As Frieze week kicks off in London, so does the third Shanzhai Biennial — which does not occur every two years, but instead irregularly, whenever the artistic trio made up of Cyril Duval, Avena Gallagher and Babak Radboy comes together to focus their laser wits on the increasingly porous interstices of art, fashion and branding. Shanzhai Biennial is not an exhibition in any conventional sense of the word, nor is Shanzhai an actual Chinese locale. It’s a term that means “mountain stronghold,” slang for the breed of counterfeit products stockpiled in lofty, hard-to-access villages: name-brand knockoffs that are famous worldwide for their absurd, sometimes even poetic perversions of Western language.
隨著弗里茲藝博會(Frieze)在倫敦開幕，第三屆山寨雙年展(Shanzhai Biennial)也開幕了——其實它并非每兩年舉辦一次，而是不定期舉行，屆時西里爾·杜瓦爾(Cyril Duval)、阿韋納·加拉格爾(Avena Gallagher)和巴巴克·拉德博伊(Babak Radboy)這三位藝術家聚到一起，把他們激光般的智慧集中到越來越具有滲透性的藝術、時尚和品牌推廣的隙縫中。山寨雙年展不是傳統字面意義上的展覽，山寨也不是一處真的中國山寨?！吧秸敝傅氖谴娣庞诟吒叩?、難以到達的村子里的名牌仿制品，它們以對西方語言的荒謬甚至不無詩意的曲解而聞名于世。
Together, the words “Shanzhai Biennial” stand for an apocryphal institution that is often described as an art project posing as a luxury brand — or vice versa. At various times it has functioned as both, though it has consistently eschewed strict identification as either. In London, Shanzhai Biennial No. 3, titled “100 Hamilton Terrace,” consists of two retail installations — one onsite at Frieze Art Fair, another at Project Native Informant gallery in Mayfair — devised as a multipronged real-estate marketing campaign for a £32 million mansion for sale in St. John’s Wood. Both installations are grounded by carpets done in a deep, prosperous red, with floor plans of the property printed in large format directly upon them. The walls are hung with light boxes illuminating advertisements for the house, featuring inquisitive models peering through the outlines of more floor plans. Collateral art objects — limited-edition keys commemorating the house, and haute Frieze Art Fair tote bags that trade standard-issue cotton for quilted black leather and a braided chain — are on view in vitrines. But the most prominent element of the installation, in the Frieze booth anyway, is the mansion’s hefty price tag: a steady stream of zeroes that marches, larger-than-life, across the wall behind the lacquered sales desk.
“山寨”和“雙年展”這兩個詞組合在一起代表一個并不存在的機構，它經常被描述為偽裝成奢侈品牌的藝術項目或偽裝成藝術項目的奢侈品牌。有時它同時具有這兩種職能，雖然它一直不想被嚴格定義為其中任何一種。倫敦的第三屆山寨雙年展名為“漢密爾頓露臺100號”(100 Hamilton Terrace)，包括兩個零售裝置作品——一個在弗里茲藝術博覽會現場，另一個在梅費爾的本土作品通報畫廊(Project Native Informant)。它被設計成一個包括多種元素的房地產營銷活動，推銷的是圣約翰伍德的一個售價為3200萬英鎊的宅邸。這兩個裝置作品都以艷麗的深紅色地毯為背景，地毯上印著大幅戶型圖。墻上掛著燈箱，照亮這所房子的廣告，廣告中好奇的模特透過更多戶型圖向外凝視。玻璃櫥窗里是一些附屬藝術品——紀念這所房子的限量版鑰匙，弗里茲藝博會的高檔大手提袋，它的材質不是那種普通棉布，而是用中間夾有棉花的黑色皮革做的，還帶一條鑲飾鏈子。但是這個裝置作品最顯眼的元素——在弗里茲藝博會的展位上——是這個宅邸高昂的價簽：涂漆銷售桌后面的墻上排列著一長串醒目的零。
“We really want to stress that this is real advertising and fake art and not the opposite,” says Radboy. Indeed, the artists stand to earn a bona fide .5-percent commission on the property when it sells. “Advertising has its own formal attributes that are really uncanny when you consider them — but get overlooked because the perspective of critique always treats advertising as some dumb stepchild of culture, easily encapsulated in terms like ‘commodity aesthetics.’”
