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In 2024, Su Mang, who turned to the art industry and founded Song Art Center, did not get many quiet and solitary moments as expected, but became even busier: visiting artists' studios, discussing projects with curators, and formulating exhibition plans with contracted artists...... Su Mang, who has entered a new track, has given herself three years of start-up, and this year has entered the second year, she realizes the importance of action, in the face of the domestic and international economic situation, the overall climate of the art industry and the future of the Song Art Center, only more concrete actions are the best way to face the unknown.
What kind of new species is Song Art Center? In the face of questions from the outside world, Su Mang does not want to be a passive answerer, but wants to become a realizer of the core value of content. Although the media industry has undergone many changes, in this era of information fragmentation, Su Mang, who was born in traditional media, still believes in the experience of in-depth reading, a more acute discovery of the inside, and a deeper awakening of emotions and thoughts, which are still worth sticking to at the moment. She wants to build the Song Art Center into a three-dimensional magazine with literature, music, stories, and thoughts, and the core value of the content will be condensed with the new reality to produce a new power that can bloom.
Of course, Su Mang does not shy away from talking about the confusion and fear of the moment, and bluntly says that he can't sleep because he is afraid of failure. It's just that at the age of fifty, she can understand failure more rationally and broadly, empathize with failure, and be comfortable with failure, as she said, if fear can get you rid of inertia and drive you away from inertia, then go to fear. All external forces are just how you look at it, use it, and make it yourself!
Virginia Woolf said that every woman should have a room of her own. This is also the origin of the "Her Room" project of Song Art Center.
In the field of feminism and literature, a separate room means human dignity, the right to think, and the freedom to create for women. As the initiator of the project and also a media person, Su Mang does not like to label anything as an "ism", she hopes to sincerely and objectively shape a space that carries women's thoughts and reshape the meaning of women's presence.
Looking through the glass on the side of 798 Street, a ten-square-meter room is filled with a small white bed, a teak-colored desk and easel, highly structural and spatial works, and three films constantly rotating on the wall. It's an expression of restraint that countless passers-by who stand outside the window and peep can read.
But if you're willing to be "invited" into "her room," you might be able to read more inward details. It is the solemnity brought by plain furnishings, the weight of life brought by the folds of thin quilts, the mood fluctuations revealed by the squeezed paint tubes, and the emotional growth dilemma of women. Everything visible and invisible constitutes the "memory palace" of the first artist Yang Bodu about the painting teacher Yang Ying.
This is not just a physical room, but a room of consciousness and mind. Su Mang and curator Deng Ting hope to rekindle people's perceptual value through space and writing, and through the "useless use" of art. Or, even worse, to overcome the emptiness brought about by periods of slow growth, to resist the value of money as a measure of what is useful and what is useless.
"I often feel that only unreality can resist the mediocrity and helplessness of reality, and only then can there be the feeling of poetry and the breeze blowing through the skin." The intimate space is more likely to evoke people's emotional thoughts, and here, countless audiences, regardless of gender, age, or identity, use traditional letters to start a dialogue with themselves at Yang Bodu's desk. Su Mang also shared his childhood memories of the "piano room" and his memories of Guzheng teacher Liu Fen. The serious and capable teacher in her memory not only brought her rigorous music teaching, but also brought her fashion enlightenment with her new skirts and stockings, which symbolized women's freedom at that time.
"Her Room" is a tiny slice, so small that people may question whether the one-sided female perspective is enough to reflect the so-called philosophy of life. It is also a great reminder to recall when the consciousness of women began to awaken; To reverie when the dilemma of women ceased to be a dilemma? But in fact, this is also the power of the female perspective conveyed by "Her Room" - to make us "see anew", to see what we have not noticed in the past, to discover what we have not discovered in the past. Therefore, the female perspective brought by "Her Room" here is not one-way or exclusive, but points to the growth path of countless people how to become "themselves".
Su Mang, who has entered a new stage of life in every sense, also has his own predicament. For individuals, how to generate new content thinking, how to put down some familiar resources and means to start a new career, and how to lead a young team...... In addition, she will inevitably face controversy over her professionalism and the judgment of so-called "useful" and "useless" values. In this regard, Su Mang sincerely revealed his strong sense of unease.
It's just that now, she still retains a sensitive insight into these questions, but she is more relaxed in her response.
Su Mang and the "Song" team
Summer 2022
At the beginning of the construction of the "Song Art Center".
She said, "Turn success into a burden and it's over!" ”
"Today is the youngest day of my life in the rhythm of my life, so I don't see any reason to live old," she said. ”
She said, "Don't live as an empiricist person, the old man will definitely face challenges when he does new things, and this challenge will force you to learn, use the combination of previous experience and current experience to deal with problems, and achieve a new result, I think it's a wonderful thing." ”
She said, "All the pain used to come from not being the first, but when you become the first one day, the motivation for every day is the fear that you will not be the first the next day." If anxiety and fear of failure can help you overcome laziness and habitual thinking, then be afraid, go for fear. ”
In the end, she chose to give up the familiar resources and means, starting from doing a good job in each exhibition, and running in small steps with the clumsiest methods.
Su Mang, who used to be a female entrepreneur and public figure, has experienced the change of the concept of the times from "female man" to "strong woman" to "big heroine". When "strong women" are constantly being labeled with new labels, new shackles are also being created. From the women's themed projects such as "Her Room", "Restoration with Painting", and "Plato's Stairway" at Song Art Center, we have a glimpse of what Su Mang wants to do in the year of knowing the destiny of heaven. As a woman, as a "Su Mang" herself who has been labeled with countless labels, how can she become an achiever rather than an answerer when faced with doubts, problems and dilemmas?
Su Mang, who has left the fashion circle, is still catching up with the times, trying to enrich the level and thickness of life. When the pains of growing up tear apart the truth of life, and the old age makes it difficult to understand some thoughts that are completely different from when she was young, she still believes that her heart will leave her most honest answer.
For her, it is like verifying a touching line in the recent "My Altay": "No matter how bumpy your life is, you have to live it shiningly!" ”
(Source: Xianghui)
About the Artist
Su Mang, the founder of Song Art Center, is a senior fashion media person.