【Opening】Editor's note:

  Dialogue with popular people and understand the story behind the news.

One person with one face, or one person with a thousand faces?

Speaking is not only the communication of words, but also the touch of the soul.

Here, the protagonist of the news becomes more three-dimensional.

  WASHINGTON client Beijing July 15 power

problem:

"Most men would be playing with fire," why clinging to explode?

  Reporter Song Yusheng

  "In my hometown of Quanzhou, there is such a saying: as long as it is 500 meters high, you can touch the clouds. So I set the height for "Ladder" to 500 meters."

  A few days ago, in the face of one million netizens, the artist Cai Guoqiang once again talked about his famous work "Ladder" in the live broadcast.

Cai Guoqiang's "Ladder to the Sky".

Photo courtesy of the interviewee

  In 2015, the artist who created with fireworks lit a 500-meter-high rope ladder rising into the night sky in Quanzhou.

This is Cai Guoqiang's well-known work "Ladder".

  Previously, he had 29 footprints blooming over the central axis of Beijing in the form of fireworks at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He also served as the chief designer of the fireworks display at the APEC meeting in Shanghai in 2001, and the 60th anniversary of China’s National Day in 2009. The chief director of the fireworks show...

Cai Guoqiang.

Screenshot of "Ladder: Cai Guoqiang's Art"

  Why does he use fireworks to create?

What is the meaning of the new work?

  We chatted with Cai Guoqiang.

The following is the transcript of the interview:

"I like explosions because they are pure"

  Reporter: In the impression of most people, the name Cai Guoqiang is associated with "fireworks" and "explosion".

How did you first come into contact with this unique way of creation?

Data map: In 2014, Cai Guoqiang blasted and completed the gunpowder sketch called "The Bund Without Us".

The work is 27 meters in length and 4 meters in height, showing a phantom of the Bund in a hurry.

Photo by Zhang Hengwei issued by China News Service

  Cai Guoqiang: My father writes calligraphy and paints Chinese painting. He is more cautious and conservative.

I know that I will inherit his personality and become cautious and conservative, so I hope I can be more free and able to produce surprises.

  Many people in our hometown are making firecrackers. Many of my classmates have to help make firecrackers at home to make some money after class, so it is easier for me to get gunpowder than others. When I was looking for a way to express my depression and liberation on the road of modern art, I Thought of gunpowder.

  Of course, using gunpowder to make works, the outside world looks bolder, but I am always struggling and anxious.

"It's still too conservative, too courageous..." I often think this way. I haven't let the gunpowder be completely liberated, but isn't it burning like a fire when it is completely liberated?

So it still has to be controlled.

  My art is the result of anxiety between control and loss of control.

Boldness requires awakening, not brute force.

Cai Guoqiang's work "Hua Shun Er" was exhibited at the Pudong Art Museum.

Photo by Zhang Hengwei

  Reporter: Why are you obsessed with using explosions to create?

  Cai Guoqiang: I like explosions, because explosions are pure and have something to do with energy, the universe, time and space, etc. They are very vast.

I like to turn such destructive things as explosions into works of art.

It’s good to make an explosion of art and turn the gunpowder used in war into a peaceful and happy art.

  The charm of the explosion is difficult to control and accidental.

Before the ignition, you don’t know what it will look like until the moment it is ignited.

"The important thing in art is to protect human curiosity and emotions"

  Reporter: The latest installation art work "Encounter with the Unknown" was not created with fireworks.

Why do you want to make such a work?

It is said that this work is related to the universe. Why do you want to have a dialogue with the universe?

The audience visited Cai Guoqiang's installation "Encounter with the Unknown".

Photo by Zhang Hengwei

  Cai Guoqiang: During the epidemic, I thought of many new difficulties for mankind, and also thought of various problems such as globalization, and felt that the universe is a broader existence.

But this is related to me at the very beginning. My hometown in Quanzhou is remote. People on our side quietly believe in feudalism and superstition, believing in feng shui and ghosts and gods. I have developed a curiosity about the invisible world since I was a child.

