About the exhibition: A Suicidology of The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge

Background:

Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was built in 1968 and is the first double-decker, double-track highway and railway bridge designed and constructed by the Chinese without outside engineering assistance. It was listed as the longest bridge with the dual functions of highway and railway in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Due to the breakup of the relationship between China and Soviet Union, all Soviet experts withdrew from China. Therefore, the bridge was deemed as symbol of national resilience. Upon its completion, Chairman Mao Zedong inscribed “independence and self-reliance,” highlighting such symbolic significance. Comparatively, publicity of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, which was constructed earlier than the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, was intentionally cooled down because foreign experts were involved in the construction of the bridge.

Moreover, since it was built during the Cultural Revolution, the bridge was deemed as an extraordinary achievement “stressing revolution and promoting production.” According to Xinhua News Ag ency (29, Dec. 1968), “while thousands of millions of Chinese people were celebrating the new successful H-Bomb test, another piece of exciting news came all the way from the Yangtze River: under the leadership of omnipotent Mao Zedong's Thoughts, the Chinese working class successfully completed the construction of Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge on 29, Dec. 1968. The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, a gigantic masterpiece constructed by Chinese people without outside engineering assistance, was completed and open to traffic ahead of time. […] The revolutionary masses said the history of constructing the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was the history of struggle between the two worlds and two routes; and Chairman Mao's Proletarian Revolutionary Route won a complete success.”

Heavy influence of the Cultural Revolution can be seem on Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge: the three red flags on the south and north bridgeheads, People , the four sets of group sculptures erected at both ends of the bridge, the quotations from Mao Zedong inscribed on the bridge, and the 20 reliefs of Cultural Revolution style which show the achievements made by New China are all evidences of the influence of that particular era.

The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge had been a name-card for the country for quite a long time. Whenever there were international friends visiting China, state leaders would accompany them to see the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. Premier Zhou Enlai gave the order that the lamps on the bridge should be the same as the magnolia-shaped lamps at Tian'Anmen Square. In the textbooks of primary schools at that time, the illustration on the first page was I love Beijing Tian'Anmen Square and the next page was an image of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. These all indicated the significant political status of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. The certificates of merit Qiu Zhijie was awarded as a student were usually imprinted with image of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge on. It was very often that people of the same age as the artist learnt about Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge for the first time from their textbooks. Therefore, even though the bridge is not included in Nanjing travel maps as a sight spot, the number of tourists visiting the bridge amounts to a million every year.

By the time the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was constructed, based on the standard of a communistic society people envisioned, the traffic capacity of the bridge was designed for 10,000 to 20,000 vehicles per day. However, the current traffic flow exceeds the designed capacity by 5 to 6 times, which has imposed substantial difficulties on the traffic system of the Nanjing city. The city suffers from serious traffic jam every day. At the mean time, some experts also point out that the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge has already become a bottleneck for large sea crafts to reach cities upstream through the watercourse of the Yangtze River.

Since its completion in 1968, according to official statistics, over 2000 people have committed suicides of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. At the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, which is supposed to be the world's No. 1 suicide resort, there have been 1200 suicides recorded so far since its completion in 1937. The average number of suicidal incidents happening at the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge is 300 to 400 per year. Full-time security guards assigned by the railway police bureau and volunteers helping with preventing suicides can be seen on Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge.

Currently, controversial topics around the bridge include whether it should be exploded in order to connect the golden watercourses of Yangtze River or if the vehicle flow be confined or the bridge modified into a pedestrian bridge in order to ease the traffic flow; and if a safety net be installed to prevent suicide, etc.

Intervention:

From the second half of 2007, Qiu Zhijie has started to be concerned about the history, reality of Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, and the suicides committed on the bridge. He conducted survey and interviewed a lot of people, collecting a large number of valuable materials. Meanwhile, the artist also started a series of artistic creation in the forms of painting, photography, video, installation and performance. With the furtherance of his contact with those working at the suicide-prevention organizations, the magnificent scheme has gradually turned from objective research, analysis and consideration into active intervention. During his survey, the artist not only conducted field investigation on Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, but also directly participated in suicide prevention activities.

The artist hopes to increase people's awareness of the problem through an artistic way. He also hopes it would lead to more heated discussions concerning such a social phenomenon and more metaphysical topics such as time, memory and destiny.

Income gained from the exhibition and sales of the works will be used to help with the establishment of a suicide-prevention foundation.

What's more important, the artist has also managed to involve volunteers, those having been saved and family members of the suicides into the creation process, which would really turn artistic creation into a kind of psychological therapy.

