文字•北京2009展
展览时间：2009年10月24日至11月15日
开幕时间：2009年10月27日18：00
展览地点：中央美术学院美术馆2A
主办单位：中央美术学院
展览主题：文字设计，与新生之和
中国有称“字如其人”，书画界也倡导“笔墨当随时代”。与汉字的独创原理相结合，自古以来中国的“书写”已被赋予并成为中国广义精神文化的基本形态之一。从上古的篇章“书法”到宋元以来典籍版本的“活字印刷”到现代的“工业生产”到当代的知识“数字化传播”，汉字的应用面貌就历史阶段来说已经在技术和面貌上经历着巨大的跨越和改变，同样在世界范围内“文字应用”所呈现的面貌与方法也异彩纷呈。1928年德国著名设计家Jan Tschichold在其出版的《新文字设计》(New typography)里主张：(文字设计)与生活的统一：“⋯⋯部分属于并谐和于整体——对单一部分与整体的任意的孤立对我们来说是再不可接受的了。 ⋯⋯文字设计也必须使其自身成为当下创意世界的一部分⋯⋯。”
结合20世纪20年代欧洲大工业革命以及现代主义运动发展以来在生产、艺术等生活中所发生的重要革新，JanTschichold提出了“新文字”的现代设计原则以及文字与生活、文字与其他创意领域的因果互动关系，其论著在世界设计领域内都产生了重大的影响。
近一个世纪过去了，此刻我们却同样感受到了21世纪信息化、数字化生活中新旧的交融。文字作为传统的信息交流方法，跨越了书籍、海报等传统媒介，急速地扩展到公共设计以及互动、影像等新媒介之中，无论是作为文本、符号还是图像。之前对汉字的传统书写之研讨已经居多，在工业和数字时代对汉字阅读文化和视觉文化的面貌产生如何的影响?生活的改变如何与汉字应用和设计产生的互动?作为世界上最古老、拥有世界最大人群使用的文字系统之一，我们希望，在与世界其他语言文化的艺术设计交流之中，汉字被激发出其视觉文化与表现的当代性，这也许是提升中国视觉文化质量的关键点之一。
在设计作品及文本的展示之中，希望观者从宏观的设计时代行进以及微观的个人生活态度纵横两个纬度上去观察文字字体：设计师如何在设计潮流的行进中去寻求本人的角色感?设计师如何建立起了个人设计行为与生活秉性的某种链接?作品又是如何成为这种交叉或链接关系的综合反应和输出?作为设计师，作为旁观者，在人人来讨论设计的国际化、设计潮流的喧嚣中，我们很有兴趣去做相对内在或本质的探讨：在当下，在信息传递和交流的过程中文字所具有的“保守文化与试验先锋”的双重性格。
bt’09展览将于2009年10月27日在中央美术学院美术馆开幕。邀请的中外设计师涵盖了新媒体、电影、互动、平面、编辑、试验设计等多项领域。
Beijing Typography 2009 (bt’09)
Date: 2009.10.24-11.15
Opening: 2009.10.27 06:00 pm
Location: Gallery 2A, CAFA Art Museum
Organized by: CAFA
Theme: Typography, Unity with New Life
In 1928, in his book entitled The New Typography, Jan Tschichold wrote "Unity of life: the arbitrary isolation of a part is no longer possible for us-every part belongs to and harmonizes with the whole. Where slackness is still the rule, we must make it our work to fight against laziness, envy, and narrow-mindedness. Typography too must now make itself part of all the other fields of creativity."
Almost a century has passed, yet we are still able to sense a similar freshness and eclecticism in our current digitalized age. Typography as a tool for information communication not only engages traditional mediums (such as books and posters), but is also permeating into new mediums such as space, interactive media and motion graphics. Contemporary typography demonstrates new possibilities, both in terms of words and images, and form and concept. Designers are adhering to the traditional, whilst looking forward to the unexpected. As a result, various understandings of and discussions on typography have started to emerge.
Chinese characters, for example, symbolize both word and image, indicating sound and meaning. In its five thousand-year history as a language system that incorporates pictograms, ideograms and phonograms, the Chinese language has evolved into a highly sophisticated writing culture, illustrated by the creation of the first form of (wood-based) printing. Furthermore, the idea of calligraphy as a "sophisticated art" has influenced many countries worldwide. Over the last 30 years, however, a new set of technological difficulties have been confronted and overcome, including the migration from traditional writing and mechanical systems to a digitalized one.
Blessed with their rich typographic history, designers are simultaneously confronted with many problems. For instance, what does typography mean in the face of the technological and socio-cultural transformations of today? Can anyone become a designer when equipped with computer technologies and digitized type? In what ways has new life affected typography and designers?
To showcase the research and international efforts of the past couple of years, as well as the re-thinking of the complex nature of typographic art, we cordially invite you to participate in bt’09, an exhibition founded on the theme of "Typography, Unity with New Life."
This will be the most influential and largest graphics exhibition to take place in China to date. We hope that, through this visual design exchange between different cultures and languages, the Chinese language will be able to inspire a contemporary visual expressiveness informed by a cultural richness.
