上海当代艺术馆 如何脱离政治的阴影

SHANGHAI — Few knew what to expect of the Power Station of Art when it blew onto the contemporary art scene here in 2012. Just one year earlier, the Power Station — the first state-owned contemporary art museum in China — had been but a half-baked idea in the minds of local government officials intent on transforming Shanghai into an international cultural capital.

上海——2012年，上海当代艺术馆突然出现在当代艺术的视野之中，当时几乎没有人知道它的前景如何。上海当代艺术馆是中国第一家国有当代艺术馆， 仅在开张一年前，它还只是当地那些想把上海打造成国际文化大都市的当地官员们脑子里一个不周全的计划。

By the time the Power Station was set to make its debut by playing host to the ninth Shanghai Biennale, construction workers and artists alike were hurrying until the final hours to prepare the space, a colossal decommissioned electrical power plant, for the show. Despite last-minute efforts, the hastily assembled biennale — with its roughly installed artwork, missing or misprinted wall labels and poorly trained staff — made for a lackluster start, leaving many with questions about the museum’s sustainability.

上海当代艺术馆的首次亮相是主办第九届上海双年展，这里原本是一个废弃的巨大发电厂，建筑工人和艺术家们为展览空间忙碌到开展前的最后一刻。尽管到最后时刻还在努力，这个仓促拼凑的双年展——粗劣的装置艺术、缺失或错印的墙上标志、未经培训的员工——为艺术馆开了个黯淡无光的头，让很多人怀疑该馆是否能持续发展。

Now, two years later, those doubts appear to be diminishing as the Power Station, one of the few public institutions in China dedicated to contemporary art, finds its footing in the flourishing contemporary art scene here.

如今，两年时间已经过去，这些怀疑的声音似乎消失了。如今的当代艺术馆已经是中国为数不多的专门展出当代艺术的公立机构，在当地繁荣的当代艺术界找到了立足之地。

At the opening of the 10th Shanghai Biennale last month, crowds streamed through the seven-story Power Station to take in works by more than 80 artists from 20 countries, centering on the theme “Social Factory.” Organized by the writer and curator Anselm Franke of Berlin, the show, which runs through March 31, displayed few of the technical and production issues that dogged the preceding edition.

在上月举行的第十届上海双年展开幕式上，观众们涌入七层的当代艺术馆，观赏来自20个国家的80多名艺术家的作品，这届双年展的主题是“社会工厂”，由柏林作家兼策展人安塞姆·弗兰克担任总策展人，将持续到3月31日。上届展览中出现的各种技术与制作问题几乎不复存在。

“This biennale is really a landmark event for China,” said Chris Dercon, director of the Tate Modern.

“这届双年展的确是中国的标志性事件，”泰特现代美术馆的馆长克里斯·德孔(Chris Dercon)说。

It is the first time in the biennale’s 18-year history that the chief curator had been given free rein to choose the theme. The decision to allow Mr. Franke that latitude was made by the museum’s academic committee, which was recently reorganized and includes prominent international figures like Mr. Dercon and Homi K. Bhabha, a humanities professor at Harvard.

在上海双年展的18年历史上，总策展人可以随意选择主题还是第一次。这个决定给了弗兰克很大自由，它是由艺术馆新成立的的学术委员会做出的，其成员包括德孔和哈佛大学的人文科学教授霍米·K·巴巴(Homi K. Bhabha)。

“We want the Shanghai Biennale to be more international,” said Li Xu, deputy director of the Power Station. “This is a new kind of cultural confidence.”

“我们希望上海双年展更加国际化，”当代艺术馆副馆长李旭说，“这是新的文化自信。”

The current biennale, which has been well received by critics and those in the museum world, is the latest milestone for the Power Station after a string of successful exhibitions. Highlights have included a large-scale exhibition on Surrealism shipped in from the Pompidou Center in Paris, a major solo exhibition by the Chinese contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang sponsored by Infiniti, and a 30-year retrospective of portraits in Chinese contemporary art organized by Mr. Li. The Power Station has embraced its role as one of the few public institutions in China dedicated to contemporary art, developing educational outreach and training emerging curators.

这一届双年展已经受到评论界和艺术馆界的好评，是当代艺术馆继一系列成功展览之后最新的里程碑。该馆前段时间的亮点包括大型超现实主义艺术展，展品是从巴黎蓬皮杜艺术中心运来；还有中国当代艺术家蔡国强的个展，由英菲尼迪赞助；还有李旭担任策展的中国当代艺术30年回顾展。当代艺术馆把自己的角色定位为中国为数不多的致力于当代艺术的公立机构，发展教育服务功能，同时培训不断涌现的策展人。

“The museum is really changing,” said Larys Frogier, director of the Rockbund Art Museum, one of the many private museums that have emerged in Shanghai in the last few years. “The next challenge for the Power Station as a public museum is to build not only a collection but a strong vision about Chinese contemporary art.”

“当代艺术馆确实在变，”上海外滩美术馆的馆长拉瑞斯·弗洛乔(Larys Frogier)说，上海外滩美术馆是上海近年来崛起的众多私营艺术馆之一，“作为一个公立艺术馆，它所面临的下一个挑战不仅是建立自己的馆藏，而且也要为中国当代艺术建立起一个鲜明的形象。”

Whether museum officials can convince the public that a government-mediated vision of Chinese contemporary art is credible remains to be seen.

