巫大军：用画笔思考乡土

刘晓娜 曾馨乐

巫大军是重庆大学艺术学院教师，也是一位坚持用画笔思考、记录城乡变迁的艺术家。

近日，我们来到他位于四川美术学院虎溪公社的工作室，走进他的画作，试图了解它们背后的故事，一窥隐藏在画家心里深厚、沉重的乡土情怀。

Wu Dajun is a teacher at School of Arts of Chongqing University and an artist who insists on thinking and recording about urban and rural changes with his paintbrush.

Recently， we came to his studio in the Huxi Commune of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute to get closer to his paintings， trying to understand the stories behind them and to glimpse the deep， heavy feelings of the countryside hidden in the painter’s heart.

记忆与现实Memory and Reality

提起乡土题材，很多人都会联想到淳朴的乡民、清新的田园风光。但在巫大军的作品中，我们很难看到通常的那种诗情画意。相反，当他用画笔切开美好的表象，画面中那些寻常的景物总会让我们感到些许焦虑和不安。

在他的笔下，“乡土”往往很小，小到没有田野、农舍，甚至连人都没有，画面中常常只有凌乱的农具，或是旷野蒿草。比如他的红线系列油画。这个系列最让人为之一颤的，是血红色边框和用麻线串联起的撕成两片的画布。而画面上，是老旧的土碗、原始的扫帚、破败的桌椅、尘封的农具。这些最不起眼的农家器物，尴尬又真实地将农村的另一面呈现在我们眼前。

在其中的一幅作品中，传统农耕工具与现代生活器具交错叠放，共同构成了当下乡土生活的现场，如同一个个时代符号编码，隐藏着乡土文明的变迁脉络。

这个系列的每一幅作品，都来源于巫大军在老家的田野考察。他出生在农村，画得最多的也是自己的家乡。早年间，他像个侦探似的带着两个研究生深入农家，拿着相机、问卷在农户家满屋子搜寻，床底、茅舍、猪圈、阁楼，每一个犄角旮旯都不放过，每一次攀谈都是为了呈现细节更加真实的农村。

“农村空了、旧了、老了，关系疏离了，離开家乡几十年，我只能作些画，虽然微不足道，但它真实且活着。”巫大军认为，任何事物都有两面性，他的画作并不是对工业文明和传统农耕文明做简单的批判或肯定。

When it comes to the theme of the countryside， many people associate it with simple villagers and fresh idyllic scenery. But in Wu Dajun’s works， we can hardly see the usual kind of poetic splendor， instead， when he cuts through the beautiful surface with his brush， the ordinary scenes in the picture always make us feel a little anxious and uneasy.

Under his brush， the "countryside" is often small， so small that there are no fields， farmhouses， or even people， and often only messy farming tools or artemisia in the wilderness are in the picture. For example， his Red Line series of oil paintings. The most shuddering part of the series is the blood-red border and the canvas torn into two pieces and strung with twine. And on the picture are old earthen bowls， primitive brooms， broken tables and chairs， and dusty farm tools. These most inconspicuous farming artifacts awkwardly and truly present the other side of the countryside to our eyes.

In one of the works， traditional farming tools and modern living utensils are interlaced and stacked， together forming the scene of current rural life， like the symbolic code of the times， hiding the vicissitudinous structure of rural civilization.

Each piece in this series comes from Wu Dajun’s fieldwork in his hometown. Born in the countryside， he paints his hometown the most. In the early years， he took two graduate students to each farmhouse like a detective， with cameras and questionnaires， searching everywhere in the houses of farmers， under the beds， huts， pig pens， attics， and each interview was to present details of a more realistic rural area.

"The countryside is empty and old， and people are estranged from each other. Having left my hometown for decades， I can only make some paintings， which are insignificant， but it is real and alive." Wu Dajun believes that there are two sides to everything， and his paintings are not a simple critique or affirmation of industrial civilization and traditional farming civilization.

出走與回归Escape and Return

对乡土环境、器物与景观的关注，与巫大军的成长经历息息相关。

上世纪60年代末，巫大军出生在重庆璧山兴隆场，也就是现在的大兴镇。成长过程中，他的生活被切割成了两个部分：一部分是坐在课堂里汲取知识；一部分与农活绑在一起，课余必须参与家务农忙，诸如养蚕、积肥、犁地、耙田、插秧、收割、养猪、养鸡鸭……

城里来的老师，让巫大军看见了城市和农村的截然不同，城市充满机遇与可能，乡村则满载沉重繁复的农活。因土地深切的“刺痛感”而渴望改变，从小就立志当老师的少年巫大军通过高考改变了命运。带着那份“刺痛感”，巫大军一头扎进了四川美术学院。

然而，这个一度渴望离开乡土的人，却在千禧年伊始“回归”了乡土。随着城市化进程加快，巫大军开始重新审视家乡的山水乡民及传统农耕文化，他意识到逐渐失落的乡土文明、回不去的故乡需要关照与记录。于是，从2004年起，他将画笔对准了乡土，然后是乡民与器物……

得益于父亲曾在璧山区多个乡镇粮站工作的缘故，巫大军常常利用暑假参加粮站夏粮征收工作。近年来，他走遍了多个废弃或转型的粮站，收集了大量老旧的库管器物和文本资料，获得了有别于常人书写、描绘农耕文化的维度。

回过头看，当年让他感到“刺痛”的乡土最终成了他艺术创作的源泉。变化中的乡村让他对时代有了更多敏锐的感知，这也是一个艺术家丰富而真切的给养。

The concern for the vernacular environment， artifacts and landscape is closely related to Wu Dajun’s upbringing.

