In late September in Shanghai, where rains hit from time to time and steamed in sweltering humidity, Tan Zhuo took a group of magazine shoots in the second-floor space of an art center transformed from an abandoned oil tank factory next to the Huangpu River.
Most of the time she stands in her own "beautiful big box", an art installation made of 16 pieces of transparent tempered glass, the enclosed space should be more difficult to endure, but Tan Zhuo is especially not afraid of heat, she skillfully adjusts her posture, her eyes flow, and her delicate face is the same.
Even if busyness is her recent keyword: several days in a row until the early hours of the morning, a day without drinking a few sips of water, in the afternoon to change 7 sets of clothes to shoot... But visible to the naked eye, a strong vitality flowed through her body, and she was in a state of enviable exuberance.
Between the shooting, she will change into the soft wool slippers she brought over, friends come to visit, she went to greet her for the first time: "Teacher Sun, you are here, hard work, quickly get a bottle of water for Teacher Sun." When the location was filmed, the rain was heavy, everyone ran back, the umbrella was too little, and when she went up the stairs, she was like a warm-hearted sister, saying in a worried tone: "You don't have an umbrella to go up first."
Outside the flash, Tan Zhuo gradually came alive, and the impression was that he starred as the heroine of Lou Ye's movie at the beginning of his debut, surprised everyone with a twenty-second pole dance shot in "I am not a medicine god", and the aura of an actor who repeatedly appeared on the hot search with the role of Noble Concubine in "Yanxi Raiders" dissipated. She was intoxicated with art, the thing she had to do, and every interpretation was meticulously crafted.
She titled her work "Afternoon Tea" and urged the audience to enter this beautiful glass cover and conduct daily, personal experience-based thinking like afternoon tea.
And Tan Zhuo herself is not framed by anything, she jumps out of all repetitive presets, and for a long time outside the cage, she is nature itself.
In her case, you will find that making presets in advance is an unwise and even somewhat foolish thing to do.
One
"Art is something that must be done"
Doing installation art is a "fun" thing for Tan Zhuo.
"Afternoon Tea" is her "beautiful big toy", "some people like to play Lego, some people like to play games, I choose a more money-burning toy." She gestured and her eyes overflowed with love.
At first, she envisioned a larger space, which meant that more glass materials were needed, more money was needed, there was a sudden situation before the exhibition, there were two pieces of glass that could not be installed, Tan Zhuo immediately decided, contacted a glass factory in Suzhou, opened the furnace separately and rushed to make two ready-made tempered glass, and finally arrived in Shanghai in the early morning and successfully assembled it.
The process is not easy or even almost failed, tan Zhuo is still addicted to the infinite possibilities brought by the device. The choice of materials allows her to jump freely on the balance of reason and sensibility, and to engage with more disciplinary knowledge while structuring her work.
The exhibition is arranged at the scene
Once she also made a device "Infinite Possibilities Baguette", a white bag out of the rocket, "it can fly out of the rocket today, tomorrow it can fly out of other things, it has infinite possibilities." 」 That's how she describes her work.
And this work "Afternoon Tea", it is composed of light design, sound design, video image design, intuitively like a particularly beautiful box, can be imagined as a dessert shop, there is a dining table and tableware, the main body is ten television sets, screening is the mysterious girl played by Tan Zhuo silent and meticulous performance clips, uninterrupted echo in the room is Tan Zhuo's carefully selected news events from 2014 to the present.
Exhibition site
Tan Zhuo wants to explore more profound topics through this work, and she hopes to use a more relaxed and daily way to make people pay attention to public life, because it is closely related to everyone.
She carefully designed each link to promote the audience's "presence" and bring art closer to life: "It is normal to show these events under transparent fluorescent lamps, the shape of the mysterious girl in the video is also to attract everyone's attention, and the news is released instead of setting headphones because these things are public, not personal initiative...".
The creative idea comes from philosophy, she loves this discipline, and is also systematically studying the History of Western Philosophy at Peking University, after the normalization of the epidemic, the pattern of the whole world is changing rapidly, the ancient inheritance has disappeared, new things have emerged, Tan Zhuo believes; "As long as you are alive, you must go forward, even if you are afraid and lazy, you also need to pay attention to the fate of all mankind." ”
Tan Zhuo explores the wider boundaries of art in the installation, and art is something she has loved since she was a child, and she sees it as a natural thing to go deep into the field of art now, although it is not easy, but because of love, she is willing to eat.
