常德右岸现象登上CHINA DAILY封面故事：棚户区里生根发芽的艺术与新生

 

    前言
    经过30年经济快速发展期，中国城市已经走过了复制国外城市经验的第一代城市建设阶段，进入以城市发展导引野蛮生长的第二代城市升级阶段。在这一阶段，不仅需要破解千城一面的趋同城市迷局，曾经因速度而丧失的精神归属与居民情感寄托也需要得到城市开发和建设者的重视。
    城市始终是人群历史和现实的集合，所拥有的地方特色是城市的记忆，所倚靠的商业发展是城市的未来。在发现记忆和发展未来之间寻求平衡虽有一定难度，但绝非无可能。
    常德江南临江棚改右岸城项目自启动以来，一直尝试以人文艺术的方式介入项目征拆和建设，构建EUA城市艺术生态战略，立意将右岸城打造成没有围墙的美术馆，将常德打造成中国第三代城市升级典范。其一系列艺术介入的实践行动和成果引起了众多媒体的报道和关注。2017年11月4日，中国日报China Daily以首页新闻的方式大篇幅刊发了记者邓章瑜撰写的《From rubble，art and new life spring》（棚户区里生根发芽的艺术和新生）、《Land of the peach blossom beckons once more》（重现桃花源）两篇文章，深度报道了她在实地走访了临江棚户区原住民、社区、驻留艺术家、右岸文化艺术中心以及江南城发企业负责人之后的所见、所听、所感。
    现将封面故事《棚户区里生根发芽的艺术与新生》翻译稿以及英文稿件原文转载如下。

 

棚户区里生根发芽的艺术与新生 
“他们不是不管不顾，任其房屋被拆除，
而是一群主张自己，寻找自己，探寻新家园的人。”
@邓章瑜 《中国日报》特稿部记者

    像往常一样，许会穿过一条条建筑废料随处可见的窄巷，开始了她惯常的

    工作。许会所处的地方是湖南省常德市一处正在被征收的棚户区，她的工作是收集调查当地居民的回迁意愿。
    按照以往的经验，许会预计，只要给予一笔不菲的补偿款，住户们极有可能会抓住机会，毫不犹豫地离开这个向来以人口密集、脏、乱、差闻名的棚户区。令她万万没想到的是，在即将被征收的约200多户家庭中，绝大多数居民选择了留下，还打算购买在棚户区新建的房屋，哪怕他们要面临暂时无房可住的处境。
居民们态度上的大转变，许会认为得益于一场艺术展览。棚户区新建的右岸文化艺术中心9月举办了声势浩大的开幕展，展出作品中有很多出自一个特别的艺术驻留项目，该艺术项目旨在帮助原住民保留一段共有的棚户区生活记忆。一旦新房建成，这些艺术品最终将会被陈列在该区域的公共空间里。
    40岁的许会在棚户区的花船社区居委会工作了10多年。回忆起9月份的那场艺术展，她说：“当人们看到这个展览和艺术中心的时候，他们都很震撼。居民们不善表达，只是不停地说就想住在这里，把回迁房选在这里”
    地处湖南省北部的常德是一个拥有570万人口的地级城市。与大多数居住在这座城市的市民一样，许会之前对艺术兴趣寥寥。在她眼中，艺术就是地方戏曲或风靡中国的消遣活动——广场舞。
    一条沅水把常德一分为二，江水蜿蜒穿城而过。沅水左岸因十多年来城市化的发展，早已成为经济繁茂的富裕地区。沅水的另一边则稍逊一筹，这就是棚户区的所在地。鉴于沅水两岸的差距日益明显，去年，地方政府决定启动棚户区改造工作。

 

六到八年后，湖南省常德市沅江右岸的棚户区将会变成一个新城

 

