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托比亚斯 · 卡斯帕:时代的终结 Tobias Kaspar:End of an Era



没顶美术馆欣然宣布于2024年10月24日推出艺术家托比亚斯·卡斯帕个展“时代的终结”,呈现其在各个阶段的独特艺术创作。卡斯帕邀请观众聚焦于作品中消费文化与身份认知的微妙交织,探索其中深刻的社会洞察。卡斯帕不断将日常物品转化为艺术的载体,挑战我们对现实的感知。他捕捉时尚中转瞬即逝的灵魂,揭示服装的灵魂以及隐藏在布料中的低语故事。


展览“时代的终结”被分为三个不同部分:
布料摄影:展厅 5 展出新系列 “卡拉瓦乔们”
装置作品:来源于日常商品,由艺术家设计并在中国批量生产。
服装系列:新的“上海肖像”系列作品会在此次展出,同时艺术家在开幕日进行现场表演。


第一部分 “卡拉瓦乔们”
在展览的摄影部分中,托比亚斯·卡斯帕拍摄了一系列印有意大利巴洛克艺术家卡拉瓦乔(1571-1610)不同画作的毛衣和服装。这些服装来自于 Virgil Abloh(维吉尔·阿布洛) 在 2012 年创立的品牌 Off-White。阿布洛的一项著名设计理论是,只需改变3%的设计,就能被视为新颖和原创,这反映了他将时尚视为与艺术和文化对话的方式。卡斯帕通过拍摄这些全新衣物,将自己引入卡拉瓦乔与阿布洛的叙事之中。在卡斯帕的摄影中,服装上明显可见的褶皱不是因穿着产生的,而是由于这些衣服被装在运输箱中所造成的。这一细节突出了身体的缺席,图像集中在衣领、袖笼、肩缝,以及连帽衫前口袋等等部位,这些常常是人们放松双手的位置。卡斯帕的这种手法突显了服装预期用途与其作为一种艺术形式的呈现之间的脱节,邀请观众思考时尚、个人身份与身体缺席之间的关系。乍看之下,这些摄影作品似乎是缺乏艺术个性的复制品。然而,托比亚斯·卡斯帕的创作实践关注的重点是,艺术家应在作品中投入多少自我。他常常在他的影像中探讨“缺席”的主题,同时为观者提供大量的影像。这种双重方法邀请观众思考存在与缺席之间的关系,鼓励人们讨论艺术家应在作品中注入多少自我。通过操控这些概念,他挑战了艺术中传统的原创性和作者身份的观念。
美术馆创始人徐震因其将希腊和罗马雕塑与中国古代文化元素精准融合而备受赞誉,这引发了关于挪用、文化交流及社会如何通过刻板印象看待彼此的问题。在“卡拉瓦乔们”中,卡斯帕延续了这一对话,探讨了通过时尚与艺术对挪用和原创性缺失的关注。通过拍摄印有卡拉瓦乔画作的 Off-White 品牌服装,卡斯帕强调了艺术、时尚与作者身份之间的张力,这与徐震通过对不同文明和媒介重新诠释和融合,以此探讨文化交流的创作实践相呼应。

*关于卡拉瓦乔:
卡拉瓦乔(1571-1610)的作品常常探讨死亡和人类生存状况的主题,这在他对生与死的刻画中尤为明显,他的许多画作展现了暴力的严酷和生命的短暂。他专注于捕捉人物原始的情感体验,刻画了像酒神巴克斯这样的形象,反映了艺术从理想化的神性向更加生动、真实的人性描绘过渡的时期,这种强调戏剧性和情感深度的方法为巴洛克时代奠定了基础。
*关于 Virgil Abloh (1980-2021) 和 Off-WhiteTM
Virgil Abloh 是一位具有开创性的设计师,以将高级时装与街头文化相结合而闻名,他通过 Off-White 与 Nike 和宜家等品牌的合作,彻底改变了当代时尚行业。Off-WhiteTM 于2012年由 Virgil Abloh 在意大利米兰创立。卡拉瓦乔对社会边缘人物的关注,与 Abloh 通过作品对各个人群包容性的承诺和对社会规范的挑战,这两者之间产生了共鸣,这种联系强调了对身份和表达在不同媒介中的共同探索。