And she repeated many times that she is actually a lazy person: "One of my dreams is to get something for nothing, the other is to be immortal, and many times I don't want to do anything." At the same time, she also said: "But a person is not absolutely himself, the meaning of living is not to support himself, but also to take care of his family, to ensure their lives, to make money and hope that he has a good creation." ”
In every way, she always presents a state of active creation and output. Yang Fudong, one of China's most internationally watched contemporary video artists, is a close friend of Tan Zhuo's, and he can never forget the impression of meeting her for the first time at a café in Sanlitun in late 2015, "plain face, wearing a mask, big eyes, simple and calm." They talked about a two-month art film after that, the budget was not high, but to Yang Fudong's surprise, her first reaction was "Okay, participate." ", without any hesitation.
Now her creation still makes Yang Fudong marvel; "She is doing a very standard video installation, all the things that are set up have their own mature thinking, the details are also very exquisite, and an interesting point is that the exhibition is only four or five days, but she is still willing to spend manpower and material resources to do it." He commented that Tan Zhuo has always been passionate: "The whole person feels that he has been rushing forward. ”。
This "momentum" is idealistic in a sense, and she hopes that everyone can take action after watching the exhibition, and is pleased that everyone can project their own experience into it, "Regardless of race or nationality, in such a special environment as the epidemic, it is necessary to pay attention to the fate of all mankind." Tan Zhuo stressed again.
Two
"Perverted perfectionism"
Tan Zhuo is best known for her role as an actress, although she was once reluctant to admit that she was an actress.
Tan Zhuo officially debuted in 2009, before she was a host, in college to study broadcast hosting, but day after day in the TV station "too much output, too little input", such a life made her tired, and after learning that the identity of the actor can shoot everywhere to travel around, she became an actor "smoothly".
At the beginning of her debut, she starred in Lou Ye's director "Spring Breeze Drunken Night", in the poster, she looked into the distance as a heroine, the corners of her eyes were full of sorrow and confusion, with this work, Tan Zhuo was shortlisted for the best actress at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, and in the context of non-Science Class, such achievements cannot but be envied.
Later, she starred in a number of literary and artistic films, is a well-deserved "literary and artistic goddess", involved in commercial films and TV series also have a good rating and popularity, Yu Zheng costume drama "Yanxi Raiders" in the arrogant noble concubines let her act cool and red, recently she has just finished a modern drama starring Guo Jingfei.
Over the past twelve years, she has left behind many popular roles. In the hearts of the audience, she belongs to the category of good actors, in the industry, she is also highly recognized, recently she served as a judge of the 2021 Golden Rooster Film Venture Capital Conference, and Cao Baoping, Yao Chen, Rao Xiaozhi and other well-known filmmakers to judge newcomer film projects and discover the future of Chinese films.
In many interviews, she has mentioned that she is a "very perverted perfectionist" and "if you do it, you must do the best", whether it is acting works or her own works of art, she is practicing this sentence.
In "I am not a medicine god", she practiced pole dancing for a month for a 20-second shot, "the flesh hurts, I feel too painful", the words are so, but her expression still retains the stubbornness and cloud breeze of the single mother Sihui in the movie, and later she permanently broke the ankle cartilage, originally the tail vertebrae of the previous filming were injured, and it was impossible to stand for a long time at that time, Zhang Yu of the same group said: "For the twenty-second scene, she fell a lifetime of injuries." ”
In the hall-level drama "Like a Dream", she played Gu Xianglan, a young prostitute of fanghua' generation, rehearsing day after day in the cold and freezing Beijing winter, often forgetting the day and night, and almost unable to play with teacher Jin Shijie, "I don't think I can go with him, I still love Wang Debao in my heart, at that moment I felt that this play could not continue, and my face was full of tears." ”
There are also the dusty peasant women holding lambs in "Violent Silence", the nightclub lady in "The Pursuer", and the cold Song Dynasty empress in the art film "Tomorrow and Early Dynasty" cooperated with Yang Fudong... These flesh-and-blood characters make it impossible for Tan Zhuo to pick out one or two of the most meaningful, "because these are all accumulated step by step, there is no distinction between each other, and every creation is very serious." ”
In the path of artistic creation, she seems to be particularly serious, planning to come up with at least one work a year after that, which is the experience she has from film production, the film has capital restrictions, there are prescribed production cycles, which is to some extent pressure and motivation, and she cares more about her attitude. "If you want to do this, you have to show your attitude and show that you are seriously doing it," Tan Zhuo replied emphatically.
She had previously recommended Thomas Mann's Death in Venice on social media, in which the protagonist mentioned: "The artist is good at combining strict self-discipline with debauchery." ”
Obviously, this is Tan Zhuo's deep-rooted disposition.
