Listen to the serenity
“Listening to Tranquility” (Hearing the Silence )) is the title of an interview documentary with Italian conductor Claudio · Abbado (Claudio Abbado )). Mr. Abbado was interviewed at his private estate in Sardinia, Italy, and admitted that the garden was a small place to recuperate. This dump-turned-manor until Abbado’s death was an intimate haven that offered peace and space for reflection. Abbado devoted himself to the grass and trees here, and he gained a new epiphany of music and art from the gardens of southern Europe.
In the interview, Abbado told the story of the German poet Holderlin: "People say he’s crazy, but it seems to me that nobody understands him. In Abbado’s eyes, the great German-speaking poet, who had been criticized in his life and was not remembered again until a hundred years after his death, kept using words to express his yearning for “purity.” And the poet’s persistent search for so-called truth and purity struck the Italian musician’s mind? Abbado was interested in literature and metaphysical philosophical questions, and his casual commanding style became his unique artistic style. And most of all, he enjoys solitude. That’s right, it’s loneliness. Good friend Ganz said he was “subtle and introverted, attentive and careful”, never easy to show a sharp edge; Even Abbado himself said: "I always keep things to myself. "He buried all the things he experienced, felt and thought deep in his heart, brewed for a long time, and then externalized the music to share with others. He was a pleasant and easygoing man and had many friends, but let’s not forget that loneliness was always the basis of his life for this quiet, low-key Italian, but sometimes it was hidden too deep to be seen.
The garden is not only a private space to recuperate, but also a garden of Eden where everything grows freely. There is something light, sublime about the ephemeral beauty of plants - and so is the nature of art, so Abbado “listens to the serenity” in his garden. Although I don’t have a beautiful garden like Abbado, I’m consciously looking for the mind’s garden. I try to express that immature sense of clumsiness in my work, but it’s flaws that give meaning to life, and that sense of elusiveness and existence and the mystery that pervades the work is what I seek. Every “carefully stacked” is often accompanied by a “burst collapse”. Such uncertainty is the most valuable, and it can almost be said that uncertainty has become an artist’s fetish. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, enigma is the last frontier of art. Perhaps the only remaining task of art will be to maintain a kind of non-communicative edge in this information-filled world. In the spark of communication, art offers a sense of mystery – the final inner sanctuary – because it represents the immeasurable, inner infinity. In a world that wants to reveal everything, preserve that peaceful garden for people to listen to.
Returning to the documentary, Abbado was asked what kind of audience he liked most, and he replied, “the ones who remained silent for a long time after the show was over.” For him, when the audience follows Beethoven, Bruckner or Mahler’s symphonies through life and death, the applause and flowers are anachronistic and vain, and only the silence in the aftertone is the most appropriate and elegant compliment. Let’s “Listen to Tranquility” … Yuan Kan
Exhibition Time
October 12 - October 29, 2024 (no reservation is required to visit the gallery)Opening time: 10:00~17:0016:30 Admission is closed and closed on Mondays (except legal holidays)
Exhibition address: Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Academy Art Museum (111 Jinzhu Road)