第二部分 “Bartleby”
由专业雪花球制造商大规模生产,从艺术家工作室发起,卡斯帕全程监督了雪花球的整个制作过程。首先,卡斯帕制作了一个粘土模型后,对其扫描并3D打印,为大规模生产做好准备。这一过程受到了高端时尚品牌的雪花球启发,成为他方法论的参考点。在这一广阔的时间与空间叙事中,365个受巴特比(Bartleby)启发的雪花球⸺代表一年中的每一天⸺像遥远的星星般闪耀,旨在评论全球消费主义及艺术在其中的地位。雪花球描绘的微型世界,正如艺术本身,邀请我们窥视却不容进入。每个雪花球内都有一只看起来有些阴郁的泰迪熊靠在高速公路的广告牌上,啜饮着一次性杯中的饮料。泰迪熊旁边放着一支画笔,画笔上有油漆滴落,却将广告牌留白。雪花球内的积雪过多,遮蔽了场景。泰迪熊穿着一件带花的毛衣,旁边还躺着一朵采摘下来的花。在广告牌的反面,迷彩图案与千鸟格设计交织在一起。
这一象征性的叙事灵感来自赫尔曼·梅尔维尔(Herman Melville)的小说《巴特比,抄写员:华尔街的故事》(Bartleby, theScrivener: A Story of Wall Street),书中角色巴特比著名地宣称:“我宁愿不这样。”这一短语象征着被动抵抗,哲学家乔治·阿甘本(Giorgio Agamben)在《来临中的共同体》(The Coming Community)中深入探讨了这一主题,分析了巴特比如何宁静地拒绝回应社会要求。
雪花球本身是引人入胜的物品,兼具怀旧感与商业吸引力。作为纪念品,它们十分常见,却常常被奢侈品牌使用,体现了其通俗和可收藏性。对卡斯帕而言,创作雪花球是他对消费文化与艺术作为商品探索的自然延伸。他选择雪花球作为媒介来批评艺术的商品化,同时重新定义其作为有效艺术表达形式的价值。通过这种方式,他将这一日常物品转化为引人深思的当代作品,挑战了艺术、商业和文化生产之间的界限。


第三部分 “上海肖像”
展览第三部分为“上海肖像”的胶囊系列,这是托比亚斯·卡斯帕持续创作中的“传记”系列中的一部分。在本次项目中,卡斯帕邀请了包括美术馆观众、工作人员、朋友和藏家在内的不同参与者捐赠服装。这些服装的原标签被移除,并由当地裁缝缝上卡斯帕自己的标签,重新品牌化。正如华沙现代艺术博物馆的 Natalia Sielewicz 所言:通过借鉴混合的服装形式、度假时尚和独立设计,卡斯帕将博物馆观众和工作人员捐赠的衣物重塑为新的混搭风格。他邀请当地高中的青少年挑选并展示他们最喜欢的服装,并在美术馆的展览空间内走秀。这些衣物原有的标签被剪去(再见 Prada 和 H&M!),取而代之的是由艺术家设计的新标签。由于获得了新的“匿名性”,衣服终于只是衣服。反而,由于青少年的青涩勇气、幻想、性启蒙和存在主义焦虑,这些当地青少年为服装注入了灵魂。在品牌将身份政治作为营销工具利用的时代,卡斯帕的作品超越了直接暴力挪用的界限,表达了一种新的品牌联
想:制造模糊的混合体,而非僵化的物体⸺一个包容性的社区,在这里,陌生人只是尚未相识的朋友。当然,艺术也并非摆脱了品牌化,艺术家也将自己作为品牌来进行自我表达。在卡斯帕的多元化实践中,他努力细化“艺术家作为品牌”的概念,并试图评价与这一理念相关的象征性资本。
“上海肖像”系列作品在展览开幕之夜展出⸺展出之后,每位观众都有机会从系列中选择并保留一件衣物,确保其立即得到传播。
本次展览由瑞士文化基金会上海办公室、tbh家居支持。


关于艺术家
托比亚斯·卡斯帕(Tobias Kaspar)是一位居住在瑞士和拉脱维亚的艺术家,他以探讨消费文化、时尚和身份认同的概念作品而为人所知,他的创作媒介包括摄影、纺织品和装置艺术。卡斯帕的艺术实践常常关注艺术市场的动态,以及艺术与商业主义之间的交汇。卡斯帕的作品曾在多个国际重要机构展出,包括伯尔尼美术馆(瑞士)、Midway Contemporary Art(明尼阿波利斯,美国)、维也纳美术馆(奥地利)、东京宫(巴黎,法国)和 Foundry Seoul 画廊(首尔,韩国)。他最近一次在中国的展览是在麦勒画廊(2019 年),并于 2016 年参加了北京中央美术学院双年展。卡斯帕也是PROVENCE的创始人,PROVENCE成立于2009年,如今这是一个集体运营的杂志、出版公司和艺术代理机构,制作每周周报、印刷产品以及艺术作品和展览。


