stage候台BACK is an art space dedicated to experimental projects in Shanghai, China

i really did not want to put a leave in front of your pussy dear Sigmund!

亲爱的西格蒙德·弗洛伊德，我真的不想放一片叶子在你的阴部前面！

For immediate release                                                          November 10 2011

Thomas Palme

The 100 most influential men in history

Works on paper

November 19 - January 8 2012

Opening November 19, 6-9 pm

托马斯·帕尔玛

100位历史上最有影响力的男人

铅笔画

2011年11月19日至2012年1月8日

开幕式  11月19日， 18:00 - 21:00

Thomas Palme is a master of drawing. He loves and dominates the two royal disciplines of his talent alike: The portrait and the nude. In his most recent works: "the one hundred most influential men in history" Palme combines both genres in a grotesque manner. Thereby our conception and our experience of reality, sexuality and power are radically questioned.

Anarchists, dictators, artists, historical and fictional figures of past centuries and recent decades are combined into the paradox of a 100 most important chart.  What has the human race done with those characters since their existence? How do we treat our ancestors? Has our perception made some of them into preposterous personas automatically? Education transforms us into trained followers of  ideological believers of spreadsheets. To assemble an objective and official 100 list is a grim action in its own, desired by people who are looking for a controlled world order. Creators of 100 individuals data defend their reality and impose it on us.

Palme, is the author of his stroke as well as of the written word. He points out that the reality that allows such a list does not exist. "Human nature is greed", "selfdestruction of dignity", "Obama Bin Bush", "Immanuel Kant looking at Orgon man" - the idiot -,   is to be read next to nutty figures we believe  to see in a surrounding of  words, chinese characters within Christian religious suppression. This global drawing  is not objective and resembles only a fake reality, which is not an ideologically charged reality.  "Kung fu Panda" is filled with ideology and in some world an important real life celebrity.

Yet, reality is obscene. There are micro blogs that tell us about fathers who beget daughters with their daughters. People die live in front of a webcam and we watch it on the screen in the backseat in  our taxi. The internet would be half so powerful without those millions of clicks on pornographic websites. If our reality is obscene the Drawing is obscene, therefor the Drawing in a gallery is obscene. Art is not a "Huis Clos"that generates its own conviction of nodding people who made their  lists and cower inside an oasis of so called art. You can't escape this burden while creating an idiological reality on order to destroy others. Accept that reality is a gigantic chaos and in case of need, laugh about it.

Thomas Palme, born 1967 in Immenstadt, Germany, is a highly acclaimed German artist with numerous exhibitions world wide. At age 19 he started to study art in Munich at the class of Hans Baschang before he moved to Vienna to participate in the course of  Arnulf Rainer and graduated in Düsseldorf the masterclass of Michael Buthe. In 2010 he was honored with a Grant by the prestigious Kunsthalle Krems in Austria. "The one hundred most influential men in history" is Palmes second solo exhibition at stageBACK Shanghai.

托马斯·帕尔玛是个绘画高手。他热爱并支配着这两个在皇家学科：肖像和裸体方面荣获一致好评的才华。在他最近的作品“100位历史上最有影响力的男人”系列中，帕尔玛以一个怪诞的方式将两种流派相结合。从而从根本上质疑我们的概念和现实、性欲和权力。

无政府主义者，独裁者，艺术家们，历史和虚构的人物在过去的几个世纪和近几十年来合并成了100个最重要图表的悖论。自从在他们的存在之后人们对这些角色都做了些什么？我们又是如何对待我们的祖先的？有没有由于我们的认识将其中一些自动得变成了一个荒谬的个性？教育将人们训练成了表格式思想信徒的追随者。要有一个客观的、官方的100位的名单这本身来说就是一种严峻的行动，这正是那些控制世界秩序的人们所要的。 100位人名单的创造者们捍卫着他们自己认为的现实并将它们强加给我们。

帕尔玛，是他自己的笔锋以及所写文字的作者。他指出现实不应该允许这样一份名单的存在。“人类的本性是贪婪”、"贝鲁斯科尼"、 "本拉登布什"、 "康德在看着Orgon man" (Orgon man —— 莫里哀《 伪君子》中的那个“傻子”)，这些可以这样理解，在有嚼头的人物旁边我们可以看到在基督教十字架的周围围绕着中文字符。这一全球性的画是不客观的，类似于一个虚假的现实。这一系列的画并不是一种思想对现实的控告。比如说“功夫熊猫”是充满了思想的，它是在某个“世界”一个重要的现实生活中的名人。

