspar has named this exhibition “Horn of Plenty.” The “Horn of Plenty” is a symbol of bountiful harvest from ancient Greek and Roman mythology. It often appears today in Western mass media, filled with fruits and flowers around the Thanksgiving holiday. “Horn of Plenty” was also the title of Alexander McQueen’s 2009 Autumn/Winter fashion collection. In this landmark runway show, the fashion designer turned a critical eye on the excesses of the fashion industry. McQueen incorporated waste materials into his scenes and clothing designs, but the result was still alluring.

麦克奎恩将前文提到的那种“令人挥之不去的幻象”理想化，并在传媒的平台上复制和放大这种崭新的“光晕”。崭新能够克制复制带来的无精打采，但不等于创造。有的时候，“新”只是变着花样重复陈词滥调，无法带人走出原有的逻辑。托比亚斯把目光投向无人问津之物，并不是在引领复古的旧时髦，而是通过观看它们，让我们觉察到着迷和忘却过程的反复，和这反复中裹挟的宿命感——人们争相追逐明亮的“光晕”，待到它熄灭，弃之如敝履，开始下一轮的追逐。

McQueen idealized that “compelling fantasy” described above, reproducing and magnifying this fresh new “aura” on the media stage. Freshness can counter the listnessness brought about by reproduction, but it does not amount to creation. Sometimes, the “new” is just the same old cliché under a new guise, and cannot pull people out of the old logic. In drawing our gaze onto long-forgotten things, Kaspar is not trying to spark a nostalgic trend. Instead, when we look at these things, he wants us to see the repetition in this process of obsession and oblivion, and the sense of predestination wrapped up in this repetition—people falling over each other for the bright “aura,” and when it is extinguished, they cast it aside, and set out on the quest for the next one.

文⎥Text：杨紫 Yang Zi

翻译⎥Translation：谢飞 Jeff Crosby