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Rong Rong: I think she’s very good; she’s great. What do you think of me? How are my lines? inri: Ha-ha. Feng Boyi: When they first started dating, there was a language barrier. What I don’t know is how you collaborated. Ai Weiwei: What you most long for and what you’re curious about is what you’re interested in.
Feng Boyi: Ha-ha-ha. Ai Weiwei: With the language barrier, how did she tell you that you should be naked? Did she just undress you? Rong Rong: At times, the language barrier was especially strange. We had a very good understanding through a sixth sense, body language transferred meaning. Ai Weiwei: Did the removal of the language barrier eliminate this feeling? After ten years have you lost interest in the other’s body? inri: It’s changed. Ai Weiwei: And you? Rong Rong: There have been changes; different stages. Ai Weiwei: Different how? Rong Rong: Life is different. We also have kids, and what we’re interested in is different. inri: Now when we look at the videos from those times, it’s very strange. We used a primitive language to communicate. It wasn’t just what the eyes saw and things in nature. At that time we wanted to take pictures of psychological things. When we took the Mt. Fuji series, we didn’t talk beforehand about how we wanted to take those pictures. Ai Weiwei: Did you take your equipment? inri: We did. We wanted to take photographs, but we hadn’t figured out how we would take them. Ai Weiwei: What was the motivation behind taking pictures at Mt. Fuji? inri: The first time we met, I said, “If you come back, I’ll take you to see Mt. Fuji.” Ai Weiwei: When Rong Rong came back from Japan for the first time, we talked. I asked how you communicated. He said he didn’t know, but that they could communicate. Remember? Rong Rong: Right, in 1999 you were already here. Ai Weiwei: Later, how did you think of the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre? Rong Rong: Beijing was changing slowly, as we often discussed. [I wanted to create the Centre] because I love photography, I formed relationships because of photography. She took photos for ten years; I took photos for ten years, continuously. At the earliest stage, we wanted a public library. I had no interest in being a photographer operating a gallery. We were still concerned with the present state of Chinese photography, approaching China by taking pictures. Ai Weiwei: On the topic of interests, your backgrounds are very different. Even though you have taken photographs for ten years, your viewpoints are certainly not too similar. Do you fit together easily or are there clashes? Rong Rong: In terms of technique, I’m rougher, and she’s more refined. We complement each other. Ai Weiwei: What do you think that Rong Rong has given you? inri: Openness. When I was in Japan, I was an especially closed, independent person. After I met Rong Rong, it could have something to do with his personality, but through him, I have now started to have relationships, started to communicate. Before, I was cut off from the outside world and other people. Feng Boyi: I’ve seen inri’s original works, and they’re rather wild. After collaborating with Rong Rong, [the work] had a romantic feeling; they were rich in emotion. Rong Rong: In fact, my individual works were inseparable from the environment. Leaving the East Village and going to Liulitun, I didn’t go too far from inri, the people around me, things, and events. If not for inri, I going to Mt. Fuji by myself would have had no relationship to what I was interested in before. Feng Boyi: I want to ask inri, what is different about creating in China? inri: Before I came, I didn’t know whether I would continue to take pictures. After I came, without discussing anything, I very naturally started to take photographs. At first, he photographed me, I photographed him, or we went to the same scenic spot and when he took pictures, I didn’t. That was a little strange, and so later we took photographs together. Before the Mt. Fuji works, we did a series of works in nature, at the Great Wall and at Jiayu Guan. We especially wanted to go to nature, with the language barrier, we communicated through the camera. We said that our camera was our “third eye.” Ai Weiwei: Who liked who first? It was certainly inri who first [liked Rong Rong]. [Such a] handsome Chinese man! Rong Rong: No, No. I took a fancy to her. inri: I took a fancy to his work. He-he. Ai Weiwei: What made you interested in Rong Rong’s exhibition? inri: When Little Xiong (Xiong Wenyun) was in Japan, she said that her friend had an exhibition in Tokyo. Ai Weiwei: Did you like his photographs? inri: It wasn’t like or dislike; it went directly to the heart! Ai Weiwei: When did you first sleep together? He said that in Japan you had already slept together. Rong Rong: Gossip. Ha-ha! Ai Weiwei: Ha-ha. You have three kids and you’re still shy. Not likely. inri: After I came to Beijing. Ai Weiwei: You decided then? Were you ready? Rong Rong: This was a long and slow process; it did not come that easily. I still had various strategies. I couldn’t use a mobile phone, a computer, a fax, and later I used them all. Now I can’t use computers again. At that time, phone calls were very expensive, I couldn’t afford my rent, but I still called her every day. Ai Weiwei: At the time, did you have the feelings of wanting to avenge the Chinese people? Rong Rong: What does this have to do with anything? Feng