“邬建安个展：是海，是沙丘”是艺术家邬建安于2021年9月在丝绸之路国际艺术交流中心举办的大型个人展览，PILLS建筑工作室受邀担任此次展览的空间设计工作。邬建安是一位具有国际影响力的中国当代艺术家。相较于单纯地在当代西方语境或传统东方语境下进行探索，邬建安以他独到的思想结构和逻辑体系，编织在时空与文明间纵横的叙事关系。他综合各种材料、语言和媒介，在当代艺术与古老的文化之间重新构建一条条可视纽带，赋予古代神话、图腾、民间技艺、志异故事、传统书写一种种全新的视观。本次展览展出了艺术家的大型装置作品，完整地呈现了邬建安近年来的几个创作高峰，系统性地梳理了艺术家的创作脉络。

Pills Architects was invited to design the space for “Wu Jian’an: The huge sand dunes are the bed of the sea”, a large-scale solo exhibition held at the Silk Road International Art Exchange Center in September 2021.

Wu Jian’an is an internationally renowned contemporary Chinese artist. As opposed to solely exploring contemporary Western or traditional Eastern contexts, Wu Jian’an uses his unique ideological structure and logic to weave a narrative that navigates through times and civilizations.

He synthesizes various materials, languages, and media to reconstruct a visual link between contemporary art and ancient culture, giving a new perspective to ancient myths, totems, folk crafts, tales, and traditional writing.

The exhibition presents Wu Jian’an’s large-scale installations, showing the peaks of his creations in recent years and sorting out the creative lineage systematically.

▼空间概览，Overall of space

时空场域的营造

A Spatial-Temporal Field

我们在一千余平米的展厅内营造了一个超现实的场域，五米高的沙丘，黑色的海洋，无尽的镜面，东升西落的太阳，和艺术家的作品共同完成了一场梦境的永恒轮回。我们希望用自然、几何、空间和尺度给观众带来真实且超现实的原始力量，用一种超越时空限制的空间量场，去承托艺术作品在时空与文明间纵横的叙事关系。

We create a surreal field in the exhibition hall of more than 1,000 square meters, with a five-meter high dune, a black ocean, an endless mirror, and the rising and setting sun. The space and the artworks altogether complete an eternal cycle of dreams. We hope to use nature, geometry, space, and scale to bring the primal power of the real and the surreal to the audience. The space generates an energy field that transcends the limits of space and time to support the narratives of artworks that travel through times, space, and civilizations.

▼展陈设计轴测，Axonometric drawing

在策展人李振华看来，邬建安的作品尽管富于图像和叙事的营构，但不应忽视的是他创作中的超自然力——非图像的，非志怪的，绵延不懈的追问。从平面到立体，从具象到抽象，他的作品以天马行空的方式，通过远古的回响去激发和唤醒某种群体记忆，引发人对世界的遐想。因此，展览空间将不同的作品叙事弥合成为一个浸没着艺术家个人色彩的场域，使观者在空寂的沙丘内冥思，在镜像构成的森林中迷失，感知“日月交替”间时光的流转，凝望巨大的镜面对光影物象的幻化与返照。有限与无限、虚幻与现实交替在这里发生。沙漠、镜面（包括水面）和光线是营造梦境的关键。展览空间以巨大的地面构筑划分展区，并不做分割，形成连续、有对望关系的空间体验。展陈团队经过多次实验，最终选择以泡沫切割板作为沙地肌理的基础，并在不同的面层适配不同颗粒度的河沙，形成既有耐久性又能保持良好流沙形态的地面。

▼沙丘肌理的搭建过程，The construction process of the dune

To Zhenhua Li, the curator, although Wu’s works are rich in pictorial and narrative constructions, what should not be overlooked is the supernatural force in his creations – non-pictorial, non-monstrous, and unremitting inquiries. From flat to three-dimensional, from figurative to abstract, his works stimulate and awaken a certain collective memory through the echoes of the distant past, triggering a reverie of the world. Therefore, the exhibition space meshes the different narratives of his works into a field imbued with the artist’s color, allowing the viewer to meditate in the silent dunes, get lost in the forest made of reflections, perceive the passage of time amid the “changing sun and moon”, and gaze at the illusion and reflection of light and shadow in the huge mirror. Finite and infinite, reality and illusion alternate here.Desert, mirrors (including water), and light are the keys to creating a dreamland. The exhibition space is divided into zones by huge ground constructions instead of partitions, forming a continuous spatial experience that allows a reciprocal viewing relationship. The exhibition team eventually chooses to use foam board as the base after many experiments. The structure maintains the sand textures of various granularity on different layers to form the durable and ripple surface of a desert.

