« Europe multiplies my means of artistic expression”
Chinese philosophy inspires Chen Han’s work about Nature. But in Europe, this young Chinese visual artist based in Brussels, is studying the best way to exhibit his photographs. How to organize a conceptual exhibition as a performance where the body of the visitors is committed in the perception itself ?
LHCH: An essential theme runs through your photographs: Nature.
Chen Han: Yes, but not in the romantic European way. I see Nature the way Buddhists and Taoists do. In Her, the spirit is as embodied. I’m working on the soul of things… I photograph landscapes in which I have traveled concretely: the Tibetan highlands of Qinghai, the Gobi desert, Iceland,… I am physically and mentally in the search for the soul in Nature.
LHCH: But don’t set up your « easel to paint » on a natural model
Chen Han: I make post-producing with my memories when I go home. I do not RE-PRESENT a mountain, for example. It’s not a simple item for me. There is a dialogue between Her and me. My question is: “I am aware of the mountain. But she ? How her matter is spiritualized ? »
LHCH: As Song Dynasty poet Su Dong Po used to say, but about Wen Tong « Bamboo trees » paintings, «when you draw are you “becoming” the mountain?
Chen Han: Yes, and a Zen quote from the Song dynasty says “Look at the mountain: it is the mountain; look at the mountain: it is not the mountain; look at the mountain: it is still the mountain “. On my humble scale, I physically explore the landscapes. But the monk of Tibetan Buddhism Rinpoche, wishing to renounce material comfort, at the age of 25, made a retreat which lasted 12 years in the mountains of Kham, between Tibet and Sichuan: Qinghai province where I did hiking.
Some people say that mountain came to resemble him …
LHCH: European artists were inspired till 19th century by the model of « Mimesis » in the Greek philosophy.
Chen Han: yes. To imitate Nature was the big deal. Not to understand Her from within. But with Cézanne, European Art changed completely.
LHCH: The history of Chinese Art is very mysterious for us.
Chen Han: The history of Chinese art is made up of very long periods apparently without evolution of style. But for a connoisseur, there are differences. Of course, it is less abrupt than the art revolutions since end of the 19th century in Europe ! The Chinese have a sense of continuity, of respecting the heritage of the ancients. But each artist can still bring a personal touch, even a very subtle one. Europe, this is more of an “elimination” of the above to assert a little aggressively what is “new”. China cultivates the Eternal.
LHCH: So how to paint a mountain without representing her ?
Chen Han: not in one time in coded dimensions. We have to express all the points of view. Chinese painters used to « scroll down » their painting… Like a story or a comics expressing slowly the essence of the mountain.
LHCH: The Cubists tried to do it but in a frame. What did you learn concretely during your studies in Europe ?
Chen Han: Artists like Duchamps or Beuys have wondered about the essence of a work of art. For example, like an object exhibited in a museum. Or on its mode of exposure. What interests me directly. German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans reflected on photography. Should it be essentially flat? In 2 dimensions? In a frame ? For him a photo can be a sculpture.
LHCH: How do you integrate these thoughts into your work?
Chen Han: I like to work on the « texture » of a picture. And this question : how ideally exhibit Chinese-oriented art ? In New York, the director of MOMA wanted to strike everyone’s mind with a flashy staging of very refined and subtle Chinese works. This is not European art…Through his questions, I try to build a space where my post-produced photography are exhibited in a spatial relationship with the perception of visitors. A bit like looking at an impressionist painting from near or far.
LHCH: Brussels, capital of Europe, is considered as a new place of artistic expression
After completing his studies in landscape design and photography in Hangzhou, China, in 2012, Chen Han studied graphic design and multimedia in France. He arrived in Brussels in 2014 and obtained a postgraduate degree in photography from ENSAV La Cambre, 2 years later.