    “中国的城市化进程很快。拆旧房，建新房，在这片土地上每天都发生。”中央美术学院公共艺术工作室主任胡泉纯说，“但让艺术成为城市化进程的一部分是少有的。”
    胡泉纯曾在今年的3、4月到访常德，参加为期一个月的艺术驻留计划。第一次面对征收中的棚户区，艺术家颇感头疼，不知从何处着手自己的艺术创作。对他而言，这个地方和他见过的中国的三四线城市并无差异：一排排破旧的平房和自建的二层小楼，狭窄的过道，建筑废料随处可见还有很多被征收完的老房子留下的残骸。
    在胡泉纯的带领下，14位驻留艺术家和他一起住进了棚户区居民家中，和当地的家庭同吃同住，以便更好地了解了当地人和他们的生活。胡泉纯的团队大部分是中央美术学院在读的大二，大三的学生。
    与当地居民充分沟通了解后，艺术家胡泉纯决定创作与日常生活息息相关的作品，用以保存棚户区原住民几十年来生活在此的共同记忆。
    在已被征收房屋的废墟中，胡泉纯和他的团队发现了大量废弃的门牌，上面记载着原有家庭的街道名和门牌号。
    棚户区所处的鼎城区临着沅江，过去曾经是一个繁华的渔村。中国著名作家沈从文在文章《常德的船》里，描述了无数大小船只在这里停泊的场景，反映出这个地区曾经的繁荣。现在渔民几近消失，大部分本地人都在附近的桥南市场工作。
    作为曾经著名的渔船码头，渔船在该区域司空见惯。于是胡泉纯决定用收集的废弃门牌装饰一艘木制渔船的表面。看到这些门牌，其中有一些还是他们所熟识的邻居家里的，原住民的回忆被勾起。他们主动找到胡泉纯，要求把自家的门牌也放上去，并询问艺术家是否可以做跟自己家相关的艺术品。

 

艺术家胡泉纯的学生用废弃的街道门牌装饰渔船的表面     

 

    当地居民的参与热情在看到胡泉纯的另一件作品时再次被激发 。那是一个四四方方的水泥立方体，用被征收房屋剩下的建筑残骸浇灌而成。已经搬家离开的住户扔掉的旧家具，老物件和一切废弃物品都可以放进这个立方体中封存起来。立方体上还刻着所属住户的精确地理位置，以纬度和经度标明。

 

艺术品《封存》用原住民家庭的建筑垃圾铸成水泥立方体，上面标注着家庭地址     

     

    胡泉纯解释说：“盖房子和装修家里时，每户人家都会用各种各样的材料。” “房主用不同的材料建造自己的房屋。所以这个立方体代表了一个家庭的独特记忆。”
    刚开始制作这件名为《封存》的立方体雕塑时，本地人只是对胡泉纯的工作感到新鲜和好奇，对他收集废弃物的兴趣大惑不解。再后来，许多居民纷纷前来恳请艺术家也为他们制作这样一个立方体。这些立方体未来可能将会用做新城公共空间的凳子，作为原住民曾经居住于此的一段历史见证。
    “人们看到这些凳子的时候，能够回忆起过去的生活和日子。当新城建起，旧城不在，人们不是简单地删除过往。对于这一点，我很欣赏。”
    他的团队还搜集了很多废墟里的红砖，把原住民的愿望刻在每一块砖石上，做成了一面留言墙。
    “这里的人很淳朴。他们会直接说愿望是我要发财！”胡泉纯笑着说，“也有一些人写的是诗句。”

 

 