Three
Look at the best looking tree in the past from a distance
Getting involved in the field of art is not a whim of Tan Zhuo, but a must-do thing.
In fact, she has been slowly approaching this field, opening a clothing store in Sanlitun before, designing couture dresses for rock singer friends, watching exhibitions and curating to meet artists, until she began to create and organize exhibitions herself, and her footsteps became more and more determined.
There is no difference between the two identities of actor and artist for her, only the distinction between first come and go. "I didn't think about being an actor before, and I didn't have a passion for the industry, and then I slowly fell in love with the fun of interpreting roles, and if I had chosen to be an artist at that time, I might have embarked on the path of professional artists earlier." Tan Zhuo explains.
She wanders freely between identities, "I don't think many things have boundaries, especially under the guidance of Eastern philosophy, I think everything is a meeting and reference, and the presentation of any aspect comes from the soil of diversity." ”
This kind of thinking is rooted in her family environment, and from an early age, her parents will not give her too much worldly pressure and specific rules, especially her mother, who will not ask her to be who she must be, "so do what you want to do, and these things will naturally happen to you." ”
People often say that "after a long time in the cage, return to nature", and Tan Zhuo does not set a fence for herself, she is always vigilant about whether she is in the cage, and at the same time clearly rejects the presets and restrictions that others repeat to her.
Before Tan Zhuo played most of the more "miserable" roles in literary and art films, many directors will preconceived notions about her previous roles when choosing, and Yu Zheng chose her to play the arrogant role of noble concubines, which made Tan Zhuo quite surprised, "He can see another possibility in you, or very keen." She also took the role well after that, and broadened her own play path.
"I am not a medicine god" is on fire, every actor in the play is red, she still said in the interview: "All the presets and limitations are given by you, and I have never positioned, labeled, and set limits for myself."
She also jokingly said in an interview: "The northeast can no longer tolerate my dragon", so fans called her dragon, dragon dragon, milk dragon cub... She also embraced these nicknames.
Or maybe it is the northeast people's genes, seemingly high and cold, she is actually a very straightforward and frank person, and has met quite a lot of similar people.
When setting up the exhibition and opening the tour, people often come to see her one by one, director Lai Shengchuan and his wife also went out to dinner with her after the first day of development, the studio on Weibo often sent a hundred and one hundred movie tickets to major directors such as Chen Zhengdao and Jia Zhangke, and five days before the launch was Tan Zhuo's birthday, according to the agent, a party was organized in Beijing that day, and more than 200 people participated.
The crowd was bustling, she was always the most beautiful tree in the past, and a very beautiful flower bloomed on the branch of the tree that was an actress, and the branch of art also grew very tall, and these forks were all her, and this tree was Tan Zhuo.
Four
"If the output is green"
Tan Zhuo frankly opened up the growth experience given to her by time in the work "Afternoon Tea", and it was this experience that made her life lighter.
She suddenly lost her breath while swimming, but no one around her noticed her, and she could only watch soberly as she fell uncontrollably into the water, as if abandoned by the world.
Fortunately, she was finally rescued by the coach, but she was depressed, once liked black when she dressed, felt that only black could represent herself, and the reaction was more pathological depression, such as water phobia, claustrophobic fear... Exactly one year after the drowning accident, she filmed the film screened in the installation.
The tone of this film was originally heavy, but the wonderful thing is that after filming, Tan Zhuo felt that he had removed the black shell that had been pressing on him, just like an insect in the season of transformation: "As soon as the wings are opened, the whole person comes out of that shell and suddenly becomes light and soft." ”
But fighting depression is a protracted battle, Tan Zhuo used to have stomach pain and insomnia, the doctor prescribed the medicine but did not work, so she stopped, "I don't want to be a person controlled by drugs." Later, she heard from her agent that there were stars who could sleep if they wanted, so she used this ability to spur herself on, believing for many years and brainwashing herself to become such a person. Although it was later learned that it was fake, she had successfully brainwashed herself, and insomnia had rarely interfered with her.
Tan Zhuo believes in his own set of true meanings of life, cares about a healthy schedule and the small luck of occasionally basking in the sun. "Sunrise and rest", she gradually accepted this oriental yin and yang wisdom, and her mentality was more optimistic and positive. She joked; "Now it's the agent who is worried, and she will chase after me every day and ask for sun protection." ”。
She believes that in this era, you can't always be a protected person, care about whether people can communicate sincerely with each other and whether self-expression is sincere, and at the end of the dialogue, she proposes an interesting metaphor.
"I hope to contribute a real output, and this output should be green."
Article Source: Viewer inSight