Baptiste Debombourg

 构建于混乱之中



“当我们谈起‘破碎’，第一时间会浮现在我的脑海里的是‘意外’两字，代表了某种紧张激烈并且出人意料的事件的发生。对我而言，‘破碎’就如同一个转折点，一种能激起变化的强烈现实冲击。也许它意味着某一事物的终结，但它同时也代表了一种变革和崭新事物的开端。

鉴于生命的不断转化过程，生与死是自然的一部分。对我而言，‘破碎’同时也意味着一种探索的极限，一个不可回归的临界点。当我们以破碎之势克服极限，我们将进入一个新的维度，在这个维度里，一切仿佛正经历着变形……对我们而言，这也是事物开始变得抽象的时刻，原有的‘结构’崩塌、变形，重新组合并焕然一新，转化为一些我们亟需探寻的新事物。

走向极限的想法让我乐此不疲，因为它常常能促使我们行动起来，去探索新事物，探索物质、自我乃至生命的潜能。超越使我们成就自己，对我而言，它所代表正是一种动力和挑战。

纵然，‘玻璃，总是要碎的，’但我乐于接受材料的本来面目，并热衷于把玻璃的这一特性视为一种潜力，以探索各种不同的可能性和结果。玻璃的‘破碎’，最为让我着迷的一点是它的不可预见性，正是这种不可预见性，为我们不同的感知方式开启了新的可能。如果我们以杜尚的作品——‘大玻璃/Large Glass’为例，从他的观点来看，作品所发生的意外和意外导致的破裂，反而使它变得更加有趣，更加复杂。

事实上，我不认为玻璃是如此的脆弱，它只是需要我们在同它相处的时候，能多一些警觉，多一些灵巧而已——你必须得足够的坚强，同时也得足够温柔。当然，毋庸置疑的是，玻璃的确是一种非常特别的材料，并且在某种程度上，它是自相矛盾的，它美丽、珍贵，让人着迷，但同时也意味着危险和沉重。玻璃并没有比其它材料更加脆弱和易碎，它可能只是更加复杂，需要我们去适应它，并以不同的方式去挖掘它的潜能。我相信这也适用于包括人类在内的所有生物、所有境况——面对一件事物，你不能抱有偏见，而是得去理解、接受和适应它。只有这样，我们才能充分发挥一个人、一种环境、一株植物，乃至其他任何事物的全部潜力。


从2005年开始，我便专注于以玻璃为媒介进行艺术创作，并尝试了很多不同的项目，包括画廊展览，如Aérial、Flow、Dark matter之类的博物馆艺术装置，以及一些开展于公共空间，旨在同建筑和空间进行‘对话’的委托创作……这一切都是如此令人振奋——有如此之多的新可能、新方向正等待着我去探索。我总是准备更进一步，面对新的挑战，而这也正是进步、发展的关键所在。大型装置之外，我也热衷于在自己的工作室里创作小型作品，它们中的一部分，我喜欢称它们为玻璃‘绘画’；而另一部分，则是一系列用形状各异的镜子碎片打造而成的玻璃面具。

自2006年以来，我一直致力于探索‘构建于混乱之中’这一理念。这本身就像是一个悖论——暴力并非焦点，而是暴力之后随之而来的，以及与人类相关的极恶与极善。站在一个不同的维度，我会从新的视角去探讨这些问题，将破坏解释为转变，将材料视作见证者——即我们行动的镜子。

‘涡轮/Turbo’是我第一件基于‘破碎’这一理念创作的大型装置，它探讨了‘创伤’的象征意义，以及克服困难、生存和复原的能力。这件作品同时也融合了对上世纪80年代‘涡轮浪潮’的反思，这一思潮曾在西欧的工业和文化发展进程中留下过自己的印记。它曾成为了一种行为模式——在车里装上一个‘涡轮增压机’，能予以人们一种优越感，因为这意味着你比其他人更强大。此外，它在声效，也仿佛能给人一种真实的物理力量感。在艺术创作中，我更多地展现了两个步骤：将能量投入到极限，随之处理‘毁灭式的残局’。尽管，这两者之间存在着某种联系。

在我第一次用玻璃进行创作的时候，那时的我正关注于人们在对政府有所不满时所采取的态势——他们会对城市建筑、设施、玻璃等进行破坏，而正是这些暴力的‘抗议行为’，让我萌生了诸如‘水晶宫/Crystal Palace’等项目的灵感。过去，我曾以汽车的挡风玻璃实现了各种项目，而之后落地于挪威的‘愤怒的梦想/Rage Dreams’，则让我进一步同夹层玻璃结下了不解之缘。这是一种非常有趣的材料，因为它能够保留住那一瞬间的冲击，并在自己的表面封存下破坏的‘姿态’。当然，这也同样适用于挡风玻璃。

玻璃的二元性让我深为着迷——它美丽而又危险的双重属性，和它的历史沉淀，以及它对于我们这个时代的特殊意义。1995年，由于发生于俄克拉荷马城的恐怖袭击，夹层玻璃成为了民用建筑的标准，美国政府随后更是决定将这种玻璃推广到每一幢公共建筑，因为玻璃造成的死亡人数远远超过因建筑本身被毁所致死的人数。在某种程度上，我认为玻璃这种材料也很好地代表了我们这个时代关于恐怖主义行动的情况......

