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邓国源2019年首个欧洲大型个展——蝴蝶占领了恐龙的花园将于5月12日在德国路德维希美术馆(科布伦茨)开幕。本次展览将展出艺术家邓国源的一系列最新艺术创作作品。

Deng Guoyuan's first large scale European solo exhibition in 2019, Butterflies Conquer the Dinosaurs’ Garden, will open on May 12, 2019 at  Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany. This exhibition will bring a series of artist Deng Guoyuan's latest artworks.

▲诸神1-60 Gods1-60 | 亚克力 UV 打印UV print on acrylic丨每件(each) 60x80x1.5cm 丨2019

▲新物种丨Xniyaemb|The Gods of New Species| 亚克力 UV 打印 UV print on acrylic|60x80x1.5cm丨2019

毫无疑问，是基因工程和人工智能成果给了邓国源以启发，使他臆造出了这些千奇百怪的动物。也就是说，由基因工程和人工智能带来的“新创世时代”是邓国源的《新物种系列》作品产生的现实背景。除此之外，中国古代神话经典《山海经》(Classic of Mountains and Seas)也给邓国源带来了创作灵感，并使得这组当代艺术作品拥有连接历史文脉（Context）的功能并与之产生关系。无论如何，《新物种系列》（New species series）作品是邓国源以艺术的方式对这个前所未有的科技创新时代及其新事物做出的精神反映。

Undoubtedly, the results of gene engineering and artificial intelligence have inspired Deng Guoyuan to create these bizarre animals. That is to say, the "new creation era" brought by the gene engineering and artificial intelligence is the realistic background of Deng Guoyuan's "New Species Series". In addition, the ancient Chinese mythology the Classic of Mountains and Seas also inspired Deng Guoyuan, and made this set of contemporary art works with the function of connecting the historical context, and build further relationship between them. In any case, the New Species Series is a spiritual reflection of Deng Guoyuan's artistic approach to this unprecedented era of technological innovation and its new things.

▲ 新物种丨Tsusyp | The Gods of New Species | 亚克力 UV 打印 | UV print on acrylic  60x80x1.5cm丨2019

邓国源是一位眼界开阔、观念开放的艺术家，这样的艺术素质与他曾有过在欧洲创作、生活的经历有关。他不仅能够打破艺术语言之间的界限，同时采用多种艺术手段进行创作，而且能够超越狭隘的本土意识，将全人类的普遍关切作为自己的创作主题。自21世纪以来，他越来越多地致力于装置艺术创作，先后推出了《以形而上的方式诞生系列》（2009—2017）和《诺亚花园系列》（2015—2017）等以生态环境为主题的优秀装置作品。《新物种系列》（New species series）作品无论是在艺术手法上，还是在艺术主题上，都标志着邓国源的艺术迈入了一个新的高度。

Deng Guoyuan is an artist with an open mind. This artistic quality is related to his experience of living in Europe. He not only breaks the boundaries between artistic language, but also use a variety of artistic means to create. Moreover, he transcends the narrow local consciousness and regards the universal concern of all mankind as his own creative theme. Since the 21st century, he has been increasingly devoted to installation art, and has launched the "Metamatically Birth Series" (2009-2017) and the "Noah Garden Series" (2015-2017), which are excellent installation with the theme of ecological environment. In terms of artistic techniques and artistic theme, the New Species Series marks that Deng Guoyuan’s art has reached a new height.

————王端廷Wang Duanting

▲洛利的花园Lorelys’ Garden exhibition floor plan丨钢管、LED灯带Steel pipe, LED lamps丨2019

这批作品具有一种奇怪的状态，一共分为四个系列 : 1.洛利的花园； 2.启示录； 3.诸神的花园；4.诸神之像：基因组合主要集中于第3个系列。十件镜面装置作品：蝴蝶占领了恐龙的花园，蜻蜓占领了老虎的花园，海洋生物占领了河马的花园，甲壳虫占领了大象的花园，蜘蛛占领了熊猫的花园，螳螂占领了狮子的花园，蜜蜂占领了猩猩的花园，诸神占领了机器人的花园。比如老虎和蜜蜂进行了基因组合，混合成后代，长出来的将是一个什么情况？我们既看到了飞翔的老虎，又看到了可以食肉的蜜蜂，既可以在蜜蜂的肚子上伸出一只人的脚来，又可以在老虎的臀部上长出一朵花正在对着阳光盛开。

