Upclose with Wu Yuren
Mainland photographer, installation artist and political activist Wu Yuren was in the news earlier this year for organizing a march in Beijing on February 22, protesting the Beijing government’s attempts to destroy the city’s art districts. He talks to Penny Zhou about his current exhibition and the stories behind the rights protection movement.
HK Magazine: Your new exhibition is titled “It’s Coming.” What’s coming?
Wu Yuren: It’s about my involvement and experience in the artists’ rights protection movement that took place in Beijing during the last five months. I was the head commander of 008 art district in the protection campaign, so when the government tried to tear down our district, I was constantly receiving text messages from friends, telling me, “The bulldozers are coming,” or “The mobs are coming.” One particular message said “It’s coming. Can’t hold back.” And that became the idea for this exhibition. It’s a reflection on the current situation in China’s cultural environment—the ideology has strangely become increasingly restrictive. An artist’s creativity and liberty is limited as we have less and less space for free speech. And now they’re even trying to destroy the art districts—the places where we live and work.
HK: You were attacked and hospitalized for protecting the art districts.
WY: Actually that time I was hospitalized was the fourth time I was attacked. We were having a meeting at 008 when over 100 mobs with knives and sticks were sent to sabotage the art district next to us. We went out to confront them, but there were only nine of us so we were all injured, some badly. It taught me a valuable lesson, though—we may be artists, but when we’re getting beaten up by the mobs, we’re no different from everybody else. We have to stop thinking that we’re special and fight back, like regular people would do. But if this identity as artists has given us something special, it would be the imagination and creativity that we possess to fight against injustice in other ways.
HK: And that incident led to the February 22 march, right?
WY: Yes. The day after the incident, I decided to organize a march on Chang’an Avenue. But we had very few people from the art districts. So I approached my friend, Ai Weiwei, who’s an influential public figure who commands many resources. He helped us greatly and joined the march himself. Surprisingly, we walked for 45 minutes before being noticed and stopped by the armed police. It was a success—no one was put in jail and the problem with the art districts has been solved for now. But after that I was watched and frequently invited to the police station. However, when I talked to the younger members of the police force I noticed that in fact they understood our situation; the younger generation knows what’s going on with this country. I’m optimistic with the future of rights protection.
HK: Can you tell us something about your exhibition?
WY: There’s this phone in the gallery with a new text message ring-tone that goes off every minute. It’s like an alarm reminding us of our current living environment. And the objects you see displayed along the walls are part of “Not A Day Spent in Waste.” It’s about the relationship between human beings and objects. I think deep down in our nature, everyone has the desire to steal. Commerce and business is a type of stealing as well—a better disguised one. So I started collecting those little things I stole or got as freebies. It was quite an adventure creating this installation.
HK: What are the difficulties facing contemporary artists in China?
WY: Firstly, there’s a commercial problem. There has emerged a couple of “stars” during the rise of Chinese contemporary art, but many of them rose to fame through commercial hype, therefore their role as “artists” is rather dubious. And it can be a very bad influence on young artists. The other thing is those sensitive topics that we can’t touch, such as Tibet, Xinjiang, the Cultural Revolution, the Great Famine… That’s why sometimes we artists have to play the role of protesters.
HK: So you were forced into being a protester?
WY: In a narrow sense, yes, totally. But in a broader way, intellectuals and artists, in any time or place, all bear the duty of being protesters in society. See, artists in Hong Kong or the States enjoy a much more liberal environment, but I believe the ones with consciences are constantly protesting as well. It’s universal; it’s what we are supposed to do.