玻璃，作为一种不可思议的材料，展示了事物破裂的另一种内在可能性。正如我之前所说，观点和方法才是最重要的，即便涵盖不了一切，但这一看似对立的视角依旧适用于生活中的大多数情况。比如，我们都有可能在情感或身体上经历崩溃，但同时，我们也有可能从中获得新的体验，并因这‘新’的体验而得以从痛苦中解脱。

一个有着丰富积淀的人是深邃而美丽的，他或许会显得复杂，但也足够启迪人心。我认为我们需要面对自己的恐惧，因为恐惧的另一面总是会有新的发现。我们有必要认同‘适应’及‘理解’的重要性，并接纳蕴藏于新观点之中的无限潜力。”

Baptiste Debombourg



Constructing from Chaos



“When we are talking about ‘Broken’, the first thing that pops up in my mind is an ‘accident’, something unexpected but intense happening. ‘Broken’ for me is like a breaking point, an intense impact of reality that provokes changes. Perhaps it might be the end of something, but it is also a transformation and a beginning of something new.

Considering the constant transformational process of life, birth and death are a natural part of it. Broken for me also means the idea of the limits of exploration, a point of no return, the limits that we overcome to enter in to a different dimension, the fractal... Which is also the moment when things start being abstract for us, because the 'structure' broke in to something totally different, something new that we just need to discover.

The idea of going to the limits interests me, because often it is what makes us act, discover something new, explore the potential of the material, of ourselves, of life. To go beyond makes us accomplished, to me it represents the drive, the challenge.

Although ‘It is the fate of glass to break,’ I like to take this characteristic as a potential to explore various possibilities and results, and I accept the material for what it is. Because what interests me in the way that glass breaks, is the unpredictability, it opens a possibility for a different perception. If we take Duchamp's work for example, the ‘Large Glass’, the accident that occurred and the breaking of the work, from his point of view, made the work even more interesting, more complex.

Actually, I don't think glass is so fragile, it just requires special awareness when dealing with it, some dexterity, you have to be strong but also gentle. Of course it is a very specific material, in some way Paradoxal, attractive, beautiful and precious, but also dangerous and heavy. I don't think the glass is more fragile and vulnerable than other materials, it is just more complex probably, takes a different approach to develop its potential, therefore we need to adapt to it. And I believe this can be applied to people, all living things, situations. You can’t have prejudice, you need to understand, accept and adapt in order to develop the full potential of a person, a situation, a plant, of anything else.


Since 2005, I am working with glass and did very different things, gallery exhibitions, Museum installations as Aérial, Flow, Dark matter… and several commissioned works in public space in dialogue with the architecture, it’s very exciting, there are so many possibilities and directions to explore. I’m always ready to push farther, face a new challenge. That’s the point of it, progress, development. At the same time I work on smaller pieces in my studio, as I like to call it glass ‘paintings’, and glass and mirror masks.

Since 2006 I am working on pieces that explore the idea of ‘Constructing from Chaos’, it is like a paradox in itself - the violence is not in focus, but what comes after it, and what relates to the human, capable of the worst and best. I’m exploring these question from the point of view of a new dimension, the destruction is interpreted as transformation. I see the material as witness, a mirror of our actions.

‘Turbo’ was one of my first installations dealing with the idea of ‘Broken’. It is a site specific installation in laminated wood that I create in a gallery or a museum. It deals with the symbolism of a ‘scar’, the capacity to overcome things, survival, resilience. But it also integrates the idea that came from reflection on the ‘turbo wave’ of the 80’s which left its mark on the industry and culture in Western Europe. It became a model for behavior, having a ‘turbo’ in your own car was giving you a feeling of superiority over others that had ordinary cars. It meant that you were more powerful than the others. The sound effect gave the sensation of a real physical power. My work rather expresses the energy invested in to going beyond limits, then dealing with destruction, even though there is a relationship between the two.

The first time I worked with glass I was interested in people’s reaction towards the government - the destroying of urban objects, furniture, glass... These ‘acts of protest’ made me think about projects like ‘Crystal Palace’, various projects I realised with windscreens, then ‘Raging Dreams’ in Norway... It made me discover laminated glass, which is a very interesting material, because it preserves the impact, the ‘gesture’ of destruction. The same applies to windscreens.

I am fascinated by the duality of the glass, beautiful and dangerous at the same time. And then the history of it and how specific this material is for our times. The laminated glass became a norm in civil architecture because of the terrorist act in Oklahoma City in 1995, the US Government then decided to extend this type of glass to every public architecture, because the glass killed a lot more people than the actual destruction of the building. I think this material is a very good representation of our time in regard of the acts of terrorism as well…

Glass, is an apt material for demonstrating another inherent possibility of things breaking. As I said before, the point of view and the approach is what matters, and it can be applied to so many things in life, if not everything. We can break emotionally and physically, and we can emerge from it with a new experience. A person with a rich experience is deep and beautiful and inspiring and complex, and that can be applied to everything.

