Made in Mirrors

Shenzhen, China, based artist Chu Yun is well known in the Chinese contemporary art scene as well as international (a.o. Frieze Art Fair 2006 & 2007)
Currently he is working in the MiM studio in Sittard, the Netherlands where he is investigating
the influence of Spinoza on the Dutch society.
www.chuyun.net

The Spinoza Model
A Proposal to the Proposal Submitted to the MIM Program Made of No Titles
- Chu Yun

[Brief description]
'(Until fire) envelops all the particles. Then it brings them with him until they acquire their own movement and flies away in smoke.'
(On Nitre, Spinoza to Oldenburg, 1662)

A project, depending on its organizational structure, funding, target and purpose, is a space of infinite possibilities. However, possibilities do not necessarily mean experiments of value. And it is here that lies the danger of a project, that is, to conduct an experiment with a conclusion already reached.

But more importantly, a project should have another layer, an inner layer. It is on this layer that the project shall encounter all forms, souls and individuals. It is not a planned or intended encounter but an encounter and combination in the sense of geometrical existence, and in the Spinozan sense.

For me, in order to obtain a movement of my own in a fire of capital – cultural logic, I ought to posit myself on this inner layer and take myself as an anonymous force and as a particle in a relationship of fastness and slowness, and of dynamism and staticity. I shall give up judgment based on identity, geographic and cultural differences, and shall move on a layer where nutrition and poison are seen similarly as chemical substances, and madness and sanity are perceived as spiritually equal individuals, in the process of which I shall allow myself to be modified by, or combined and re-combined with other individuals and communities.

spinoza Therefore, I am submitting a proposal to a proposal before the issue of creation is touched upon. I try to bring into the proposal of the project a proposal called the Spinoza Model, to make inner routes and targets and to mark the overlaps and the divarications. I try to do what was described in a letter to Spinoza in 1663 from Simon Joosten De Vries, a merchant of Amsterdam and an important member of the Spinoza Circle: “This is how our circle works. A member (everybody in turn) reads and explains each thing with his own view, and proves each thing following the order of deduction of your proposition. ”
(Chu Yun)

Track of a Prediction or Prediction of a Track
Are we conducting an experiment whose conclusion is already established? If not, what other possibilities could result from this encounter between I and the project?
The working direction of Chu Yun’s proposal for the MIM Program Made of No Titles is inspired by his reflection of the encounter of an individual with the project, upon which he discovers an entrance of no prior judgment, a Neutral entrance aimed at achieving the significance of the experiment.

spinoza Spinoza, the Dutch philosopher and lens grinder, then comes into his view. Today, Spinoza’s interest in the world order of geometric forms seems to be inherently self-sufficient and playful, reminding us how closely the artificiality of our knowledge corresponds to that of the world. Interestingly, his philosophy also evokes a counterforce: contingency, which is exactly the driving force behind our rational observation.

Therefore, what Chu Yun attempts to experiment in this process is how an individual could find amidst contingency and the artificial driving forces his own track of movement.

spinoza This reminds us of his work Constellation, in which stars sparkling in a dark room turn out to be indicator lights of home appliances, once the audience is adapted to the darkness. When putting together, these lights form a world of their own and start to emit signals of communication.

Chu Yun’s art always seeks to approach invisible forces in everyday life and discloses, as is manifested in Smile of Matter, his solo exhibition at Vitamin Creative Space, that our understanding of the world is unfolded in the tension between artificial construction and the mysteries of the world.
(Hu Fang)

Chu Yun’s artist residency in Sittard runs between September10 to October 8, 2007. The MIM Program Made of No Titles is curated by Vitamin Creative Space