Gene Mutations comprises four subseries— “Loreleys’ garden”, “Revelations”, “The Gardens of the Gods”, and “The Gods of New Species”, which all have a strange outlook. The third subseries focuses on gene combination, portraying butterflies invading dinosaurs’ garden, dragonflies invading tigers’ garden, marine organisms invading hippos’ garden, beetles invading elephants’ garden, spiders invading pandas’ garden, cockroaches invading lions’ garden, honeybees invading chimpanzees’ garden, and the gods invading robots’ garden. For instance, the genomes of tigers and honeybees are combined to yield their offspring. How do their offspring look like? We see not only flying tigers, but also carnivorous honeybees. On a honeybee’ belly grows a human foot, and on a tiger’s buttock grows a flower in full bloom, bathed in sunlight.   

▲新物种之神——恐龙和新物种之神——蝴蝶 Dinosaur-The Gods of New Species and Butterfly-The Gods of New Species丨钢管、LED灯带 Steel pipe, LED lamps 丨Butterfly 320x290x90cm Dinosaur 185x60x110cm丨2019

如果这个展览的作品只是用虚拟的图像来表现，也许还只是一种“虚拟”，我们对待虚拟就像对待先知的预言，从来都是阳奉阴违。但是，现在邓国源正率领一个团队没完没了地把几千个基因变异的组合变成各种雕塑，并且无限地延伸，而延伸一旦开启，永无终止，再难控制，展览中展出的只是这一系列制作的开始，对于基因变异来说，就像2018年11月的那次基因编辑事件，一个开始只不过是一次声明和启动，这个事件所起的变化，就像作品中镜子的作用的变化一样，发生了根本的倒转，形成了巨大的差别。镜子曾经在那个诺亚花园中间不断营造精致的幻觉，如梦似幻，让观众一时在眩晕中忘却生活和世界的困难，从而通过诺亚方舟的意向将人类生存的自我意识延续。而现在人类处境局势已经不能再作幻象和假设，镜子成为现实的背景，看每一件基因变异的小雕塑，观众都能看到破碎的自己的镜像。在艺术改革社会和面向问题的道路上，带着这种责任，邓国源的新作已经让我们不得不把基因工程对人的变异和干预这一很近的事实，变得可以触摸。

If the series is presented as virtual images, it would remain as a kind of virtual reality. Just as how we deal with a prophet’s oracles, we tend to treat virtual reality in a respectful but dismissive manner. But the fact is, Deng is leading a team to create a multitude of sculptures, portraying thousands of cases of gene mutation— an endless process that may grow out of control. The exhibition only shows part of such creation. Just like the genome-editing incident in November 2018, gene mutation might only be a topic for discussion at the start. But it may lead to changes comparable to how the mirror’s function changes in Deng’s works, namely, a total reversal. In Noah’s Garden, the mirror constantly conjures up fancy illusions, so the audience can momentarily escape hardships in real life. The allusion to the Noah’s Ark endorses the human instinct for survival. Whereas in Gene Mutations, the dire situation that mankind is facing today can no longer be dismissed as illusion or speculation. Mirrors become the backdrop of reality. Whenever the audience look at the mini-sculptures portraying cases of gene mutation, they see fractured images of themselves in the mirrors. Thanks to the series, the role that genetic engineering plays in mutating and intervening with humanity has become a reality so tangible to us.

————朱青生Zhu Qingsheng

▲它 她 他 It She He | 纸、铅笔、墨水 Paper, pencil, ink | 600x140cm丨2019

中国人一直以来整体上就是一个非常感性的民族，我在想也许这跟汉语的象形文字起源有关，远古的汉字其实就是图画，后来通过文字的逐渐简化概括成为象形的笔划构成独特的汉字和相应的语言体系，这跟地中海文明源自一种类似抽象符号编码系统的结绳记事的拉丁语系的文字和语言似乎有着非常本质的不同。所以自古以来汉民族是靠对类似图画的象形文字的视觉感受所反映出来的概念和意义来理解世界、描述世界和彼此交流的。也正因为如此汉民族从来是多愁善感的，在古代相对更有文化的文人士大夫群体更是喜欢抚今追昔、伤春悲秋，尤其对于镜花水月般的虚无和现实世界在内心中投射的幻象一直有着特别浓烈的兴趣。而在漫长的历史中很多伟大的诗歌、文学、戏剧、绘画、雕塑作品正是在这样的背景下诞生的。