In the late 1960s， Wu Dajun was born in Xinglongchang， Bishan， Chongqing， which is now Daxing Town. As he grew up， his life was cut into two parts： one part was sitting in the classroom to learn； the other part was tied to farm work and had to participate in household farm work after school， such as raising silkworms， accumulating manure， plowing， harrowing， planting rice， harvesting， raising pigs， chickens and ducks ......

The teachers from the city showed Wu Dajun how different the city and the countryside are： the city is full of opportunities and possibilities， while the countryside is full of heavy and tedious farm work. The deep "tingle" feeling given by the land made him eager for change， and Wu Dajun， who had aspired to be a teacher since childhood， changed his fate through the college entrance examination. With that "tingle"， Wu Dajun plunged into the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts.

However， this man， who once longed to leave the countryside， "returned" to it at the beginning of the millennium. With the accelerated urbanization， Wu Dajun began to re-examine the landscape， villagers and traditional farming culture of his hometown， realizing that the gradually lost vernacular civilization and the inaccessible hometown needed to be taken care of and recorded. So， from 2004 onwards， he turned his brush to the countryside， then villagers and artifacts ......

Thanks to his father’s work in many township grain stations in Bishan District， Wu Dajun often took part in summer grain collection in grain stations during summer vacation. In recent years， he has traveled to several abandoned or transformed grain stations to collect a large number of outmoded treasury artifacts and textual materials， gaining a different dimension of writing and depicting farming culture from the norm.

Looking back， the countryside that made him "stung" then eventually became the source of his artistic creation. The changing countryside gives him a sharper perception of the times， which is a rich and genuine supply for an artist.

土地和使命Land and Mission

“從土里长出来的人，才知道农村要什么，不然就很容易闯进介入式消费。”作为一个对农村有亲身经历又有真情实感的人，他深知自己看到了什么、该画什么。

近年来，国家大力实施乡村振兴战略，乡村的面貌逐渐改善。越来越多的项目、资金、人才汇集，使乡村焕发出新时代的生机。

巫大军也在思考这个问题：艺术家在乡村振兴中应当承担怎样的使命。

2017年的一个下午，巫大军一个人踟蹰于空旷的中国农业博物馆，与展台农具相对无言，视线渐渐模糊，农具作为绘画的主题开始缓下来。他开始尝试从一个更广阔的层面去观察城市与乡土，思考其中的某些关系——是什么掩盖了环境、人与物及其本真关系？

“艺术家的能力很有限，或许只能提出问题，在精神、美育层面有所引领。”巫大军说。

事实上，他每次动笔都有一种不安，衣食无忧的自己正在退化、疏离并消费着曾经的淳朴与厚道，战战兢兢地在警醒中慢慢画了好多年……

近些年，他逐渐认识到，通过一件件作品唤起人们的敬畏之心和对故土的热爱，从表征独创到共同议题参与，这或许就是当代艺术家所承担的使命。

“Those who grow out of the earth know what the countryside wants， otherwise it is easy to break into interventional consumption.” As a person who has personal experience and true feelings about the countryside， he knows what he sees and what he should paint.

In recent years， the country has vigorously implemented the rural revitalization strategy， which has gradually improved the appearance of the countryside. More and more projects， funds and talents are coming together to revitalize the countryside in the new era.

Wu Dajun is also thinking about this question： What kind of mission should artists undertake in rural revitalization

One afternoon in 2017， Wu Dajun stumbled alone in the empty Chinese Agricultural Museum， speechless against the farming tools on the booth， his vision gradually blurred. His project of using agricultural tools as the subject of his paintings began to slow down. He began to try to look at the city and the countryside on a broader level， to think about some of the relationships - what obscures the relationship between the environment， people and things and their true nature

“Artists are very limited in their ability to perhaps only ask questions and lead on a spiritual， aesthetic level.” Wu Dajun said.

In fact， he had an uneasiness every time he began to paint： his well-clothed self was degrading， alienating and consuming the simplicity and generosity he once had， and he has painted slowly with trepidation for years in alarm ......

In recent years， he has gradually realized that he can evoke a sense of reverence and love for his homeland through every piece of his work from representational ingenuity to participation in common issues as a public art touchstone， and this is perhaps the mission that contemporary artists should undertake.