Fram Kitakawa, founder of Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale and Setouchi Triennale
Leandro Erlich is an artist that aims to jump out of the generic space of galleries and art museums. He tries to break through the space embodied by the 20th-century urban high-rise architectural complex. It is a bold challenge, from which we can comprehend his role in the contemporary era, and the reason behind his popularity.
Some people hang themselves upside down on the wall; some cling to the wall; some hang on the wall with one hand; some completely free up their hands. It is in fact an illusion reflected on a glass board set in a 45-degree elevation angle. People are only lying down on the facade placed on the floor. —Building
The reflecting mirror placed in front of the real corridor creates an effect that the corridor is endless. — The Corridor
The clouds in the shape of France, Britain and Japanese Archipelago is the aggregation of irregular patterns formed by multi-layered glasses. - The Cloud
The elevator is tightly packed, yet meanwhile there’s a strange man standing in it. — Elevator Pitch
In the classroom next door, phantom-like people are looking at this side smiling. — The Classroom
I look through the window at the window of the house across the garden, only to see people standing in front of the window looking at a different direction, just like myself. — Lost Garden
The rolling coin operated laundry machine is only an illusionary image. — Laundry
Every room in the opposite building is changing slowly. — The Room (Surveillance II)
When I believe I am looking down at the apartment buildings from high above, I am actually only standing on the floor. — La vereda
The wall of an old architecture is floating in the air. — Window & Ladder
A few boats are floating on the water surface without water, showing the ripples. — Port of Reflections
All walks of life can be seen walking under water from above the pool. — Swimming Pool
The changing rooms, originally single rooms, are connected by multiple rooms. The inside can be seen very clearly. — Changing Rooms
Light is leaking from beneath the rooms, but as you enter them you will find that they are only walls. — The Doors
On a sunny day, you look outside the window only to discover violent storms. — Rain
In a hair salon, the mirror in front of my reflects a person behind me who shouldn’t exist. — Hair Salon
Walking outside, you’ll see a house hanged up in the air. — Pulled by the Roots
Generic space is a predominant idea of the 20th century, or the modern time. Mies van der Rohe believes that the capital and labor are congregated in the urban area, which leads to a metropolis full of high-rise buildings and composed of steel and glass walls. In fact, cities that develop around high-rise building complex are appearing all over the world, in China, Europe, America and Africa. This kind of space is detached from the multiplex characteristics of life and historical experience, and becomes a void space like laboratory. By changing the dividing wall of a room, a building can be easily transformed into a residency, office or restaurant. There is no more convenient building than the ones with well-adjusted indoor air. People in such space is counted and manipulated as a quantifiable figure.
The space has lost the history and culture peculiar to the land, while people are defined by demographic statistics - this is exactly the viewpoint that shroud the whole world impacted by the global market economy. Art is also developing under the same background. The ‘white box’ exhibition space encircled by white high walls is the space incised from the surrounding, having the same appearance in all countries and regions. This is called spatial balance. In such space, works can purely show their core concept, like in a science laboratory. In here we can clearly understand the jumping thoughts of the artists.
However, here lies a big question.
Does the ideal abstract space really exist?
The problem we are truly facing is the constant deterioration of global environment, the increasing wealth gap one-sidedly created by the market economy controlled by transnational capitalists, and the capitalist moral degeneration resulted from it, leading to the loss of individual sensibility, mechanization and the disappearance of local culture. Since ancient times, artists have been gradually disclosing the relationship between human and nature, and civilization in the midst of the crisis of civilization and at the dawn of new eras. During this process, they use a technique mastered by human.
The cave paintings in Altamira and Lascaux are on the one side pray for human’s toil in risking their life capturing middle-sized beasts, and on the other side pray for the pain the captured animals suffered. They embody the united relationship between human and nature. In any subsequent era, art has been the reflection of the relations between nature, society and human. In the vast universe formed accidentally, for the human race born at one moment of the universe, art is the only index of our self-cognition. Without that index human race won’t exist. Like language and literature, art is an index with universal meaning (a very good example is the paintings by the aboriginals). Leandro Erlich tries to break the boundaries by making use of the difference between materials such as glass boards, glass and water, and create boundaries in intangible generic space by using high-quality materials produced in modern industry. This is his creative practice.
Everyone is at the terminal point of global information, drowned in all kinds of information, signs and rumors, while believing that we can freely choose and collect certain information. However, they are only the information manipulated within the limit permitted by power, capital and the Internet.
These information is fixed in a specific image, and leads to a time that art stops progressing. It seems that we can freely choose from endless information, but the composition and thought pattern are becoming stereotyped.
At this time, Leandro Erlich emerged.
Either a work is put in Beijing, Johannesburg or London, people can appreciate and understand it in the same way. This is the exhibition standard of 20th century art in white boxes such as galleries and art museums, as well as the 20th century philosophy. Such generic space shares the same character with market economy, international finance and the Internet, and is the most influential (best) idea of the 20th century. It is fair to say that art develops based on generic space.
— To judge a thing with the same viewpoint no matter where. —
So, in order to transcend the generic space, how does Leandro consider it? Let us take a look at the meaning of Chinese characters, an ancient pictograph.
