继大英博物馆藏文艺复兴素描展之後，苏州博物馆现代厅又将迎来一次诗意而当代的变身。艺术家彭薇将携其五年来的50余件作品，在贝聿铭设计的园林空间里用水墨营造出一个融贯中西的对话场。

由苏州博物馆主办，北京画院、耿艺术文化基金会协办，北京画院美术馆副馆长吴洪亮策划的此次展览是彭薇新系列「雅謌」的首次亮相，也是苏博现代厅最大胆的一次展示：整个空间将以半透明的材质包裹，分割为绵延的空间，如抽丝剥茧，利用遮挡、指引、缠绕的视觉幻术，引导观众层层深入，展开另一种不同於中式园林的「移步换景」。

此次展览延请日本「别音设计」的建筑师豊田啓介做空间规划，继台北「圆满的旅程」展之後与彭薇二度合作。他以彭薇广为人知的「好事成双」绢鞋的质地为基调，从苏州园林的曲折通幽和贝聿铭设计苏州博物馆的几何直线中获得启发， 依据彭薇作品的形态与系列，将展览分为「花园」、「旅程」、「神殿」三部分：

「花园」集中展示大幅「遗石」系列作品《此处取决於偶然》和小山水册页《人生中最美好的事物总是免费的》等。观石如观山，可远眺亦可近玩，错落的布列形成迷宫般的格局，将二维的绘画作品延伸出三维的空间关系，亦与苏博中贝聿铭平面化的假山石形成谐趣的呼应。

「旅程」的半透明帷幔巧妙地借助天光，以无迄无终、周而复始的圆型弧线，容纳长卷「遥远的信件」系列和绢鞋「好事成双」系列，数件六米窄幅长卷的精细水墨和螺丝壳里做道场的男欢女爱，资讯极密，几乎一步一景。「遥远的信件」系列以西方文艺史上的往来信件取代中国古典绘画的题跋。此次展览的作品里，桑塔格致博尔赫斯的信件，讨论书籍的消失，永恒与当下的纠缠；奥利匹亚的故事，借印象派之口为马奈抱不平，讨论艺术史上的偏见，都可视为画家内心的命题。西方亦是东方，结束也是开始，人的悲欢离合，文明的隐秘代码，彭薇作品中所传达的轮回哲思，在互文式的空间里显得更加余意悠长。

「神殿」中亮相的人物群像系列「雅謌」是彭薇的新作，亦是她首次尝试用大的尺幅笔墨表现人物，这一系列的灵感即来自苏州游园。「我以往的作品里有个一以贯之的共性，就是物与人的关系，我想突出绘画的物质性，不管是睹物思人也好，物是人非也好，在物上面投射出的都是人的情感，人的命运。」在之前「遥远的信件」里，人只是群山万壑中一个微小的、指涉般的存在，但这一次，人从山水中被独立了出来，被推到了台前。

当你看到「我想起了你」时你想起了谁？彭薇立足於普适於任何人的情感，描绘的都是没有具体名字的普通人，但他们所处的情态：友谊、相思、独处、怡然、怅惋……却是无古无今的，甚至带有一丝波普式的幽默。在文明的历史之上，「人本」从「神本」中脱胎而来，人理应受到跟神性同等的尊严和对待，在展厅的尽头，这些悲欢百态的人物，跟大型装置作品一起，被陈列进白色绢幔围绕而成的「神殿」，述说人与万物、人与诸神的平凡与光芒。

耿艺术文化基金会亦诚挚邀您於新春之际探访姑苏，浸润於彭薇水墨的温雅与智性之中。

Following the exhibition Italian Renaissance Drawings from the British Museum， the Suzhou Museum’s Contemporary Art Gallery will house a poetic and modern exhibition by artist Peng Wei. Her fifty-plus works in ink from the past five years are choreographed into a space of gardens meticulously crafted by famed architect I. M. Pei to beckon a dialogue on East-West amalgamation.