“我們真的想強調這是真廣告，偽藝術，而不是偽裝成廣告的藝術，”拉德博伊說。的確，如果房子售出，這三位藝術家將獲得0.5%的傭金?！叭绻屑毧紤]，你會發現廣告具有非常神秘的獨特形式屬性，但它被忽視了，因為批評家們總是把廣告看作文化的愚蠢繼子，隨意地把它概括為‘商品美學’?！?/div>
The project’s centerpiece, though, is artful indeed: a promotional video produced for the address, which makes its premiere here. Scored by a Shanzhai interpretation of Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” in Mandarin, which the Biennial originally created for an earlier video shown at MoMA PS1, the advertisement pushes in on domestic scenes from within 100 Hamilton Terrace, juxtaposed with Chinese models stoically enjoying their plush environs. It’s a Kuleshov cocktail of exoticism — evident in both the quintessentially English details of the house and its uncannily posed inhabitants — and globalized, aspirant values.
不過，這個項目的中心作品的確非常藝術化：它是為這座宅邸拍攝的宣傳片，在這里首次展示。宣傳片的配樂是山寨雙年展對西妮德·奧康納(Sinéad O’Connor)的《沒什么能與你相比》(Nothing Compares 2 U)的中文演繹，最初是他們為一個早期視頻創作的，曾在現代藝術博物館(MoMA)PS1館展示。宣傳片在展示漢密爾頓露臺100號的室內景致時，融入了中國模特們在其中恬淡享受奢華環境的鏡頭。它具有庫列紹夫(Kuleshov)的電影風格，融合多種異國情調，既有房子典型的英式細節，又有一些姿態怪異的住戶，具有雄心勃勃的全球化價值觀。
“The fair itself is so evocative of real estate,” Radboy continues. In a tented swath of Regent’s Park, Frieze is cut up into hundreds of contiguous stalls that rent by the day for five-figure sums. Shanzhai Biennial’s booth is in a prime position: the only one along the hallway through which fairgoers enter. “In the end, I think the advertising campaign has more in common with a military campaign: It is first and foremost concerned with territory and not cash.”
“這場藝博會本身很容易讓人想起房地產，”拉德博伊繼續說道。藝博會位于攝政公園里的一片搭起帳篷的地區，包括成百上千個毗鄰攤位，每日租金都是五位數。山寨雙年展的展位處于黃金位置，是唯一一個沿過道的展位，參觀藝博會的人都得從這兒經過。“說到底，我覺得廣告宣傳活動與軍事戰役有很多共同點：它們在乎的是疆域，而非錢。”
“As an agency, we routinely spend tens of thousands of pounds promoting fine homes, yet our advertisements and marketing initiatives often frustratingly create barely a ripple amongst top-end buyers,” explains Aston Chase’s Mark Pollack, the listing agent who convinced his clients to bring Shanzhai Biennial on board to create an abstract take on what is usually resigned to the rote, ineffective methods he describes. Pleased with the parade of millionaires who will be passing by the display all week, the two companies are already talking about future collaborations.
“作為中介機構，我們通常花費數萬英鎊宣傳高端房產，但我們的廣告和營銷活動常常令人失望，在高端買家中幾乎沒引起任何反響，”阿斯頓·沙斯房地產中介公司(Aston Chase)的賣方代理人馬克·波拉克(Mark Pollack)解釋說。他認為普通的宣傳方法陳腐無效，勸客戶們讓山寨雙年展加入進來，從抽象視角進行闡釋。雙方對本周將經過這里的百萬富翁感到滿意，已在商談未來的合作。
And what’s next for Shanzhai Biennial? In Chinese culture, the number four is a near-homophone for “death,” so the group plans to skip forward to Shanzhai Biennial No. 5.
山寨雙年展的下一個項目是什么？在中國文化中，數字四的發音與“死”接近，所以這個藝術家團體計劃把四跳過去，直接舉辦第五屆山寨雙年展。
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