然而现实是可憎的。有微博报道：父亲和他们自己的女儿有了女儿；人活生生得死在了一个网络摄像头前，而我们在出租车后座上的屏幕上观看这一幕。如果没有淫秽色情网站上这数百万的点击率，因特网将变得更加的强大。既然我们的现实是如此淫秽色情，那么在画廊的画也会是淫秽色情的。艺术是不是一个“封闭的密室”（Huis Clos引自法国剧作《隔离的审讯》）那些以自己的定义制定着名单的人们在自己所谓的“艺术”的封闭的密室中畏畏缩缩。你无法逃避这方面的负担，一边在创造一个理想化的现实的同时你也在破坏别人他人的理想世界。接受吧，现实就是一个巨大的混乱。在必要的同时，嘲笑他。

托马斯·帕尔玛1967年出生在德国的伊门施塔特。他是一个广受赞誉在世界各地举办过无数展览的德国艺术家。 19岁时，他开始在慕尼黑Hans Baschang学院学习艺术课程，之后他移居到维也纳参加Arnulf Rainer学院的课程，并毕业于在杜塞尔多夫Michael Buthe学院的硕士课程。2010年他荣获了由著名的在奥地利克雷姆斯美术馆颁发的津贴。“100位历史上最有影响力的男人”是帕尔玛在上海候台画廊的第二次个展。

Artist Statement

"Years have past, decades have passed, centuries, and the Drawing is: What it is. Drawing. Muted it looks at us. We visit it at the museum. At the gallery, yes at the arts college. We look at it attentively. It speaks to us. What it says, is incomprehensible to many. It speaks of time, of space and inner qualities. Its lust seems controllable. And yet, we do not absolutely trust the drawing. There is something monstrous about it. Just as in people. There is something monstrous about people too. We often refuse to believe it, and then it strikes. It does not do it consciously, but it hurts. We are disillusioned. The drawing too disillusions us. It says for example: “Don’t drink to much” or “You better stay home today.” And it is right. It always wants our best after all. The Drawing knows what is good for us. It says: “Go here, go there, go into the woods, up to the mountain” or also: “Go to hell” But mostly it does not really mean it then seriously. Because the drawing enjoys to fib.

Who wants to resent that against it? In the morning when getting up, the Drawing is particularly rebellious. It often shouts out load or spits uncontrolledly on the floor. Then we turn away thinking: “If only I was a painter, if only I was a sculptor, If only I was a car mechanic. Or a dwarf.” But no one escapes the Drawings so easily. It forces us to bare its mood. And for that it grants the utmost, the indescribable. We are not yet capable to say exactly what that is. But we will find out. Despite genetic engineering, despite curse of time. People suffer. The Drawing even knows that. And so it doesn’t miss any opportunity to help us. From that, my friends, I can truly tell you a thing or two about it."

艺术家陈述

“几年过去了；几十年过去了；数百年过去了，然而画画就是画画。画，当我们在博物馆里面参观它的时候，它就静静得待在那里看着我们。在画廊，对，在艺术学院里，我们会聚精会神地来欣赏它。它向我们诉说，它在诉说什么呢？千言万语。它谈论着时间、空间以及内在的素质。它的欲望似乎是可控制的，然而我们也没有完全相信它。画画有它的邪恶之处。就拿人来说人也有他的邪恶之处。但是我们常常不愿意去相信这一点，于是当邪恶侵袭时，也许它并非出自本意但它却伤害到我们。我们觉醒了，画画会让我们觉醒更多。比如它会说：“不要再喝那么多酒了。”或者“今天你最好在家里待一天。”且它是对的。它毕竟总是为我们好，而且它也知道什么对我们有好处。它会说：“到这里来，到那里去；钻到草丛里，登上山顶上”甚至还会说：“下地狱吧”但是大部分情况下并不真的意味着这个。画享受这种调侃。

