Leandro Erlich, "Changing Rooms", 2013. Photo by Justin Jin.
November 8th through 24th, 2013
Jing An Kerry Center, Atrium
1515 Nanjing Xi Lu, Jing’an District, Shanghai
Simply entitled Project Shanghai, the first solo project in China of internationally renowned artist Leandro Erlich comprises two large site-specific installations the artist has produced following his recent researches in Shanghai.
Leandro Erlich, born to an Argentine architecture family in 1973, is widely known for his intriguing optical illusions that allure his befuddled viewers to explore. His staged spaces can always turn the most assured situation upside down. With a single gesture to the architectural structure, Erlich transforms all sorts of everyday places into a baffling and deceptive visual maze, which challenge people’s common sense and further deliver an altered reality. The uncanny and sinister aesthetics of film directors Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, Luis Buñel and David Lynch directly influence Erlich’s artistic rendering. While the fictional world of the Argentine writer Jorge Louis Borges is thoroughly absorbed into the artist’s imagination.
For his first solo project in China, Erlich presents a commissioned new installation Shikumen House which is the latest reincarnation from his most famous projects Reflective Optical Illusion House. Shikumen is a traditional Shanghainese architectural style blending both Chinese and western elements into its two or three-story Anglo-American terraced house. It features high brick walls and a narrow front yard forming strong gateways at the front, which the name “stone gate” (Shikumen in Chinese) refers to. It was widely developed in the early 20th century and reached to its height during and after the second world war, when more than 80% of the population in the city lived in there. However, Shikumen is no longer capable of accommodating the increasing population and urban development in recent years. Many were dismantled and replaced by skyscrapers. Only a small portion was preserved as a cultural heritage in former French concession. But Shikumen still lives in memories of many Shanghainese and becomes an emotional equivalent of that special period of Shanghainese life. The investigation of gentrification and urbanism in Shanghai is the core to Erlich’s Shikumen installation.
Shikumen House resembles a movie set, featuring a life-size façade of an authentic Shikumen style terraced house lying horizontally on the ground with a large-scale mirror hung over head at 45 degree angle. It encourages visitors to sit, stand and lay on it, to create surrealistic reflections of people climbing or dangling against the laws of gravity. By placing visitor into the Shikumen background, the artist disrupts our own notion of reality, creating new possibilities and situations. Variations of this series includes Bâtiment (Paris, 2004 & 2011) , Tsumari House (Echigo Tsumari Triennale, Japan, 2006), Edificio Buenos Aires (2012), Dalston House (London, 2013), etc.
The other work Changing Rooms invites visitors to pursue their own reflections through mirror after mirror inside rows of boutique’s changing rooms. Confronted by infinite repetitions of the selfness, visitors are transported into the matrix of insatiable desire, a replay of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999). When you are traumatized by the sense of loss, the sudden appearance of a blank wall would knock you up, leaving you awake with a trace of confounding feeling to this self-exploration. Changing Rooms revisits Erlich’s El Ballet Studio, which was on view in Shanghai Biennale 2002, featuring three Tai-Chi performers specifically for Shanghai Biennale. A special version of Changing Rooms was included in Erlich’s project with Hermès this year.
Leandro Erlich has exhibited in many prestigious institutions and Biennales, such as MoMA P.S.1 and the Whitney Biennial in New York, Museo de Arte Contemporanea in Rome, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Tsumari Triennale in Japan, Centre George Pompidou and Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and the 49th and 51st Venice Biennale, among many others. Erlich was awarded Eliza Prize in 1998, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award Unesco Prize during Istanbul Biennial in 2001.
Erlich’s works have entered numerous private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Tate Modern, London; Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris; 21st Century Museum of Art Kanazawa, Japan; MACRO, Rome; FNAC, France, etc.
The artist lives and works in Buenos Aires.
