Luo Fei was invited to be the residence artist in Zurich, Switzerland, from May to Aug, 2018. During his stay in Zurich, he stayed at F+F art and design school of Zurich, encountered with the art scene of Switzerland, he also did some curatorial researches through visiting spaces, activities, interviews(with Andreas Marti & Adrian Notz) and dialog with curator Daniel Morgenthaler at Helmhaus. Beside all these, he participated a live radio event at Friesenbergplatz Zurich and an informal performance event arranged by Tanja Kalt. Other performance artists were: Monica Germann, Daniel Lorenzi, Martin Chramosta and San Keller.
During his residence in Zurich, Luo Fei has been visited Auschwitz in Poland, Norway and Sweden. He did some artist talks and performances too.
回国后罗菲分别在CGK昆明当代美术馆、TCG诺地卡文化中心和昆工城市学院举办了分享讲座。以下是讲座内容的简介：
讲座：国际驻留作为一种会面状态
——罗菲在苏黎世驻留项目中的邂逅与观看
2018年5月至8月，昆明策展人、艺术家罗菲受邀参加昆明-苏黎世友好城市交换驻留项目，这也是罗菲首次造访瑞士。在驻留苏黎世期间，罗菲寻访当地美术馆、画廊、艺术家自营空间，拜访策展人、艺术家，深入当地丰富的艺术生态。罗菲注意到瑞士当代艺术中的结构主义传统在今天的魅影无处不在，注意到瑞士行为艺术家中口语表演的传统，艺术家们对娱乐文化的拥抱与再造。
在近三个月的观察与交流中，罗菲经历到一个充满魅力的苏黎世城，一种普遍富裕、安稳、高标准的日常生活。正是这样一种日常生活，塑造着当代艺术在今天的“形式正确”和“媒介轰炸”。也正是在这样一个凡事都有保障的社会里，人们仍然表达着对现实的不满，诘问艺术的批判性在哪里？在那里，日常生活和当代艺术一样，越加文本化、理论化，任何一种“野蛮”、“自嘲”、“无聊”或者“学究化”的艺术，都成为了虚无的文雅生活的一部分。那里提供了对欢愉和虚无的保障，提供了免于道德评价的保障。那么，生活的目标又是什么？艺术的魅力又是什么？
在驻留苏黎世期间，除了拜访意大利、挪威、瑞典等地，罗菲特意寻访了波兰克拉科夫的奥斯维辛集中营和灭绝营。罗菲带着“奥斯维辛之后不再有诗”的困惑，行走在看上去漂亮而理性的“乡村地狱”。在那里，一切都超出了人的想象。在那里，启蒙运动以来的“人性”究竟是被隐藏还是被放大了呢？汉娜·阿伦特“恶之平庸”的反思在今天还有怎样的价值？
对于罗菲而言，艺术家驻留项目作为一种不断与人会面又不断回到自身的临时生活状态，在一个陌生的地方，他并没有设定一个预期的目标，他只是不断积累和调整自己，保持开放，保持交流，保持思考，保持分享。
相关访谈阅读： 《阿德里安·诺茨：艺术有保障……》和《安德里亚斯·马蒂：当艺术生产过剩……》
After returning to China, Luo Fei held sharing lectures at CGK Kunming Contemporary Art Gallery, TCG Nordica Cultural Center and City College of Kunming University of Science and Technology. The following text is a brief introduction to the contents of the lecture:
International Residency as an Encounter State
– Luo Fei’s encounter with and observations in the Zurich Residency Project
From May to August 2018, Kunming curator and artist Luo Fei, also the director of TCG Nordica gallery was invited to participate in the Kunming-Zurich Friendship City Exchange Residency Project. This was also the first time that Luo Fei visited Switzerland. During his stay in Zurich, Luo Fei visited local art museums and galleries. Furthermore, he visited off-spaces, curators, artists, and deepened the local rich artistic ecology. Luo Fei noted that the structuralist traditions in Swiss contemporary art are ubiquitous in today’s phantom, noting the tradition of oral performances among Swiss performance artists, and the artists’ embrace and re-engineering of entertainment culture.
During nearly three months of observation and communication, Luo Fei experienced the charming city of Zurich – an ordinary, affluent, stable, and high standard of daily life. It is such daily life that shapes the “formal correctness” and “media bombing” of contemporary art today globally. It is also in such a society where everything is guaranteed, that people still express their dissatisfaction with reality. Where is the criticality of art? Political art? There, everyday life, like contemporary art, is more textual and theoretical, and any kind of “barbarous”, “self-deprecating”, “boring” or “scientific” art has become part of the vain and elegant life. It provides protection against pleasure and nothingness, and provides protection from ethical evaluation. So, what is the goal of life? What is the appeal of art?
During his stay in Zurich, in addition to visiting Italy, Norway, Sweden and other places, Luo Fei purposefully visited the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp in Krakow, Poland. With the confusion of “no poetry after Auschwitz”, Luo Fei walked in the “rural hell” that looked beautiful and rational. There, everything is beyond the imagination of man. Where has “humanity” been hidden or enlarged since the Enlightenment? What is the value of Hannah Arendt’s reflection on “the banality of evil”?
To Luo Fei, the artist resides in the project as a temporary life that constantly meets people and returns to himself. In a strange way, he does not set an expected goal. He just keeps accumulating and adjusting himself. Keep open, keep communicating, keep thinking, and keep sharing.