关于没顶美术馆
没顶美术馆位于上海市崇明岛西部的绿华镇。美术馆占地约 40 亩,毗邻西沙湿地公园,南与西紧邻长江南北支,是长江分水岭所在地。没顶美术馆前身为绿华养鸡场鸡舍,始建于上世纪 70 年代, 建筑面积约为 3000 平方米。没顶美术馆是一个推动和展示当代艺术为主的多功能艺术机构,是一个与自然生态紧密结合的当代美术馆。
没顶美术馆致力于创造和实现新时代的艺术想象。除了提供丰富的与自然环境接触的机会,没顶美术馆将支持当代艺术的实践和探索,并期待形成一个更具有活力的当代文化前沿基地。我们将与您分享当代艺术的能量,一起庆祝创造力的出现。


关于瑞士文化基金会
瑞士文化基金会致力于在国内外推广瑞士当代文化艺术。基金会于1939年由瑞士政府成立,其上海办公室于2010年成立,旨在支持中瑞两国艺术家与机构间的合作与交流,通过开展项目促进两国在文化领域内知识与经验的分享。目前,瑞士文化基金会上海办公室开展的项目主要集中在瑞士当代艺术,其中包括视觉艺术、表演艺术、设计、音乐、文学等众多领域。


致谢
托比亚斯·卡斯帕衷心感谢所有为“时代的终结”和“上海肖像”的成功做出贡献的人。特别感谢没顶美术馆的Ali与上海市崇明区培成学校的合作,你们的参与不可或缺。同时,对学校及其学生,以及所有为“上海肖像”捐赠服装的人深表感激。此外,感谢瑞士文化基金会上海办公室的团队、北京瑞士大使馆的 Juri Mischler,以及 tbh 家居的 Vivian 和她的团队。特别感谢 Noel Opplinger 对雪球制作的支持,以及来自台湾的雪球制造公司的 Jess 及其上海团队的工作,感谢陈玺安参与即将在 tbh 举办的讲座。
感谢摄影制作 Evans 的团队 ,以及北京麦勒画廊的杨菲、梦卓和 Rene 的持续支持。美术馆的整个团队,特别是孙啟栋、徐震和 Vigy,也值得感谢。还要感谢奥斯陆VIVII画廊的 Esperanza Rosales,以及柏林拉尔斯·弗里德里希画廊(Galerie LarsFriedrich)和首尔 FOUNDRY 的 Chloe。
最后,感谢那些远道而来参加开幕式的亲友,你们的出席和支持意义重大


MadeIn Art Museum is pleased to announce the opening of Tobias Kaspar’s solo exhibition, “End of an Era,” on October 24th, 2024. This exhibition showcases Kaspar’s distinctive artistic vision, inviting the audience to explore the nuanced interplay between consumer culture and identity, and to delve into the profound social insights woven into his work. Through his transformative approach, Kaspar consistently turns everyday objects into vehicles of artistic expression, challenging our perceptions of reality. He captures the fleeting essence of fashion, revealing the soul of garments and the whispered stories embedded within their fabric.

The exhibition “End of an Era” is divided into three distinct parts:

Textile Photographs: A new series titled “The Caravaggios”, exhibited in Hall 5.

Installation: “My Dreams and Nightmares”, a large-scale installation created through the repetition of the same object over and over.

Clothing Collection: “Shanghai Portrait”, presented as a performance during the opening night in Hall 3.

The Caravaggios

For this photography segment, Tobias Kaspar has captured a series of sweaters and garments featuring paintings by the Italian Baroque artist Caravaggio (1571–1610), drawn from Virgil Abloh’s Off-White brand, founded in 2012. Kaspar has embedded himself into the Caravaggio-Abloh narrative by photographing these brand-new, unworn garments. The folds visible in his images stem not from wear but from the packing process, emphasizing the absence of the body. These images, alongside the Caravaggio artworks printed on the clothing, focus on elements like necklines, armholes, shoulder seams, and details such as the front pocket of a hoodie.

At first glance, these photographs may seem like mere reproductions, devoid of artistic individuality. However, the question of how much an artist should imprint onto their work is central to Kaspar’s practice. He often explores themes of absence, counterbalanced by an excess of imagery. This dual approach prompts viewers to reflect on the relationship between presence and absence, raising questions about how much of oneself an artist should inject into their creations. By playing with these concepts, Kaspar challenges traditional ideas of originality and authorship.