Boyi: I don’t think that Rong Rong has those feelings. Ai Weiwei: Do you? Feng Boyi: I don’t either, it’s a private emotion. Ai Weiwei: You mean that personal affairs have nothing to do with public affairs and history? How do you view the Sino-Japanese War? Young people can view history relatively calmly, [as something] not related to them. You know? Did you face pressure when you married a Chinese man? How do the Japanese see this issue? inri: The Japanese often reject the foreign. Ai Weiwei: How do Chinese people treat you? You didn’t have experience in China before [you arrived]. inri: It’s hard to say. There have been many people, all different, over ten years. For example, his family is very special; his father is influential, very attentive, more attentive than Japanese people, and very clean. Ai Weiwei: What an eccentric. There are very few attentive people in China. Rong Rong: So it was difficult for us to get along, [he’s] excessively clean. Ai Weiwei: Give an example. Rong Rong: For example, water can’t splash out [of the sink] when you’re washing dishes. When the kids have soup and drip some on the table, he will immediately wipe it up. Ai Weiwei: So, you let your hair grow long and gave him a Japanese daughter-in-law. Rong Rong: At home, I couldn’t leave my hair long, so I went to Beijing. Ha-ha. Before, every year at Spring Festival, my father always said, “At this age, you don’t have a girlfriend?” Now that doesn’t happen anymore, but he worries about Sino-Japanese relations. He worries. Ai Weiwei: How old is he? Rong Rong: 73. Rong Rong: He used to be a buyer for the Demand and Supply Cooperative. Ai Weiwei: That must have had benefits, always good things to eat. Rong Rong: After Reform and Opening, he contracted with the Demand and Supply Cooperative, and I worked for him for three years. He promised to give me some money so that I could buy a camera. After that, I did what I loved. Ai Weiwei: When did you buy your first camera? What brand was it? Rong Rong: A Minolta, in 1992. Ai Weiwei: And we met in ’93. inri? inri: In ’94. I was in high school. It was my father’s old camera, a Ricoh. Ai Weiwei: How much did all of your equipment cost total? Have you added it up? Rong Rong: Never. inri: I sold it all before I came to China. Rong Rong: She was a reporter. The camera and lenses of all sizes were all sold to pay for life in Liulitun. I had lived there for eight years, you’ve all been there. Feng Boyi: When did things turn for the better? Rong Rong: Around 2000. In 1997, I sold my first picture and went to Vienna to exhibit. After that we had a little, my work only started really selling after 2000. Ai Weiwei: So, it was inri who brought you good luck. Rong Rong: I also brought her good luck. We brought it to each other. In 2000 our work changed, our lives changed. Ai Weiwei: What do you hope to do next? inri: [We want to] go back to Japan because I haven’t been back to celebrate the New Year in ten years. Rong Rong: We haven’t been to Japan to celebrate the New Year in ten years, so this year we’ll go. inri: We hoped to go to the Japanese countryside to take some pictures. It would have been good for the children, very natural. We didn’t take the pictures, it was very strange. Rong Rong: There are clashes [between these sorts of ideas and the requirements of] Three Shadows. Our energy and time do not permit it. Three Shadows is still a work in progress, and it needs our guidance. Later we hope to gain a bit of distance and return to our original state. Feng Boyi: There are still conflicts with individual creation. Rong Rong: The present situation doesn’t permit it. Feng Boyi: Rong Rong, in the past you had been interested in poor environments. After you and inri got together, the change was significant, as with the Mt. Fuji series. Rong Rong: That was a special period of time; we had just finished with the wedding photos. Ai Weiwei: The standard model; the two of you in nature. Rong Rong: Demolition is also natural. Ai Weiwei: If you were to get divorced, would you still collaborate? Inri: That’s for fate to decide. Feng Boyi: One last question. What’s the greatest difference between your collaborative works and your individual works? inri: Before, I was very independent and my work was very introspective. Collaboration changed that. Works could be created anywhere in life. Feng Boyi: Rong Rong? Rong Rong: Yes. I was in the East Village before and now I’m in Caochangdi. The environment has changed, but [our art] does not require great effort; it’s all of the things around us. Ai Weiwei: How are the kids? Healthy? inri: They’ve all caught colds recently. Ai Weiwei: That’s tough. Are you tired? Do you get the chance to have fun? inri: I just look after the kids. Rong Rong: Me too. Ai Weiwei: Amazing! Rong Rong: Not really. My parents had even more kids. Ai Weiwei: That’s different. How’s the Japanese kindergarten? inri: They don’t learn, they just play. Ai Weiwei: Playing and making up games is what’s best. Can Chinese people sign up for this kindergarten? inri: The government has started to manage it; they don’t allow foreigners to run schools. Ai Weiwei: How bothersome! Families can operate schools, though. inri: Yes, we’re also considering that. Ai Weiwei: Ha-ha. You haven’t positively answered a few of my questions; I had originally intended to get deeper. We’ve already known each other 18 years.
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发表于 2015-4-18 19:31