又有谁会感到反感而因此来反对它呢？早上当我们起床时，画画会变得非常得叛逆。它常常超负荷的叫喊着，或者毫无控制得吐在地上。然后当我们转身离开再仔细想一想：“如果我只是一位画家；如果我只是一位雕塑家；如果我只是一位汽车修理工；抑或是我只是一个侏儒。”但是没有人可以如此容易得摆脱画。它迫使我们去忍受它的情绪，它的给予极为难以形容。我们也没有能力去准确得描述到底画画到底给予了我们什么，但是我们终究会找到答案。即使是基因工程；即使是时间的诅咒；即使是人民在饱受磨难，画画它知道这些，但是它还是不想错过任何的机会来帮助我们。就从这一点来说，我亲爱的朋友，让我来真正告诉你关于画画的一些事情。”

Thomas Palme, Che Guevara 120 x 150 cm pencil on paper 2011. courtesy stage候台BACK Shanghai 2011

Thomas Palme, Fu Panda 120 x 150 cm pencil on paper 2011. courtesy stage候台BACK Shanghai 2011

Thomas Palme, Max Planck 120 x 150 cm pencil on paper 2011. courtesy stage候台BACK Shanghai 2011

Thomas Palme, Barack Obama versus Mother Teresa 120 x 150 cm pencil on paper 2011. courtesy stage候台BACK Shanghai 2011

Thomas Palme, Mike Hammer as a Baby - Yak - Bull 120 x 150 cm pencil on paper 2011. courtesy stage候台BACK Shanghai 2011

With kind support 鸣谢赞助：

Shanghai Daily reposts today about more concrete plans how China, especially Shanghai will be the cultural enlightened  super power in a short while. The China pavilion on the 2010 World Expo site will be the first backfire to rival with the West. 

It is not surprising again but still sad that the word rival had to be used several times in that article.  The concept is to be better, bigger etc. . . 

Culture is a world heritage and a support to advocate talents and intellectuals all over the world without borders, without any rival.

China again is looking on to a facade. Shiny at the out side, empty at the inside. The buildings won't be of any real use, as log as there is controlled cultural development in China.

From Shanghai Daily:

SHANGHAI is to transform the Expo 2010's China Pavilion into an art gallery to rival those in New York and Paris, the city government announced yesterday.

The new gallery in the Pudong New Area - to be called the China Art Palace - will be on a par with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, a senior official said.

This is part of a plan to make Shanghai "an international cultural metropolis," Zong Ming, deputy head of the Publicity Department of Shanghai's Party committee, told a press conference yesterday.

The China Art Palace will collect top-level art from home and abroad, primarily to showcase the origins and development of China's modern arts.

It is part of a plan by the city government to build 16 new major museums and art galleries and many smaller museums by 2015 and make Shanghai an "international cultural metropolis," said Zong.

"In the future, Shanghai residents will be able to find a museum and cultural venue within a 15-minute walk of their homes," she said.

"The number and quality of art galleries and museums is an important measure of cultural standing - cities such as New York and Paris are famed for their top-level galleries," said Teng Junjie, art director of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture Radio Film and TV.

The palace, which will cover an area of 70,000 square meters, will open on a limited basis next October, Zong said.

Most facilities from the former China Pavilion can be retained, bringing considerable savings, she said.

The three levels of the former main exhibition hall of the Expo pavilion will showcase the history and development of modern art of Shanghai and China, while the former joint pavilion for Chinese provinces and municipalities will have separate exhibition rooms for famous Chinese modern artists, including top Shanghai painter Cheng Shifa, said Teng.

"The China Art Palace will be a cultural and arts venue to impress the world and drive the development of China's art," said Hong Hao, the former top Expo 2010 organizer.

The gallery will include some exhibits from the Shanghai Art Museum in Puxi, which is now too small for requirements, Teng said.

Due to space constraints, more than 30,000 artworks are not on display at the city's existing art galleries, said Teng. These cover just 6,800 square meters.

And inadequate gallery space has prevented the city attracting some international exhibitions, officials said.

Another new development, the China Contemporary Art Museum, will stand on the opposite bank of the Huangpu River to the art palace in a 100-year-old power plant featuring the "weather chimney" from the World Expo site.

The museum, which is set to cover 15,000 square meters in the former Urban Future Pavilion, will open at the same time as the art palace.

"After the establishment of the new projects, Shanghai will have three major museums - the existing Shanghai Museum, the Shanghai Art Palace and the China Contemporary Art Museum - for historic, modern and contemporary artworks," Teng said.

Also at the former Expo site, the Expo Museum will be built in the former Zone D area and open to the public in 2015, Zong said.

