当代唐人艺术中心和常青画廊的空间原为798国营电子厂的厂房，由苏联援建，东德设计制造，是另一种意识形态的产物。当“汪家祠”静立其中，它们成为奇妙的组合，一个空间回应另一个空间，一段历史回应另一段历史。在当代唐人艺术中心，画廊原本的办公区域与老房子架构重叠交错，观众得以走近“汪家祠”的梁、柱、枋、雀替等构件，捕捉这个古老建筑的记忆片段与残余。
“汪家祠”作为古建中的个体，逃脱了被世人遗忘的命运。它也不同于诸多的“旧址”或文物，它们大多散发着陈腐的味道。艾未未对于这一跨越了400年的场域作出回应，他重新解释已经变得古老的东西，以建筑和艺术的交融创作出从未存在的全新语境。
“汪家祠”再次变成可以让人们共享，并且在其中呼吸的空间，既古旧又鲜活。
Ai Weiwei’s solo exhibition of the same name – “AI WEIWEI” – is on display at Tang Contemporary Art and Galleria Continua from June 6 –September 6, 2015. With over 400 years of history, the Wang Family Ancestral Hall will pass through two gallery spaces, old home’s structure and that of the galleries’ will become one. Ai Weiwei is one of the world’s most important artist. This is his first solo exhibition in China including all new artwork, with Cui Cancan assuming the role of curator.
Built in the Ming Dynasty, the Wang Family Ancestral Hall is originally from Xiaoqi Village of Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province. Intended for worship, the hall was built to worship the Wang family ancestor, Wang Hua. In addition to worship, Wang family descendants used this space to hold ceremonies, discuss public affairs, and discipline those who violated family rules. The hall was like a network node for the Wang family, knitting the family’s organizational structure, and maintaining the lineage’s stability and order.
This traditional Chinese architectural structure was built primarily of wood –its columns and beams are connected by tendons. Five kaijian (standard width of a room in an old-style house, about 3.3 meters) by four jinshen (word used to describe depth or length of a house) in size, its tall, central hall is built with the finest of materials. For several hundred years after the hall was built, clan members continuously repaired and alteredit as a way of showing off the family’s wealth and identity. Behind the hall’s architectural form and scale, exists the traditional ethics and order as instilled by respect for elders before youth, and men before women.
However, following the revolution, imperialism came to an end and the social ethical system collapsed – the Wang Family’s Ancestral Hall ceased to have any prosperity. After going through Land Reforms and the Campaign Against Old Fours, three of the hall’s four courtyards were fully demolished, leaving only the central hall. Simultaneously, the house where generations of Wang family members once lived became available for public use. Though it belonged to the village, no one took responsibility for its repair, leading to its ultimate decline.
It was in 2000 that a new market system was developed, and the already collapsed Wang Ancestral Hall was turned into a product to be sold on the ancient antiquities market. In 2013, the Xiaoqi Village Committee auctioned off the hall, and Zhu Caichang, a businessman from Dongyang, Zhejiang Provence, purchased it. The hall left Xiaoqi and was moved to Dongyang, where it was repaired and rebuilt. Two years later, Ai Weiwei purchased the hall, becoming its new owner.
Ai Weiwei has created a huge body of artwork that is inseparable from his will or vision. For this exhibition, he has split the hall into 1500 components to be moved to Beijing, where it will be installed – standing between the walls of two gallery spaces, it will create a new space. The changing owners, locations and events that this Wang Family Ancestral Hall has passed through, have continuously added experience and a multitude of features to its identity, creating a dramatic scene.
The original spaces in which Tang Contemporary Art and Galleria Continua are housed – the old 798 government electronics factory built with Soviet aid and East German design – are constructed of another consciousness. As the Wang Family Ancestral Hall stands silently in this space, a magical combination takes form – one space responding to another space, one point in history responding to another point in history. As the office area of Tang Contemporary Art and the architecture of the old house overlap, the audience is able to approach the hall’s columns, beams and other components, capturing a glimpse of this ancient building’s residual memory.
As the Wang Family Ancestral Home stands as an individual architecture, it escapes its fate as being forgotten. It is different from many “ruins” and artifacts in that it doesn’t emit a stale smell like the others. In response to the space that spans 400 years, Ai Weiwei reinterprets antiquities that have already changed, creating an entirely new context at the intersection of architecture and art.
The Wang Family Ancestral Hall has changed once again – becoming a space that people can enjoy, moreover breathe together – one that is both old and new.