All my projects are somehow related to aspects of human relationships: our mistakes, our doubts and desires, as well as perceptions, we each have our own realities. It explores the nature of our psychological relationships with objects, looking for the potential space between reality and the ideal model we aspire to achieve. I analyse and question the sense and meaning of actions we undertake, construction and destruction. I am interested in individual repeated attempts, which sometimes lead to failure.

Finally, I think that we need to face our fears, because there is always a discovery on the other side of fear. I think it is necessary to understand the importance of adapting and understanding, and accepting the new, the potential of a new perspective.”

Baptiste Debombourg



EDITOR'S NOTE
编者手记（此部分仅用于中文版）


来自法国的当代艺术家Baptiste Debombourg将自己视作一个设想和解构“意外”的人，而这些意外，能将寻常的物质转化为一种另类的现实。作为一名善于“破坏”的创作者——他会在经过严谨的构思后，拿起一把榔头，一丝不苟地打碎自己创作的核心媒介——平板夹层玻璃，将一切推向“破坏的极限”。玻璃，在Debombourg砸下的那一瞬间便转化了形态，星座般的纹理，在经过了重重的裂纹之后浮现在了玻璃的表面。在这被“压抑”的潜在暴力中，一件件规模庞大，并且发人深省的作品诞生了。

Debombourg的所有项目都在某种程度上同人类自身的各个侧面有关：我们的错误，我们的怀疑，我们的欲望，以及我们每个人对自我、对现实的看法。他分析并质疑人们承担、建构，以及破坏等一系列行为背后的本质及意义。比如，在名为“Flow”的作品中，他使用了数百个挡风玻璃，呈现了一片有如海啸般席卷整个空间的玻璃潮汐。作为繁荣与毁灭如影随形的一个缩影，这件作品阐释了资本和消费主义，以及工业化社会的大规模生产是如何侵入、摧毁社会，并埋没我们的人性的。Debombourg也对人们的“反复尝试”颇感兴趣，虽然在他看来，这样的尝试在大多数时候都会走向失败——个体，总是会在蓄谋已久的行动、乌托邦式的抱负，以及盲目自我的驱使下，暴露出自己的某种本性；而由客观的处境，亦或个体自身局限所造成的“无能为力”，在Debombourg看来，也不过是凸显了人类脆弱和可爱的本质。

Debombourg的创作是基于不同的媒介及材料所实现的，而为他的创作赋予灵感，并施予影响的，则是最平凡的日常生活——更明确地说，是那些同我们每个人的生活紧密相关的日常事物。他的分析和研究重点也主要聚焦于这些事物的性质，它们的文化吸引力，它们的行为和作用力，以及我们有可能与它们产生的情感联系。这种对人与物之间交互关系的秘密研究，也是Debombourg的作品让人印象深刻的另一个特征。

浏览Debombourg的官网，我们会惊讶地发现，他的作品，仅仅是最后的布置这一项工作，就得耗费数百个小时！在一般的认知中，我们往往会觉得，艺术家都是热衷并享受于自己的创作的。然而对于总是给自己施加太多压力和挑战的Debombourg而言，所谓的“创作”，其实并不能给他带来多少的乐趣。他的快乐源于他清晰地认识到自己所拥有的自由——艺术，允许他自由地思考和想象自己所能探索的一切，并让它们变为现实，但这样的自由同时也等同于一种风险。就好比他“自由”地选择了玻璃——然而当他需要在短短的四天期限内，把堆在自己眼前的庞然大物——几吨玻璃铺设于上百米的空间，并且……还没有得力的工具辅助的时候……他同样会感到生无可恋。对他而言，所谓的快乐，只有在几经磨难、且一切安妥就绪的最后一刻才会降临。

Debombourg是一名令人尊敬的艺术家，我们可以将他的作品视为一件雕塑，一项装置，亦或一种景观。在诗意的表现力和极致的创造性氛围中，它们向观者低声讲述着一个个混沌现实的故事。在Debombourg的作品中，时间似乎真的停留于一种悬浮的状态，介于流动，狂躁以及某种难以言喻的惯性和重力之间。置身于他的作品，我们会觉得，仿佛有一个平行的世界，卡在了我们，以及我们害怕面对的无尽事物之间——一切都处于一种紧张，一种介于快感和支配感的矛盾之中。Debombourg的创作是值得探索的多样化美学混乱，也是对我们的行为，我们无数的错误、恐惧，以及，爱的一种影射。

海兵




ABOUT THE ARTIST（此部分仅用于英文版）

Baptiste Debombourg’s research takes shape through different media, materials, and mountings such as wood, glass, staples, or drawings. His inspiration and influences comes from everyday life and more specifically from day-to-day objects that condition our lives. His analysis/research is also focused on the use of these objects and the reactions, behaviours that they create, including the affective relationships we may have with them.

Debombourg consider his artistic oeuvre as a conveyor of encounters, an opportunity to link sectors and areas that usually ignore each other (ex: the so-called “noble” and “popular” cultures). He believes it is also a way to examine the position and the function of what we define as contemporary art.