In the gardens of ancient Egypt, the Middle Ages, and the Ming Dynasty of China, the enclosures, layouts, and structures all reflect the gardeners’ aspiration to create a tranquil and elegant haven, which is also the inspiration for the theme of this exhibition, ‘Zhilan.’
From a genealogical perspective, the users, styles, and functions of gardens differed across various eras and regions. However, in general, gardens have always reflected the evolving relationship between human and nature, the disparity and intertextuality between gardens and secular society, and the spatial characteristics of their respective era. Throughout these periods, gardens have served as one of the carriers for artistic entities in their own and earlier times. This role played a pivotal part in the development and preservation of art prior to the establishment of modern and contemporary museums. Certainly, the audience can also regard the garden itself as a comprehensive art form. This seems to be appropriate for the relationship between human and art we are currently discussing, which is shifting from viewing artworks to experiencing the art space.
Around the 15th to 17th centuries, modernity sprouted and began to affect the transformation of social space. At the same time, comprehensive and detailed regulations on garden construction were issued in both the East and the West . As an art form that combines natural and artificial elements, the garden has acquired subjectivity. For example, in the Renaissance area, gardens were no longer attached to architecture but were integrated with them and obtained the same status. In the Jiangnan region of China, literati, officials and Confucian merchants emphasized living and working in gorgeous gardens like Zhilan to match its social status and cultural identity. At this point, artworks play a more significant role, not merely as sources of pleasure, commemorations, or symbolic ornaments, but as artificial objects of beauty that become the primary focus of appreciation, exchange, and creation. If the ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ in the Western Garden villa is the embryonic form of the modern museum, the concern of the guests in the Eastern garden for Superfluous Things is also a crucial platform for the preservation, research, and exhibition of artefacts, which is similar to the basic functions of today’s art museum.
In the gardens of the Medici family’s villa or the Humble Administrator’s Garden designed by Wen Zhengming for Wang Xianchen, the identities of users or viewers are complex. They not only emulated ancient traditions but also imparted knowledge and instructions. Concurrently, they engaged in current activities, such as discussions related to aesthetics, politics, and business, constantly rehearsing for the eventual establishment of art museums . In 19th-century Europe and 20th-century China, private gardens gradually transformed into public cultural spaces, allowing previously static cultural resources to circulate and evolve again. Today, more people regard gardens as integral parts of their daily lives, both to appreciate cultural charm and to perceive and reinforce their cultural identity.
This exhibition aims to showcase the implications of cultural evolution and the characteristics of contemporary art in multi-media and spatial forms through the lens of gardens. On one hand, the inspiration stems from Taikoo Li Qiantan as the metaphor for a large-scale, integrated contemporary garden . On the other hand, it also continues the traits of the evolution of urban space that the curators persist in research. The exhibition space structure design, with the collaboration of architect Qing Wang, draws on the romantic aesthetics of simulating nature emphasized in gardens since the Ming Dynasty, which is different from the regular geometric forms of Western Gardens and combined with artworks to create an exhibition atmosphere that embodies the refined harmony and the arrangement of mountains and water. The exhibited works come from creators of different generations, from the jade of the late Shang Dynasty to the famous critic Li Xianting, who was born in 1949, to Li Yichen, who just graduated from college and was born in 1996.
Their professional backgrounds include art college teachers, art theorists, architects, and music club founder, as well as emerging young artists who participated in the Henan Satellite TV Show ‘Art Road Blooms,’ demonstrating diverse interpretations and expressions of this daily and historical theme by groups with different educational backgrounds and social identities. Their art pieces span comprehensive media types in the Chinese art system such as painting, calligraphy, video, sound, architecture, site-specific, installation, sculptures and documents. On the second floor of the exhibition space, literature reading and rest area is set up so that audiences can learn more about the exhibition.
‘Leisure is not far away, and the pavilion is in the abbot’s room. ’ I hope you can spend a playable leisure time in this gorgeous courtyard, duly experiencing more garden moments in life in the future.
1. During the Renaissance in the 15th century, the theorist Alberti (Leon Battista) wrote De Re Aedificatoria (On Architecture), which exhaustively described the building regulations for country houses and gardens. Yuan Ye was written in 1631 by Ji Cheng, a Ming Dynasty gardener who summarized the theoretical framework for Chinese gardens and provided a model for later generations to imitate.
2. In the Western context, the definition of art was redefined during the Renaissance. Concepts such as ‘Beaux Art’ in French, ‘Fine Art’ in English, and ‘Schöne Kunst’ in German took shape during this period. These definitions are considered the enlightenment achievements of modernity, attempting to differentiate from the ancient broader concept of ‘art’ or ‘ars.’ Technically speaking, the methods of differentiation become particularly important, both at the textual theoretical level and in the practical spatial level. In the East, for example, Wen Zhenheng’s Treatise on Superfluous Things from the Ming dynasty showcased the tastes and management of collections of artifacts outside the royal court (including natural artifacts like strange stones). From the perspective of art sociology, the ‘superfluous things’ of the Ming dynasty reflect the mutual influence between art and secular society to a more profound degree than in previous dynasties. Comparing the East and West, the shifts were driven partly by the inevitable outcomes of the development of modern disciplines and partly by the trend of social commercialization, turning ‘art’ into ‘displayed commodities,’ similar to what today’s art museums and galleries do.
3. The article mentions three behaviors that correspond to the three basic social production dimensions of modern art museums: culture, consciousness form, and economy.
4. The development of Chinese gardens nowadays, in many big cities, gardens have carried more ‘park’-style cultural and leisure functions since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Some large-scale urban complexes that pay attention to spatial structure have instead inherited the tasks of modern gardens, such as collecting objects, commerce, socializing, tasting, learning, and experiencing foreign cultures.
5. Western gardens from ancient Egypt and ancient Greece have generally emphasized geometric forms since Rome, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. However, there are also examples of non-geometric gardens created by British aristocratic gardens in the 17th and 18th centuries that were influenced by oriental gardens.
6. From “Leisurely Looking at the Southern Pavilion During Sick Leave” by Bai Juyi, Tang Dynasty.