中央美术学院的艺术家邀请居住在棚户区的居民写下他们的愿望，并把收集的愿望刻在废弃的砖料上。 

                       
    另外一位参与艺术驻留计划的艺术家赵明更加关注原住民的内心和情感，她选择通过照片和声音的艺术形式来呈现作品。赵明和她的团队来自浙江杭州的中国美术学院。她们在棚户区度过了忙碌的一周，忙着收集各种各样的声音。当地居民闲暇时的聊天、小贩的沿街叫卖、板车划过街道、犬吠声和菜园里的虫鸣都被他们囊括其中。
    赵明回忆，有一次团队结束了一天的声音收集，在一家擂茶馆坐下喝茶。紧挨着他们进来了一个本地地方戏的社团，团队很辛运的记录下了社团的唱戏声，赵明将其称为“艺术之声”。
   “这里的生活悠闲舒适。事实上，这儿的人不像大城市里的人，常被过多的欲望所驱使。”
开展详尽的问卷调查后，赵明发现儿童和中老年人是棚户区的主要住户。“年轻人似乎更喜欢沅水对岸的生活，那里是闹市所在。”
    她和她的团队在沅水岸边布置了一个开放的客厅，与废旧的房屋废墟相对应。客厅里摆放着从废墟中拾掇来的废弃家具，每件家具里都植入了一个声音播放装置。团队会邀请当地人来客厅坐坐，在这些来源于当地生活的背景声中，居民们聊着家长里短，“一开始，我们需要劝说他们来这里聊天。后来大伙儿来得越来越频繁，他们说喜欢这个会客室。”
    作为第一批被征收户，许会的房子已经拆除。她从来没想到有一天，会怀念过去普通而又平常的日子，而这些艺术家们的创作满足了她怀旧的渴望。
    如许多选择留下的邻居一样，许会租住在棚户区附近，她要在此等待，期盼着看到她的新家。

 

 

    这个附带照片的声音装置正在右岸文化艺术中心展出，9月开幕的艺术中心是棚户区新修的的第一幢建筑。
    于赵明而言，艺术家介入旧城改造和新城建设是极为难得的机会，下个月她计划到常德开展更多的艺术创作工作。
    对于越来越多的原住民选择留下，而不是搬到条件更好的沅水对岸这一现象，赵明有自己的理解，“人的基本物质生活得到满足后，自然而然就会寻求精神生活。”
    当地政府说，在整个棚改过程中，将拆除逾2500幢建筑和房屋，涉及到8612个家庭。棚户改造项目计划用六到八年来完成。

 

居住在棚户区的邻居们在他们的房屋前拍照，他们中的许多人选择留下来等待在这里建立的新家园。    

                        

    赵明3月份到常德，那时拆除工作刚刚开始。她说，许多居民对周围发生的事情感到担忧，对未来感到焦虑。被征收的第一批家庭大多选择迁往其他地区。但是，随着艺术驻留项目完结，艺术中心的展览对外开放，愿意留下的人越来越多。他们想在艺术中寻找曾经的记忆，而拒绝让回忆就此消逝。
    常德本地的团队蜂鸟传播也积极参与了这个项目。他们收集在搬家过程中丢弃的旧家具，给即将离开的住户在家门口拍最后一次合照，还拍摄了很多当地人的短篇故事。
    蜂鸟传播的钟继红提到，他们曾经为一对年迈的夫妇在房子前拍了最后一张合影。几个月后，老奶奶过世，那张合影成为老爷爷与亡妻最后的留念和念想。一对小夫妻， 妻子有孕在身，在最后即将离开他们的房子时，蜂鸟也为他们留下影像。不久后，妻子成为了母亲。

    “这不只是除旧房子，建新房子那么简单，而是要关注住在其中的人。”
    这个长期的艺术驻留项目由常德市江南城市发展有限公司（一家与当地政府合作开发鼎城棚户区的国有资本控股混合所有制企业）发起。
    常德市江南城市发展有限公司总经理刘辉说，在计划修建新城时，他们一直在反复思考一个问题：人们为什么要留下来？
    “随着中国城市化进程的深化，我们常见的情况是简单粗暴地在旧楼原址上建新楼。但在常德的棚改项目上，我们想要避免这一点，也一直在考虑应该保留什么以及为什么要保留。”
刘辉介绍说，过去几十年来，中国的城市化进程经历了两个阶段。第一个阶段是计划经济时代，城市以建设工厂和企业为中心。 第二个阶段是2010年以后，产业园区驱动城市发展。
    “但我们采取了一种方法，城市升级过程中优先发展文化、艺术和自然生态。”

 

艺术家给即将离开的居民们拍他们与房子的最后一次合照，他们每天都在记录常德棚户区居民的日常生活。                            

 

文章来源：CHINA DAILY   Nov.4-5,2017
作者：邓章瑜
翻译：江南城发    
校审：邓章瑜

 

艺术是“大拆迁”时代的粘合剂，
是這片土地上最美的生产力，
是时代展现发展的蓬勃生机，
也是对过去的致敬与尊重。
无论是对旧物件的创意再造，还是对视听声音的复刻与驻留，艺术有无数种形式，再现常德江南的风土人情；江南也有无限的发展，答谢這片土地的深情。

