THE PEACH SPRING BEYOND THIS WORLD
Online Exhibition by Âme Nue (with works by artists aaajiao and Ye Funa)
25 February 2021 – 31 January 2022
http://peachblossomspring.art/
In their works, Chinese new media artists Ye Funa and aaajiao (Xu Wenkai) explore the Internet phenomena, the societal effects related to the changing notions of identity and the overflow of information in the digital age.
The title of the exhibition ‘The Peach Spring Beyond This World’ is inspired by the idiom Shiwai Taoyuan 世外桃源. It goes back to the fable ‘The Peach Blossom Spring’’ written by Tao Yuanming in 421 CE and is considered to be the first concept of utopia in Chinese literature. Reflecting on what remains of the traditional imagery of the Peach Blossom Land in ultra-modern China – and its inherent understanding of deep love to nature as the bedrock of utopian dreams – Ye Funa and aaajiao explore by artistic means whether the virtual world could be a safe space for the new generation, a refuge for meditation and relaxation in which new models of communities and environments can be imagined.
In aaajio’s meta-game ‘Deep Simulator’ – a reference to user experience transcending the limits of the game – and Ye Funa’s ‘Dr.Corona Online’ oracle platform – an interactive question-and-answer work – the player is transported into peaceful, natural landscapes that contain references to Chinese popular and digital culture. On a journey to an infinite world the wanderer of aaajiao’s work is searching for a way out of the Bardo – an intermediate mental state, such as experienced in meditation or in-between death and rebirth, present in Tibetan Buddhism.
The focus on existential questions of life and death, feelings of disorientation and comfort are also predominant in Ye Funa’s work. When questioning “Dr.Corona Online” – an artificial-intelligence-doctor – about the pandemic or life in general, the patient roams between randomly obtained answers from Internet headlines, social media tweets, and motivational quotes.
The process of navigating through these utopian worlds is one of the primary purposes of the interactive works. Like Tao Yuanming’s fishermen in search of the Peach Blossom Spring, the exhibition explores the processuality of the Chinese concept of utopia – the eternal search for the promised land, where time stands still. The wanderer/player/patient returns to the real world mesmerized, with a sense of pleasure and troubling confusion, wondering whether the long quest for happiness and the process of finding utopia in itself is utopia.
‘The Peach Spring Beyond This World’ was realized with the friendly support of the Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg and the Claussen-Simon-Stiftung.
世外桃源
Âme Nue的在线展览 (包括艺术家aaajiao和Ye Funa的作品)
2021年2月25日-2022年1月31日
中国新媒体艺术家叶甫纳和aaajiao（徐文恺）在他们的作品中探讨了互联网现象、和身份观念变化有关的社会效应，以及数字时代的过量信息。
展览名称 “世外桃源 “的灵感来源于成语 “世外桃源”。它可以追溯到公元421年陶渊明所写的寓言《桃花源记》。这个寓言被认为是中国文学中第一个乌托邦的概念。叶甫纳和aaajiao反思了超现代中国传统桃花源意象的遗存，及其对自然的深爱作为乌托邦梦想基石的内在理解，通过艺术手段探讨虚拟世界能否成为新生代的安全空间，能否成为冥想和放松的避难所，在其中想象出新的社区和环境模式。
在aaajio的元游戏（meta-game）”深度模拟器”——超越游戏极限的用户体验和叶甫纳的 《柯大夫在线》甲骨文平——交互式问答作品中，玩家被带入了宁静的自然景观中，其中包含了对中国流行文化和数字文化的参考。在通往无限世界的旅途中，aajiao作品中的流浪者（玩家）寻找着走出中阴身的方向——这是藏传佛教中存在的一种中间心理状态，如在冥想中或在死亡与重生之间的体验。
对生与死的存在问题的关注、迷离感和舒适感也是叶甫纳作品的主题。当询问 《柯大夫在线》——一个人工智能医生关于流行病或一般生活的问题时，病人会在从互联网头条新闻、社交媒体推文和励志名言中随机获得的答案之间游走。
在这些乌托邦世界中穿行的过程是这些互动作品的主要目的之一。就像陶渊明笔下的渔民寻找桃花源一样，展览探讨了中国乌托邦概念的过程性——对时间静止的应许之地的永恒寻找。流浪者/玩家/患者失魂落魄地回到现实世界，有一种愉悦感，也有一种不安的困惑，不知道对幸福的漫长追求和寻找乌托邦的过程本身是否就是乌托邦。
‘世外桃源’是在汉堡文化传媒部和Claussen-Simon-Stiftung的友好支持下实现的。