关于一位70岁教授的课程总结
图片源自unsplash
她是一位年近70岁的老教授，单看名字前面长长的头衔(德国艺术理论界著名的学者、原柏林艺术大学教授、原卡塞尔美术学院院长)，觉得是个很厉害的人物呢，也许不易亲近。
她是Ursula Panhans-Bühler，大家都爱叫她乌奶奶。
与她见了第一面之后，我就和其他同学老师一样，喜爱叫她乌奶奶，因为她是真的谦虚和善，像奶奶一样。
乌奶奶一头俏皮的头发，微卷，爆炸式的向四周伸展；一天到晚烟不离手；每天都会精致细心的涂着红唇；身上常常挂着大包小包，装着电脑和书本。但是不管东西有多沉，她的背被压的有多弯，她老人家也从来不麻烦其他人，即使有人主动帮忙，她也会笑眯眯的说：Thank you,thank you very much,I can.
乌奶奶是在晚上六点钟到九点半给我们上课。她会点评每位同学展示的作品，也会将国际上最前沿的艺术设计资讯和大师的代表作品展示给我们。全程英文授课，但是每当奶奶讲的激动时，偶尔会跳出几句德语，甚是可爱。
记得一位同学在课上向乌奶奶抱怨自己还没有找到创作的方向，乌奶奶便安慰她说：孩子，让自己平静下来，想想自己想做什么，喜欢做什么，慢慢来。
当每位同学展示完自己的作品之后，乌奶奶除了点评，最后总会开心的说：Wonderful, I like it，I really really like it，thank you.
她老人家的指导和赞许，是对我的激励和引导，让我更有信心去进行以后的学习和创作，也会让我坚持艺术这条道路，一直走下去。我是这么想的，不知道其他同学有何感受。
此外，乌奶奶还慷慨的把她准备的所有课程资料都拷贝给了我们，还给了我们她的邮箱，她希望课程结束之后，即使自己回到德国，也欢迎大家在有问题有想法时及时给她发邮件，她会第一时间回复大家。
当然微信也不例外。起初我对乌奶奶是否同意我为好友是不抱有太大希望的，因为乌奶奶太忙了，也或许老人家上了年纪，忘了微信加好友这一茬。但是第二天我惊喜的发现乌奶奶已经同意我为好友，时间显示是在凌晨两点钟，欣喜之余也在为乌奶奶的身体担忧，因为给我们上完本周的课程之后，第二天早上她老人家又飞去了重庆。
微信界面上乌奶奶打招呼说：Hi Rujia, hope you have a calm weekend to share with friends. Greetings from Chongqing where I visit in a short term old friends. Yours Ursula.
看着屏幕上不常见的英文文字，莫名的感动和愧疚。感动的是乌奶奶主动给我发的消息，希望我去感受生活，懂得珍惜和朋友在一起的时光；愧疚的是，我并没有及时给乌奶奶回复消息。
想起来之前老师同学向我提起的，乌奶奶是个和蔼幽默的人，她总在为对方着想，也特别照顾他人的情绪和想法，起初不并觉得，只是惯性思维的认为，拥有如此声望的老艺术家一般会很忙，无暇顾及太多的人和事。
原来我错了，她不是不易亲近，而是亲的让人心疼。
课程开始前，负责老师说因为乌奶奶已经70岁了，上了年纪以后可能不方便飞来飞去这么来回折腾了，也许这是她最后一次来中国，最后一次给我们讲课。听到这些，我们有些难过和舍不得，因此乌奶奶的这次课程我们格外的珍惜。
在上课期间，我都有留心录下乌奶奶讲课的音频，也许不单单是为了学习回顾，更多的是在以后想念她老人家的时候，可以再听听她的声音，回忆起她俏皮的头发和她佝偻的脊背。
课程结束了，乌奶奶希望我们可以写一篇课程报告，作为对课程的总结和反馈，大概包括以下三个方面：
1.What did you like and dislike?
2.Which part of the lecture was more useful for your development?
3.On which work would you like to do a commentary?
以下是我针对乌奶奶课上展示的部分作品进行的总结和思考，分别是高世强的《山与水》以及Francis Alÿs的短视频《REEL-UNREEL》。
The Curriculum Report
In the whole course, I like what the professor taught us and the atmosphere of the class. The professor Ursula gave us the latest design information and the masterpieces. Besides，the professor shown us a lot of experimental images and curatorial videos, which are rich in content. However, the only regret is that I couldn’t fully understand professor’s meaning because of the gap of language. Fortunately, professor Ursula gave us the courseware generously. This is convenient for us to study and understand slowly after class.