 

CHINA DAILY  报道电子版

 

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From rubble, art and new life spring
By Deng Zhangyu (China Daily)

 

△ The shantytown on the right bank of Changde's Yuanshui River in Hunan province will be demolished and replaced by new housing in six to eight years. [Photo provided to China Daily]

 

    As her daily routine begins, Xu Hui walks past the debris of demolished homes in a shantytown in Changde, Central China's Hunan province, her mission being to ask people living in the area whether they are willing to move away from it.

    Xu expects that once generous compensation is dangled before them, her interviewees are likely to jump at the chance to move away from the area, notorious for its human congestion and filth. Yet running against that expectation is the fact that nearly all of the 200 families or so whose homes are due to be next on the chopping block have chosen to stay and buy the new houses that will be built in their place.

    Xu attributes this change of heart among locals about where they live to an art show in a newly built art center in the shantytown in September. On display were works by artists in an art project aimed at helping preserve the collective memory of the area, where the locals have lived for decades. Many of the artworks will eventually be placed in public spaces established in the area once the new houses are built.

 

△ A boat installation created by Hu Quanchun with discarded metal plates bearing street names. [Photo provided to China Daily]

 

    "When people saw the show and the fancy art center, they were dumbstruck," says Xu, 40, who has lived in the shantytown for more than 10 years and works for a local community committee. "They then began telling me that they wanted to stay."

    Like most residents living in Changde, a prefecture-level city with a population of 5.7 million, Xu had previously had little interest in art, something she equated to local operas or square dancing, a popular pastime throughout China.

    Winding through the city is the Yuanshui River, on whose left bank is a well-off area that has flourished over the past 10 years as a result of urbanization. The other side of the river has not fared nearly as well, and it is there that the shantytown sits. As the disparity between the two sides of the river became ever more apparent, the local government decided to act last year, and it is as a result of this that the shantytown area is literally being rebuilt from the ground up.

 

△ Cement cubes made of construction waste collected from a family's home with their address on them. [Photo provided to China Daily]

 

 

    "Urbanization in China is advancing at an incredible pace, and old buildings make way for new ones every day," says Hu Quanchun, a sculptor who specializes in public works. "But making art a part of the process of urbanization is rare."

    Hu says that when he visited Changde to take part in a one-month residential art project in March and April he had barely any idea about how to get started. For him, the area seemed to be much like any

    other small city in China, with rows of apartments and two-story houses, narrow alleys and a lot of debris lying everywhere, the remnants of demolished houses.

    Working under Hu is a team of 14, most of them students at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. They lived with local families and got to know the locals well.

    After several days getting to know the locals, Hu decided to create pieces of art that related to their daily lives, the aim being to help safeguard the collective memory.

 

△ Artists from the Central Academy of Fine Arts invite residents living in a shantytown to write down their wishes (left) and engrave them on bricks from dismantled homes. [Photo provided to China Daily]

 

    Hu and his team found hundreds of discarded metal plates in the debris of demolished homes. These plates resemble car license plates bearing street and apartment numbers.

    It is hardly surprising that because of the shantytown's location, it used to be a fishing village, and a celebrated Chinese writer, Shen Congwen, once wrote an essay that evoked how the countless boats and ships nestling there reflected the area's prosperity. These days the fishers have all but disappeared, and most of the locals work in a commodity market nearby.

    So Hu decided to attach the plates to a wooden fishing vessel that used to be a common sight in the area. When locals saw the boat decorated with the plates that identified their neighbors, they

    approached Hu and asked him whether he could do a similar art work involving their houses.

    Their eagerness to be involved was also fired by another of Hu's works, a cement cube made of

    construction waste collected from a family's home with their address on it. A family's old furniture, as well as other items discarded as they moved out of their old home can also be made part of the cubes.

 

△ Locals living in the about-to-be-demolished homes in the Changde shantytown in front of their homes. [Photo provided to China Daily]

 

    "When people build a house and make it their home, all sorts of materials particular to them go into it," Hu says. "House owners build up their homes with different materials. So the cube represents the unique memory of a family."