The Chinese have always been an emotionally perceptive people. I think this is perhaps connected to the pictographic roots of Chinese characters. Chinese characters in remote antiquity were basically pictures, which were later simplified in the writing to form the unique ideographic written words and corresponding linguistic system that seems to differ in very essential ways from the writing and language of the Latin languages of the Mediterranean, which themselves emerged from clusters of abstract symbols. Thus, since ancient times, the Han Chinese people have used the concepts and meanings reflected through an ideographic visual perception akin to pictures to understand, describe and interact with the world. This has also made the Han Chinese quite a sentimental people. In ancient times, the more educated literati class enjoyed gathering to reflect on the present and reminisce about the past, and were particularly interested in illusions of reality projected in the heart like the moon reflected in a mirror. Throughout history, many great works of poetry, literature, drama, painting and sculpture emerged from precisely this background.

▲启示录 NO.1 Revelation NO.1丨 镜面不锈钢、霓虹灯管、丙烯   Mirror, stainless steel, neon tube lights, acrylic paint丨244x244x7cm丨2019

他受启发于杂糅了神话、地理、民俗和想象等内容的中国志怪古籍《山海经》，也借鉴了《希腊神话》中诸神传说的叙事结构，同时又有感于中国当代社会在狂飙突进中的剧烈变异和荒诞现实，邓国源用玩具、玩偶和复杂的镜象空间构建了一个奇异鬼畜幻想的世界。里面包含着数以千计的奇异生物。

He found inspiration in that ancient Chinese book of oddities combining mythology, geography, folkways and imagination, the Classic of Mountains and Seas. He drew from the narrative structure of Greek mythology, and was also moved by the drastic changes and absurd realities of China's frenzied contemporary society, using toys, dolls and complex mirror spaces to construct a bizarre, fantastical space that contains thousands of strange life forms.

▲启示录 NO.2 Revelation NO.2丨 镜面不锈钢、霓虹灯管、丙烯 Mirror, stainless steel, neon tube lights, acrylic paint丨244x244x7cm丨2019

就这样一个完全由艺术家虚构与臆想的奇幻世界在邓国源的手里诞生，他完全构建了一个他想象出来的平行于现实的假想与隐喻的世界，通过这个庞大的虚拟现实的内在逻辑和丰富表征来展现一个敏锐的艺术家对于传统文化的深刻思考、对于当下现实的尖锐态度以及对于未来预期的深远忧虑。

In this way, a magical world of the artist’s imagination and fabrication has come into being in Deng Guoyuan’s hands. He has fully constructed a complete, parallel world of speculation and metaphor, the inner logic and rich manifestations of which reveal a sensitive artist’s profound thinking on traditional culture, incisive attitude toward the present reality, and deep concern for the prospects of the future.

————梁克刚 Liang Kegang

▲蜻蜓占领了老虎的花园 Overall effect丨Dragonflies Conquer the Tigers Garden NO.1丨Aluminium sheet, glass mirror, modified toys, acrylic paint, enamel paint丨铝板、玻璃镜、改装玩具、丙烯、油漆丨200x180x30cm丨2019

邓国源的艺术创作使他有机会涉足许多复杂而有趣的领域。这些复杂的领域既有形而上学的方面也有生物形态的层面。艺术家似乎以超越常规世界的方式处理物质和形式，从而进入超越普通事件和常规行为感知的更为广阔的想象领域。邓国源能够根据想象的平行现实构建另类世界，这一点具有重要的意义。这种现实包含了艺术家的中国传统，并且他同时穿行于其他影响人类生活方式的思想体系之间。正如邓国源明确表示的那样，他想象中的世界已经脱离了他身处的现实生活。这是一个截然不同的世界，一个我们期待那些永远处于发明新思想体系的艺术家们可以创造的世界，而这些思想体系大部分都在日常生活的范围之外或之上。

In the context of this statement, I would like to introduce the work of the artist, Deng Guoyuan, whose involvement in art has taken him to many areas of investigation, both complex and intriguing.  The complexity has a metaphysical aspect to it as well as a biomorphic one in that he appears to be dealing with matter and form in ways that go beyond the normative world into a vast imaginative territory that surpasses ordinary events and perceptions of routine behavior. What strikes me as significant in Deng’s work is his ability to construct an alternative world based on the parallel reality of the imagination. This realityencompasses the artist’s Chinese tradition as he concurrently moves through other galaxies of thought that propose to impact the course of human life. As Deng has made clear, the world of his imagination is one removed from how he lives in the reality of the present.  It is a vastly different world, one that we might expect from artists who are perpetually in the process of inventing new systems of thought, which is, for the most part, outside or beyond the reaches of everyday life.