艺术馆的官员们能否说服公众，政府促成的中国当代艺术形象是可靠的，这一点目前尚不分明。

While negotiating with censors has long been accepted by most art institutions, the Power Station, as a public institution, is often subject to greater scrutiny and censorship. Several artists were banned from exhibiting in the latest edition of the Shanghai Biennale. Pak Sheung Chuen of Hong Kong, for example, was cut from the show just a few days after a so-called blacklist of artists — which included him — appeared on social media, according to Cosmin Costinas, a biennale co-curator. The artists are said to have been banned from working on the mainland because of participation in recent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

大多数艺术机构早已经接受了同审查者进行谈判，而作为公立艺术机构的当代艺术馆经常要接受更为广泛的审视与审查。这届上海双年展上，有些艺术家的作品被禁止展出。上海双年展的一位联合策展人科斯明·科斯蒂纳斯(Cosmin Costinas)说，在社交媒体上曾经爆出过一份所谓的“艺术家黑名单”，上面有香港艺术家白双全的名字，没过几天，他的名字就从上海双年展上消失了。这位艺术家据说因为参加了香港最近的支持民主抗议，因此被禁止继续在中国大陆工作。

Another Chinese artist, Song Ta, was also prevented from participating by culture bureau officials even though a show of his works, which often address Communist Party corruption, ran unimpeded in a Beijing gallery.

另一位中国艺术家宋拓也被文化局禁止参加双年展，尽管他的作品仍然在北京某画廊展出。他的作品通常是反映共产党的腐败现象。

“Censorship is part of being a public institution in China,” said Uli Sigg, one of the world’s leading collectors of contemporary Chinese art. This year works by Ai Weiwei were removed from an exhibition that Mr. Sigg helped organize for the Power Station about the history of a prize the collector created for Chinese contemporary art.

“审查制度是中国公立机构的一部分，”乌里·希克(Uli Sigg)说，他是世界上最大的中国当代艺术收藏者之一。今年（2014年——译注）在当代艺术馆，希克参与策展的一个关于他为中国当代艺术设立的一个奖项的历史回顾展中，艾未未的作品被撤下。

“The paradigm for contemporary art is to show things as they are, to document and to criticize,” Mr. Sigg said. “It doesn’t represent China in the way the government wants it to be represented to their people and to the outside world.”

“当代艺术的范式是呈现事物的本来面目，去记录和批评，”希克说，“而并不是按政府希望呈现给人民和外界的样子去呈现中国。”

Museum officials agree that escaping the shadow of politics is among the foremost challenges facing the Power Station.

艺术馆官员们同意，如何脱离政治的阴影也是当代艺术馆所面临的重要挑战之一。

“When people first look at us they see politics before they see art,” said Gong Yan, the museum director and former editor in chief of the Chinese-language magazine Art World. “We want to shift this attention so that when people come to see the exhibits they can see the individual value of the Chinese artists and not just the entire societal context.”

“当人们第一眼看我们的时候，他们首先看到政治，其次才是艺术，”艺术馆馆长及华语杂志《艺术世界》的前主编龚彦说。“我们希望改变这种关注点，让来看展览的人先看到中国艺术家的个体价值，而不仅仅是整体社会语境。”

Another issue for the Power Station is funding. Although the government paid for the $64 million needed to convert the 450,000-square-foot space into a museum, the institution — like many other public museums today — still struggles to find enough money for operations. And with prices for contemporary art skyrocketing, a lack of financing has also hampered the museum’s ability to build a substantive collection.

资金也是当代艺术馆的一个问题。尽管政府拨款6400万美元，把45万平方英尺的空间改建为博物馆，但它同如今的许多公立博物馆一样，还要努力筹集足够的运营资金。随着当代艺术的价格飞速攀升，缺乏资金阻碍了艺术馆进一步收集大量馆藏。

“The biggest problem is that the government is great at taking care of the hardware but not the software,” Mr. Li said. While officials have demonstrated an increasing willingness to invest in contemporary art, he said, the “speed of change has not been as fast as you might guess.”

“最大的问题是，政府善于建造硬件，而不擅长经营软件，”李说。虽然政府官员们表现出强大的投资当代艺术的意愿，他说，但是，“变革的速度不像你以为的那样快。”

A foundation to solicit private donations is being established. In the meantime, money problems have also hurt the museum’s ability to attract professional staff members, officials say.

一个旨在征集私人捐款的基金已经建立。与此同时，博物馆管理者们说，资金问题也在影响博物馆吸引职业工作人员加盟。

“When the government talks about culture in China they are always talking about construction,” said Qiu Zhijie, who as chief curator of the ninth Shanghai Biennale experienced the museum’s growing pains firsthand. “No one thinks that culture is like planting a tree, where you have to continue watering it.”

“当政府说起中国文化时，他们通常说的是建设，”第九届上海双年展的主策展人邱志杰说，对于当代艺术馆在成长中经历的困境，他有最直接的体验。“他们没有人会觉得搞文化就像种树，你得持续不断地给它浇水。”