莱安德罗•埃利希：上海计划
2013年11月8日至24日
地址：静安嘉里中心
上海市静安区南京西路1515号
LEO XU PROJECTS 很荣幸地带来国际知名艺术家莱安德罗•埃利希（Leandro Erlich）首个中国个展《上海计划》。该项目是第15届上海国际艺术节的项目之一。本次展览包括两件为现场空间的历史和属性创作的、需要观众参与互动的大型装置作品，分别在静安嘉里中心及其毗邻广场上展出。自展览2013年11月9日开幕以来作品每天吸引了上千名观众，亦应众多观众要求展览延长至2013年11月24日。
莱安德罗•埃利希，1973年出生于阿根廷的建筑世家。以他创作的奇妙视觉幻象并欢迎观众走进一探究竟而广泛著称。看似简单的空间作品总能颠覆常规，只要对这些建筑空间稍加改造，艺术家便能将熟知的日常情景打造成令人困惑不解充满假象的视觉迷宫。这些作品挑战我们的常识，并展现给观众一个不同的现实。埃利希的艺术创作深受电影大师阿尔弗雷德•希区柯克（Alfred Hitchcock）、罗曼•波兰斯基（Roman Polanski）、路易斯•布努埃尔（Luis Buñel）和大卫•林奇（David Lynch）的神秘悬疑的电影美学影响。而阿根廷的文学前辈豪尔赫•路易斯•博尔赫斯（Jorge Louis Borges）的南美魔幻主义小说则深深地植入艺术家的想象之中，成为其灵感源泉。
《石库门》是艺术家专为中国观众量身定制的一件公共艺术装置作品，是之前全球巡展的著名项目“反射的视觉幻象房子”的最新版本。石库门为上海传统的建筑形式，融合中西方元素，两至三层楼的欧美式排屋。它由高高的砖墙和狭窄的前院组成坚固的门关，亦即“石库门”所指。这种建筑早在上世纪初期广泛建造并在二战期间达到鼎盛，有多达80%的城市人口聚居于此。然而石库门已经不能再满足飞速增长的人口数量和城市化建设。近些年大部分的石库门被拆迁，取而代之的是高耸的摩天大楼。目前只有一小部分作为文化遗产保留于现在所谓的“法租界”。然而石库门仍留存在许多上海人的记忆中，成为那段岁月的感情象征。因此，探索城市发展中的高档化（gentrification）和城市化扩张成为埃利希《石库门》项目的核心主题。
埃利希的《石库门》装置由一个真实大小的经典石库门建筑立面平放在地面，上方以45度角悬挂大幅镜面而组成的一个电影场景般装置。观众可以坐着、站着或者躺着，在镜子的反射中仿佛脱离重力随意攀爬，犹如置身电影《盗梦空间》的情境。同一系列的作品曾在世界多个重要的艺术机构和场馆展出，每次作品都体现了艺术家对当地的城市历史、建筑和美学的研究，近期著名的版本包括， 2013年伦敦Barbican艺术中心展出的《达尔斯顿楼》（Dalston House）、2006年日本的越后妻有艺术三年展的《妻有屋》（Tsumari House）、2004年巴黎著名艺术节《白夜》中的《大厦》（Bâtiment）等。每到一处艺术家的这件装置总能引起一时热潮。
本次上海项目另外一件作品《试衣间》亦是艺术家对城市消费文化做出的幽默的注脚。在购物中心中庭，艺术家立起一座庞大的试衣间。《试衣间》再现了艺术家多年来对视觉错觉、空间错置的掌控。当观众进入试衣间时，一层层的迷宫和镜像的诱惑随即扑面而来，仿佛陷入斯坦利•库布里克的电影《大开眼戒》（1999）中永无止境的欲望矩阵。然而自我迷失的恐惧将会被尽头的白墙打散，留给观众的是一丝探索自我的疑惑。2013年在与爱马仕的合作项目中，埃利希创作了另一件特别规格的《试衣间》。
本次展览是自2002年埃利希在《第四届上海双年展：都市营造》上亮相以来，首个中国个人展览。当时为上海双年展创作的《芭蕾舞房》就实现了对空间透视和错觉的控制，展示了虚构的镜像的太极表演。2008年，首展于香港天星码头的由Zaha Hadid设计的可拆卸的移动美术馆巡展《流动的艺术（Mobile Art）》上埃利希创作了水面反射的巴黎街景假象。
埃利希自事业初期就在艺术评论界享有美誉。评论家将他的作品与玛格丽特（Magritte）、霍普（Hopper）和希区柯克（Hitchcock）相比，或同辛迪•舍曼（Cindy Sherman）的创作相联系。纽约时报的首席艺评人荷兰•科特（Holland Cotter）赞扬埃利希的《TOURISMO（旅游业）》是威尼斯双年展（2001年）中最棒的作品之一。英国《卫报》评论说：“他的每一件作品都是奇妙的现实逃避，让观众在那一顷刻间完全融入艺术之中。”伦敦Barbican艺术中心盛赞埃利希《达尔斯顿楼》“是最令人疑惑而精彩的文化作品之一，我们坚信它将让孩子和大人们叹为观止。”
埃利希的作品受邀参展过全球诸多著名的艺术机构和双年展，例如，纽约的MoMA P.S.1和惠特尼双年展、罗马的当代艺术馆、明尼那波利斯的沃克艺术中心、日本的妻有三年展、巴黎的蓬皮杜艺术中心和东京宫，以及第49届和第51届威尼斯双年展等。迄今为止，埃利希的作品已经进入大量知名私人及公共机构收藏，其中包括伦敦泰特当代艺术美术馆、巴黎当代艺术馆、日本金泽21世纪美术馆、罗马当代艺术馆、布宜诺斯艾利斯现代美术馆、休斯敦美术馆、法国的FNAC等。除此之外，他亦是琼•米切尔基金会授予联合国教科文组织奖的获奖者（2001）。
莱安德罗•埃利希现生活和工作于布宜诺斯艾利斯。
Leandro Erlich, "Shikumen House", 2013. Photo by Justin Jin.
Leandro Erlich, "Shikumen House", 2013. Photo by Justin Jin.
Leandro Erlich, "Changing Rooms", 2013. Photo by Justin Jin.
Leandro Erlich, "Changing Rooms", 2013. Photo by Justin Jin.