▲（局部）蜻蜓占领了老虎的花园 Detail丨Dragonflies-Tigers丨Aluminium sheet, glass mirror, modified toys, acrylic paint, enamel paint丨铝板、玻璃镜、改装玩具、丙烯、油漆丨200x180x30cm丨2019

对于艺术家邓国源而言，他描绘的图式从古代到现在，最终走向未知的未来。他从《洛利的花园》开始在作品中加入了立体的太湖石。他使用了钢管和LED灯进行几何构造，而不是自然形式的岩石。当观众在黑暗的空间中看到这件作品时，结构的多样性令人着迷，人们是否能联想到古代的过去已经无关紧要。事实上，这些形式为“文人之石”赋予了新的面貌，或许更符合后现代的现状。另一类被称为《诸神的花园》《“新山海经”——诸神之像》的作品也是一种挑衅，但却以一种截然不同的方式进行。在这里，艺术家自行改变了玩偶和各种玩具的外观。他压制的焦虑与未来有关，并开始在“科学”突变和人工智能的失控中表现出这种焦虑。

For the artist, Deng Guo Yuan, the schemata he has outlined moves from the ancient past into the present and ultimately to an unknown future. He begins with his “Lorely’s Garden” in which he constructs cubistic taiku rocks. Instead of the natural form of rocks, the structures are geometrically constructed using steel pipes and LED lamps. The variety of these structures, when seen together in a darkened space, is mesmerizing. Whether of not, one thinks of the ancient past is almost irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that these forms give a new look to “scholars’ rocks” and are perhaps more in keeping with the postmodern present. Another category referred to as “The Gardens of the Gods and Gods of a New Classicism of Mountains and Rivers” is also a provocation, but in a vastly different way.  Here the artist is morphing the appearance of dolls and various toys through his own set of mutations. His suppressed anxieties relate to the future and begin to reveal themselves both in terms of “scientific” mutations and the out-of-control usage of AI (artificial intelligence). 

▲（局部）蜻蜓占领了老虎的花园 Detail丨Dragonflies-Tigers丨Aluminium sheet, glass mirror, modified toys, acrylic paint, enamel paint丨铝板、玻璃镜、改装玩具、丙烯、油漆丨200x180x30cm丨2019

在一系列被称为《启示录》的作品中，邓国源进一步研究霓虹灯和文字。他进入了一个高度虚拟的人工智能世界，失去了对自我的控制。在《飘逝的诸神》中，他的灯光装置直接基于基因突变、人工智能编码和量子物理学。在研究这些项目时，邓国源开始担心未来。尽管这一切都是宏大的神话，然而他也似乎致力于将这些结构视为通过大自然发展的生物形态系统，因为他将这些系统提升到一个超现实的环境中。从本质上讲，这是一个人们可能认为与现实世界平行的隐喻世界。这是一个梦想世界，在不断发展的过程中掩盖了我们对人类数千年习惯的理解。邓国源作为一名艺术家，似乎在以这样的方式对过去的现实进行挑战，当我们盯着他的镜像装置时，就会发现那里充斥着许多微小的幻想中的生活。虽然我们可能不知道我们究竟认知到了什么，但我们知道它们来自于无意识，而不是突然进入我们的认知世界。

In a series of works referred to as “Revelation,” Deng goes further in working with neon signs and words. He enters into the virtual world of a heightened artificial intelligence that has lost control of its own facility.  In “The Passing of the Gods and Apocalypse,” his exorbitant light installations are directly based on genetic mutations, AI codifications, and quantum physics. Deng claims to worry about the future as he proceeds to work on these projects – all part of a grand myth – yet he also appears committed to realizing these structures as biomorphic systems emanating through nature as he elevates these systems into a hyper-surreal environment. Essentially this is a metaphorical world that one might consider parallel to the reality of another world.  It is a dream world exploited and developed in a manner that obscures our understanding of what human beings have grown accustomed to over thousands of years. It would appear that Deng Guo Yuan’s position as an artist is to challenge the reality of the past in such a way that we stare into his mirrored installations where tiny specimens of fantastical life abound.  While we may not know exactly what we are perceiving, we understand they are something from the unconscious than has suddenly come into our conscious world.  