The historical and political significance of Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and the humanity and philosophy involved in the topic of suicide reveal the two extremes of the scheme. Between the two extremes there is the grey area full of ambiguity, passion, superstition and dubiety. Within this grey area, there is individual's awe and obedience to power, which can be deemed both as a symbol of oppression and a reliable colossus; the imaginary reconstruction of the past and the present; the passion of romanticism; and last but not least, the issues of unfairness, oppression, safety and health. How could people be hurt? What can they rely on? More importantly, the two extremes provide us with an efficient tool to explore the relationship between human beings and time, place and destiny. What is success? What is happiness? What is destiny? The definitions of “doomed” and “abnormal death” turn to be diversified within such discussions. Moreover, the artist has also brought forward the ultimate question “What is art?”

A Suicidology of The Nanjing Yangzi River Bridge can be considered as a comprehensive presentation of the artist's idea of “grand art”: cultural study is an integral part of the self-fulfillment of the artist; works as well as the ego of the artist are shaped during the interaction with the past and the present; through transcending medium and style, the scene of art is extended to be the scene of history.

According to the long-term scheme, how would the artist reconstruct the relationship between the society and the reality? Should history and contemporary life be the inspiration, nutrition or the counterparts of artistic creation? Or are they a kind of working scene? How could the microphysical humanistic care find peace with specific moral impulse? How could the artist deal with political symbols? Should ideological conflicts be about symbols or about life? How could body leave its traces during the historic narrative? How could the traces be erased? Who is the artist?

Among all these relationships, style, imagination, executive power, values are constantly reviewed, reorganized and re-explored. The significance of such issues transcends a single bridge, a single city or a single country. It points out an evitable choice that contemporary art all over the world eventually has to make.

Structure:

A Suicidology of The Nanjing Yangzi River Bridge features works of various forms and media. Through collection, creation, adaptation and cooperation, it is both a long-term process of cultural study and a magnificent cultural production plan.

The plan consists of four parts: Think Tank, Archives, Crystalloid and Clinic.

Think Tank , the idea of which was developed before the artist began the survey about the suicide phenomenon on the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, is presented in two major forms, painting and note-taking. The paintings shaped the early formation of the whole project. On one hand, they are the concretization of the artist's imagination and conception. On the other hand, they outline its scheme in a visual way. Meanwhile, they can also be considered as drafts of the installations. The significance of this lies in the fact that it enables the artist to explore the meaning behind the specific subject matter. It impels the artist to make constant adjustment and development during his survey. Therefore, Think Tank is constantly enriched and updated with the furtherance of the survey.

Archives feature all kinds of historical materials about the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge that the artist has collected, including audio and video materials, books, certificates of merit, envelops and newspapers from the past; materials collected during field survey; and documents such as questionnaires and documentaries created by the artist during the survey. Some of the archives can be deemed as creative, especially when such an experimental approach is adopted during the survey. Some historical narratives, due to the slight embellishment made by the artist, have turned into Fluxus articles in a way. If Think Tank can be regarded as the internal “core” of the whole scheme, then the Archives are the achievements made by the scheme.

Crystalloid , also titled, “Buddhist Relics”, involves processes of sublimation, crystallization and coagulation. Judging from such a title, it's natural for us to draw the conclusion that this part of the exhibition focuses on the embodiment of the feelings. thoughts and experience the artist acquired during the survey. Instead of producing a straightforward representation, such embodiment is more like some kind of abstract extract of the reality. Moreover, it may even influence the reality. Therefore, some of the works can be considered as the gradual yet constant revision and refinement of the original conception of Think Tank . Other works, however, may seem not so directly relevant to the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and its suicide phenomenon. It takes experience and patience for the viewer to feel the internal relationship between the works and the subject matter.

Clinic puts emphasis on the artistic therapy adopted to treat people who have attempted suicide. This includes: the art projects designed and initiated by the artist that aim to help those in need, as well as in cooperation with other suicide-prevention organizations. The clinic not only intends to treat those attempting to commit suicide on Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge or somewhere else, or those with psychological problems in the broad sense. In the artist's view, besides the physical and mental state of people, the treatment should also concerns people's prevailing obsession of material worship and identity paranoid. More importantly, the increasingly narrow and arbitrary value system also reflects the dilemma people face during this cultural transitional period. The idea of health is unprecedentedly closely related to concepts such as happiness, freedom, equality and right. Meanwhile, it also had a more intimate relationship with artistic vocabulary such as imagination and game.

The exhibition “A Suicidology of The Nanjing Yangzi River Bridge” will be presented at different places during the next few years, which will all become an integral part of whole scheme. The cultural products collected during the process will be numbered and placed in different categories. Such products will also be put on display at different exhibitions. The number of all the items of Think Tank starts with “ 0” , that of Crystalloid , “ 1” , of Archives , “ 2” and of Clinic , “ 4” .

Each exhibition is considered as a “round”. The works put on display may overlap. Basically, Think Tank and Archives will be remained at each exhibition. The large works of Crystalloid will be under constant updating. The way to present Clinic will depend on the condition of the location. Anyway, activities taking place at the Clinic normally do not happen in the exhibition hall.