Gradually, this kind of culture will be reflected in my art, and I realize that the object of my dialogue is not only the visible audience, but also the invisible audience.

Not only is he creating, but he is also creating with the help of invisible power.

  In fact, this installation is like a "juvenile universe workshop". When I was young, I yearned for the stars and imagined kites and big birds to lift people up, free from the feeling of gravity. Of course, there are also black holes and gravitational fields inside.

I want to express the emotion that humans have longed for the universe since ancient times. This thing will not change because of the maturity of scientific discovery.

  I think that art is important to protect human curiosity and emotions. This work also shows my childlike innocence.

Moreover, scientists’ cognition of the universe is still in a naive age. In the future, we will see an even more endless universe, but art has been in dialogue with the infinite universe, including aliens, from the very beginning.

Cai Guoqiang's installation "Encounter with the Unknown".

Photo by Zhang Hengwei

  Reporter: Do you believe in aliens?

  Cai Guoqiang: Of course I believe it, just like an alien sees me, I am also an alien.

  You can imagine that there are as many planets in the universe as there are sands on the beach. Why do you say that only our sand grains have life, and no other sand grains?

I believe there must be, and this belief makes me feel warm. You are not a lonely person in the vast universe. There are many lives. They are in a different progress of civilization. Maybe they are looking at us.

Therefore, I have a lot of works to talk to aliens.

  My creation has the emotion of dialogue with aliens. No matter how high a ladder I am, it is only 500 meters, but the ladder of light can float to the universe. If you use a scientific point of view, the light of the flame is in the universe. Divergent.

  Reporter: Is this one of the reasons why you chose to create with explosions?

  Cai Guoqiang: It is one of them.

Gunpowder can produce light instantly. On the other hand, you feel the eternity that you get from the energy transformation, not the eternity that you have placed there for a long time, but the eternity you feel in an instant.

The audience visited Cai Guoqiang's art works.

Photo by Zhang Hengwei

"Don't let yourself become very mature and understand"

  Reporter: Your work "Ladder" has been very popular in China, and there have been many discussions on the Internet.

Many people also know that it took 21 years for this work to succeed.

What would happen if it failed again in 2015?

  Cai Guoqiang: If "Ladder to the Sky" is not realized, and it is a storm that day and cannot rise, I will be sad, and I will be sad for a long time, because I want to show it to my grandmother and folks.

  I have done so many works all over the world, even the big footprints of the Olympics have been made so difficult, but my grandma didn't see anything.

Will you do it again?

I think it will.

There is a gene of persistence in our culture.

  Every time I watch the video of "Ladder", there are many comments, "I hope mom and dad in the sky can see the ladder" and so on. Sometimes I shed tears when I watch it. Everyone has their beloved relatives.

Therefore, I will definitely make a dialogue with the grandma in the sky...

The audience visited Cai Guoqiang's art works.

Photo by Zhang Hengwei

  Reporter: How do you maintain long-term motivation and enthusiasm for creation?

  Cai Guoqiang: Immaturity is very important. Don't let yourself become very mature and understand.

  I just don't understand it, it's important to me.

I don’t think about how to make a work at the beginning, but learn first, and the work will come out slowly, because making work is our ability, there are only a lot of questions you can’t understand. The process of learning and thinking is very meaningful, and I always look for it. My immaturity and ignorance will keep me in a state of curiosity and growth.

postscript

  On the evening of July 8, Cai Guoqiang was broadcast live on Douyin for the first time.

He spent almost two hours introducing his various works, views on art, and his past to 1 million netizens.

  At the end of the live broadcast, Cai Guoqiang lay down in the universe created by the installation "Encounter with the Unknown" and silently looked at the sky above.

The netizens in the live broadcast room began to make wishes one after another.

Live screenshot

  Cai Guoqiang told reporters that the team had discussed before whether it should cater to young people after entering Douyin.

But Cai Guoqiang's answer is, "I can only play myself and tell my story. I can't play other roles."

  He said that this leaves room for people to say what they want to say in an instant. Its freedom and activity allow young people to express their views and develop their personalities.

This is also a small blast.

(Finish)