MadeIn Art Museum’s founder, Xu Zhen, is celebrated for his precise blending of Greek and Roman sculptures with ancient Chinese cultural elements, which provokes questions about appropriation, cultural exchange, and how societies view one another through stereotypes. In “The Caravaggios”, Kaspar extends this conversation, exploring appropriation and the absence of originality through his focus on fashion and art. By photographing garments featuring Caravaggio’s paintings from Virgil Abloh’s Off-White, Kaspar emphasizes the tension between art, fashion, and authorship—resonating with Xu Zhen’s own investigations into how different cultures and mediums communicate through reinterpretation and hybridization.

*Note on Caravaggio:

Caravaggio’s (1571-1610) work often grapples with themes of mortality and the human condition, evident in his depictions of both life and death. Many of his paintings illustrate the starkness of violence and the fleeting nature of existence. His focus on the raw, emotional experience of his subjects, including figures like Bacchus, reflects a transitional period in art that moved from idealized forms to a more visceral, realistic portrayal of humanity. This approach set the stage for the Baroque era, emphasizing drama and emotional depth.

*Note on Virgil Abloh and Off-White:

Virgil Abloh was a groundbreaking designer, known for merging high fashion with streetwear culture. His work through Off-White and collaborations with brands like Nike and Ikea revolutionized contemporary fashion. Off-White was founded by Virgil Abloh in 2012 in Milan, Italy. Caravaggio’s focus on marginalized figures resonated with Abloh’s commitment to inclusivity and challenging societal norms through his work. This connection underscores a shared exploration of identity and expression across different mediums.

My Dreams and Nightmares

Mass-produced with the expertise of a professional snow globe manufacturer, Tobias Kaspar closely oversaw the entire production process from his own studio. Starting with a clay model, Kaspar had it scanned and 3D printed, preparing it for large-scale production. The process was inspired by a snow globe from a high-end fashion brand, which served as a reference point for his approach.

In this expansive narrative of time and space, 365 Bartleby-inspired snow globes—one for each day of the year—glitter like distant stars, mass-produced to comment on global consumerism and art’s place within it. The snow globes depict miniature worlds that, like art itself, invite us to look in but not enter. Inside each globe is a somewhat grim-looking teddy bear, leaning against a highway billboard while sipping from a disposable cup. Next to the teddy is a paintbrush, resting on the ground, with paint dripping but leaving the billboard above it blank. The snow globe is filled with too much snow, obscuring the scene. The teddy wears a sweater adorned with a flower, and another picked flower lies on the ground. On the reverse side of the billboard, a camouflage pattern is interwoven with a pied-de-poule design.

This symbolic narrative draws inspiration from Herman Melville’s novella Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street, in which the character Bartleby famously declares, “I would prefer not to.” The phrase, emblematic of passive resistance, is discussed in depth by philosopher Giorgio Agamben in The Coming Community, where Bartleby’s quiet refusal is explored as a response to societal demands.

Snow globes themselves are intriguing objects, balancing nostalgia with commercial appeal. They are familiar as souvenirs yet often used by luxury brands, embodying both kitsch and collectibility. For Kaspar, creating a snow globe was a natural extension of his ongoing exploration of consumer culture and art as merchandise. By choosing the snow globe as a medium, he critiques the commodification of art while reclaiming it as a valid form of artistic expression. In doing so, he elevates this everyday item into a thought-provoking statement piece, challenging the boundaries between art, commerce, and cultural production.

Hall 7  Shanghai Portrait

The third and final segment of the exhibition is the capsule collection titled “Shanghai Portrait” which is part of Tobias Kaspar’s ongoing “Biography Collection.” For this project, Kaspar has invited a diverse group of participants—including museum visitors, staff, friends, and collectors—to donate garments. These pieces have had their original labels removed and are rebranded with Kaspar’s own label, which is sewn in by a local tailor.

As Natalia Sielewicz from the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw put it;

Drawing upon hybrid forms of dress, cruise fashion, and self-design, Kaspar reconfigured clothes donated by the museum’s audience and staff into new, hybrid looks. He invited teenagers from local high schools to pick and model their favorite pieces on the catwalk at the museum’s exhibition space.. The original labels were cut out and replaced (goodbye Prada and H&M!) by new tags designed by the artist. Thanks to their newly found “anonymity,” the clothes finally became just clothes. In turn, the local teenagers, thanks to their teenage bravado, fantasies, sexual innuendo, and existential angst, furnished them with a soul. At a time when brands exploit identity politics as a marketing tool, Kaspar exceeds the limits of such violent appropriation and articulates a new type of brand association: one that produces ambiguous hybrids rather than frozen objects — an inclusive community where a stranger is just a friend you haven’t yet met.