我们可以称之为一种新的思维和观察方式吗？这是可能的，但也是常见的吗？这一点在超现实主义、极端写实主义、新达达以及其他无数的作品中都有所涉及。但这些都是西方的艺术形式，在中国的语境中不是必须的。因此，现在可能是我们转变视角观看邓国源极为严肃的系列装置的正确时机，因为他的作品是超越了现代主义的文化的产物，从沉重的过去转变为已然开始开花结果的后现代阶段，远远超出了半个世纪前西方世界的想象。事实上，正是这个时候，像邓国源这样的艺术家才能以其科学的和伪科学的方式影响中国艺术的方向与未来。他创造的神话般的生物引起了我们的共鸣，地球上的生命可能仍然是激发人类想象力的源泉。人类通过文化交流可以相互理解，而这些生物提供了极好的可能性。

Might we call it a new way of thinking and seeing?  This is possible, but also commonplace?  It has been said before in the work of the Surrealists, the Hyperrealists and the Neo-Dadaists, among countless others. But these are Western forms of art, not necessarily Chinese.  Therefore, it may be the right time to turn the tables and to look at Deng’s array of intensely severe installations as being the result of a culture that skipped over modernism and moved directly from an oppressive past into a postmodern phase that has now begun to blossom into something far beyond what the Western world would have imagined a half-century ago.  Indeed, this is the time for an artist like Deng Guo Yuan to emerge in coming to terms with how the impending future with all its scientific and pseudo-scientific baggage impacts the direction of Chinese art. His fabulous creatures exert a resonance that life on Earth may still be the source for the human imagination to spring forth. They offer fantastic qualitative possibilities for how to think and understand one another through the medium of cultural exchange. 

————罗伯特·摩根 Robert C. Morgan

▲ 飘逝的诸神Passing of the Gods| 改装玩具、丙烯、油漆modified toys, acrylic paint, enamel paint丨630x200x380cm丨2019

▲  （局部）飘逝的诸神 Detail丨Passing of the Gods|改装玩具、丙烯、油漆modified toys, acrylic paint, enamel paint丨2019

本展览展期将持续至2019年6月12日。

The duration of the exhibition is May 12 — June 12 , 2019.

艺术家邓国源 ARTIST DENG GUOYUAN

▲邓国源

德国路德维希美术馆(科布伦茨) MUSEUM LUDWIG,KOBLENZ

▲德国路德维希美术馆(科布伦茨)外观（图片自网络）

路德维希美术馆(科布伦茨)坐落在被称为德意志之角和德国最美遗产的科布伦茨市。该美术馆是一座拥有800多年历史的古老建筑，该美术馆的收藏包括了格哈德·里希特(Gerhard Richter)，巴勃罗·毕加索 (Pablo Picasso)、安迪·沃霍尔(Andy Warhol)，让·杜布菲 (Jean Dubuffet)、皮埃尔·苏拉奇 (Pierre Soulages) 和谢尔盖·波利雅科夫 (Serge Poliakoff) 等许多现代主义大师的杰作。自1992年开幕以来，科布伦茨路德维希博物馆便积极与世界各国展开现代艺术交流、举办国际展览项目。

科布伦茨路德维希博物馆的独特理念促进了它与当代艺术之间的联系。该博物馆所举办的展览代表了多个声音之间的交流，并经常担任起法国艺术机构与研究单位之间的调解人角色。博物馆还举办过包括阿尔曼(Arman)、本·沃提埃(Ben Vautier)、贝尔纳·维勒(Bernar Venet)、伯特·斯坦(Bert Stern)、肖恩·斯库利(Sean Scully)，杰夫·昆斯
（Jeff Koons）、安塞姆·基弗（Anselm Kiefer），等国际著名艺术家的个展。