▼超现实场域，Asurreal field

我们以镜面将结构柱隐藏，并将作品“白日梦森林”置于平行镜面之间，使有限的作品在虚像空间中无限延伸，点缀点点星光，形成森林的广袤和幻想。面对沙丘的镜面将空间折叠，形成模糊真实与虚幻的界限，作品“九重天”的虚实两像构成梦境的主体。在沙丘的尽端，作品“素色的面孔”悬挂在黑色的墨池中，与静默的水面构成另一个维度的镜像关系，观者在这里凝视一场虚实的空间幻境。场地对角线上的两盏探照灯构成展览的主光源，是东升西落的人造“太阳”。两盏主灯每间隔一分钟交替亮起，使有限的空间和作品在不同的光线环境下呈现不同的姿态，并将作品照射在锋利的光线之下，刻画出空间纯粹的几何形状。我们在沙丘顶端的洞口处悬置了两面镜子，将光源通过镜面反射引向沙丘内部，启示般的光影在顶部倾下，照亮沙丘内部的艺术作品。移动的人影，流动的沙地，变化的日光，虚构的反射，空间和作品一起，一层层地将观众卷入艺术家的神秘叙事之中。

▼灯光设计及模拟，Lighting design and simulation

沙漠、镜面（包括水面）、光线，Desert, mirrors (including water), and light

沉浸叙事的构建

An Immersive Narrative

行走、运动、知觉，是展览体验的重心，整个观展过程就像一次远古世界或科幻世界的探秘之旅。整个展厅被沙所覆盖，我们在展厅中心建构了一个直径17米的巨大沙丘，展厅的流线通过沙的肌理引导，模仿了在真实沙丘中行走的蜿蜒曲折。观众走进被风侵蚀的沙之世界，跟随着作品的叙事开启一场神秘的漫游之旅。

Walking, moving, and perceiving are core to the exhibition experience, and the whole viewing process is like a mystic tour of an ancient or a science-fictional world. The entire exhibition hall is covered by sand, and we construct a huge dune with a diameter of 17 meters in the center. The circulation is guided by the texture of the sand, imitating the winding twists and turns of navigating in real dunes. Following the narrative of the artworks, the viewers enter a world of sand eroded by the wind and unroll the mysterious journey.

直径17米的巨大沙丘，The huge dune with a diameter of 17 meters

▼近景与光影，Closer view and shadows

从主入口进入后，首先映入眼帘的是艺术家代表作“九重天”，巨大的镜墙虚构出另一个世界，与现实之间幻化与返照。起伏的地形模糊了行进的路径和选择，你可以攀爬其上，也可以进入其中，跟随着光线的引领，行走在“永恒之境”的沙脊之上，踏入黄沙中的神秘洞口，变换的光线从黑色空间的上方洒落，分不清空间的边界，提示着“黑海”的入口。绕过屏风，将近四百个单体作品组成巨型矩阵的“素色的面孔”悬置在安静的黑色水面上。这一刻观者和作品永恒的对峙中，光线却提示着时间的缓慢流逝与轮回。

Entering the space, the first thing one encounters is the artist’s signature piece ” The Heaven of Nine Levels”, a huge mirror that creates an alternative world, reflecting and conjuring reality and illusion. The undulating terrain obscures the paths and choices of travel, so one can either climb or step into it. Following the lead of the light, one can wander on the sandy ridges of the “Eternal Realm”, or immerse in the mysterious cave amid the yellow sand. The changing light spills from above, rendering the boundaries indistinguishable while signaling the entrance to the “Black Sea”. Bypassing the screen, “Plain Faces”, a giant matrix of nearly four hundred individual works suspend on the tranquil black water surface. At this eternal moment of confrontation between the viewer and the artwork, only the light suggests the gradual passage and cycle of time.

▼巨型装置作品，Giant installation

▼作品特写，Close-up view

绵延的沙地中，脚印是观者与这个世界对话的见证。当双足深陷其中，炙热的光线越过沙丘，作品“征兆”的异兽剪影会出现在润满墨汁的墙面上：九个脑袋的猛虎、生出四颗象牙的巨象、眼生于臀的梅花鹿。这些动物皆“身怀异像”，就如《山海经》中记叙的奇兽，预示着某种窥视未来的神秘信息。他们矗立在中央沙丘的坡面上，随着观者步伐的移动逐渐展现，带领我们坠入艺术家创造的世界之中。从沙丘中的洞穴望去，眼前是一片坐落在沙中央的“黑色海洋”，无边的水面，开阔的空间感受，阵列的牛皮从水面一直延伸到无法抵达的对岸，太阳在眼前东升西落，在黑暗中走向了这一场永恒的轮回。

The footprints in the long stretches of sand are a testament to the viewers’ dialogue with the world. As the feet sink deeper into the sand, the burning light shines across the dune, and the animal silhouettes of the piece “Omen” appear on the inked walls: a tiger with nine heads, a giant elephant with four tusks, and a plum deer with eyes born on its hips. All these animals are “imbued with a strange image”, just like the strange beasts described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, foreshadowing certain mysterious messages obtained by peeking into the future. They stand on the slope of the central dune and gradually reveal themselves as the viewers move, leading one into the world created by the artist.