Organized by the Suzhou Museum and co-organized with the Beijing Fine Art Academy and TKG Foundation for Arts & Culture， this exhibition is curated by Wu Hongliang， deputy director of the Beijing Fine Art Academy， and marks the debut of Peng Wei’s latest series “Song of Sings.” It is also the most audacious exhibition ever mounted in the museum’s Contemporary Art Gallery. The entire space is cocooned in translucent fabric and divided into seemingly endless sections. Much like unraveling a mystery， visual illusions rendered through acts of concealing， guiding， or twining usher the viewer into the depths of the exhibition， where， varying from the traditional Chinese garden scenery， “a different view with every step” unfolds.

The exhibition space is designed by Mr. Keisuke Toyoda of the Japanese design studio Noiz Architects. It is the second collaboration between Mr. Toyoda and Peng Wei. Grounded in Peng Wei’s “Good Things Come in Pairs” series of silk shoe installations， and inspired by the winding paths of Suzhou gardens， as well as the geometric lines in I. M. Pei’s design of the Suzhou Museum， this exhibition is divided into the Garden， the Journey， and the Temple.

On display in the Garden section are “Here‘s by Chance” paintings from the “Lost Stones” series， and such delicate landscape albums as “The Best Things in Life Are Free.” Much like watching mountains， the pleasure of watching rocks abounds whether the watcher stands near or far. Through a dispersed arrangement， a labyrinthine flow through the museum is conceived that lends a three-dimensionality to an array of two-dimensional paintings， at the same time playfully echoing the flattened faux mountains and rocks in the Suzhou Museum.

In the Journey section， daylight is dexterously harnessed， a stretching arc created with translucent curtains， conjuring a flow without end that parallels the scrolls from the series “Letters from a Distance” and silk shoe painting installations from the series “Good Things Come in Pairs.” Various six-meter-long scrolls exquisitely rendered in ink， and love scenes cradled in silk vessels provide the viewer with intense information and a different view with every step.

Peng Wei incorporates a plethora of letters by Western authors and artists into the “Letters from a Distance” series， in place of the traditional inscription in Chinese classical painting. Seen in the works in this exhibition， Susan Sontag’s letter to Jorge Luis Borges discusses the disappearing of books and the struggle between eternity and the present， while the story about Olympia serves as the Impressionists’ voice of indignation on the injustice that édouard Manet suffered， and as a discussion on the prejudice in the art history. Both exemplify the kind of themes that deeply concerns Peng Wei. The West is the East. The end is the beginning. The vicissitudes of life， the mysteries of civilizations， and the philosophical ponderings in Peng Wei’s work blend together in the intertextual space with a lingering poignancy.

Debuting in the Temple section， Peng Wei’s latest portrait series “The Song of Sings” marks her first attempt at portraying figures in ink on a large scale. This series is inspired by the garden culture of Suzhou. “The common thread that runs in my past body of work is the relationship between objects and figures. I tend to highlight the materiality of painting. Whether it’s memories evoked by a memento， or sorrows elicited from old trinkets of people now gone， objects project all kinds of human emotions and man’s destiny.” In the “Letters from a Distance” series， the human figure is simply a minuscule existence amid mountains and valleys， but now the human figure has been illuminated and placed in the foreground.

Who comes to mind when you see the title “When I Thought of You”？ Peng Wei’s work is grounded in the universality of human emotions. Despite the anonymousness of the common people she portrays， these subjects’ emotions — friendship， longing， solitude， content， or melancholy — are universal， even with a pinch of Pop art sense of humor. The history of civilizations sees humanity derive from divinity； hence humanity should be treated equal as divinity. At the end of the gallery hall， these sentient beings are juxtaposed with large-scale installations in the Temple， which is cocooned in pristine white curtains， telling the stories of human and all living things， of man and gods， in all their ordinariness and grandeur.

The TKG Foundation for Arts & Culture cordially invites you to visit Suzhou in the New Year， immersed in the refinedness and sophistication of Peng Wei’s work.