There are many terms appearing over the years that can be used to discuss Zheng Bo\u2019s work. One such term is \u201cNew Genre Public Art,\u201d which describes art practices emphasizing the dematerialization of the work of art and place importance on processes of public participation, the latter of which is the focus and significance of the work. The artists of \u201cnew genre public art\u201d do not directly provide \u201cexhibition objects,\u201d instead they organize encounters, initiate actions, mobilize various social elements, and usually possess clear social movement goals that they want to achieve. The resulting output of \u201cnew genre public art\u201d is most often only a process, with transmission and participation constituting the specific content of the artistic work. However, in today\u2019s exhibition-based art system, artists working in \u201cnew genre public art\u201d need to deal with various physical materials first: texts, archives, conversation records, and even the many communication documents generated throughout the process of organizing the project. Only then can new possibilities emerge and be woven together in the public space created by the artist. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of \u201cnew genre public art\u201d is the degree of social intervention it entails. The specific form of such work and public responses to it can be used as criteria for judging its degree of involvement, while the overall determining premise is reliant on the clarity of the social issue that the work seeks to address. In 2015, Zheng Bo created the work \u201cSing for Her,\u201d in which the artist collaborated with the Filipino community in Hong Kong to record a Philippine pop song. The song, which was widely popular in the 1930s and 1940s, is notable for its theme of expressing the Philippine people\u2019s strong desire to achieve national independence. The final presentation of Zheng Bo\u2019s piece took the form of a huge metal megaphone. On the one hand, the social issues that Zheng Bo sought to address in this work were very clear: the labor rights and political demands of Filipinos in Hong Kong. And in terms of aesthetics, the metal megaphone towering prominently on Tsim Sha Tsui Public Square in Hong Kong established an effective aesthetic form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the workshop, Zheng Bo\u2019s aims are also clear: first, to bring together different professionals to discuss and learn about ecological issues; second, this workshop is intended to provide ideas for the garden design of the new campus of NYU Shanghai, in the hopes that the actual garden construction design will not be bound by traditional horticultural ideas, instead taking on a more open and radical outlook. If we try to state that this second aim leans toward social intervention, the basis of intervention is only the imagination that emerges from the first aim. But in this imagination, we seem to be able to see something more telling than mere action. The results of the workshop discussion groups included two manifestos in addition to the design instructions. One of them states: \u201cOur garden must nourish. Our garden must connect. Our garden is not poisonous\u2026.\u201d Zheng Bo\u2019s actions may not be serious enough to be termed \u201csocial intervention,\u201d but they certainly embody a \u201csocial imagination\u201d that is full of hope [1]. This is a practice where idea takes precedence over form, and also holds greater artistic interest than dealing with problems of form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The feedback given by the workshop participants forces us to re-examine some basic art-related questions, such as: what can art do? What kind of influence does art have on reality? One workshop participant, an ecologist named Zhang Minhua, described her \u201cTree of Life\u201d contribution to the garden design plan: it consists of a carefully designed route where people can experience the evolutionary history of plants. Here, visitors will first encounter ancient moss plants, ferns, then gymnosperms, and finally angiosperms. Zheng Bo believes that this is a feasible design scheme for the actual garden construction. It is not an idea proposed by a professional landscape architect, but originates from the inseparable link between an ecologist\u2019s experience and intuition. In society today, with its hyper-developed mass media and information systems, people work to control and expand their own knowledge boundaries, but at the same time they squeeze out other existing spaces of knowledge that could be used to exchange with others. The result is that the most efficient intermediaries to connect people become commercial activities, while the other elements of life are isolated from each other. In the social sense, what should art activities aim to achieve, and how can a strong connection with the outside world and various groups be maintained? Such queries have troubled many an artist in their work. According to Nicolas Bourriaud, \u201cArt strives to achieve some limited connections, open up some blocked passages, and reconnect the various levels that are separated in reality.\u201d [2] Perhaps, Zheng Bo \u2019s workshop is a truly effective realization of this mission. Moreover, discussions of his attempts should not simplify or reduce his work to a mere complement of more mainstream \u201ccontemporary\u201d artistic practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [1] From an interview between Zheng Bo and the author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [2] Nicholas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics<\/em>, Translated by Huang Jianhong. Foreword to the 2013 edition of Jincheng Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Liang Xiao In 2019, Zheng Bo once aga … Continue reading ![\"Installation](\"https:\/\/www.randian-online.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Installation-View-1.jpg\")
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ZHENG Bo, Eco-Socialist Garden, NYU Shanghai, 2019. In-progress view. Courtesy of the artist and Edouard Malingue Gallery\u3002
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