    Many residents have asked him to create a cube for them, he says. Previously they just seemed curious about what his job was and were confounded by his interest in collecting waste.

    These cubes will later be used as stools in public spaces in the area, recounting in their special way the history of the old shantytown.

    "What I appreciate about this is that people will recognize themselves and their past when they see these stools, instead of simply erasing the past when a new town is set up," Hu says.

    His team also collected bricks in ruins to engrave people's wishes on them and build them into a memorial wall.

    "The locals are very down-to-earth people. They'll say straight out 'I want to make a fortune.'," Hu laughs. "Some write poems."

    Another artist, Zhao Ming, focuses more on the emotions of people, doing so by using pictures and sound. Zhao and her team are from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. They spent a busy week in the shantytown, mainly recording sounds, including voices. This included people chatting, peddlers hawking their wares, running scooters, dogs barking and the hum of insects in

    vegetable gardens. They also came across a local opera society in a tea house and recorded what Zhao calls "the voices of art".

 

△ Locals in front of their about-to-be-demolished homes in the Changde shantytown. [Photo provided to China Daily]

 

 

     "Life here is very slow and easy. In fact, people here don't seem to be as driven with lust as big-city folk are."
    Zhao reckons that those who inhabit the shantytown are mainly children, middle-aged or older people. Young people seem to prefer living on the left bank, where the downtown area is, she says.
   She and her team set up an open sitting room beside the Yuan River against a ruined house, complete with discarded furniture in which they planted audio devices. They then invited locals to the sitting room and chatted away as the background sounds added an air of everyday life to the proceedings.
    "They needed some coaxing to come here, but now people are making frequent visits and say how much they love the place."
    Xu, whose house is one of those that has already bitten the dust, says she could never have imagined that she would miss what used to go on every day in this place, and through the artists is being given the chance to satisfy her nostalgic longings.
    Like many of her neighbors who have chosen to stay, Xu rents an apartment nearby, waiting eagerly to see her new home.
    The sound installation with photos is now on display in the newly built art center, the first building to set up in the shantytown.
    Zhao says it is rare for artists to take part in pulling down the old and raising up the new, and she plans to return to Changde to do more artworks next month.
    "When people have everything they want materially they naturally yearn for spiritual things," says Zhao of locals choosing to stay instead of moving to the supposedly better section of town on the other side of the river.

△ Locals living in their about-to-be-demolished homes in the Changde shantytown. [Photo provided to China Daily]

 

 

    All together, more than 2,500 buildings and houses will be removed in the shantytown, involving 8,612 families, the local government says. The project is expected to take six to eight years to complete.
    Zhao says she arrived in Changde in March, just after demolition had begun. Many people were on edge about what was happening around them and apprehensive about the future, she says. Most of the first group of families whose houses were demolished chose to move to other areas. But once the art project was finished and the show in the art center had opened, more and more decided to stay, keen not to let their memories, now embodied in art, simply die.
    A local art group, Hummingbird, also took part in the project, collecting old furniture thrown out during demolition work, took photos of families standing in front of their about-to-be-demolished houses and filmed short stories about locals.
    Zhong Jihong, a member of the group, says that several months after it took pictures of one couple, the woman died, leaving her husband with a treasured last picture of them together. After a pregnant woman was being pictured as she left her house for the last time, she gave birth.
    "This is not just about pulling down houses and putting up new ones, but about learning to take care of the people who live in them," Zhong says.
    The long-term art project was set up by Changde Konland Urban Development Co., a State-owned company that is working with the local government to develop the poor right bank area.
    Liu Hui, general manager of Changde Konland, says it kept asking why people should stay in the area when they started planning the new town.
    "As China's urbanization continues apace, it's common to simply plonk down new buildings where the old ones once stood. We want to avoid that. We are thinking about what should be kept and why."
    Over the past few decades China's urbanization has gone through two phases, he says. The first was cities concentrating on building big factories and State-owned businesses. After 2000, cities set up lots of industrial zones.
    "We have adopted an approach in which cities put a premium on culture, art and nature."