Looking out from the cave, there stretches a “black ocean” in the middle of the sand with boundless and open water. The suspended array of cowhides extends across the water up to the inaccessible opposite side of the shore. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west in front of the viewers, and an eternal cycle is thus completed in the dark.

▼坐落在沙中央的“黑色海洋”，The “black ocean” in the middle of the sand

▼沙丘中的洞穴，Thecavein sand dunes

在这一场梦境的最后，巨幕镜墙后方还隐藏着“镜像丛林”的秘密，一方由两幕平行矗立的镜墙围成的空间，作品“白日梦的森林”在镜面内外的沙地上投射出闪耀的光斑。这些承载着迷蒙、幻梦的精神切片阵列在空中星星点点的灯光中，星光和树阵在镜像的世界延展成一场醒不来的梦境。

At the end of the dream, behind the giant wall, there lies the secret “mirror jungle”, a space enclosed by two parallel mirrors. The work “Daydream Forest Series” casts glittering light spots on the surrounding sand. These mental pieces with misty and illusory dreams are arrayed amid the star lights in the air. Stars and trees extend into a dream that cannot be awakened in the mirrored world.

▼作品“白日梦的森林”, The work “Daydream Forest Series”

邬建安的艺术思辨和视觉创造，核心在于借助那些看似远离今日生活的情境，表达人类文明历史中永恒的部分，唤醒人内心感受中隐秘幽微却宏大磅礴的潜意识，进而引发对时代和人的反思与观照。此次展览中，整组逾300件单体作品以类似书籍陈列的方式展示出来，就像一座远古文明的图书馆，仿佛是对知识与经验尚需口口相传的洪荒时代的一种记录或记忆，又仿佛是远古时期的祖先衣钵和智慧，被收藏在一个矩阵般的时空之中。

The core of Wu’s artistic discernment and visual creation is to express the eternal part of human civilization and history through situations that seem distant from today’s mundane life. It awakens the hidden, subtle yet magnificent subconscious of humanity, provoking reflections and observations on time and self. In this exhibition, the body of works comprises more than 300 individual pieces. Displayed like a library of ancient civilization, the exhibition is like a record or memory of the historical era when knowledge and experience were passed on orally. It is also like the collection of the ancestral mantle and wisdom that is arranged in a matrix of time and space.

▼作品细节，Detail

▼效果图，Rendering

项目名称：邬建安大型个展“是海，是沙丘”展陈空间设计

项目类型：艺术展陈空间设计

设计方：PILLS建筑工作室

公司网站：完成年份：2021年

设计团队：王子耕、汪曼颖、闫昱、张少敏、李申、张依婷、王玉竹、赵思涵

项目地址：中央美术学院美术馆·廊坊馆 (河北省廊坊市经济技术开发区金源道与新开路交叉口南300米)建筑面积：1122㎡

摄影版权：王子耕

艺术家：邬建安

策展人：李振华

展览总监：韩海艳

执行策展人：冯雪

展览统筹：陈澈、李世翠

主办单位：丝绸之路国际艺术交流中心

承办单位：中央美术学院美术馆·廊坊馆

学术支持：中央美术学院美术馆

特别支持：北京民生现代美术馆

结构顾问：陆洋

设计顾问：徐迅君、欧智文、李洋

展场施工：北京如一堂文化传媒服务有限公司

Project name: Spatial Design for Wu Jian’an Solo Exhibition “The huge sand dunes are the bed of the sea”Project type: Art Exhibition Spatial Design

Design: Pills Architects

Website:Design year: 2021

Completion Year: 2021

Leader designer & Team: Zigeng Wang, Manying Wang, Yu Yan, Shaomin Zhang, Shen Li, Yiting Zhang, Yuzhu Wang, Sihan Zhao

Project location: CAFA Art Museum – Langfang (300m south of the intersection of Jinyuan Road and Xinkai Road, Economic and Technological Development Zone, Langfang, Hebei, China)Gross built area: 1122 ㎡

Photo credit: Zigeng Wang

Artist: Wu Jian’an

Curator: Zhenhua Li

Exhibition Director: Haiyan Han

Executive Curator: Xue Feng

Exhibition Coordinator: Che Chen, Shicui Li

Organizer: Silk Road International Art Exchange Center

Organizer: CAFA Art Museum – Langfang

Academic Support: CAFA Art Museum

Special Support: Beijing Minsheng Art Museum

Structural Consultant: Yang Lu

Design Consultant: Xunjun Xu, Zhiwen Ou, Yang Li

Exhibition Construction: Beijing Ruyitang Culture Media Service Co.