The SAIC-GM Pavilion will become the Shanghai Children's Art Theater in 2013 and an international dance center will be built near the Hongqiao Development Zone in Changning District.

An archeological museum will open in 2013 on the Songze Ancient Culture Ruins in Qingpu District. This is the origin of the Songze Culture (3900-3200 BC), one of the city's earliest cultures.

Other planned projects include the China Modern and Contemporary News Publication Museum; the Museum of Shanghai History; the Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage Center and Shanghai Library (second phase).

Today 5 pm opening of the Shanghai Gallery Selection.

今天下午5点“海上芸”开幕式！

some getting ready for the SWFC show on our weibo account

weibo/stageback

Artist talk: October 30, 3 pm - 6 pm

Curated by Bai Jiafeng - Contemporary Art 艺术当代 Magazine

Memory of childhood and Nostalgia.

Childhood memory plays an important role in everybody's growing experience, which affects the potential of each individual's psychological orientation and emotional sustenance.Childhood memory is caused by the results of selection and reconstruction of when and what they've experienced.

Through the fragments of memory, we can tell not only interpretation of the knowledge but also the era of social and identity.

Nowadays among young generation, the recalling back  to childhood appears  ahead of average, which is named nostalgia.Nostalgia  is different with the retro style appearing in classic literature. The feature of nostalgia will establish the collective memory related to a personal childhood impression through a series of different images, pictures and situation.

This nostalgia is not only psychologically originated from the pressure made by younger generation when they facing the reality decided to extract, protect and even avoid themselves, but also the image symbol of the rapid developing and quickly update in today's visual experience, which eliminate us quickly.

All in all,  customary in this moment might be a kind of nostalgia in future. 

Discussion topics includes two sub-topics:

1."Different field" --- Reverse think about childhood memory which has already become a collective memory.

First of all, find a common experience and then find out a variety of presence in collective memory by individual differences, at this level, which including how we re-read and rebuild out scene of memory.

2."How do we bury the idol" ----Discuss how does the trend of rapid development change and update quickly. So that the popular which we were accustomed has quickly become to the "nostalgia", which hide the visual landscape of society under the fast development.

Artists:

Bai Jiafeng | Gao Yuan | Luo Zhan | Maximilian Moll | Xiao Shui  

and many more guests talk about Memory of childhood and nostalgia

67 bullets - film still                                                                 《67发子弹》－ 剧照

艺术家谈话：10月30日，15:00 — 18:00

策展人艺术当代杂志白家峰

讨论主题   童年记忆与怀旧情结：

童年记忆在每个人的成长经历中都占有重要的地位，它影响着每一个人的潜在的心理取向、与情感寄托。童年记忆是人对于其所经历的时代主观选择与重建的结果，从记忆的碎片中，不但能解读出他对于自己的认知，同样也映射了他对于社会与时代的认同感。

而，在今天的青年一代中，对于童年记忆的追溯出现了普遍的提前，这种情况又被我们称为怀旧情结。怀旧情结与以往在文学、设计等形式中出现的怀旧与复古的风格不同，其突出的特征是正在通过一系列物象、图像与情境，建立起一种关于个人的童年印象的集体记忆。共同的游戏、共同的经历、共同的话题、共同的体验。

这种怀旧情结不仅在心理上源自于年青一代在面临着扑面而来的现实压力时所做出的自我解压、保护甚至是逃避，而且在视觉经验上也是今天飞速发展、快速更新的视觉经验与图像符号将我们快速淘汰的结果。换言之，今天的一种习惯，可能在明天就成为了一种怀旧。

因此，此次讨论包含两个子话题：

其一是“差异的现场”，意在，从一种已经成为集体记忆的童年记忆中反向思考，先寻找一种经历的共同点，进而通过个人的个体记忆的差异来寻找一种集体记忆中得多样化存在。在这个层面上，也包括了我们今天如何重新解读、再建我们曾经的记忆现场。

其二是“我们如何埋葬偶像”，讨论飞速发展的时代潮流、流行趣味是如何日新月异、快速更新，以至于我们曾经习惯的流行很快地成为了“怀旧”，这中飞速更新的背后隐藏着我们今天社会怎样的视觉景观。

参加艺术家们：

白家峰 | 高远 | 洛盏 | Maximilian Moll | 肖水

还有更多的客人参加我们的关于童年记忆与怀旧情结 的谈话。

With kind support 鸣谢赞助：