In these courses, I was most impressed by the artist’s observation of nature and the relationship between the nature and the human beings.
For example, Gao Shiqiang’s "SHAN_SHUI". In the whole shooting process, there may be unintended difficulties and dangers. But as an artist, he observed the mountains and water from a new perspective perhaps because of the responsibility of the artist and the love of the landscape. Eventually he presented the landscape in a new form to the viewer, and allowed the viewer to listen to the sound of nature and to feel the charm of the nature.
1-1 The scene of the exhibition of Gao Shiqiang's works
1-2 The scene of the exhibition of Gao Shiqiang's works
In my future creation, I am deeply inspired.I should learn to be good at observation, listening, creative, and willing to share and express.
I was impressed by one of the videos that the professor shared with us：REEL-UNREEL. In Francis Alÿs’s video REEL-UNREEL, the action takes place along the bare cityscape of Kabul, Afghanistan. The cameras follow a reel of film as it unrolls through the old part of town—pushed by two children, uphill and downhill, like a hoop, inspiring an improvised narrative. It’s an example of “doing/undoing,” Alÿs says. And that interplay became the axiom of the film.
2-1 The screenshot of the video
2-2 The screenshot of the video
He says, when the crew wasn’t shooting. “I found it very difficult to represent what’s going on in Afghanistan. It’s not easy to translate the experience of being there—it’s very conflictive in the sense that you can’t help being seduced by the place and the people.”
Eventually，Francis Alÿs mixes the poetic and the political in his witty. REEL-UNREEL was founded on a performance or action,so what does this story really mean?
In 1995, the Islamic fundamentalist organization, Taliban, launched the campaign, named "Kabul", quickly controlled more than 90% of the territory of the country, including Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Taliban banned any popular entertainment such as movies and music; they ransacked the original national film studio in Afghanistan and tried to burn all the film. The goal was to destroy all the movie culture in Afghanistan and to eliminate people's memories of the past. Fortunately, a group of employees in the studio risked their lives to get 7000 rolls of film away.
3-1 Afghan women under heavy parcels
3-2 Film in a discarded warehouse
Fortunately, 20 years later, these preserved films began to digitize under the relatively peaceful conditions. This project that will last for a long time is designed to give a new life to the popular Afghan films.
4-1 The process of film digitization
4-2 The process of film digitization
From those restored films, the life of the Afghans is unimaginable in the present time. For example, the Afghan family is going to a picnic in a park；Women can laugh in a short skirt…… The film can only exist in a form of memory. It has passed.
5-1 Film fragments in the remaining film
5-2 Film fragments in the remaining film
The little girl with a headscarf is watching the epic of love, also an Afghan girl, and the protagonist on the screen doesn't have to face it. This is the meaning of “We are who we are not”.
5-3 Film fragments in the remaining film
On the left is the Afghan women's street pat in front of Taliban's power. The right side is the big change after Taliban's power.
5-4 The street pat of women in Afghanistan in different periods
The video made me very deep, the director did not describe the film in a serious tone,but fellow a reel of film as it unrolld through the old part of town—pushed by two children in a humorous way. Children who develop films are like the past invaders and destroyers, and chasing children are like those who try to preserve and repair this memory. However, the latter spend a lot of experience and time collecting most of the remaining film, but it is damaged, and it is hard to get back to its original state.
Like the captions at the end of the film: The Taliban confiscated thousands of reels of film from the Afghan Film Archive, and burned them on the outskirts of Kabul. People say the fire lasted 15 days. But the Taliban did not know they were mostly given film print copies, which can be replaced and not the original negatives, which cannot. The movie bears the memory of a nation.
When I see the story of the Afghan people who are excited and hard to protect the film, I can’t help remembering the old Chinese films that have been destroyed by war and turbulence. It is said that the old movies since the Republic of china survived in the world are numbered. Our film tradition, blood and life have been destroyed.
We should learn to cherish every artistic memory. Because it is easy to destroy and difficult to repair.
END
图片源自unsplash
课程虽然结束了，因为语言的鸿沟，我无法与乌奶奶进行深入的交流，但是乌奶奶的这堂课教会我的远非怎样去创作，怎样去欣赏一件艺术品那么简单。她老人家教会我的还有学习的态度和生活的态度，虽然年近七十，但却依然努力的去学习，去策划展览，去认真的生活。这是我一辈子都想做，也愿意去做的事情，想想都很美好。
我是RURU，我决定与你一路相伴。