移す (utsusu) →To copy, transcribe, keep and record.
映す (utsusu) →To reflect an item’s original look as the light illuminate other items.
映す (utsusu) →To duplicate, reprint and copy the original.
The three words, with the same etymological origin, changed gradually and form the modern usage of “utsusu” (They share the same Japanese katakana and pronunciation).
The different kinds of works by Leandro Erlich, to speak about them in Japanese or write about them in Chinese characters, are to show the context of “utsusu” in a brief and one-time-only place.
He seals the space’s time here, like the time sealed in a movie. In his perspective, generic space has become an exceptionally indifferent space without accumulation of time. Thus, his method is to break through his own generic space by transferring a generic space.
Modern space is only a thing without the concept of time. Leandro Erlich raised here a theory to generate space by transferring, duplicating and moving the subject. The object changes according to the human (subjects)’s behaviors. This is also the relationship between man and nature since ancient times. In Chinese characters there are homonyms that show turning points. I try to explore this relationship with the different meanings contained in these words. This is what Ernst Mach talked about “”, and the world described in synoptic gospels since ancient time. To simply put it, it is because I have sympathy for the word “stand”, that my reflection in the mirror is standing.
I want to talk about the certainty in Leandro Erlich’s creative practice. As he is having his exhibition in Beijing, I would like to elaborate with the “Six Principles of Chinese Painting”, written by Chinese painter and critic Xie He, who lived in the fifth and sixth century, in the preface to his book The Record of the Classification of Old Painters. This is a time that Buddhism was introduced to China from India, as well as a time that ‘art’ itself is questioned as for how it can understand and reflect the nature and society human feel about. At least in Japan, the final destination of Asian culture, ‘Six Principles of Chinese Painting’ is regarded as an important art theory.
The basic elements of painting it raised have also been applied outstandingly in modern art.
Correspondence to the Object: the modeling ability
Suitability to Type: color perception
Division and Planning: space composition
These elements are what Leandro Erlich, who was born in an architects’ family, best at, and the reasons why his works are vivid and easy to understand.
Transmission by Copying: mastering of the classic, or the forefathers’ achievement
Such learning pattern could ensure the modernity of his works. In other words, it offers the audience a new spatial experience. From here we can see Leandro Erlich’s knowledgeability.
Bone Method: the unique technique and feeling of the artist
Based on the above-mentioned, as I talked about Leandro Erlich’s personal art concept earlier, he is creating a void in homogeneous space by “transferring, copying and reflecting”, and thus creating a new and rich space.
The aforementioned five principles can be obtained with practice, except for the last one which is Spirit Resonance.
This is the conversation between the work and the audience. In other words, it points to the realization of a new spatial experience. What Xie He believes is that the overall energy of a work of art may impact the audience. It is full of vitality as if it has the power to shake mountains and rivers. And to judge if a work has that energy, we should see if it has the overall vitality. It seems that Leandro Erlich has such works with spirit resonance.
In Buenos Aires, Leandro Erlich’s hometown, there’s a public work named The Democracy of the Symbol. The work covered the top of the city’s iconic monument, and showcased the duplicate of the top in front of the museum. The work seems to be “hidden” before “transferred”, but it is actually made separately after the original was hidden. Although I haven’t been to Buenos Aires, but I heard that it’s a popular place for dating lovebirds and protesting people. Society, politics and power co-exist in this place. Since ancient Greece, squares have been a place for people to voice themselves, sometimes they could also be place of suppression. What does the embodiment mean here? Leandro Erlich lives in South America, but his thought penetrates the whole modern time. It reminds people of Christo’s artwork ‘Wrapped Reichstag’, or Eisenstein’s movie Battleship Potemkin. Homogeneous city also rises with the support of power. For modern people, can the art museums completely be a place of freedom? This remains to be questioned.
Moreover, in Japanese countryside Echigo-Tsumari, in an exchange museum designed by Hiroshi Hara that reminds people of oasis in a desert, Leandro Erlich created a building similar to the structure of urban architecture in the wading pool, as if he was criticizing the modern civilization by “transferring, duplicating and reflecting” the constantly extending modern generic space. People can see the building reflected on the water from the balcony, and can also go into the pool to have fun. He started to move his creative place to squares and countryside, one step closer to the nature which is suffering from destructions.
20th century is filled with symbolized information, programmed human and stereotyped space, while Leandro Erlich initiated a bold adventure, trying to break through the leading generic space with the power of art. He’s like Don Quixote who longs to time travel to the Middle Ages, or a modern-time warrior. Leandro Erlich was born in the middle of South America of the old time. Just like Garcia Marquez trying to create a world that overthrows European and North American values with literature, he tries to create a world with his artworks - from the white cubic of galleries and museums to squares that stand for civil society, his footsteps extend to the gradually degenerating, formalizing cities. Let us keep an eye on his adventures.
Written by Fram Kitakawa, founder of Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale and Setouchi Triennale
Translated by Liu Yanchao
Proofread by Lu Yufan
Edited by Zheng Lijun