Art is of course by no means free of branding, and artists communicate them- selves as brands, too. In his multifaceted practice, Tobias Kaspar strives to nuance the concept of “the artist as a brand,” as well as to comment on the symbolic capital attached to this idea.

The “Shanghai Portrait” is presented at the opening night of the exhibition—after its presentation each visitors is invited to select and keep a piece of garment from the collection, guaranteeing its immediate dispersion.

About Tobias Kaspar

Tobias Kaspar (b. 1984) is a in Switzerland and Latvia living artist known for his conceptual works that explore the intersections of consumer culture, fashion, and identity through photography, textiles, and installation art. His practice often interrogates the relationship between art and commercialism, as well as broader aspects of contemporary life. Drawing from traditions of appropriation, conceptual art, and institutional critique, Kaspar has gained recognition for his innovative approach to photography, its spatial presentation.

Kaspar’s work has been exhibited internationally, at notable institutions such as Kunsthalle Bern (Switzerland), Midway Contemporary Art (Minneapolis, USA), Kunsthalle Wien (Austria), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, France), Foundry Seoul (South Korea), Museum Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin), Kunsthaus Zürich, and the Wattis Institute (San Francisco). In China, he last exhibited in 2019 at Galerie Urs Meile and participated in the 2016 CAFAM Biennale in Beijing.

Kaspar is also the founder of PROVENCE (est. 2009), a collectively run magazine, publishing house, and art agency for contemporary art. PROVENCE produces a weekly newsletter, print products, as well as artworks and exhibitions. Kaspar’s engagement with PROVENCE demonstrates his interest in community-building and highlights his dedication to questioning and challenging existing systems, moving beyond the idea of the artwork as a finished product.

The exhibition is supported by Pro Helvetia Shanghai, the Swiss Arts Council and tbh  Shanghai.

About MadeIn Art Museum

Located in Lvhua Town, Chongming District on the outskirts of Shanghai, MAM stretches over 26,000 square meters of land, adjacent to the Xisha Pearl Lake Scenic Area at the watershed of the Yangtze River. Occupying a former chicken farm, it was first built in the 1970s with a construction area of about 3,000 square meters. MAM welcomes every practitioner of contemporary art and person with curiosity, and strives to establish itself as a cutting-edge base of contemporary culture.

MadeIn Art Museum (MAM) is a multi-function art institution dedicated to promoting and exhibiting contemporary art, creating and realizing artistic imaginations of the new era. It is home to vibrant exhibitions, events, and artist-in-residence programs that connect with the local community and natural landscape. We are excited to share with you the energy of contemporary art and together celebrate the birth of creativity.

About Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council

Pro Helvetia supports artists and cultural practitioners from Switzerland and is committed to international cultural exchange. Pro Helvetia Shanghai is founded in 2010 and represents the Swiss Arts Council in China. Its aim is to encourage dialogue between Swiss and Chinese cultural practitioners and institutions by supporting projects that enhance the exchange of knowledge and experience in the cultural field.

Tobias Kaspar would like to extend his heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed to the success of “End of an Era” and “Shanghai Portrait.” A special thank you to Daliah Spiegel for her exceptional styling and collaboration with Ali from MadeIn and the local school class—your efforts were invaluable. Deep gratitude also goes to the school and its students and of course everyone who donated a piece of garment to “Shanghai Portrait.”

Further thanks are due to the team at Pro Helvetia Shanghai, Juri Mischler at the Swiss Embassy in Beijing, and Vivian and her team from THE BEAST brand. Special acknowledgment to Noel Opplinger for supporting so skill fully the snow globe production, as well as Jess from Taiwan and her company near Shanghai for their role in the globe manufacturing. Thanks to Zian Chen for the upcoming talk we’ll be hosting together at TBH.

Thank you to Evans for her work on photography production, and to Fei, Mengzhuo, and Rene at Galerie Urs Meile in Beijing for their continued support. The entire team at MadeIn, especially Sun Qidong, Xu Zhen, and Vigy, deserves a huge thank you. Further thanks to Esperanza Rosales at VIVII gallery in Oslo, as well Galerie Lars Friedrich in Berlin and Chloe from FOUNDRY Seoul.

Lastly, a big thanks to the dear friends and family who traveled from near and far to attend the opening. Your presence and support mean the world.